Dear Friends of House Rabbit Society,

Welcome to our second edition of the Rabbit Stories
newsletter. This is a new feature that will be sent to
the HRS-Announce list approximately once a month. Please
send any comments, questions, suggestions, or stories
about your own rabbits to me at laura@....

Laura L. Barnes
Rabbit Stories editor

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Rabbit Stories #2: 22 February 2006
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A Bunny In The Bag : A True Story
Author: Paige Caves
Member, Australian Companion Rabbit Society
Story Editor: Laura L. Barnes, laura@...


Once upon a time there was the very cutest little bunny
named Willow. His very favourite thing in the whole wide
world, apart from eating of course, was to play with paper
bags. He would run around in circles, do a hop, skip, and
a jump with utter excitement, as soon as he saw that his
human had a paper bag for him to play with!

When Willow's human came home from shopping, he would say
hopefully to "EyeBrow," his fat little guinea pig friend,
"I think that my human may have a paper bag for me today!"
Then he would stand tall on his hind legs, stretching as far
as he could, to see if indeed she had any paper bags for
him to play with.

On most days she didn't bring any home because the stores
in their country of Australia only ever seemed to use those
horrible yucky plastic bags! Willow hated those bags, as
they were far too slippery, too cold and they made a horrible
noise when you stepped on them. He also knew that they would be
very dangerous if he were to chew on them, not safe like good
old paper bags.

On those rotten days when there weren't any paper bags
after a shopping trip, he would be very sad and just flop
down on his bed sulking, looking oh, so depressed. EyeBrow
would try to cheer him up in her own funny sort of way,
obviously she could only speak squeekaneeze, (That's the only
language guinea pigs speak of course, but rabbits easily
understand, because rabbits are so clever. They are
multi-lingual creatures you know.)

She would say, "Look here Willow, my large floppy eared chap,
I honestly don't see what all the fuss is about, really! I
admit that paper bags are quite nice to hide in, or maybe
take a little nap in occasionally, but that's about all!
Frankly, I think they are quite over rated myself!"

But on this one particular day Willow was feeling so very
fed up, because he hadn't even had a SNIFF of a paper bag
in weeks. He felt so very annoyed with EyeBrow, even though
he knew she was only trying to help.

With a mixture of consternation and impatience on his face,
Willow sighed and said "But EyeBrow, you are JUST a guinea pig,
what could you possibly KNOW about a rabbit and his bags?
We are very philosophical creatures you know and you MUST
understand just how important these issues are to all us
rabbits! After all, every creature on earth has an inner
child, which needs to be looked after, nurtured, that needs
to explore and play!"

EyeBrow replied curtly, "Well! I may look stupid, but I'm
not, you know. Just give me food and lots of it and I'm
happy!"

"What a shallow life you guinea pigs must lead, that's all
I can say!" Willow replied. He thought for a second and then
went on to say "and ... it's YOUR life's ambition and dream
... and may I add, all you care to talk about, is to be
trapped inside a huge box of Coco Pops, so you can eat
your way out! REALLY! What an ambition!"

With that, EyeBrow walked (well, more like wiggled) off in
total disgust, squeaking something under her breath. They
weren't feeling very friendly toward each other right at
that very moment. That was O.K. because friends make mistakes
sometimes, don't they?

Just a few seconds after that whole little episode, before
Willow even had time to think about how he had offended his
poor little friend, Willow's human (called Paige) came over
to him. She gave him a gentle kiss on the nose and said,
"What's the matter with you then, you Wascally Wabbit?"
(Such a silly name, but his human insisted on calling him
that for some reason only known to herself. Humans obviously
aren't very intellectual creatures, not like rabbits!)

Willow looked up at his human with huge soft brown eyes.
She said to him gently, "I have a surprise for you,
Willie Willow!"

Willow hopped up, ears half cocked, hardly daring to
believe that she may have, a ...no, it couldn't possibly be,
could it?...Not a paper bag?... Just for him!

Up he hopped, following his human to the pantry cupboard.
When she opened the door, lo and behold the most beautiful
sight greeted his eyes. His eyes opened wider and wider in
sheer wonderment. There was the hugest, biggest, loveliest
brown paper bag that he had EVER seen! It EVEN had twisted
paper handles, his VERY favourite sort of paper bag! He
hopped, skipped, danced for joy and did skids around the
carpet. He hardly could wait for his human to get it out
for him to play with!

He jumped up and down and danced his bunny dance, around in
circles! When he finally got to the bag, he excitedly rushed
inside, he sniffed. A long deep sniff of...mmmmmmmm,
PAPER BAG! He rummaged around, quickly checking out every
corner. He tried to head butt the other end, to see if he
could break through it, without chewing. That was always
a good sign of the best quality bags, didn't you know?
And this was the best. He was in bunny heaven!

He rummaged for simply ages, exploring every nook and
cranny, inside and out. He carefully chewed off one side
of each of the paper handles, savouring each and every
little nibble with total delight. He was saving the other
side of the handles as a little treat for later; he certainly
held some restraint, did this rabbit! Oh, how he just loved
his paper bags, especially this one!

Then began the serious task of tearing, ripping and
shredding, he was in his element, his sadness long gone
by now, he was having such a splendiferous time! He had
quite forgotten the squabble that he had with poor old
EyeBrow, just a little time earlier.

After some while though, Willow began to feel just a little
bit sleepy, after all, wouldn't you, if you exerted so
much energy into such a serious business? What with all
that rough and tumble beforehand, all that tearing and
ripping, it's bound to catch up with one sooner or later,
isn't it?

His shiny new paper bag looked a little the worse for wear
by now, but was still heavenly to him. He began to snuggle
and nuzzle inside it for a little rest and maybe to dream
dreams. Dreams of living in that perfect place, a place
where paper bags grew and where large fresh dandelions
sprang from the tops of the paper bags as handles.

As he lay there thinking about such a very place, his
thoughts soon turned to his dear little friend EyeBrow.
He did feel a little ashamed of himself, he admitted,
for being so mean to her. He really didn't need to speak
to her in such a way. He then decided and made it firm
in his mind, that as soon as he woke up from this nap, he
would go straight over and apologize to her. Maybe he
would even take her a dandelion or two, she loved them
as much as he. After all she couldn't really help being
just a guinea pig, how could she possibly understand
such personal RABBIT matters? As he pondered this
question, he realized that he still loved his fat
little guinea pig friend very much and was very glad
of her friendship!

He breathed out a huge sigh and if you look VERY carefully
at the last picture, you can just about see how very thoughtful
he really was. After all, Willow is such a NICE rabbit,
of that there is no doubt!

For pictures of Willow enjoying his paper bag, see:

http://ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/hrs-announce/photos/browse/32b3