A RUN-IN WITH A RABBIT

I was sitting in my dining room, eating pumpkin pie and drinking coffee. The room was dark, but lights from the living room and kitchen were enough for me. The floodlight was turned on in the backyard. I often enjoyed looking out the wide, glass panes of the back door from the dining room at the nature outside. I drank my coffee, and took a bite of pie.

A rabbit came bounding from the right past the backdoor. It was a rather big, almost fat one. It looked at me for a moment, and quickly hopped off. I turned back to my food, and stared ahead of me. I was daydreaming about this and that in a somewhat serious manner. I happened to turn my head. The rabbit was there, staring at me with one black, round eye as it sat on its hind legs on the grass. I looked back in return. I hadn't done anything to it, so it couldn't be staring at me out of fright. I sat placidly, tried to give it a smile, and ate another forkful. It continued to stare at me. I looked into its eye. I felt rather bad, it sitting out in the cold November night, while I sat comfortably, eating and drinking indoors. Even so, I couldn't tell if that rabbit wanted to come in, or if it wanted to fight me. It wasn't giving me the friendliest eye. I remembered I had once had a run-in with a mad chipmunk a few years earlier at this very spot; we made eye contact, and it, in a spasm of unsearchable fury, leapt at me and hit the glass door. As if nothing had happened, the chipmunk resumed to scurrying off on all-fours.

Meanwhile, the large rabbit in my backyard still stared at me as I ate. It puffed out its white chest and tucked its paws underneath sometimes. Then it took a paw, and put it in its mouth for a nibble a couple times, until it slowly released it again once it saw I was watching. I took my last bite. The rabbit ran off to the right. I stood and looked for it out the glass of the door, but it was gone. A minute or two later, it came round again from the left, bounded past the door, but changed its mind and dashed across to the left again, as if I could pounce on it at any time while it went past the door. I was finished with this rabbit. I supposed it was scared of me after all.