The Finer Things in Life

Summer is upon us and you don't need a thermometer at my house to notice- just take one look at my bunny and there is no mistaking it. He is shedding his winter under coat in clumps and masses at a time! Poor guy looks like he woke up on the wrong side of the hutch every day! At first I thought the fur would work its way out on its own, but I was mistaken. It just kept building up and gave him quite a scruffy appearance.

I couldn't just let him go around looking like a bum- one look in his ground level mirror and he knew he wasn't looking so hot. It was starting to wear down his morale- I mean, just when I thought he had graduated from BCA (Baseboard Chewers Anonymous) he had a relapse! So I started plucking out the little tufts of shedded fur a little bit at a time, because he would only tolerate the plucking a little bit at a time. Every day I would make a litle progress then the next day he would look just as bad as (if not worse than) the day before.

Now, if you know anything about rabbits, you know that they aren't all cuddles and fluff. They don't much care to be petted or held and consist mostly of needle point claws and razor sharp teeth. My Bunny especially doesn't like being touched in the facial or hind end regions where much of the shedding accumulates. You can see how this could complicate my progress in removing his shedded fur. Nevertheless, I persistently pursued my endeavor and Bunny became more tolerant of my plucking and petting by the day. Maybe he just looked forward to the pineapple juice he got to drink to prevent hairballs.

Something else you may not know is that cats aren't the only animals that can purr. Believe it or not, rabbits can purr too. The difference is that cats purr through vibrations in their larynx and rabbits purr by clicking of their teeth. Rabbits don't make noise very often, but they are capable of purring, humming or "droning", growling (especially at Art), and screaming (glad my bunny has never done that). Keeping in mind that rabbits aren't naturally fond of human affection, it is easy to understand the difficulty in getting a rabbit to purr.

Tonight as I was plucking out my Bunny's loose fur, he seemed particularly more patient than he has been this week and when I had just about pulled a spare bunny's coat of fur off of him he layed down and looked rather content. That's when I thought "I wonder if he will let me scratch his ears." I put my finger behind his little cat-like ears and started to rub and he was instantly tamed like Daniel's lions! He put his head down on the ground while I rubbed all over his face and ears and then I heard it... a little bunny purr!

It seems my little guy has come to appreciate some of the finer things in life- pineapple juice and a good ear rubbin'. Lucky for me I have a rabbit to teach me that the best things in life are simple but precious.