pull-bat meets baby bunny

Hikikomori - pull-bat: literal mistranslation (?) from Japanese of my obsessive antisocial behavior...

I had a nice time today with a baby bunny. Well, in human-years I suppose it is more like a "tween." I consider this little sit-com a great victory and probably the most important thing I will do today, but then I don't have my priorities strait cause of this pull-bat thing.

I was reading the NYTimes on the back porch - it's quite sunny and a bunny seemed not to notice me as he was searching for carrots (bunnies are always looking for carrots, but they'll take clover as a next-best option). Then she saw me as I was reaching for a banana (they are vaguely carrot-shaped). She kept on trying different ways of looking at me. Bunnies have eyes on the sides of their heads and very little overlap of their visual field. They tend to eye something with one eye if they are casually checking it out, and both eyes if they are trying to figure out how far away it is (cause of depth-perception, a subject I know nothing about.)

When she was looking at me I decided that we were going to play a game - I was not going to scare her and she was not going to start and run away. It took a lot of effort to act naturally like a non-violent herbivore because humans are the most violent and disagreeable species, but I tried breathing casually and looking at the back yard as though all the plant life were food and not focusing on anything more meaningful than that, ignoring (or rather not having interest in) the things that a human would focus on. You know, not making any sudden moves. It took a lot of mental concentration and ignoring that my foot was falling asleep... Eventually the bunny rabbit decided I wasn't dangerous and went back to hopping around without a care in the world. At least until a squirrel came around. Then that bunny was out of there like pk-kyaooownnng!

I don't know why they say "chicken" to mean non-courageous. Bunnies are pretty much as skittish as they come. Anyway, I guess their metaphorical meaning has been monopolized by another aspect of their behavior. But I've not seen any of THAT going on in my backyard... Anyway I really admire their commitment to non-violence.