This past Mother’s Day was fabulous in many ways. I had both my daughters with me for the first time in years, I got breakfast in bed by the girls for the first time in 19 years, and I got a ton of presents which included a necklace from my husband and from the girls an Outlander throw blanket with Jamie Fraser on it, a Christmas Vacation board game (we are going to play this tonight!), a new toaster oven, a new blender (gearing up for frozen delights this summer), and a bunny!

Hoppy Mother’s Day!

Everything was a surprise with the exception of the bunny, but he was still a big part of the Mother’s Day celebration. The best friend of my older daughter had told her of a bunny who needed rescue from a household that took in rescues and was overflowing with animals. I was on the fence about taking it until she told me the bunny’s cage had a rescued snake on top of it. Somehow that visual won me over and I agreed to once again own a bunny.

Bunny Salad

A very curious bunny

Our first big decision was what to name the new rabbit. We wanted something literary (our previous bunnies had had cute names rather than substantive) and the list contained Hazel from Watership Down, Puck from Midsummer Night’s Dream, Petruchio from Taming of the Shrew, Earnest and Algernon from The Importance of Being Earnest, Peter from Peter Rabbit, Bugs from Bugs Bunny, and Roger from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? All had merit, and we nearly went with Algernon, or Algie for short, but it just didn’t sound right. The new bunny was gray and my youngest daughter suddenly suggested Earl Grey and that just clicked. Not exactly literary, but classy all the same. And of course, I love Earl Grey tea, so it was a perfect fit. I now call him Little Grey (a nod to a character on Gray’s Anatomy) and so once again I am feeding Bunny Salads twice a day, petting and watching a bunny in the bathroom, and generally enjoying a rather unique pet.

Dining al fresco

I’ll keep you updated on Earl Grey, who is quite a curious bunny, nosing all about. He’s always jumping around, carrying a cardboard toilet paper roll in his teeth as he runs and jumps on top of his hutch. He went Monday to our bunny vet, Dr. Bonnie Brown at Jolly Pond Veterinary Hospital where he was neutered and got his claws clipped. Dr. Brown said he is about 1-2 years old, in good health, and what is called a Lilac rabbit, named for the color of the coat. The breed is also called Essex Lavender and Cambridge Blue.

As I said, we have had bunnies before, both rescues. The first was just after we arrived in our new home in 2002. On Easter Sunday outside the church we attended, we found a big brown bunny just eating grass behind some boxwoods. He wasn’t wild, obviously a domesticated rabbit who had found a way out of his cage and wandered away. So we caught him and took him home, naming him Hoppy Love. Unfortunately, Hoppy Love loved to chew on electric cords and soon we were without a bunny.

Cuddles Blue, our 2nd bunny

But I had really enjoyed having a bunny in the house, so I contacted Tidewater Rabbit Rescue and adopted a dwarf chinchilla bunny we named Cuddles Blue (for the bluish tinge of his fur). He was a very sweet bunny who loved getting a slice of banana each day and who had his own bunny condo and yard set up in our master bathroom. Having learned about the dangers of letting a rabbit roam free, we didn’t allow Cuddles to do that except with strict supervision. As a result he lived happily with us for 11 years (maximum age for bunnies is usually 12 and he was a year old when we got him).

Now there is once again a bunny in the bathroom, who enjoys the freedom of a large run and who is visited many times each day by both the humans and the other pets in the house (3 cats and a cocker spaniel who thinks the bunny is his).

As I enter retirement, Little Grey promises to be a great companion to distract and entertain me while I write. Perhaps I can find a way to put a bunny in one of my books!