I know some folks don’t like having foxes around their property, but I like foxes. Even when we had chickens, we never had any trouble with foxes, even though I know there’s a den on my place.
But even with foxes around, we’re about overrun by rabbits. Both cottontails and jackrabbits have nearly overtaken our property. We don’t have a garden yet, so they’re not doing much crop damage, but I can’t let the dogs out into the yard without having them rocket off on the heels of a rabbit, and then I have to stand at the back door yelling for twenty minutes or so to get the dang dogs back in the house.
Now that I know for sure we have foxes in the neighborhood, I’m wondering why we have so many rabbits. They must be slow foxes. If they don’t start snarfing up some of those bunnies, I’m going to have to take matters into my own hands.
And you can bet I’ll have plenty of help if I decide to start hunting rabbits around the house. I have two young boys who are both itching to hunt, and rabbits are great quarry for young hunters. If we don’t have to go farther than the woodpile to hunt, all the better.
I only resisted turning the boys loose on the rabbits in the past because if the foxes had fewer rabbits to eat, they might have started getting more serious about the chickens. But now we don’t have any chickens, and I seriously doubt foxes would be any danger to horses or cows. But those foxes don’t seem to be any danger to the rabbits, either. So maybe it’s time to let the boys do some rabbit hunting.