Introducing My Guest Blogger

Something a little different for this week.

I have a special little guest blogger who has written for me, my daughter Lily.

Lily is 9 years old and has expressed an interest in having a blog.

Like many children her age, she is very interested in young bloggers and vloggers – of which there are many.

Naturally she wants to have a go herself.

I suggested that she be my guest blogger and then we could go from there.

She knew what she wanted to write about and I left her to it.

She has written about her new rabbit, Willow.

As you may know, I am scared of animals so these have been exciting times in our little household.

I thought it would be a good idea for her to see how the whole thing comes together and she sat with me to ‘publish’ the post, so to speak.

As a parent, internet safety is key here but I think it is also important not to stifle a willingness to learn.

We have talked about staying safe online and she understands why this is important and how to stay safe.

Like all children, Lily is very adept at working her way around computer systems and negotiating technology with ease.

As a parent, it can be very difficult to get the right balance here.

I’m not going to prevent her from writing and being creative but what I can do is make sure it is done in a controlled environment.

She has written a fabulous piece below.

Nicky x

My Rabbit, Willow is a fun and friendly animal!  I play with her every day and enjoy every minute of it!  We’ve had her for nearly 3 weeks now, which is not a long time but I have already bonded with her lots and she has bonded with me as well.  She has her own cardboard castle which I am currently building as Rabbits love to play and chew cardboard!  On Thursday she ran so fast she was pushed up into the air and landed on the floor, as you might know mum does not like animals and did not want to get Willow in the first place, but as soon as I called her “mum she has jumped out the cage” she ran to Willows safety picked her up and put her in her cage (which is a big achievement!) Now you might think why didn’t I do it, well the reason was I was so in shock. Being a single child with no pet is sometimes boring, but now I have willow she has made it never boring and I can now say I have a pet!

 

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