You can dangle the carrot all day if you want;the smart bunnies will always find the land with the choicest clover.

I have personally observed this in our own backyard. We have an organic yard, so bunnies in the evening mist are as common as our dandelions. Which they also love. They can become so engrossed in the tasty yard salad, that if you sit very still, you can watch them on into the night. It is peaceful and serene, their little white tails showing up as they hop from morsel to morsel. However, there was one evening, many years ago, that was so extraordinarily that it left my husband and me completely enraptured.

We were sitting at the edge of the property on two park benches facing each other talking and enjoying a perfectly quiet evening, when all of a sudden, out of no where, there was a flurry of fluff and the most unusual twittering, a delightful sound, difficult to explain, but it was undeniable happiness and excitement! Then, before we could even turn our heads, they came dashing around our feet, three bunnies, in mad pursuit! They ran and raced like torrents, completely unconcerned by our presence. What we witnessed was something we would never see again. It was a mating ritual. Two males crying for the affection of a rather well nourished female. They moved with lighting speed from our yard onto the neighbor’s hillside and back again twirling around our feet and zigzagging through the benches making the most amazing tittering sounds as if they were in some drug induced mania! They tussled and frolicked in wild abandoned! They jumped high in the air and twirled around, spinning and twisting their bodies in what I could only describe as pure and utter joy! This went on for an hour or more! My husband and I sat motionless, except to briefly catch each other’s eyes, with a look that said, “This is unbelievable!”

If they knew we were there, either they didn’t care or it was worth the risk. I was hoping for a moment to sneak away so I could go inside and grab the camcorder, but they were in full swing and I didn’t want to spoil it by alerting them. They got so close, we could feel their soft fur running around our ankles. Sometimes, they would stop, just briefly to catch their breath, and off they went again, in a place of sheer and utter bliss!

And then it was over. She chose. And off the two of them went over the hillside side by side, leaving the third bunny in tow.

After it was over, we just sat there, staring at each other, grinning. We knew we had just witnessed one of life’s and nature’s ultimate joys. Bunny love. Profound, intense, and full of merriment! By far, one of my most precious moments anywhere at anytime and my husband and I had shared it together. It’s ours. While the whole world went on, there in a 20×20 area, we had for a brief interlude, arrived in Paradise. I can’t remember a time before or since of any experience as poignantly satisfying as that heightened level of unbridled glee.

To make matters even more wonderful, Mr. & Mrs. Bunny made a home under the arbor my husband had made that year for our 20th wedding anniversary. Upon hearing the story, a widowed neighbor, who was a dear friend, named it, The Love Arbor. And so that is its name and it stands the same. Generations of bunnies have continued to make their home under my husband’s gift to me. Each Spring, it gifts back to us baby bunnies to enjoy. When we see them we smile and recall the day we saw it all begin. The day love came to stay in our field of clover.