The Josey Wales rabbit solution

This rabbit situation has gotten out of hand. I've written about how they ruined my garden last year. For that I take partial responsibility as my fence was getting raggedy. I pulled up all my old fencing (about 200 feet worth) and am installing new smaller-holed stuff. I have to fortify for this coming spring because they are multiplying! Who ever heard of such a thing? Rabbits breeding like ... well, rabbits.

At the back of our house we have a drain field for the septic tank. Sounds gross, but it's not. Actually the grass grows twice as fast there and stays green for most of the year. Deer love it, rabbits love it. A month ago I looked out at it and saw six rabbits grazing. That's not counting my two tame fertilizer-machine rabbits I keep in a hutch. That's not counting, Milo, a rather tame wild rabbit who lives under our front porch and stays on that side of the house.

My wife claims it's because I feed them. Technically, I only feed my pet rabbits, Hank and Waylon. But they spill food, so the wild ones have taken to eating that and sleeping under the hutch out of the way of the wily owl who has reduced my mouse population to zero. 

It's gotten so bad, I even spotted a rabbit sitting in my bird bath!

So I've sprung into action. I have several methods of rabbit control in my house that could take care of the situation but they all make rather loud "boom"s, and I have one neighbor who would likely call the sheriff. (He has in the past when he saw my kid walking in the field across the road with a paintball gun! And one other instance I'll write about another day.)

I looked into pellet guns. Quieter. But despite outward appearances I really am a softy, so I went with another plan. I dusted off my box trap and decided to try that first.

I set it by the rabbit hutch, sprinkled some food inside and I've caught SIX rabbits in two weeks. Then I drove them a couple miles away and released them. That's my catch and release plan. I don't know if they are smart enough, or dumb enough depending on how you look at it, to make their way back here; but they are getting a chance. I'm stopping at six, so if any more show up, they're getting Plan B. Boom!

As Josey Wales said to Ten Bears: "I ain't promising you nothing extra. I'm just giving you life and you're giving me life. And I'm saying that men (and rabbits) can live together without butchering one another."

And somewhere down by Hart Ranch (a housing development on a golf course down the road), some poor retiree is asking his wife: "Where the hell did all these rabbits come from?!"