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5

Leave the rabbits alone

I crouched down in the tall grass, listening for the next whistle blasts. I tried to keep perfectly still as my husband walked on a trail nearby, hoping not to give my position away. I had been away for a weekend in September to Montreal for my aunt’s memorial service, and when I returned, I discovered that my family had invented a new game called “Whistle Tag” while I was gone. They were excited to introduce me to the new game, created by my daughter. First, we chose dark or nature coloured clothes and then headed to the pasture. We each carried a whistle and chose who was “it”.

We raced away from them while they counted to 60, and a minute after that, we all blew our whistles so that whoever was “it” had a chance of finding someone. The game ranged over an agreed upon section of trees with trails on the farm. Three whistle blasts meant that someone new had been tagged, and we each gave an answering three whistles. Two whistle blows means you were tired of the game, or couldn’t find anyone and wanted someone else to be it, or you were hurt. Then we would meet at the water bottle drop spot to regroup.

It’s been a struggle to get the kids to go for walks with us lately, as they have gotten older. What was brilliant about the new game was that there was no arguing about being on a walk as we walked to the back pasture. They were still outside, and getting exercise, but suddenly it was a game and that made it more exciting.

The next thing I noticed was that I depend on my sense of sight way more than my sense of hearing. This game forced us to use more of our senses. I would stand still, and listen to the whistle blows, to figure out where everyone was. Each person’s whistle sounded slightly different, if you could figure that out. If we saw our dog Shadow, it was time to get out of there because someone else was nearby.

I found a few spots where I nestled down in the tall grasses. At one point, my husband passed by within metres of me. For the most part, we kept moving around, but sometimes I would take a break and sit.

I had two minor disasters. For one, I was running away from my son through the bushes. A few minutes later, I looked down and realized that I was covered in burrs up to my knees. I had to sit down and remove some of them before I continued. Then, I was taking a break in a treed area and got a sliver. Next time, the tweezers on a Swiss Army knife might be a must.

One time, I was sitting down in the grasses (okay, maybe I took a few more sit down breaks than I realized), and I heard what sounded like Shadow running past on the trail. Then 20 seconds later, I definitely heard Shadow whizzing by on the trail, so the first critter must have been a terrified rabbit.

During one game, I ran into my 11-year-old and he breathlessly told me that he was being chased and when he went to jump into the trees, he almost stepped on a bunny! We might be having fun out there, but the rabbits are definitely getting traumatized.

With more of our kids’ activities starting up and the season shifting to what I think of as “almost winter”, the whistle tag game has been shelved for now. I find myself trying to sneak in little moments with the kids – a tickle during lunch making, settling down for a snuggle and book reading amidst getting ready for the next day. Try as we might not to be “too busy”, we do live in the country, with three active kids and a dog – there is a certain amount of bustle that we can’t avoid. Finding little ways to slow down a bit with a game like Whistle Tag makes all the difference in how “busy” we feel – though maybe next time, the bunnies will hear us coming and make a quick exit.