Introducing The Great Leafy Bunny of New Hampshire

It was Peak Leaf season in New Hampshire last week, and during my drive between Manchester Airport and the University of New Hampshire School of Law to speak about job search strategies, I thought that I saw someone moving in the woods. I was right.

 

 

It was the Great Leafy Bunny of New Hampshire. I was privileged to make the first recorded sighting, and even more so, because GLF sat for a portrait and granted his first-ever interview. Huzzah! A coup for the Small Friends Research Institute.

 

The Leafy Bunnies of New Hampshire live in the kindliest spirit of Big Foot, their very distant cousin. While BF is the subject of much research and is suspected of all manner of bad things, Leafy Bunnies are only a slight annoyance to the farmers who forget to set aside some hay, vegetables, and the occasional apple for their friends. Because they range between three and five feet tall, Leafy Bunnies provide excellent protection from marauders, including hungry birds and small children who are both inclined to raid fields and orchards. The Bunnies do not eat birds or children, they merely frighten them off.

 

Q:  On behalf of the researchers of the Small Friends Institute, I am honored to be able to speak to you, sir. People around the world will be very interested to learn about you and your families. So, where have you been?

A.  For the past eight decades, my family has split its time between the woods in New Hampshire and the jolly streets of New Orleans. We protect New Hampshire's woods and fields in late spring, summer and fall, and then head south when winter comes.

 

Q.  How is it that you and your family have escaped the notice of intensely curious and frankly nosy humans?

 

A.  When outsiders come to New Hampshire they are here for one or more of these activities:

       (a) to see leaves. As you can see from my portrait, our fall coloring allows us complete camouflage;

       (b) to ski. By winter, we have gone south, and even if we stayed, skiers who look at the scenery instead of the trail are taking crazy risks; or

       (c) to eat seafood. Who looks at the woods when he has scallops on the plate?

 

       New Hampshire natives are hard working folk who generally mind their own business. They would be as unlikely to invade our privacy as we would invade theirs. "Live free or die!" can be loosely translated into "mind your own business."

 

Q. What do you do in New Orleans?

A. We enjoy New Orleans because of its excellent "winter" weather and its exuberant street life. We need no camouflage in this lively town, and march in parades, wander around in street fairs, and really enjoy farmers' markets. It is also a pleasure to hang out with our small friend Celebration Rhea Bird, who lives in New Orleans all year long.