Monday, December 21, 2009

Twas Murder on the Bunny Mile Tonight!

Sometimes I just have to say that was incredible Lord! Tonight was one of those nights that started out with no plans but to get some exercise to wear off the office treats. I grabbed my skis and opted for the Cannon Valley Trail. Easy groomed local trail that I usually Rollerblade in the warmer seasons. The first mile is what I call the Bunny Mile. I usually do laps on this when I don't have the time to head way out on the trail. The peculiar thing about this mile is the over abundance of bunnys! Always darting out in front of your blades at the last second. Hence the Bunny Mile. I got a late start and considered just doing the laps but kept going instead. Everything was perfectly groomed with just a dusting of snow from today. I noticed the blood right away. A spot of bunny poo with blood. I thought someone has a problem and skied on. Then another spot and then more. Some with a few strips of fur. Some with more blood and some with less. What was killing the bunny's? They seemed to be killed right on their game path from their dens so there were lots of small tracks. I had saw a young man with a slingshot killing bunny's last summer and wondered if someone was shooting them for food or what. The tracks didn't add up to anything conclusive. There were some dog tracks, lots of people tracks, and I followed a cat for a bit on the trail but none were common with the blood sites. It was starting to get dark and I was about a mile yet away from my truck when I saw a bunny run across the trail ahead of me. A large hawk landed on the trail just after it but the bunny made good his escape. Then I knew. I watched the hawk as I skied up and was surprised when I saw a man come out of the brush and pick up the hawk. Wow! You don't see that everyday. Fascinating! I stopped and talked to the man. His bird was a rescued hawk. Blind in one eye. She personally didn't have any luck with the bunny's tonight and the man speculated it was wild birds that hunted there today. They must have been very well fed. I talked for quite awhile to the man about his bird. We got on the subject of exercise as he mentioned it was the first time out for awhile for him and his hawk due to the Holidays and a family tragedy. Oh no I thought! I just had gotten back from a weekend with my nephew Allan that had just had a heart transplant and I thought could it be possible? I had to ask. My heart went out to him when he told me of his wife's sister in law that just committed suicide and he told me the story. I had to tell him the reason I asked was because of my nephew Allan who had just been transplanted last week. No she wasn't the donor but here the story gets more incredible. He said his first daughter had a heart transplant at 5 weeks old and he had been through the whole life changing event! Time for his daughter to receive a heart was extremely critical and they flew to St Louis to be in a bigger district as our district is very small compared to others. He told me the whole story...all the trials and triumphs. His daughter today is 14 and normal and active in all ways. Very inspiring and uplifting! To top it off he grows natural prairie flowers for seed. We had a long talk about that as I have bags of seeds that I collected this fall for a project in the spring. Sometimes I'm just amazed at how God brings people and/or events into my life. What turned out to be a quick XC ski before making dinner turned out to be a very incredible night! As I sit here writing this I am still amazed at the night! Thank you Lord for Allan's heart and for placing this man's story in my path tonight!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

What a wonderful story, Nora. I do believe that God plays a constant role in our lives. Putting us in the right place at the right time and you were there. From the headline and the beginning of the story, I didn't know where this would go but it was wonderful. I read backwards in FB this morning and I pray that Allan keeps getting better.

Anonymous said...

Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!