Sunday, April 21, 2013

Harmony With Yoga and Rabbits

In my neverending quest to find inner peace, I've returned to the hatha yoga practice I abandoned--God knows why--twelve years ago. Last night I rediscovered the challenges of doing yoga practice with two eager bunnies who wish to investigate the strange postures their mama is twisting herself into every night. Benjamin in particular has a serious foot fetish;  he does not care whether I do downward facing dog or bridge pose, as long as he has total access to my toes, which he inexplicably loves to lick (best to my knowledge, there is no carrot juice in my nail polish).  Cinnamon was very concerned as I lay stretched out in corpse pose (more pleasantly known as savasana) at the end of last night's session.  She leapt onto my belly and sniffed at my face, as if to make sure I was still breathing. Ah what a journey my rabbits and I have embarked on! Namaste, bunnies and readers.

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Rest in peace, my beloved boy


Ghirardelli, my "George Clooney"
 We met at a local shelter in 2005.  He kept tugging on my sleeve (and therefore, my heart).  A week later he was in our home, despite our vows to keep our rabbit family limited to four.  My ex-husband (still husband at the time) built him a cube cage because we knew eventually we would find him a mate.

Ghirardelli was a bunny who never learned the meaning of the word crepuscular. He loved to play at midnight and keep us up late, which only expedited our search for a mate to keep him occupied.  His first bunwife was a bunny from Jersey named Polly, a hardheaded but softhearted lop who came from a rescue situation in which she had to defend herself against 30 or so other rabbits. With assistance from Susan Wong at Friends of Rabbits, Ghiri and Polly eventually bonded and became a wonderful loving bunny couple. When Polly died in 2008, we knew we had to find him another mate soon. Willow, our one-eyed, one-eared lop, became bunwife number 2. They lived a happy life together, and I missed them terribly after my husband and I separated and eventually divorced.  I could not bear to remove them from the home they knew (they lived in huge cube cage we nicknamed Thump Tower). Today a selfish part of me wishes so much that I had brought them with me, along with Cinnamon. But I knew, since I had to find a new mate for my widowed bunny Cinnamon, that four rabbits was beyond what I could afford or have room for in my new condo.

At the time of his death, Ghirardelli was living in Florida with my ex and his mate, Willow.  He had stopped eating, apparently, and they found him gone one day when they came home. Binky free, my sweet handsome boy, or as I used to call you, my George Clooney. You are with Polly now, and I have no doubt you are raising hell at the Bridge as you were both wont to do in life.  I will carry you in my heart forever. Love, your forever bunny mom, Paulette.