This is a love story. A creature came out of the woods late last winter looking for a home. An abandoned or runaway domestic rabbit. I took her in, knowing nothing about rabbits, and not being prepared for life with a pet. I am mesmerized by her communication, her intelligence, her awareness and her love. This story is told from both our narratives.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Bunny In The Garden
Last week I chewed a special cable into 14 pieces. It was in Bibi's closet and it's called a DSL cable. She lets me play Bunny In The Closet and since I never chewed wires before she was surprised when she counted all the pieces. This is why her Internet stopped working.
We like to chew things because our teeth never stop growing. Bibi went to an apple orchard and got me a bag of apple branches and twigs to keep me busy while she hides all the wires in her house.
There are 4 places I can be.
1. 2. I can always be on my porch and in my outside house, and those two places are where I live all the time until it's winter. This is my window that connects these 2 places and I can always decide myself.
3. I can run around in Bibi's house when she is home and she can play with me. I like to relax by the piano a lot.
4. On special days, I can be a Bunny In The Garden. That means I run around a whole big garden that I have all to myself.
It's safe because Bibi put extra smaller fence all around the whole fence. The fence is for deer. This is how big the spaces are. Once I did get through a space like this. I shimmied my way through after 3 tries. I was gone for 6 hours and Bibi was crying. I was running around all day and she could see me sometimes but I wouldn't let her catch me until I got hungry and thirsty after a long time. So she fixed the garden so I can be there and not run away.
I am the only bunny that people are trying to keep IN the garden!
It's my playground now. I have several projects going on. Here you can see my rabbit holes that I dig.
I do a special thing that cats and dogs don't do. After I dig dig dig I turn around push away the dirt I just dug so I can keep digging deeper. Rabbits are better at making secret tunnels than cats and dogs are because of this trick. I have started 4 different rabbit holes in my garden.
See I my face got dirty when I was working!
Then I like to run around a lot. I really kind of leap through the air in the garden and I pretend someone is chasing me! Sometimes there are cats and dogs outside the fence... we run around very fast like crazy even though they never can get me!
I don't eat crops, mostly I get a belly full of weeds when I play Bunny In The Garden. I did try a raspberry one day and I liked it but I like the leaves and stems almost even more than the little sweet red part.
There's almost no weeds I don't like. Grass and old dead grass are some of my favorites. Dandelion, and clover is good. I even ate poison ivy and The Internet said that is very bad for me but I loved it and I was fine. I find new things all the time. Like leaves of string bean plants. Flowers from bolted mustard greens. Leaves of wild strawberries. I always find different little things and Bibi goes and picks them for me once she knows I like them. But not poison ivy!
Can you see me hiding in my raspberry jungle? I like to be here for hours all by myself!
Sometimes I even want to be picked up and snuggle even when it's Bunny In The Garden playtime. If Bibi is weeding, she might feel some little paws on her back and she turns around and it's me!
Sometimes it gets hot and that is not good for bunnies so we go home to the shade and cold water.
Sometimes I just play hard- to- get for a long time though. I am very very good at that game! Bibi has to trick me! She pretends she is feeding me treats but she really just wants to pick me up and put me in the little bag I travel in when we play Bunny In The Garden. Most of the time I grab the treats quick quick quick and I run away back to my raspberry jungle and I eat them and she says: "Sandra! We have to go home!"
Then I do sometimes let her trick me, because I'm really an indoor bunny and I like that. At home I have my pellets and my water and a salad of vegetables and a salad of weeds and those are all the things I really like. I also have my outside house if I want to still be outside.
You can only be an outdoor adventure bunny if your mommy was one and she could show you. I was a real outdoor adventure bunny for a little while, and I think it was too hard.
Here is a picture of a real outdoor bunny. He WISHES he could get into our garden.
But when I play Bunny In The Garden I can pretend, sometimes all day.
Then I want to go home, clean myself up and sleep a little where there's no dogs or cats and and wake up and eat my pellets and relax and just chew my apple twigs for awhile.
Love,
Sandra The Free Range Superbunny
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