RABBITS DO THE CUTEST THINGS

            You haven't lived until you've watched a bunny play with a slinky! I learned that from our very first rabbit GiggleFeather. My husband Chris would affix one end of the slinky to the top of her cage. Whenever the mood struck her, she would seize the other end of the slinky, back up as far as she could go, release it, and watch it go sproing! wildly about her cage. And then, she'd do it again. And again. When it would come loose from her roof and fall, she would stand on one end of the slinky, grab the other end in her teeth, rear back and stretch it as far as she could go, and then release. Or she would put her back feet on one end of the slinky, her front feet on the other end, and stretch herself (and the slinky) as far as she could. Or she would scratch adorably and frantically at it, separating the various loops with her front paws.

            Chris had a way of playing with Pipkin that would have me in stitches. He would set his tobacco pouch upright on his desk. Pipkin would rear back like a little horse and wildly claw at it, knocking it flat. Chris would set it back up, patiently saying, "No, Pippie; I want it this way." Of course, she would knock it over again. No matter how many times Chris would repeat his procedure, she would repeat hers, knocking it down again and again.

            Emily loved to play peek-a-boo. She would turn her hidey-box ninety degrees, so that the window-hole of it was toward her ceiling. The first time that she did this, we thought that she'd just been rambunctious and done it by accident, and so we set it back upright for her. But when she promptly did it again, we realized that it had been no accident; she had wanted it that way. And then, we found out why. When we would enter the room, she would raise her head up through the hole at us, until I said, "Peek-a-boo!" Then, she would duck back down and hide. After a moment, she would rise up again, and we would repeat until she grew tired of it.

            Jason and Jeremy, although littermates, fought often. We even had them neutered, because we were told that that would eliminate that behavior. It didn't, and we never had any of our rabbits surgically abused again after that. One evening, I went downstairs to feed them, and Jason was sitting in the middle of the floor! I could only guess that Jeremy had knocked him against the cage door hard enough that the latch had been shoved up, allowing his brother to tumble from the cage. I'll swear that Jason was grinning smugly up at me as he sat in the middle of the room!

            Tiffany loved the broom! Whenever she would see us sweeping the floor, she would press close to the cage bars and paw at them, as if saying, "Give me the broom! Give me the broom!!" As soon as we would hold it up to her, she would grab some straw through the bars with her teeth, and wildly attempt to pull it free. Sometimes, she would get so excited that she would comically jump up and down in place, trying to yank it out of the broom, putting us in hysterics! A few years later, when Wendy came along, she would do the very same thing.

            On pleasant summer days, Chris and I would often take Taffy out into the backyard with us. We watched her carefully, but she never tried to leave the yard. One day, she wandered over to where Chris had left his beer sitting in the grass. He said to her, "Don't you spill my beer!" She didn't. She daintily drank some! She took every drop that had been pooled inside of the can lid. Of course, I was frantic, but it didn't seem to do her any harm at all.

            Bethany and Chris would get into staring contests. She would sit atop her box and stare unblinkingly at him. He would walk close to the cage and stare back at her beautiful blue eyes. I would stand there wondering who would blink first. Chris always won, but only because he cheated! He would flail a hand out to the left of her to startle her! Needless to say, I would invariably excoriate him for stooping to cheat a little bunny!

            Persephone was so playful with me! She would sit in my lap and look up at me...and then suddenly, she would take her front paws and wildly, lightly, fake-claw at my tummy, in a fast skittering motion, to make me giggle. When I'd start giggling, she would stop momentarily and stare up at my face, and I'd swear that I saw amusement in her lovely pink albino eyes! Then, she would do it all over again...and again, until I'd grow weak with laughter.

            Her littermate Daphne would sit quietly and comfortably in my arms. But periodically, she would reach up and give me a kiss right on the tip of my nose. Bunny kisses are so dainty and sweet, not slobbery like those of dogs.

            Their other littermate, Perseus, ran figure-eights in his cage, going rapidly in one door of his box and out the other, and then to the opposite end of his cage, circling his litterpan, and then back again, over and over again, in high energy bursts. Chris called him "horsey-boy" because of the way that he galloped around, so I started calling him "Percy-pony." We reached the point that every time I would say, "Percy-pony! Oh, he's a pony!" the dear little boy would go into his act just to show off!

            Blair would get so excited at feeding time, that he would run the length of his cage, jump at the end and deliberately bang his head on the lid (it was a top-loader) hard enough to make the lid jump. He did this so joyfully that we had to laugh at his adorable antics.

            Sebastian would become so excited whenever I entered the room that he would rise up on his hind legs and dance. Sadly, as he aged and his back legs gave out, he would still try to do it, and invariably fall over, but he still never stopped, wanting to show his exuberance for my arrival.

            I would clean the cage shared by littermates Stephanie and Selene without removing them from it, because they so enjoyed playfully fighting with the scoops. They would both rear up and scrabble at them, making mama spill whatever was in them.

            Chris had a wonderful game with Eppie. She would be sitting on her box, and he would pick up one of her toys and put it on the top of the box with her. She would promptly pick it up with her teeth and drop it overboard. He would keep putting various toys of hers up there, and she would methodically pick up and drop each one back off of it again. Like with Pipkin, he would say, "No, Eppie, I want this up here." On and on, they would keep it up until they had me in hysterics. When medical TV shows would say, "Push one of eppie" (epinephrine), I would always fuss back, "Stop pushing Eppie! Eppie doesn't like to be pushed!"

            Abbie loved to run loose in the house. She especially liked to run in the spacious living room, describing a huge circle around the furniture. One Christmas, not thinking of how it might affect her routine, I put up the Christmas tree as usual. When we turned her loose, she barreled up to the tree and stopped stock still, staring at it. Then, she wheeled and fled the room! Chris and I both felt sorry, and said, "Aw, poor Abbie!"

            Rabbits are endlessly entertaining! If you've never had one, you probably believe the stereotype that they just sit there and don't do anything. As a long-term bunny-mom, I'm privileged to burst your bubble!