Post by carole on Sept 21, 2008 12:22:25 GMT -8
Never Again
When my daughter was in kindergarten, the teacher had brought in her immense gray rabbit to be the class pet. The children named it Wigglenose, and he lived in a cage. The rabbit was so large it was easy to see the activity going on in his proboscis, and it was the one feature the children delighted in.
Otherwise, Wigglenose was an endearing, long-suffering bunny who allowed the children occasionally to drag him out of his large cage and hold him in their laps. This didn’t last long because, frankly, the animal was too heavy. So back he would go to his lonely cage.
During this same period of time our family had obtained from a friend a much smaller, feminine version of the same species. Katherine named her bunny Princess, and she did indeed live the life of all princesses. Her every need was met. She had the run of our family room, even digging a hole in a mattress we had there and building some kind of a nest for herself. Occasionally we had to pull her out of the mattress and put her back in her cage. Princess probably had scratches all up and down her back, but we couldn’t see them because of her beautiful white fur.
Of course there came a time when Katherine wanted to share her pet with the kindergarten class as other children had done. It was probably good for the children to see a normal-size bunny, I thought, instead of the monstrous gray rabbit that was Wigglenose.
“Let’s put Princess in the cage with Wigglenose so he can had a friend!” shouted the children all excited. Wigglenose, it seem, had waited his entire life for such an occasion. Princess was in the cage with Wigglenose only 2 seconds when the giant was on top of her. He covered her completely so that Princess disappeared altogether.
“He’s hurting her! He’s hurting her! Take her out!” screamed the children. They were horrified to see what was happening inside the cage. Some of them ran about the kindergarten room like headless chickens and other became frozen statues with lemur-like eyes. So once again, Princess was removed from Wigglenose’s cage with all the gentility of being dragged out of her nest in the mattress.
Wigglenose settled back into his cage, eternally grateful for the entire rest of his days for the opportunity to behave in the manner customary for a self-respecting rabbit.
Princess was not so lucky. Two seconds was 1 second too long. After the usual amount of time for rabbits, Princess was delivered of Peter, Paul and Mary and spent the next several months on motherhood duties.
Never again will I have a rabbit for a pet. Never again will I introduce two rabbits to each other. And never again will I have to watch the horror in the faces of the children who witnessed the event.
When my daughter was in kindergarten, the teacher had brought in her immense gray rabbit to be the class pet. The children named it Wigglenose, and he lived in a cage. The rabbit was so large it was easy to see the activity going on in his proboscis, and it was the one feature the children delighted in.
Otherwise, Wigglenose was an endearing, long-suffering bunny who allowed the children occasionally to drag him out of his large cage and hold him in their laps. This didn’t last long because, frankly, the animal was too heavy. So back he would go to his lonely cage.
During this same period of time our family had obtained from a friend a much smaller, feminine version of the same species. Katherine named her bunny Princess, and she did indeed live the life of all princesses. Her every need was met. She had the run of our family room, even digging a hole in a mattress we had there and building some kind of a nest for herself. Occasionally we had to pull her out of the mattress and put her back in her cage. Princess probably had scratches all up and down her back, but we couldn’t see them because of her beautiful white fur.
Of course there came a time when Katherine wanted to share her pet with the kindergarten class as other children had done. It was probably good for the children to see a normal-size bunny, I thought, instead of the monstrous gray rabbit that was Wigglenose.
“Let’s put Princess in the cage with Wigglenose so he can had a friend!” shouted the children all excited. Wigglenose, it seem, had waited his entire life for such an occasion. Princess was in the cage with Wigglenose only 2 seconds when the giant was on top of her. He covered her completely so that Princess disappeared altogether.
“He’s hurting her! He’s hurting her! Take her out!” screamed the children. They were horrified to see what was happening inside the cage. Some of them ran about the kindergarten room like headless chickens and other became frozen statues with lemur-like eyes. So once again, Princess was removed from Wigglenose’s cage with all the gentility of being dragged out of her nest in the mattress.
Wigglenose settled back into his cage, eternally grateful for the entire rest of his days for the opportunity to behave in the manner customary for a self-respecting rabbit.
Princess was not so lucky. Two seconds was 1 second too long. After the usual amount of time for rabbits, Princess was delivered of Peter, Paul and Mary and spent the next several months on motherhood duties.
Never again will I have a rabbit for a pet. Never again will I introduce two rabbits to each other. And never again will I have to watch the horror in the faces of the children who witnessed the event.