Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Freedom!

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose..."

This morning, my husband and I were sitting in our sun porch. This room is a favorite one--added on to our house about a decade ago. It has windows on three sides--actually sliding glass doors--which afford us a view to the yard.

I looked out and saw a rabbit hopping about--not too unusual. Except. . .

Except this rabbit looked a bit too light in color--sort of caramel colored. And it seemed to be a different size, with shorter ears. But I ignored it.

Back to reading my newspaper.

Then, there it was again--this odd rabbit. I pointed it out to my husband. And then I thought--I wonder if that's Hoppy. Not sure if you remember my writing about Hoppy--he's the neighbor's bunny who is kept outside in a hutch all the time. It drives me crazy--I mind so much his constant captivity. I go up to his hutch almost every day to bring him fresh parsley, which he loves, and carrots. His owners seem to feed him irregularly. I also gave him a full bedding of straw and some timothy to keep him warm during the winter.

Anyway--I grabbed a handful of parsley and pulled on a coat and gloves, and headed up the hill. I walked up to him, as he was hopping around eating clover. I talked to him--as I do every day--and then just reached down and picked him up.

I carried him back to his hutch, and latched the door.



Later today, I took his regular food up to him. And there he sat, hunched in the corner of his very small hutch. He usually jumps around when he sees me coming. Not this time. He just sat there. And at the risk of anthropomorphizing him, I thought he looked depressed.

Sigh.

Such a brief taste of freedom. So enjoyed by one wee bunny.

7 comments:

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

Sigh... Wish I could take tht poor bunny home here. My daughter's bunny was such a wondeful house pet. We miss him. Buddy was litter box trained and had the run of the house. It's sad to think of such a tiny hutch. I doubt your neighbor bunny would have survived long outside.

Anvilcloud said...

Oh, I hate this kind of thing.

Ruth said...

We had a bunny (for too long) but it had a large outdoor,above ground hutch. It got lots of time out of the hutch but we could not leave it free in the house because it chewed every cord in sight. It also dug holes in the backyard. I guess it wasn't as smart as Lynne's bunny.

possumlady said...

Doesn't your local animal control have regulations for keeping animals outside? Regulations regarding animal abuse/neglect? So incredibly sad. I'm sure he is depressed. You know animals have emotions of fear, anger, happiness. Not a big leap (pun not intended) to depression for not being able to even move about except on a wire floor. How uncomfortable he must be. Dang, now I'll be thinking about this all day...

Nance said...

Awwww-uh! I'm relating! I'm smelling what he's stepping in!

KGMom said...

Christine--I don't know if our township has general guidelines for care of animals (other than dogs). Plus, I am on good terms with these neighbors. Occasionally, I point out to them--ever so gently--that I feed Hoppy quite a bit. They don't seem to mind.

Anonymous said...

Years ago we had a next door neighbor who got a bunny for his daughter, who soon tired of it. They took it out in the woods to dump it. Their daughter was fine, but ours was heartbroken--she said she'd have taken care of it.

Cages are rarely a good thing, are they.