One of my wild rabbit visitors I named Ashly because he is ash colored, darker than most
of the rabbits.  I don't know whether his coat is actually ash-drenched from the fire and smoke
and ash we had recently, or if he's just a darker colored rabbit than most.

Yesterday was a bad day here, both for me and for our northern New Mexico communities.
Yes, most of the fire is gone, but now the ash is being washed away, down the streams, into
the Rio Grand.  Fish are dying and littering the Rio Grand at Albuquerque and at Roswell.
They are not sure what causes this fish death, but ash seems likely, with the streams
turned black.  

My morning was emotionally overwhelming (long story) so I asked Our Lord to send me a
rabbit to comfort me.  When I got home, Ashby was waiting in the backyard.  He took up a
position like a protector, and never moved for several hours, never even eating grass.  He
was facing the sunset and was there to watch it, and as still there when it got too dark to
see him.  Usually the rabbits come only long enough to eat, and perhaps to rest ten minutes
afterwards.  I think my rabbit may be an angel, but in any case he is used by the Lord to
comfort me.

He is like the heron you and Myra speak of, he and the other rabbits, especially the big
light colored rabbit I call Flopsy.

Tonight there is a very young and small rabbit out there on guard duty.  The thunder is
rolling and I hope we get more rain, even if it means ash is precipitated over us, onto
our decks and into the streams.

So I am in an attitude of gratitude tonight, even though I, like most of the Doves, am
struggling to bear up.  I have an infection of the mastoid and the temple sinus, not
painful, but interfering with balance and sight.  It is better on Amoxycillin, but I'm tired
from this drug.  I may have got the infection during the evacuation, or I may have got it
as a by-product of toxic smoke.  But hoping!

From Ashly's world,

Mariel