17 July 2008

A somewhat sombre day...

...here at "the halls."

Our house rabbit, a wild cottontail that Mrs. Neo rescued after his mom got flattened by a car a year ago April... has finally made his way into the wider, wilder world.

She found him on one of her walks... just sitting there by the path, a tiny fist-sized ball of quivering fur. It was glaringly obvious he was dehydrated and on his last legs... when he started crawling towards her.

Mrs. Neo even left him there at first, hoping beyond hope that his mother would find him. Of course, that didn't happen... and we later found out why.

So we brought him into our lives and fed him soya milk from a syringe, until he was old enough to eat solid food. Mrs. N was delighted to discover that the local grocery stores sold dandelion greens all winter... so our bunny had fresh greens while his wild cousins had to gnaw on the less appetizing sumac bushes that surround the house.

Our son named him "Braveheart"... because he was a survivor.

And while he was never really a typical pet... he wouldn't, for instance, sit and be petted... he would stand up and take his daily slice of apple from Mrs. N's hand... and he would throw his plastic bowl around when his dandelions weren't fast enough appearing.

I actually saw this coming, as Mr. B has been getting ever more frantic as the summer wears on. We could have beefed up security and made sure the doors were always closed, but that just seemed too cruel... not to let him push up against the screens and smell the great beyond.

Anyway... now there's a bunny-sized hole in the kitchen screen door.

So, he's out there somewhere right now... as sad as it is for all of us here... doing what rabbits are supposed to do.

And we wish him a long life and many offspring.

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