Adventures with Star, Part Two

[Continued from last blog…]

I screamed Star’s name, crying. I thought I had lost her. But Star came running up to me with a gleam in her eye. It was as if she was telling me, “Thanks for letting me stay out all night! I finally have lived life!” Apparently rabbits are bouncy, and she was that morning. One of the things I learned about rabbits from my handbooks was that they are similar to cats by being nocturnal. That explained to me why Star was rather sluggish when I wanted to hold her during the day, and then all of a sudden would get perky as soon as night came. Although rabbits supposedly sleep during the day, I never once caught Star sleeping. One time I was even holding her while sitting on the couch. I fell asleep while holding her. She was very docile and still, but  when I woke up, her eyes were wide open. I didn’t understand when she slept. I had even tried sneaking up on her to catch her sleeping. It didn’t work. She always stared back at me saying, “Hi, I’m awake!”

Star was fairly clever for a rabbit. She knew my voice, and she knew when I was saying her name. After her night adventure in the backyard, I would “forget” her outside overnight often. Eventually, she just lived like a wild rabbit, free except for the boundaries of our backyard fence. But she even pushed those boundaries. Sometimes my little brothers would forget to close the gate, and Star would hide in the bushes plotting her escape. I couldn’t find her one day, so I nervously searched around my house in the back and front yards, desperately calling her name. I found her in my neighbor’s backyard. Apparently the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. She knew that she had done the wrong thing, because she ran away when she saw me.

The next time Star ran away, I searched all in my neighbor’s backyard, expecting to find her frolicking in the luscious grass she so envied from our yard. But she wasn’t there. I searched along the street calling to her. She knew my voice, so why wouldn’t she come out? I searched and searched frantically, and just as I was about to give up, my neighbor from two houses down the street came out of his house and asked if I was looking for a rabbit. “Yes!” I replied ecstatically. “Well, we have her. She likes cilantro a lot.” I thanked them for taking care of her and took her home. She had many adventures outside the fence thereafter.

A couple years ago, Star disappeared from the backyard on what I assumed to be one of her outings, ones she always eventually comes back from. After a few days from her being missing, I started looking around for her in our backyard. She wasn’t there, so I proceeded to search our front yard, and then the neighbors’ yards. I handmade several posters saying she was missing. After a while, I accepted that she was gone. My times with her were priceless, and I hope to have another rabbit some time again in my life.