This is Artemis, this season’s baby yard bunny.
Every year, except for last year (sadness, the streak was broken!) a baby bunny has grown up in my yard during the spring and summer seasons. Cottontail rabbits are pretty territorial, so likely many of them, if not most of them, are related. Generations of yard bunnies. I’m pretty lucky.
Though the crew of Artemis II ventured farther away from Earth than any human beings in history, this tiny Artemis stays close to my home. Though I’m sure she thinks of it as her home, and that’s fine with me.
I enjoy watching her hop around and eat blades of grass that I assume are going to be too big for her. But they never are.
Every year, I find myself thinking about how these little ones only know my yard, or perhaps a few neighboring yards. They have no idea that I take photos of them and post about them. And then that makes me think about how small my world — our world —really is.
Think of all the things we don’t know! We don’t even know what we don’t know.
The universe, and perhaps even a multiverse (wild!) is utterly beyond our comprehension. Though I’m glad we keep exploring.
Yard bunnies are amazing, delightful, and humbling.
—Renee Roederer
Smuggling Grace 