Not. Going. According. To Plan.

My favorite part of the A-Team was when Hannibal used to , "I love it when a plan comes together".

My problem is that mine is not.

The plan: eradicate and relocate the murdering vermin who sabotaged my attempts to have beautiful flowers growing in my yard. They reduced my pansies and various other blooming plants from this......

To This........

Plan A: While my parents were visiting, my dad built a rabbit trap with the help of the kids. Or maybe in spite of the kids.

The day after my parents left, the kids ran in screaming, "WE CAUGHT A RABBIT, WE CAUGHT A RABBIT!!!!!!".

They said they were playing in the backyard when they heard the door slam shut. So I went out to check. I stood the rabbit trap on it's end and with 3 excited children surrounding me, I carefully pulled open the door.

No rabbit.

We tried to use different baits but we never caught one. The kids really wanted to pull up some of my pansies as they felt this would be a sure-fire way to lure the rabbit in. Unfortunately, most of the pansies had been eaten to the ground by this point.

Plan B: The rabbits really aren't that fast. Somehow, natural selection has overlooked our neighborhood because of the apparent lack of predators. There are literally several rabbits per house. They all come out in the evenings. My kids really thought they had a chance to catch one. So they spent all their free time with their butterfly nets trapping rabbits in bushes, only to have them narrowly escape.

The Problem: They ran in last week screaming "WE CAUGHT A RABBIT, WE CAUGHT A RABBIT, GET A BOX, GET A BOX!!!!!" They actually did catch a rabbit. The only problem was it was a baby rabbit. And the problem with that is that where there is one baby rabbit.... there are sure to be more.

I was contemplating my options when the informative neighbor kid said, "Don't give him to the humane society... they'll kill him! And don't take him and turn him loose in the park, the coyotes or a hawk will eat him! He'll be safest right here in your backyard".

Great.

Thankyouverymuch for that.

By that time, my daughter was smitten by the pansy-eater. She asked if she could keep him as a pet and let him live in her room. (and yes, she is sitting in a dump truck)

We let the kids keep him in a box and look at him until after supper. We really wanted to send him on his merry way but decided that he really was too young to be separated from his mother.

Who was apparently still living in our yard.

With her brood.

So we let him go.

They have since caught 3 other baby rabbits which have all been released back into their natural habitat. (which would be our yard)

But I am still in a quandary because I DON'T WANT RABBITS IN MY YARD! The kids have so much fun chasing them that I actually wouldn't mind their presence if they didn't eat all my flowers and kill the grass wherever they left their pellets.

I'm considering ordering some fox urine powder or maybe even trying moth balls. I was also planning on having a garden this year and using fox urine around my vegetables is just not that appealing. There are several products out there to try but I hate to spend money on something that doesn't work.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Or brilliant ideas?

Because this is me, needing some brilliant suggestions.

And no, a dog is not an option at this point. But thanks for asking.