By Joanne Niswander

Note: To read previous columns by Joanne, click here.
In the days before TV's Oscar and Miss Piggy, before Howdy Doody and Captain Kangaroo, there were picture books. Remember those??? Do you recall sitting on your grandmother's lap as she read to you the story of Peter Rabbit's narrow escape from Mr. McGregor's garden?

Well, I have a just-off-the-press Peter Rabbit story for you. A real-life story that takes place, not in Mr. McGregor's garden, but right here in a Bluffton garden - mine, no less.

Let me set the stage: My garden here at Maple Crest is not a get-down-on-your-knees-and-dig garden. It's a raised garden, 18 inches off the ground and contained on all four sides by logs.

I've maintained this garden for several years and, over that time, have made it into somewhat of an herb garden. Chives, sage, oregano, thyme (and sometimes parsley) renew themselves every spring. Other plants I add annually, as the spirit moves.

It was April 1st (and I attest this is not an April Fool's story). It was one of those days when we enjoyed a wonderful spate of spring/summer, so I went out to see what might be coming up in the garden and to clean up the detritus that had accumulated over the winter. There was quite a pile of pine needles on the windward side of the oregano bush, so I reached down to clean out the debris.

But under that handful of pine needles was fuzz. Gray, soft and fluffy. Oops! Must be a rabbit hole - but this far above the ground? Very slowly I pulled up some of the fuzz. And pulled up some more. And some more. At last I saw a little brown "something" that was obviously breathing.

I quickly stuffed the fuzz back in the hole and re-arranged the pine needles on top. So, we have a bunny, I thought (probably many more than one).
I wanted to check every day, but also didn't want the mother rabbit to abandon the nest and leave the babies to die - in my garden!

So, four days later, I went out again. Same scenario, although this time there was more fuzz. And, it was interesting to note that the fuzz got warmer the farther down I reached. There's life down there, that's for sure! And there was life - four little brown bunnies (to my count) crawling all over each other down in that hole alongside the roots of my oregano plant.

Two more days and I couldn't stand it any longer. I took Corinne Lee with me (she had a camera) and we checked out our "nursery." Five, we counted this time. Where was the mother? Was she watching? Will she come back?

Now it was time to Google. I entered "Rabbits" into the computer and came up with a very detailed entry on wild rabbits. Learned a lot, including the fact that the mother comes to the nest to nurse and clean her babies only twice a day, for about 5 minutes at a time. So the likelihood that she and I would be there at the same time was remote - but I still kept my distance.

Day before yesterday, when I checked, the bunnies were still there and filling the hole to almost bursting. But they didn't move a muscle as I peered in at them. They knew I wasn't their mom. So the "lid" of pine needles and fuzz went back on.

This morning, April 16, I checked again. My bunnies were gone. The pine needles and fuzz were still there, but the hole was swept clean. Just a beautiful, firmly-packed hole in the ground next to my oregano bush.

Mom evidently took her babies away. Did she push each of them over the edge and let them find their own way in this big world? Or did she carry them to another nest somewhere else?

I'll never know.

But if you see one of my bunnies nosing around in your garden, please tell him/her "hi" from me.