Today is my rest day.  That means I did a whole bunch of stuff that I can’t do on the days I run.   The primary thing I did today was cut the grass.

You all know I love to mow.  It is probably my favorite non-running related chore to do.  It was a perfect afternoon. Sunny.  88 F.  Light breeze from the south.  Terrific day to be outdoors!

As usual, I started on the west side of our property.  I was a little annoyed because our neighbors to the west had just mowed and had left me with a crooked line to straighten out.  Oh well.  Got that fixed and was enjoying the day.

I was getting close to the wild plum tree thicket when all of a sudden, I saw something dart out from them.  It was a baby bunny!  Just a tiny little thing!  So cute!!!

But that bunny was so scared!  It did not know which way to run, it just knew it had to run!  I felt really bad.  It changed direction and bolted straight for the mower.  This was bad.

I stopped mowing.  The bunny stopped.  I started mowing again and that silly rabbit ran towards me again!  Dumb rabbit.  I needed to get it away from the mower.  It was tiny enough that I could easily mow right over it.

So~I stopped the blade of the mower and started driving toward the bunny.  I was not trying the run over it or anything, I wanted it to run away from me!  And it did.  The rabbit was getting smarter by the second.

Gradually, I led the rabbit across the road~where I knew it would be far enough away so I could not accidentally run over it.

I steered back to where I had shut off the blade and resumed mowing.

Finally I reached the front yard.  I was making passes right up close to the house.  Zoom!  I stopped again.  This time it was a lizard…without a tail.  Now, I KNOW that I did not run over that lizard!

You see, Kali and Castro, our cats, love to catch these lizards.  These lizards are the kind that let their tail fall off when caught and then just re-grow their tail again.  All summer we have these tailless lizards running around our yard.  You can always tell how long it has been since they have been caught by the length of their tail.

The only other thing I saw of interest today was the toads that like to frequent the yard.  They hop all over the place, running from the mower just like the bunny. I usually just stop the mower, catch them and move them to an area that has already been mowed.

So, today, I saved a bunny a few toads and laughed at a lizard.  It was fun!