A couple weeks ago, a teacher at the boys' preschool emailed me and asked if we'd be interested in adopting a bunny. Every Summer, Tauxemont brings in several baby bunnies, kittens, and other animals for its camp program, then needs to find homes for them after camp is over. I agreed to come check them out, and by the time we got there, a white "lion head" and a brown "mini rex", both 3 months old, were still available.
Brownie perfectly fit my mental image of what a proper cute bunny should look like, while Frankie struck me as an unkempt anomaly with his wild white mane. It didn't help that I've never really cared for white rabbits. Mrs. Matthews told me that Frankie was more sociable since the campers requested to hold him more often than the other animals, and that he was further along towards being litter box trained. Two points for white. A few of the campers informed me that Brownie bites. Minus one point for brown. So despite love-at-first-sight with the brown bunny, and Moses' insistence that we "get a brown bunny because I am brown", I decided that the white bunny would be the more prudent choice. I committed to picking Frankie up when we got back from our weekend out of town.
When we went to take delivery of our new bunny, we found out that Brownie was still in need of a home. Once again, I found myself torn between the funny-looking white bunny and the beautiful brown one. Mrs. Matthews sensed my indecision and told me that we'd be welcome to take them both home for a trial run and then decide which one we'd like to keep. Perfect! We loaded them up in Pinky's old cage and took them home. Mrs. Bradley remarked that she'd never seen Caleb, Joshua, and Moses so happy to be leaving Tauxemont.
Once home, it became difficult to imagine giving up either of the bunnies. They snuggled each other, groomed each other, and the boys were simply ecstatic to play with them both. Being the indecisive person I am, I decided to poll my Facebook friends to see which one they thought we should keep, and almost everyone who weighed in cast their vote for the white bunny. But by this point, the thought of sending away the brown bunny was unfathomable. There were smiles all around when Daddy gave his consent to keep them both.
The first order of business was to decide on new names for our new bunnies. For the longest time, Caleb had been set on naming our next pet "Cranberry." You might recall that he had wanted to re-name Pinky, "Cranberry," but it never launched. More recently he'd told me he wanted a dog named Cranberry. So of course, he suggested we name one of the rabbits "Cranberry," which actually would have been rather appropriate for the white bunny if it had had the misfortune of being born with red eyes. But since good genetics had blessed him with blue eyes, I suggested that we name him "Blueberry" instead. Caleb thought it was a great idea, and the name has stuck ever since, although we occasionally slip and call him "Frankie," but usually only if he is being naughty.
As for the brown bunny, the boys thought that Brownie was a cute name, but that "Chocolate" would be even better. Seeing that "Chocolate" seemed like kind of a mouthful, I suggested a truncated alternative--one of the boys' favorite cold weather treats--"Cocoa". The boys all agreed that it was a good choice, and Cocoa he has been.
We have given Cocoa and Blueberry free reign of our screened-in porch and keep the ceiling fan on to make sure they stay cool during this heatwave. They are not litter-box trained, although over the past few days they have been gradually started to limit their pooping and peeing to one-fourth of the porch. I guess it could be worse, and hopefully over time they will learn to hone in on their litter box exclusively. Maybe then we'll even be able to let them roam around the house, especially since Blueberry has already managed to sneak into the house several times. Until then, I've been giving the vacuum a good work-out, and I've enlisted the twins to use the dustpan to sweep up the copious little round pellets.
Interestingly, all three boys have declared that Cocoa is their favorite, and Cocoa has warmed up to us more quickly than Blueberry has, in contradiction to what the teachers and kids at camp had told us. I guess we never have been ones to just go with the flow. Seeing how well the boys have bonded with Cocoa makes me especially glad that we decided to adopt him, too. Both bunnies are still slightly nervous around the boys, especially Moses, who is still learning how to be gentle. But when I go out on the porch by myself without the boys, both bunnies come hopping up to me for a snuggle and a pet. I don't think you could ask for sweeter pets than bunnies.
And now, a few unrelated quotes:
Caleb: "Mommy, can I read a book with you? I just really love you all the time!"
Joshua, flattening Cocoa's ears against his head: "Cocoa looks like a beaver!"
Moses: "Mom, babies have guns?"
Me: "No."
Moses: "Only just soldiers have guns."
Joe, listening to music: "Joshua, do you like this song?"
Joshua, after a thoughtful pause: "No, I don't like this song because it's not about God. I only like songs that are about God and Jesus."
No comments:
Post a Comment