Butter Side Down

Not everybody loves the owls that were here recently. The song birds in particular have disappeared from the feeders, not wishing to make themselves targets for an owl’s meal. We do have a few squirrels still racing about in spite of the owls, including one youngster who was most annoyed at yesterday’s snowfall. Every few steps, as he traversed the trees that line our yard, he would stop and shake flakes from his paws, scolding that nasty white stuff that kept pelting into him all the while.

Stewart, who has grown from a cute baby bunny into a fine young rabbit, has also made himself scarce while the owls are about. Up until the appearance of the owls, I would see Stewart daily, usually exhanging greetings with him as he watched me from a spot amidst the rugosa roses and yarrow.

I only see him nowadays when he’s peering out from underneath the low-lying branches of a large blue spruce that gives him good cover and protection. I’m quite relieved to see that change in his behavior, as I had worried that he wouldn’t develop proper bunny caution. Stewart, however, being the wild creature that he is, has grown up, and turned into a very careful wild rabbit.

As much as I miss my companionable baby bunny, that’s as it should be.

I’ve wondered, off and on, how readers find their way to this blog. Some, of course, are friends and family that I cajoled (browbeat… threatened… begged… bribed… strong-armed… does there seem to be a trend here?) into looking at it. Others have found their way here through other blogs, such as The Flight Deck, Ugly Overload and the Daily Bunny. A regular trickle comes in from the links on my website.

Many more make their way here from Google, usually based on the results of keyword searches that make sense to me, such as “butter side down” or “baby bunny,” as those phrases appear here.

Sometimes, however, I’d love to know just what situation spurred the searcher into making their Google search in the first place.

Take, for example, this search, which sent someone here earlier in the week: “fired field mouse.”

What was happening in the background that led the searcher to google that particular phrase? Did a mouse do a really lousy job of chomping its way into someone’s cupboard, and its friends are trying to find out what happened to it after it got fired from its job as Chief Cupboard Chewer? Or, perhaps, was our searcher looking for information on a ballistic mouse - one that got fired out of a little miniature mouse canon whilst garmented in a teeny tiny shiny helmet and lots of spangled latex? Is it, instead, that I’ve missed the name of a new singer, the Fired Field Mouse and his Five Cheeses? Or is someone considering a Cajun dish I’m not familiar with (and certainly don’t want to try), along the lines of “blackened field mouse?”

So many possibilities!

And… just how does asking about a fired field mouse lead Google’s search engine to send the searcher here?

It’s a puzzlement!

But… it’s one that keeps me amused.