I don't know what type of rabbits I have here.  Whatever exists in the American Mountain West.
they all have cotton tails, but I have heard that jackrabbits have those too.  I have wanted to go
to the library and get a book on the history of rabbits.

I called my backyard a "down" after the novel Watership Down by Richard Adams.  As you say,
this could be an English or Australian name for a "meadow".  That is a long book, almost a
grand saga, but worth reading.  Wiki says it was Penguin books most read book of all time.
There was a movie made of it, but it's hard to get unusual DVD's here.

I live in the mountains of northern New Mexico.  We have been very dry, but now are having
monsoon season.  Today it rained so heavily that two inches of rain built up on my cement
patio in two minutes--but was gone a few minutes later as it soaked into the dry ground. We
have unusual wildlife here, which comes into "town" as we are a small town with little traffic.
We are on the flanks of an old supervolcano, called the Valles Caldera or the Baca Ranch,
after the Hispanic family which used the huge filled in crater for pasture in the "old days".
Many of the Hispanic families who have been here for four centuries are "secret Jews"--Christians
of Jewish descent who escaped from Spain and later Mexico in the purges of Jewish people.
The Bacas were one of these families.

I had no rabbit visitors for five days from the 9th of Av until one of them came briefly last night.
But not Ashby.  I hope the predators have not gotten him.  Or maybe he's really an angel who
only comes when sent by God.  Those five days were very difficult for me, not because of a
lack of rabbits--just so many things going on.  Heavy times!

I think it's full moon over the "down" tonight--a big orb in the East bisected by a black cloud.
It's Tu B'Av, or tomorrow the 16th will be Tu B'Av on the Creation Calendar which some have
posted on Doves.  Maybe the buns will be out dancing tonight?

Happy Tu B'Av!  Dance to the Lord if you can!

Mariel