The shadows across the road were long and interspersed with bright spots of sunshine as I drove home along Sandridge Road from Ilwaco this evening.  I was driving the speed limit (I love cruise control) but, even so, I tried to keep a sharp eye out for deer or other forest friends who might decide to cross the road.

“Watch out for the Hrududus!” I called out — to myself, of course, because, worried though I might be, I didn’t see a single deer person along my way.  “I wonder if it’s only rabbits who call motorized vehicles ‘Hrududus,’ and wished Richard Adams was still around to ask.  Or maybe he mentioned something about that in Watership Down,” I thought.  “I wonder if I still have my old copy.”

And then, of course,  I wondered why I had forgotten to include that most wonderful of all animal stories in my review of children’s books yesterday.  I’ve read it at least twice and I’m thinking it’s time to take another look!  Especially since the rabbits of Surfside have diminished in numbers lately but there have been quite a few sightings here in Oysterville — or so I’m told.

Watership Down, Richard Adams’ first novel, tells the story of a group of rabbits as they make their escape from their warren which is being destroyed and seek a place to establish a new home.  (Surfside to Oysterville?  Maybe, although I haven’t heard anything at all about a warren being discovered. much less one being destroyed.)

In fact, my memory of the book is foggy at best — the leader, a buck with the improbable name of Hazel; violence by humans and other animals, including rabbits; both loyalty and betrayal among friends and the incredible grit and gumption of even the smallest…

Please consider this a P.S. to yesterday’s blog!