Snowbunny Encounter

I had a delightful encounter with a pair of snowbunnies early this morning. No, not this kind of snowbunny (such encounters happened only in my youthful fantasies), and certainly not this kind! My encounter was with a pair of fluffy, furry, cottontails outside our bedroom window in the pre-dawn hours.

Rising from bed in the dark at 6:30 AM, I looked out our bedroom window to check on weather conditions. As my eyes surveyed the scene, I quickly realized that I was looking at the profile of a cottontail outlined against the snowy backdrop. As I watched, a second cottontail suddenly appeared from a nearby flower garden. The two cottontails remained in close proximity for the next fifteen minutes or so. They appeared deceptively large in the darkness.

Temperatures had risen to above freezing overnight, and significant thawing had taken place to the extent that I was able to see tiny patches of lawn starting to peak through the snow. Whether they were feeding on grass blades or on seeds from the overhanging branches of a Sweet Gum tree, I’ll never know, but they had clearly found something to their liking. See, it often pays dividends to rise before the light of day!