Recently, a dear friend gave me a book entitled "Rabbits: Gentle Hearts, Valiant Spirits" as a gift. It's essentially a collection of short stories about bunnies in desperate situations and the people who rescued them. Following each story, there's a relevant paragraph or two that contains some excellent information about the care and feeding of house rabbits.

The individual tales themselves are both touching and heart-wrenching at the same time. A number of the stories were difficult to read, particularly the one about the bunny with head tilt. Overall, I think that the book does an excellent job illustrating how wonderful and dare I say, magical, our rabbit friends can be. Though the stories mostly focus on the plight of each bunny, one does walk away from the book with the knowledge that there are people out there who will go to great lengths to save their furry wards. And that is an excellent thing.

Put this one in the "Another reason why bunnies are awesome" column. A bunny named "Rabbit" saves his family from a fiery death.

You can read the article here.

The other day, the wife and I headed out to the Beavercreek Tractor Supply to pick up some wood stove pellets for the bunnies. Normally, I go to the one south of us on Rt 73, but on that day, we went to the one in Beavercreek. Upon arriving, we were disappointed to learn that they were completely out of stock. So, after a call to the Springboro store, we got into the car and were on our way.

Now, the fastest way to Springboro from Beavercreek is via the interstate. And with gas prices being what they are, that would be my normal route. But, for some reason, I decided to take the scenic route through the farmlands in and around Bellbrook and Waynesville.

The strange chaining of events continued as we approached Springboro. You see, in the center of the road, was a mother duck who had been hit by a car. Racing back and forth from the double yellow line to the berm was her brood. It was a pitiful sight really and we felt absolutely terrible for the little fellers, especially since we're really fond of ducks. Cars were slowing down to try and avoid hitting the little guys, but with the distracted manner that people now drive, I'd have bet that they wouldn't last long. Since the ducklings were in a bad spot located at the bottom of a dip in the road with no place to pull over, there wasn't much that we could do but move on.

We arrived at the Tractor Supply shortly thereafter, feeling a little depressed about the ducklings. I parked the car and reached for the handle to open the door. I glanced to my left and noticed that the vehicle parked next to me belonged to a county wildlife officer. Now you have to understand that I almost never see these guys. As a matter of fact, I can't recall the last time I saw one. But, there was his vehicle, sitting right next to me. A little "hooray!" went off in my head and I rushed inside to find him browsing lawnmower and wheelbarrow tires, or maybe it was wagon tires. I'm not really sure what they were for.

Regardless, I explained to him about the ducklings that were just a few miles down the road and he told me that he would head over and see what he could do to care of it.

As I got back into the car, I asked the wife what where the odds of this happening? That the Tractor Supply we normally don't shop at would be out of pellets which would force me to travel to another store. That I would feel compelled to take the long route even though I was thinking of all of the gas I was wasting throughout the entire drive. That we would see the plight of the ducklings in the center of the road only to run into someone who could actually do something about it just a few minutes later.

I don't know if I believe in "bizarre" coincidences, or that I was meant to "rescue" the ducklings, but for me, the string of coincidences that happened that day were difficult to ignore.