What’s In The Box?

Who would ever have thought it?

We’ve only gone and done it!

I never thought the day would come that we, as a family, would become pet owners.

Part of the reason for this demise is that I am very afraid of animals.

However, needs must and The Kid has wanted a pet for some time.

Iron Man and I totally understand that.

My parents were never animal fans and as children we were also desperate to have pets.  More on this later.

Christmas was the turning point.   The Kid asked for a Rabbit.

We explained that it wasn’t just the Rabbit and that she needed to think of everything else that went with it.

She was happy that most of her gift from everyone would be a contribution towards the Rabbit and its Estate.

She even wrote to Father Christmas and said she didn’t want very much as she wanted to concentrate on the Rabbit.

Love her.

And so on the 9th January 2016, we welcomed the arrival of this little cutie.

Meet Willow.

Life as we know it will never be quite the same.

This week has been taken up with googling things like :

‘How do you get a rabbit to drink from a water bottle’?

‘Can you use Andrex Wipes on a rabbit’?

‘How do you cut a rabbits toes nails’?

There have been regular morning trips to the shed with Iron Man in his suit carrying The Kid to make sure Willow is OK.

Willow probably thought she was going to a wedding when the suit came out!

There are regular evening sessions of rabbit bonding.

There has been a complete play centre constructed of cardboard boxes.  This is known as ‘Willow’s Play Mayhem’.

I returned home from work one evening to find Willow’s head bobbing up through holes in the boxes ‘Whack-a-Rat’ style.

I have survived.

I have overheard the following comment in the house :

‘Give her some space Daddy’

I have found myself actively involved in congratulating Willow on using the litter tray.

I enjoyed reading the following :

Rabbits mostly sleep during the day. They often sleep with their eyes open so its hard to tell when they are sleeping. However a giveaway is that when they are sleeping rabbits often twitch, and their noses stop wiggling. Other rabbits will close their eyes and totally flake out, looking like they are dead.

Is there hope for me?

Will my cold heart turn to mush?

I should probably point out at this stage that this is not a first for me and that we did have a Rabbit in my family home after putting much pressure on our parents. It became a very, very large Rabbit and quite feisty.  So much so that all the ladies in the house were terrified of it.

It would regularly escape from its cage and we had to get the old lady next door to rescue it.  She was quite a dab hand at Rabbit handling it turned out.  Between her and my dad, there was generally some kind of a chase going on (generally them running away!).

I hope to do better this time.

What do we think then readers?

Will my inner Rabbit Whisperer finally be exposed or will I always be the photographer.

Too early to tell.

Nicky x