Rabbit!!!

With my incredible secret agent skills I have solved the mystery. 

The culprit is ..... A RABBIT!!

Samuel had a rough night, therefore I had a rough night. Fortunately, Samuel is persistent and a good communicator, or it could have been a rougher night.

One of the times I tried to get him to go in the backyard. 

I saw the rabbit right in front of the heuchera, purple-handed!!

I didn't even need the infrared, motion-activated camera, or the automated laser-activated net-throwing device, or the artificial intelligence robot coyote I had under development to solve the mystery. Little too easy really, there must be a plot twist coming. 

Rabbit was the biggest rabbit I’ve ever seen in Maryland.

I turned on the light, saw the rabbit but didn’t process that I saw a rabbit, slid open the glass door, and then registered that there was a rabbit there that I had just exposed to a dog.

Rabbit, meanwhile, froze and only then, a few seconds after the door was wide open, realized it should RUN.

Samuel, meanwhile, needs to go out and is crossing his legs and not registering that someone is in his yard. AFTER the rabbit began to run Samuel sees that there is someone in his yard and then realizes he should do something about it and ran after it.

About this point I realize the gate is open, the rabbit will go out the gate, and it is possible Samuel will follow and, you know, run over hill and yon, in the dark. 

Luckily for me, Samuel did not. He just chased him out of the yard and then came back. Samuel is not about to soil his property. I had to get dressed and undressed repeatedly, go outside repeatedly, walk in the cold repeatedly, but it would have been much worse if I had not. 

 It is a Sunday. I got to sleep late. I gave him rice. All is fine. 

One of the stories my mother used to tell was about a cat who loved cantaloupe. Before they had me they had a lot of cats. They got a cat who absolutely was nuts over cantaloupe. The first time they had some after getting this cat, the cat was meowing and begging and pleading and all the other cats came in to the kitchen because anything this good they want some too. My mother, bemused, gave everybody some cantaloupe. The other cats tried it, looked at the one cat like he was a freak, and never trusted his opinion on anything again. Meanwhile, he got to eat everyone's cantaloupe and was very happy. 

So there is always someone with weird tastes and this rabbit has a taste for what everyone agrees rabbits don't like:  the leaves and stems of a purple heuchera. 

AND the carrots are right where I left them. 

Thank you annejohn - excellent recommendation - the netting that protects my berries from squirrels and birds is now over my heuchera stubs. I will keep the artificial intelligent coyote in development just in case. I am hoping that when there is more food available the rabbit will not want my purple heucheras.  It is leaving the spearmint heucheras and everything else alone. 

If I'm wrong, I'll get force fields. 

This morning was, clearly, wildlife morning. In addition to the wildlife in my garden and on my deck I  saw a heron, woodpeckers, bluebirds, a deer, and a murder harassing a hawk. The crows were really going after the hawk, including knocking into its wings, repeatedly.