As I have gotten older, driving the car 26+ hours from my Talbot County home to Key West, has gotten too difficult. My two dogs are very good travelers, but it is a long trip for all three of us. The past few years I have been leaving my car in Maryland and living in Key West without a car.
Key West is a small bicycle Island and it is not very difficult living without a car. Friends and relatives loan me a car on the rare cases when I need one…but otherwise, I can get around easily on my bicycle. When I first moved to Talbot County, I saw the same opportunity for replacing cars with bicycles. We have a flat landscape, reasonable weather, and wide roads. Attempts to get more bicycle lanes were not successful, but, for the most part, I can get by with cycling around town and using my car twice a week. It is a lifestyle that I have been drawn to.
That leaves the problem, what to do with the car. A hybrid car is not happy unless it gets weekly mileage. Easy enough when I am here, but not so easy when I am in Key West.
This year I left it on a farm and the local caretaker agreed to drive it once a week. But last week, the car was not operating properly, lights were flashing, and it would only go 5 miles per hour.
I had it towed to the local dealer, not looking forward to the bill. The dealer called, it was a first for them, a little bunny had stowed away in the engine. ( It is hard to see her tucked away in my engine, but I hope you can see her little pink nose in the picture.) She had chewed through some wires and built herself a little nest.
“Don’t kill it,” I pleaded.
The repair crew agreed and spent several hours (cha-ching) coaxing her out of her unusual nesting choice.
It is funny how we view critters. I chase the bunnies that munch on my beloved pansies and flowers; but I want to save a little guy nesting in my engine, costing me a fortune in repairs. I wonder what it is, maybe just the sheer tenacity of this little bunny, or her cute little bunny nose…but I handed the dealership my credit card and she ran off into the woods.
And left all of us with bunny tales.
Angela Rieck, a Caroline County native, received her PhD in Mathematical Psychology from the University of Maryland and worked as a scientist at Bell Labs, and other high-tech companies in New Jersey before retiring as a corporate executive. Angela and her dogs divide their time between St Michaels and Key West Florida. Her daughter lives and works in New York City.
AJ Burke says
Mine were chip munks; an entire nest of them. They had chewed up the ignition wires from the coil pack on my ’03 Ford F-150. I was told that certain manufacturing plants use peanut oil on the extruders that produce wiring on vehicles. I enjoyed your bunny story, for that memory of my truck repair! Safe travels to you.
ANGELA RIECK says
Well, at least chipmunks are cute…the damage is not. Thank you for sharing your story.
Susan Owens Bernhardy says
Oh dear! I would save the bunny too, but I am also the first to chase them when they’re eating my garden!
ANGELA RIECK says
Thank you for commenting, I feel the same way.
Kathleen nilsen says
My critters were squirrels- lots of damage and $ to get the hoses in my Ford truck repaired. Then,a few years later, I openned the glove box to put in the new registration in my truck. I felt something squirming and practically jumped through the roof in surprise and fear what ever it was might bite me. Got some rubber gloves from the kitchen and found 3 tiny babies, very strange looking with eyes still closed. Went on facebook asking for help to identify what they were- squirrels. Mom didn’t come back for them and so I tried to keep them alive. (Just like the author with her bunny- I have no sympathy for them doing damage on my property, but the babies evoked a different response from me). They died, but I felt better for trying.
Danna Murphy Murden says
When my husband had a repair business squirrels were a common occurrence along with mice. You can be grateful that it wouldn’t start. One customer left his home in Bozman on his way to Cambridge had a car fire on the Choptank River Bridge. Squirrels had built a nest it was in a spot that it eventually caught on fire along with the car engine.