Early Days

It's time for more about the early days before I came to live here. The story is quite sad but has a happy ending. This is Willow.

Changes to my life began about two years ago around New Year. As I said in I Knew I Was Special, I was living with Joanne, Simon, Willow the dog and Summer the blue cat. Suddenly I didn't see so much of Joanne and I spent more time on my own. Don't misunderstand me, I was very fond of my garden house and was well cared for but I missed my long play times with the family. It wasn't long before I heard snatches of conversation and words I did not understand. I knew carrot and no, Harvey and bedtime but not these new ones. Cancer and operation were strange sounds to me and my Joanne cried a lot. She was only thirty eight years old at the time, I was four so in rabbit years we were pretty much the same age.

The other thing that happened about the same time was an addition to their family, another Hungarian Vizsla. A puppy. What bad timing. She was absolutely manic and tried to catch me and toss me about. Willow had no influence on her at all neither did Joanne nor Simon.

Poor old Summer had her own problems. Her food bowl was always empty. Things looked very bad for my freedom but then my life took an unexpected turn and I was taken to live with the family's older generation. I had always spent my holidays with them as the only pet in the house so nothing was strange or scary. I knew all the best places to sit and where the softest patches of soil were in the garden so I could make a good scrape to doze in. My litter tray and food bowl were in the same place and there was a great smelling cardboard box which used to hold vegetables given to me to use as a basket. From that moment I became a full time house bunny and as you have already heard, a very important one at that.

Joanne is fine now and comes to see me very often as she lives nearby. She is going to run the Edinburgh marathon on Saturday to raise money for breast cancer research wearing a fancy decorated bra on top of her other running clothes. I hope I don't have to see that.

And our life changed! Harve took to the house like a duck to water. We began by having his hutch indoors thinking he would need the familiar. Wrong! He sticks to us like glue on a shoe and we were assimilated into his life on his terms. Having always kept cats we have been bowled over by his uninhibited show of affection, companionship and confidence. Who would have thought so much love could be given by such a tiny scrap of fur.