Last Wednesday I had what my Humans condescendingly refer to as a “play” date. They put me into this very small housing unit (which was, unsurprisingly, very uncomfortable and stressful for me) and when I came out I was in a different world. It was strangely familiar, as if I’d been there before - some smells were the same as those I couldn’t quite remember. It was an odd feeling that I couldn’t shake - a sort of “deja vu” as they say - until I realized after some exploring that I was back in the bookstore from which they took me home.

It was so exciting! I explored the entire thing, now much smaller than it was when I was a child. Sure, it was still large with long, open spaces to run through, but the things that were once so tall I couldn’t even reach them are now too short and uninteresting to me.

It was soon after I started exploring the entire bookstore that I realized there was another in the area. I say that as if he were an alien, I know, but it was a completely new experience to me. I don’t remember meeting others of my kind in my lifetime, though I’m sure I must have been born of another rabbit, and presumably had numerous brothers and sisters. I was just too young before I was brought to this home. (I’m not going to go all activist on you; I love this place, even if at times I feel a bit small in my cage and wish I could get into things that my Humans won’t allow.)

In any case, this was a young rabbit, probably just a month younger than I am now but still very small. He said his name was Buttons and he didn’t seem to understand at first that I was clearly the dominant rabbit in the room. A smaller Girl Human followed him around and seemed surprised when I removed a tuft of Buttons’ fur. Humans amaze me; they don’t have proper dominance rituals. All of them are afraid of everything, even creatures smaller than them; this Buttons character couldn’t have hurt her if he tried and yet she shrank away from him with small (frightening) shrieks whenever he did anything unexpected.

Once we got over all that and I proved I could totally beat him up if he provoked me, we got along pretty well. He wasn’t really into exploring the store; he was much more into getting to know my Humans and exploring the tiny housing unit that they carried me in. When I discovered that he had done this, I was pretty upset and frantically spent the next twenty minutes reclaiming everything that was mine, in addition to claiming everything that was his just to show him that I was still the dominant bunny; it was just a reminder, I suppose, that I earned my stature and I could do it again if necessary.

I had to show him a few times who was boss. I attributed this to his age; he clearly had no idea what was going on and continually challenged me. We would be fine for a while. I chinned my water bowl - which by the way was a new experience for me, and I loved bending over my fluids rather than suckling them out from the strange bottle that hangs from my cage - so he knew it was mine, but he still came over sniffing, perhaps hoping for a sip or two. He’d consantly go back to my tiny house thing and crawl inside, outside, on top, and I had to keep reclaiming it hoping he’d get the idea. Eventually I just roughed him up a bit (again) and tried to tell him that he couldn’t just do whatever he wanted there. Perhaps his humans let him reign free at home, but he needed to adhere to structure and rules while he was around another bunny.

When we came to an understanding, finally, after he was done creating unnecessary conflict, we were able to play nicely. I raced him down the long aisles and let him think he was winning, though I know (and my Humans pointed out) I could have outrun him if I felt like it. I didn’t deem it necessary to be so rude, however. He knew that if it came to survival I’d outrun him in a jiffy, but I gathered that he didn’t get a lot of time running around and playing with his humans. It is important for a bunny to have social time and an area to run around, hop, jump and play. My humans give me ample time, no matter how much I might complain to them, but this bunny was too afraid to even leave his cage at first. I needed to show him it was okay to go exploring when the opportunity presents itself.

So we ran around the bookstore; I even gave him a little bit of a tour. He really liked the children’s section more than any of the others, however, and spent most of his time there. Evetually, sadly, it was time to go, and I’ll miss that confident (but innocent) little bugger. It has made me generally more aware of the existence of other bunnies, so here I sit almost a week later wondering where they all are. I’m not lonely, but it certainly was refreshing to be able to play with another of my kind rather than these huge clumsy humans who are prone to tripping over me when I try to run with them.

Of course I love my people, but I’ve taken much of the last week looking out the window (which they leave open for me now during the day while they’re gone) hoping to catch a glimpse of another furball. Even if he’s younger than me, like Buttons was, it’d be nice to connect. Surely there can’t be just two bunnies left in this world, can there? My humans are always popping in and out of message boards and websites helping them with bunny things so they can better understand me and keep me happy. I just hope some day they’ll think about bringing another bunny home with them. (Not Buttons, though. I would need somebunny much smarter than that.)

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 12:33 pm and is filed under Bunny Bits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.