Today will be another scorcher of a day: 90 degrees, humid and not a breeze for relief. The chickens will drink a lot of water and loll about in the shade. The broody hens will sit still in their nesting boxes where it will be hot, but not unbearable for them. My dog will wade in the pond with the koi and goldfish and tadpoles. It’s the rabbit I have to worry about.

Rabbits use their ears as natural air conditioners. Hot blood circulates through the ears near the skin and is cooled by the surrounding air. But Candy is a lop-eared rabbit, and so she can’t stand her ears up, away from the heat of her body to catch the breezes. One worries, because rabbits can die of heat stroke. Our bunny lives outdoors. In the summer Candy’s hutch is moved to the shady side of the henhouse. The big canvas umbrella that had been up by the garden bench is now over her house as well. If Candy were kept closed up in her hutch I would go to the added precaution of putting a bottle of frozen water in her bed. But Candy has access to the chicken yard during the day, where there is cool damp earth to stretch out in. Perhaps you saw her yesterday, splayed out in front of the hencam — a very comfortable and healthy rabbit.