The wife had just let the heelers outside, and I came to look over her shoulder.

'Cause hey, it's fun to watch heelers outside.

And I noticed the little brown lump across the street.

Our new neighbor's out, I pointed out to the wife.

An hour or so later, and it had taken up sunbathing on the only patch of exposed grass on our side of the intersection.

We've had cottontail rabbits in town for ages, of course. But usually the closest we see them is in the park a block north, or the alley between us and the post office.

When you saw rabbit tracks on our place, it was worth a mention.

But two weeks ago, when we returned from being snow-locked in university town, we found a large cottontail sitting at the base of one of our trees.

You go a couple days with only minimal forays outside by the heelers, and apparently the rabbits think it is time to move in.

And this rabbit has stayed. Not sure where, exactly, but there's plenty of tracks under the truck. (And no, we haven't been feeding it. Doesn't everyone throw their old lettuce and broccoli stalks out on the curbing?) It even came boldly hopping down the middle of the road one evening when I was out shoveling. Not a care in the world.

But hey, when you get a good peek at this tough-looking "bunny", you realize maybe it doesn't have to worry about much after all.