Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Tales of the Unexpected, Part the First.

Many years ago I had some pet rabbits. I started off with two that the pet shop owner had told my parents sere both boys, but within a couple of weeks I discovered a half-dozen new, and very small rabbits in the hutch.
The people at the pet shop were very apologetic and kindly took the excess of bunnies off our hands when they were old enough, and swapped the 'boy bunny' that had given birth for one that was definitely male.
Or so we thought.
Long story short, I ended up with many rabbits, sometimes up to fifteen at a time, and also got known for looking after other people's rabbits and Guinea pigs whilst they went on holiday.
The area at the side of the house was turned into a rabbit's playground, with hutches along the end wall and a run which was fenced off at one end with a gate for getting in and stopping rabbits escaping, and this they enjoyed, but it meant they couldn't get to the lawn.
One day, my mother made a portable cage that we could set on the lawn so that the rabbits could get their greens and to my dad's delight, keep the lawn down.
It was a pyramid shape which meant it was easily portable, but very difficult to knock over which meant that the bunnies couldn't get out unless they tunneled. We also left a shelter for them, as well as water bottles and a bowl of rabbit food should they get bored with grass, and the bunnies loved it in there.
Knowing they were safe from harm in their run, one Saturday we left the bunnies to enjoy themselves on the lawn while we went to the shops just around the corner.
We couldn't have been away for even thirty minutes, but when we got back we found the most unusual sight.
We were greeted at the gates by one of the bunnies, and thinking the worst I dashed round to check on the others.
To our amazement, all four of the rabbits were calmly nibbling the grass, but none of them were inside the 'run'.
But in the run was a cat that was looking absolutely petrified.
The rabbits continued to hop about the run looking totally innocent, and each time one neared the run, the cat tried to hide under the shelter.
We herded the bunnies back into their hutches before the releasing the cat, which took off to next door's garden like a bat out of hell as soon as we lifted the run.
I still have no idea what happened that day.
As a famous vet once said, 'If only they could talk'.