cirrustwi
Retired Moderator
A friend sent this to me recently when I lost onof my rats. I've been reading it and thinking how easily itcould be applied to all animals. I've adapted it from apassage titled"MoreThen A Rat"by CynthiaGoehring that can be found athttp://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/boulderrats
More Then A Rabbit (An Adaptation)
As rabbit parents, we live the deepest love and suffer the most earnestsadness of a complete lifetime many times over in our own lives.
We watch our children grow from hesitant, shy or questioning babes tocurious, rambunctious teenagers: testing our limits, exploring newcorners, new tunnels; tasting new baseboards or new boxes; stealingtreats; learning to jump to new heights. We give them nameslike Sampson and Sage and Daisy and Apollo and Tucker andBub. We talk about them with other rabbit parents.
We see them emerge as confident adults, enjoying the fruits of theirenvironment but always content to go back home after a busy play time;sometimes slowly waking up from a full day of sleep as we return home;sometimes running to cage doors to greet us as we awake each morning totheir loving faces all tired out from a busy night of hay munching, toyplaying fun. We are never surprised at theircreativity...litter boxes thrown about, cage doors opened mysteriously,treats found in the best of hiding places.
We watch the fullness of their adulthood, sometimes producing babies oftheir own, sometimes never recognizing they have beenneutered. We cherish their response to our touch; amazed thatsuch a perfect, intelligent creature could at all be interested in ourvoices, our hands, and our activities. Sometimes we stareforever at their feet...perfect in every way, or stroke an ear, justripe for the petting. We marvel at the connection we have -different then with a cat or a dog, perhaps a bit of both, but alwaysdeeply emotional.
We watch them age, their fur growing less silky, less soft and shiny,their eyes clouding with time. Sometimes our hearts sink aswe notice less poops in the box or detect the telltale nasal dischargeof pasturella where a sweet dry nose used to be. We see theslowness of limbs and the thinning of bodies with time, feel thehipbones and the shoulder blades where once was heartymuscle. We often are confronted with the grumpiness thatcomes with elderly aches and pains and we respect that and touch withgentle kindness and compassionate understanding.
Within such a short time our little friends have lived a fulllife. To us, it is a microsecond. Just a moment intime that we have been blessed to be acquainted with one or two ortwenty, of the most incredible creatures on this earth. Wehave laughed so hard, we cried, we have learned so much and smiled evenmore. We have been delighted and saddened, comforted andheartbroken. There are few companions quite so devoted, socommunicative, so loving and so mesmerizing as a rabbit.
:runningrabbit:
More Then A Rabbit (An Adaptation)
As rabbit parents, we live the deepest love and suffer the most earnestsadness of a complete lifetime many times over in our own lives.
We watch our children grow from hesitant, shy or questioning babes tocurious, rambunctious teenagers: testing our limits, exploring newcorners, new tunnels; tasting new baseboards or new boxes; stealingtreats; learning to jump to new heights. We give them nameslike Sampson and Sage and Daisy and Apollo and Tucker andBub. We talk about them with other rabbit parents.
We see them emerge as confident adults, enjoying the fruits of theirenvironment but always content to go back home after a busy play time;sometimes slowly waking up from a full day of sleep as we return home;sometimes running to cage doors to greet us as we awake each morning totheir loving faces all tired out from a busy night of hay munching, toyplaying fun. We are never surprised at theircreativity...litter boxes thrown about, cage doors opened mysteriously,treats found in the best of hiding places.
We watch the fullness of their adulthood, sometimes producing babies oftheir own, sometimes never recognizing they have beenneutered. We cherish their response to our touch; amazed thatsuch a perfect, intelligent creature could at all be interested in ourvoices, our hands, and our activities. Sometimes we stareforever at their feet...perfect in every way, or stroke an ear, justripe for the petting. We marvel at the connection we have -different then with a cat or a dog, perhaps a bit of both, but alwaysdeeply emotional.
We watch them age, their fur growing less silky, less soft and shiny,their eyes clouding with time. Sometimes our hearts sink aswe notice less poops in the box or detect the telltale nasal dischargeof pasturella where a sweet dry nose used to be. We see theslowness of limbs and the thinning of bodies with time, feel thehipbones and the shoulder blades where once was heartymuscle. We often are confronted with the grumpiness thatcomes with elderly aches and pains and we respect that and touch withgentle kindness and compassionate understanding.
Within such a short time our little friends have lived a fulllife. To us, it is a microsecond. Just a moment intime that we have been blessed to be acquainted with one or two ortwenty, of the most incredible creatures on this earth. Wehave laughed so hard, we cried, we have learned so much and smiled evenmore. We have been delighted and saddened, comforted andheartbroken. There are few companions quite so devoted, socommunicative, so loving and so mesmerizing as a rabbit.
:runningrabbit:
