We miss our backyard "pet"

Since early spring we have had a rabbit living in our backyard. During its "bunny" stage, it ran back under the ivy whenever we went into the yard, but of late it had gotten bolder and would merely "freeze" in place whenever it sensed our presence.

Of course, it had become something of a wildlife pet, with us talking to it whenever we spotted it in the back yard, just as we talk to the deer that frequent our backyard, lay down and take a nap before heading back over to the nearby woods.

The rabbit had become a fixture for us.

Recently as I was riding away on the exercise bike, my wife went into the back yard to check her garden only to rush back into the house mad, hurt and depressed after finding the nearly decapitated body of our "pet" bunny within feet of its safe hiding place in the backyard ivy.

Obviously a roving animal had killed the rabbit, but not taken it away or eaten it. The killer apparently killed for the heck of it, leaving some of my wildlife-involved friends suspecting it was a neighborhood cat that killed "our" rabbit.

The cat belief does seem possible considering our neighborhood has several pet cats that are permitted to roam, which is something we never allowed when we had either of our late cats. Our philosophy was our cats were pets and shouldn't be permitted to roam outside to potentially bother other people, their property or their pets, be those domesticated or wild.

Cats are hunters by nature, but that doesn't mean we won't miss our former backyard pet.