It's only a bunny. (Not.)

When we first moved to this house, our friends K and B came to see the property even before we had moved all our furniture into the house. As we were showing them the back courtyards and the fields behind the house and the barn, we heard a quick movement in the low shrubs around the back deck. In reply to my own What was that?!?-- K replied "Don't worry... it's only a bunny."

A bunny? Well, where did it go? And how come we didn't see the cute little white cottontail puff as it ran away? Do bunnies really run that fast? Of course they do, said K. I just took her word for it at the time.

I have since learned...... when you hear a cute little bunny in the leaves, you can actually hear their jump and pounce and running sound. And if you look quick enough, you can truly see the white puff of their tail as they hop away. However.... when there's a snake in the leaves or under the shrubs, all you can hear is the quick-quick-quick slithering sounds as they're racing away. I know what that sounds like now, and that day last year with K & B-- that wasn't a bunny, it was indeed a snake. K, knowing how I am about the insect and wildlife world (I only like the cute things) thought she was doing me a favor by telling me it was just a bunny.

I thought of that day with K as I was walking yesterday. Our house is about two miles in from the main road. Two miles of a winding, twisting, turning road that goes uphill and downhill, depending on whose property you're walking by. I've been walking from our house to the main road and back, every day that I can. It's a pretty walk, passing by the other properties, and there are two little creekbeds and small waterfalls along the way-- the waterfalls are only waterfalls after a good solid rain. When the wildflowers were all in bloom this past Spring, the walk was absolutely magical.

My husband and I did quite a bit of walking last year. As we walked, we picked up bottles and cans that had been tossed out by careless drivers. I doubt very much that the people who live here tossed out the trash.... we thought that workmen could have tossed out their trash before getting up to the main road. (What happened to the slogan "Don't Mess With Texas?") I still walk with a small trash bag in my hand, but I don't have to pick much up anymore. Just about all of our neighbors had seen us picking up the trash, all of them thanked us, and I think they have passed the word along to anyone they know who could have been littering that pretty road.

As I was walking yesterday, I saw a baby snake at the very side of the road down near our pond.... he was quite dead... a car wheel must have gotten him as he was trying to get from one side of the woods to the other. As I got further up towards the end of the road, just about the point where I turn around and walk back, I heard the distinct sound of a snake racing through the leaves. This wasn't a small snake... it was loud enough to have been a large one. I know that sound by now, and whenever I hear it, I can also hear our friend K saying "Don't worry... it's only a bunny."

Our neighbors tell us that a snake will get out of your way quicker than you can get out of his way. The snakes don't want to be bothered, and they don't want to bother you. They will only attack if you sneak up on them, and their bite is their only defence. That's one reason I won't walk through our fields when the grasses get too high.... you never know what's in that tall grass, and what happens if I step on a snake that hasn't heard us walking and has not gotten away from us?

Neighbor J had told us that as he and his wife were driving down that same road, a snake fell from one of the trees and landed on his car. Right on my vehicle! is what he actually said. I think of that also when I'm walking, and I tend to walk extra fast as I pass under the spots where the trees are so thick that they form a green canopy across the width of the road. Between looking down at the side of the road for snakes who may be hidden in the leaves, and looking up at the tree branches to make sure a snake isn't hanging down, my exercise-walk turns into an Indiana Jones adventure.

After J told us about the snake falling onto his vehicle, I didn't walk for a couple of months. I would have, if my husband had had the time to go with me, but he was working on the outside of the house with the handyman, and all of that work became his exercise. I had to settle for running up and down the stairs ten times a day, but that quickly turned into not being much fun at all.

So I am back to walking now. Not in the early morning, because during the night, spiders have constructed their webs and they're very hard to see if the sun is shining right on them. So I usually wait till after lunch-time to walk... by that time, enough cars have gone up and down that road and have dismantled any webs that might have been built during the night. I don't know if snakes are more active in the morning or the afternoon, but I can hear them moving in the leaves just about every day. I'm not fearless when I'm walking, by any means, but I am trying to be very aware of every sound that I hear along the way. I wonder if wearing a big cow-bell around my neck would help? The snakes would hear that and get away from me long before I was right close to them.

And just where are a snake's ears?