Where is Woger Wabbit?

[ina]

Two years ago, Jan died. His allotment was across the path from us. Jan had a hunting licence and we never had a rabbit problem at the complex. Not that Jan shot them because we all know that's not allowed but we just never did have rabbits.

Not long after Jan died, the rabbits came....and came....and came....stayed and multiplied. It really was no fun. Once I even had to console a lady allotmenteer who was crying over all the damage that was done by our furry fiends.

The complete looks of the complex changed, it became a warren of fencing, looking more like a prison camp. A few months ago, we could see the highways and byways of the rabbit traffic in the snow.

The anual meeting of the lottie holders in January was filled with woe and rabbit stories. Little attention was paid to the financial story, election of new committee members and the state of affairs. The Rabbit Ruled.

The chairman elaborated on the different actions taken to get permission from the city council, provincial government and what all, to do something about the problem. Of all things to combat the rabbits, we got permission for only one measure. Hunting them with ferrets but to make sure no rabbit gets off the complex alive.

So, a ferret man was found. His work area is on one of the islands in the north. Arrangements were made for him to spend a weekend at our complex and flush the suckers out. I had never heard of this so it was explained to me that the hunter has a ferret on a leash to go into the burrows and bring the rabbits out. Poor rabbits but what can you do? Shooting does seem more humane to me.

About 6 weeks ago, as we came to our allotment, we parked our bikes against a hedge and on the other side of it, there was a brother or sister of Roger........... dead as a door nail. The ferret man hadn't even been yet! Willem, our neighbor allotmenteer, arrived and we showed him the dead rabbit. "Weasels" Willem said. Naw, not a sign on it. He started rattling off names of alltomenteers where dead rabbits had been found while flinging his arms about, pointing in the directions of the other allotments. I tried counting and lost track at 9.

Surely poison, if it was myximatosis (spelling?) we would have seen sick rabbits as I have in the dunes in the past. "Not poison" said Willem while shaking his head. "over at the railroad gardens whatshisname had 5 tame rabbits in a pen, 4 are dead too".

Yesterday, the General (one of the committee members) came over to us for a chat. We showed him the skeletal remains of the rabbit. "Yes..... dead" the General said "and so are 40 to 50 others". Whaaaaaaaaaaat? No more rabbits and the ferret man has been cancelled.

Below you can see how much time passed since the rabbits died, these leeks were chewed off close to the ground and had a chance to start growing again. This is not on our allotment, we had effective fencing haha.

[ina]

[eileen]

Little blighters cause so much damage but I'm glad to hear the problem is solved.
I wonder if you'll ever find out what actually killed them all off. Probably some kind of virus??