Eleanor vs bunny - you guess who won

So one of the jokes between myself and Lance is that whenever he goes out of town, there is a critter episode in the backyard. Seriously, every single time he's been gone there has been: opossum, groundhog, rabbit, beaver, you name it - it has come into the yard and Eleanor has either chased it into a corner or it has gotten her so riled up she just won't come back inside. This weekend, Lance was planning on going to his Dad's, he was going to leave Friday right after work.

Friday, I decide to come home for lunch, get a little dog love and break up my work day. I let the dogs out for potty and am watching them because usually Franklin does a quick pee and wants right back inside for some hugs and kisses. I'm watching and I see Eleanor lift her legs up off the grass real quick like something bit her. I look closer and she looks closer and I hear a squeak. Oh man, I realize she's stepped on a baby bunny. Faint of heart? Stop reading now.

She started to play with the bunny and put it in her mouth, I freaked out, ran inside so I couldn't hear it anymore and called Lance and am like, you are not going to believe this. There is a critter in the yard and you haven't even left town yet!!!! I got off the phone and realized I should try and man up at least a little and see if I couldn't save the bunny. So, I went out to the porch to find a pair of gloves and headed into the yard. When I got out there though I didn't hear anymore squeaking and saw Eleanor set it down and paw at it like, come on. Well, at least the poor thing was dead and wasn't being tortured. I thought maybe she'd let me take it from her so I can at least dispose of it, so I head towards her, hand out, telling her to drop it. In the house, she drops whatever we tell her to - but a bunny is entirely different. Rather than drop it, she started to chew it. The more I asked for it, the quicker she chewed until she gave a big swallow and uh, bunny was all gone. 

Eleanor's done this before, so it wasn't entirely new to me - but its still pretty disgusting. I love bunnies and used to have them as pets when I was a kid. So the first couple times she caught a bunny it was really hard for me, but I just have to remind myself she is a dog and dogs will eat things like that. Its nature. Its kind of like her own version of the RAW diet that others feed their dogs.

The entire time this was going on, Franklin was oblivious. He was watching her a little bit kind of like, what's going on? But he mostly just puttered around the yard doing his own thing. Poor little simple Franklin....

I did get the dogs out of the yard and do a full search for more bunnies and their nest. I didn't find anymore bunnies, but I found their nest so I dismantled it so they have to go live somewhere else now. Before I did any of that though, I did a quick internet lookup to see what would be the best thing to do. Turns out because of the size of the bunny, he was supposedly kicked out of the nest anyway and told to live on his own. I guess he wasn't quite ready. Poor little bunny.

Contented sigh...

We know what our baby is :) We had the OB appointment yesterday morning and they were able to tell with 99% certainty what little Baby Koch is going to be. The ultrasound part lasted for like maybe 30-45 minutes, it seemed to go on forever. She was taking all sorts of measurements and stuff and it was taking her longer because we have a wiggly baby. And along with be wiggly, the baby was also sucking - how cool. It is just amazing to me to be able to see all that going on inside my belly. Trippy man.

I'm purposely continuing to refer to baby as baby rather than by a pronoun because there are still a few people we want to tell yet. I told my mom and we told Lance's mom yesterday, both were beyond happy for us. Knowing what baby is, is weird, I was very sure I wanted to not know and be surprised, but now I'm glad I know. I'm so excited :) 

This afternoon I am heading to Wisconsin for a little mini bonding session, today through Sunday. My mom and sisters came out to see me in June and I had such a good visit with them, I had to arrange and find time to go back home to visit some more. My Boston sister is also back in Wisconsin for a couple weeks visiting her mom. She and Wayne are going to come to mom's house on Saturday for a bbq and mini family reunion of sorts. I'm not sure what all they're doing while they're in town, but at least I have an opportunity to see them on Saturday. It will be nice to be able to spend some time talking with them, hopefully much less sad than our last visit at Dad's funeral in April. I'm anxious and nervous at the same time. 

But I am very much looking forward to spending some time with mom. Its going to be weird to be home and not have Dad in the house, but its what mom has dealt with every day. Okay, I can't type about that anymore, I'm already starting to cry. If it weren't for these hormones, I'd be able to hold my shit together better.

Lance is staying home with the dogs, given the cost of gas, and the cost of boarding the babies at the spa its more economical for just one of us to travel. I get it, but its still too bad that he won't be able to spend some time getting to know Boston sister. But, at least he's finally met her, lol.