More Than Just <em>Dumb</em> Bunnies

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - For millions of people, the New Year is just beginning, because it's Chinese New Year, and my doggies couldn't be happier since this is the Year of the Rabbit! Actually, my dogs celebrate bunnies every year. Open the back door and they're off on the hunt – sniffing trails in the snow of tell-tale dragging paw prints from hopping cottontails who insist on birthing their babies inside the fenced area where our doggies can find them…thus the term, dumb bunnies.

Having dogs does help control the numbers of bunnies in your garden. And while rabbits can damage garden plants – particularly enjoying tender shoots in spring, and vegetables in your summer garden patch – bunnies are also pretty good at weed control – as they happily chew clover and munch plenty of purslane that runs rampant next to our garage. And if you can just get to their steaming piles before the doggies do, those regular rabbit droppings left in your yard make a great addition to your compost heap too.

Reported By Phran Novelli, KYW Newsradio