A First Sign of Spring --- Yeah!

My friends say that I talk to the animals, and in truth I do.  It’s not uncommon for me to say: “Hi gooses,” as I pass by a flock in a nearby pond (and yes, I even speak aloud if someone is riding with me).  And just a couple of nights ago I was coming home late when a female deer displayed an attitude which I thought was a bit too casual with me:  she stopped on the road in front of me, and made no movement until my car came to a full stop about 20 feet away.  “Will you move, please,” I said aloud.  I don’t know if she heard me through the closed windows, but she did turn her head and stare at me for a moment, before she slowly moved off the road.  (If it weren’t for the fact that she was a deer, I might have said something else aloud: “Sheesh!  Women!”)

Now I’ve never known animals to talk back to me, although there was that squirrel one time which looked at me as I spoke, and then came up on the deck and started crawling up my pant leg before I freaked out and jumped up, scaring him away.  But I’m a bit off topic:  Spring.

Yesterday we had a couple inches of snow (again!!).  I shoveled the drive and the front walk in the late afternoon, hoping that the white stuff was done for a while, but this morning I could see that it had snowed more over night. So I looked out the glass of the front door to gauge its depth, and decide whether to shovel again.  And then, I saw it, the first sign of Spring.

There, in the snow covering the walkway up to the porch, were the clear paw prints of a rabbit.  Opening the front door, I could see that the rabbit had walked (hopped?) right up to the front door, and then sat down, the light oval indention of his bottom between the two front paw prints.  And then I knew:  Spring is coming!

You see, it was intuitively obvious to me what the rabbit was trying to convey to me:  “Hey!  It’s getting warmer out here.  When are you going to start planting your garden?” 

I know; I know; I know.  You’re thinking: “Listen, stupid, maybe it’s so cold out that he just wanted to get into the house.”  I have two responses to your uneducated thoughts.  First: rabbits and I have a long-standing relationship, and it revolves around my garden.  If I see a rabbit, I may politely talk to it --- but then I hurry out back and check my garden.  Rabbits, like kids, can be “too” friendly, and when they are, you should be suspicious.  And Second: well, this one seems obvious.  The rabbit obviously didn’t want into the house --- I mean, he didn’t ring the doorbell did he?  Because if he would have, I would have politely let him in out of the cold.  No problem.  (I would do this because I happen to know that I don’t have any lettuce in the fridge at the moment --- and so as I said: no problem.)

Trust me.  The sign was there.  Celebrate the fact that Spring is on the way.

Sometime.