Are you afraid of the dark?

Question: When was the last full moon?

Let me tell you, it is a lot easier to keep track of the moon cycle without accessing The Old Farmer’s Almanac when there is no light source besides a flashlight at night. The moon cycle also affects planting, harvesting, bug activity, and apparently animal activity.

My nearest volunteer neighbor Emma was visiting on Superbowl Sunday. At bedtime we squeezed into my bed, glad to seek refuge under my mosquito net from the crazy full moon bugs. We woke up several times to my dog and his mom howling at the moon (or werewolves?) but tried our best to ignore it. Next thing I knew, I heard something rustling on the folded tarp under my bed. It sounded like a cat and mouse – or rat – chase, and I really didn’t feel like looking at my cat’s prey. So I attempted to ignore it, but the rustling was relentless. The mouse was putting up a good fight.

Emma got up to go the bathroom. I bit the bullet and shined my flashlight underneath the bed. My cat Meri was gnawing on the hind leg of a wild rabbit the same size as her! I assume she hunted it and then dragged it into the safety of my house to escape the dogs.

2 am. I carried the good as dead rabbit outside into the bright moonlight and stared at it. I didn’t want to listen to the cat eating it anymore, so I stored it inside of a bucket away from my house, and put a pot on top to make sure the cat wouldn’t break in. At this point we were too weirded out to be tired, so we did a bit of stargazing while we were outside.

7 am. I woke up. Was it all a dream? No, the rabbit was still inside the bucket, dead. Emma and I discussed our options and decided that it was definitely still edible. Since neither of us have experience preparing small mammals, I brought it down to my host mom. Within 5 minutes she had washed it, de-skinned it, and cut it up into pieces like it was a regular Monday morning. She kept some for herself and sent me up to my house to make a good breakfast.

Emma and I ate rabbit potato stew while my cat sulked somewhere in the woods over her loss. Her loss, our gain.

Answer: The day after Superbowl Sunday (February 7)