Friday, July 23, 2004
TALES ABOUT THUMPER
Thumper was quite the bunny. We all fell in love with him. How could you not like a beautiful white rabbit with pink nose, ears and eyes? He was still pretty young so we were instructed to feed him with a doll’s baby bottle. We handled that by borrowing one from Becky’s dolls. John would hold him like a baby and feed him the bottle…he was a smart little booger and learned real quick.
When we went to the feed store to get whatever we needed for him to eat we were told to buy some pellets, I think they were alfalfa or something, I’ve forgotten. Anyway, they were small and green, Thumper loved them. He also loved his water after he grew away from the bottle feeding. The man at the feed store told us not to pick grass and clover to put in his cage because there were all kinds of bad stuff in it. We followed his instructions faithfully.
Well, Thumper wasn’t our only pet. We had Oakie whom I rescued from a mean household I sold Avon to several years before and a stray cat named Shadow. Oakie being half beagle and half cocker had a real taste for rabbits and Thumper looked like dinner on a platter.
She would eye Thumper and the look in her eye was undeniable. Given time alone with the rabbit and he would be history. In the summer we put Thumper’s hutch out in the back yard. He was pretty contented but we felt sorry for him and would let him out once in a while. Of course we had to keep Oakie in tow but for the most part it went well. Our back yard was fenced in and Thumper would hop around here and there while we watched him. It put Oakie’s nerves on high alert but with a little nudging from us she contained her desire to chase him.
Thumper began digging under his hutch one day and every time we let him out he would dig a little deeper…go in the hole and enjoy the coolness he found there. I’m not talking about a little hole, this was a long deep hole. Of course the inevitable happened. One evening we were distracted when it was time to go in and since he was out of sight in his hole….we forgot him.
Morning came and our routine was moving along when I happened to look at the hutch from the window at the kitchen sink….the cage was….EMPTY !! I yelled at the kids to come look for him and to our relief he hopped out from some bushes and joined us unceremoniously. When we put him back in his hutch we couldn’t believe our eyes. The huge hole he had dug under his home on stilts was completely filled. The dirt was all packed in and he never dug another hole. We figured he didn’t want a repeat of being left out all night again.
One time we were in the back yard and Thumper was enjoying his time on the ground. John was playing and I was working in my flowers. All of a sudden John was running and yelling and acting half crazy…he bounded over the chain-link fence screaming and it was then I saw the neighbor’s dog (a Weimaraner) with Thumper in his mouth. Thumper had crawled under the fence into their yard and the dog was waiting. John was flailing his arms and yelling at the dog simultaneously and the dog was young enough it scared him and he spit Thumper out of his mouth. Thumper scampered directly to the place under the fence he had crawled under and escaped. After it was all over we found the humor in it but John saved the day for Thumper…no joke about it.
The first winter we had Thumper I went to the garage for something in the freezer. John had been messing around out there and when I went by Thumper’s hutch he had some little tiny black marks on one side of his face and his whiskers were gone. I stopped to contemplate for a moment and then went on and forgot it. A very long time after that John told me he had held a match to the end of one of his whiskers and it burned all the way down to his cheek like a fuse and went out. It was kind of neat so he continued until they were completely gone on that side of his face. By that time common sense took over and he made himself scarce for fear I would see it and figure out what happened. He wrote his version in one of his earlier blogs and it’s a hoot. Kids !! Go figure.
John had Thumper for a long time and finally gave him to a boy up the street. He told me his friend fed him peanut butter after finding out how much Thumper loved it. Some time later when John saw him and asked how Thumper was, he told him he found him dead in his cage one morning. I’m quite sure his favorite snack did him in. Come to think of it, that’s what killed mom’s parakeet she loved so well… dead in his cage one morning from an overdose of peanut butter. Now you would have to think it wise to stay away from peanut butter or at least not feed it to your pets.
One last thing about Thumper. When we opened his door to put fresh feed and water in he would jump over to your hand and dig real fast with his front feet. It scratched like crazy and hurt. Someone told me to put one hand over his head when I made the refills and he would be quite docile until I removed my hand again. It worked. Old Thumper was quite a rabbit and we loved him dearly….hopefully he’s hopping down the big bunny trail in the sky and having the time of his life. He certainly added to ours………
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
When we went to the feed store to get whatever we needed for him to eat we were told to buy some pellets, I think they were alfalfa or something, I’ve forgotten. Anyway, they were small and green, Thumper loved them. He also loved his water after he grew away from the bottle feeding. The man at the feed store told us not to pick grass and clover to put in his cage because there were all kinds of bad stuff in it. We followed his instructions faithfully.
Well, Thumper wasn’t our only pet. We had Oakie whom I rescued from a mean household I sold Avon to several years before and a stray cat named Shadow. Oakie being half beagle and half cocker had a real taste for rabbits and Thumper looked like dinner on a platter.
She would eye Thumper and the look in her eye was undeniable. Given time alone with the rabbit and he would be history. In the summer we put Thumper’s hutch out in the back yard. He was pretty contented but we felt sorry for him and would let him out once in a while. Of course we had to keep Oakie in tow but for the most part it went well. Our back yard was fenced in and Thumper would hop around here and there while we watched him. It put Oakie’s nerves on high alert but with a little nudging from us she contained her desire to chase him.
Thumper began digging under his hutch one day and every time we let him out he would dig a little deeper…go in the hole and enjoy the coolness he found there. I’m not talking about a little hole, this was a long deep hole. Of course the inevitable happened. One evening we were distracted when it was time to go in and since he was out of sight in his hole….we forgot him.
Morning came and our routine was moving along when I happened to look at the hutch from the window at the kitchen sink….the cage was….EMPTY !! I yelled at the kids to come look for him and to our relief he hopped out from some bushes and joined us unceremoniously. When we put him back in his hutch we couldn’t believe our eyes. The huge hole he had dug under his home on stilts was completely filled. The dirt was all packed in and he never dug another hole. We figured he didn’t want a repeat of being left out all night again.
One time we were in the back yard and Thumper was enjoying his time on the ground. John was playing and I was working in my flowers. All of a sudden John was running and yelling and acting half crazy…he bounded over the chain-link fence screaming and it was then I saw the neighbor’s dog (a Weimaraner) with Thumper in his mouth. Thumper had crawled under the fence into their yard and the dog was waiting. John was flailing his arms and yelling at the dog simultaneously and the dog was young enough it scared him and he spit Thumper out of his mouth. Thumper scampered directly to the place under the fence he had crawled under and escaped. After it was all over we found the humor in it but John saved the day for Thumper…no joke about it.
The first winter we had Thumper I went to the garage for something in the freezer. John had been messing around out there and when I went by Thumper’s hutch he had some little tiny black marks on one side of his face and his whiskers were gone. I stopped to contemplate for a moment and then went on and forgot it. A very long time after that John told me he had held a match to the end of one of his whiskers and it burned all the way down to his cheek like a fuse and went out. It was kind of neat so he continued until they were completely gone on that side of his face. By that time common sense took over and he made himself scarce for fear I would see it and figure out what happened. He wrote his version in one of his earlier blogs and it’s a hoot. Kids !! Go figure.
John had Thumper for a long time and finally gave him to a boy up the street. He told me his friend fed him peanut butter after finding out how much Thumper loved it. Some time later when John saw him and asked how Thumper was, he told him he found him dead in his cage one morning. I’m quite sure his favorite snack did him in. Come to think of it, that’s what killed mom’s parakeet she loved so well… dead in his cage one morning from an overdose of peanut butter. Now you would have to think it wise to stay away from peanut butter or at least not feed it to your pets.
One last thing about Thumper. When we opened his door to put fresh feed and water in he would jump over to your hand and dig real fast with his front feet. It scratched like crazy and hurt. Someone told me to put one hand over his head when I made the refills and he would be quite docile until I removed my hand again. It worked. Old Thumper was quite a rabbit and we loved him dearly….hopefully he’s hopping down the big bunny trail in the sky and having the time of his life. He certainly added to ours………
Until tomorrow,
Essentially Esther
