The Bunny Near-Suicides

I would almost swear I met a suicidal rabbit today.

I was driving back from Thompsons' (I'm allowed to walk the calves now that they've calmed down a bit, by the way) and saw a small, indistinct brown shape in the middle of the road. I assumed I was seeing a paper bag, especially since the noise of the motorbike hadn't caused any movement.

When I was about 3 seconds from running over it, the "bag" jumped up and ran forwards on my left, flashing a fairly un-paper-bag-like white tail as it did so... I thought, "ooh, bunny" and also "good thing it moved," and I have to admit part of the relief (other than the obvious reason, that I hadn't inadvertently squished a rabbit) was due to the last-minute debate in my mind as to whether the motorbike would be stable and under control after hitting a sizeable bump...

Anyway, after it revealed itself as a rabbit and ran in the fairly sensible left-and-forward direction, the rabbit did what I can only class as either bunny stupidity or attempted bunny suicide. It stopped running toward the safety of the hedge (almost as if it wanted a decent run-up to hit the wheel at speed) and charged back towards the middle of the road and the front tyre of my motorbike. I looked down at my front wheel and got a fairly blurry view of brown fur about an inch to the left of the tyre, then, motorbike being somewhat faster than the average rabbit, watched brown blur slip back and had a fairly horrible second of dread as I waited for a bump from the rear wheel - which didn't actually come... looked back and saw the rabbit, unharmed, heading off to lie down in a gateway, while I waited for the adrenaline shakes to wear off.

Bloody rabbit.