Happy Easter, everyone!

[pronker]

I hope you are having a lovely holiday. Here is my last rabbit, Donna Earl, circa 2005 as she cuddles her BFF, the basketball. She was lonely since she was the last of her "herd" of three females, her, her sister and her niece; I raised rabbits for sale and also as family pets for over twenty years. Such fun to see the newest litters, bald, blind, and deaf, as they leaped in search of sustenance! Mamma Rabbit plucked fur from her belly to form a coverlet for her brood and the fur would leap and squirm as we tempted her to one side of the cage as we counted the babies in observation for color, sex, and to remove any dead littles. Bunnies grow fur quickly and males have no nipples, thus it was easy to sex them at that point. Later on was a different story and involved upending the little squirmer and popping out the penis, altogether a disturbing experience just to check for sex, so it was easier when they were newborn.

Donna Earl played with her ball and the girls and when the others died, she placed all her affection with the ball, nosing it around, following its roll, and sleeping with it in the sun. It was charming to see and it seems horses play the same with a much larger ball when they need stimulation, too. I was glad to have Donna Earl because she would walk up my legs when I sat outdoors in her enclosure, to be rewarded by a saltine held in my mouth. She was good for maybe one minute of cuddling afterwards and then would scurry down because rabbits don't care for handling all that much. This was before Youngest's Friend moved in, took over the care of his little sister's two cats, and when he moved out I inherited them. I still have one, Willow, who is a cuddler when I am seated but on her own terms, like five minutes at a time. She sleeps with me, though.