Thursday, May 24, 2007

Oh, the tears . . .




I don't know what I'm going to do with this child. He gets so emotionally attached to critters. Tonight a neighborhood buddy came to play, then they scurried off to his house. While at the friend's house, the friend showed him his baby bunny. They found it in their yard while they were mowing. The dad almost ran over it with his lawn mower. His eyes were still shut, he was so tiny. This baby bunny has been living in the friend's back yard ever since. The friend has been feeding it lettuce and carrots.

The thing is that this family can't keep the bunny. They are gardeners. They have a huge garden and the dad is afraid the bunny will eat the garden.

So they ran to ME because they thought I'd be sympathetic. I am, but ...

Thomas wants to keep the bunny. He's afraid it will die if he doesn't. He wants to build a cage, feed it, love it and take care of it. Well, Bob said NO. No, no, no, no, no.

Thomas and his buddy took the bunny back and Thomas came in for the evening. He begged, pleaded, even took me aside and asked if he could build a secret cage and hide it. He was a little shocked when I came unglued about that. I won't have dishonesty, albeit for a good cause.

Thomas cried and cried. When will he get over this crying stage?

So we tried to switch gears. What could we do for the bunny. We are clueless. We know one family that used to raise rabbits but quit because it was a pain. Tomorrow we'll brainstorm some more.

If Thomas had asked me, I would have said sure, we'll build a cage. I was a little disappointed in Bob's immediate no. Thomas is right, the cute little critter will probably not make it. We have cats that roam the neighborhood, we have neighbors that kill the bunnies.

Sigh.

What to do!

I know where Thomas gets his emotional behavior regarding animals from: ME! One time I fostered two kittens from our animal shelter. When we took them back, one was adopted immediately. I couldn't stand it. I adopted the other.

There are so many things in this life to worry about. Thomas and I will be worried about the little bunny.

Sigh.

1 comment:

Dru said...

Baby critters are so hard to resist.
Don't feed it iceberg lettuce - choose a leafy green lettuce instead, like romaine. Iceberg will kill it. (It's just empty cellulose that they can't digest, it fills up their tummies and they die.)

My mom found a teeny painted turtle at work on the naval base Friday. She's in love - even came over to my house to get a tank and UV heat lamp for the thing. I do have to admit, it's adorable. The prettiest emerald green with yellow swirls. Curious little thing, too. Its shell is not even 2" across.