It isn’t only rabbits who will suffer from the new surge of myxomatosis

Caught in the centre of a soundless field
While hot inexplicable hours go by
What trap is this? Where were its teeth concealed?
You seem to ask.
‘Myxomatosis’ by Philip Larkin

Aldbourne, Wiltshire
I saw the rabbit, a young doe, 50 yards or so down the path. ‘Look,’ I said to the kids, ‘a bunny.’ But even as I said the words, I knew that this would be a problematic encounter. The rabbit just sat there, its usual hair-trigger response to approaching danger apparently nullified. ‘A fairly stupid bunny,’ my oldest son pronounced, as we clumped closer to the creature and it still declined to bolt. ‘A very ill bunny,’ I told him. It didn’t move either when I stood over it, just remained aloof to the world, its eyes swollen and weeping, a hopeless bunny rabbit. It was in the last stages of its illness, wracked by pneumonia and fever, convulsed with lassitude, probably blind, maybe deaf too.