Okay, ever since I was a little kid I was concerned about the
environment. It was the day and age of the dawning of the awareness of
taking care of our planet and the messages were everywhere. Even in the
suburbs, I can remember my dad burning trash in a metal barrel in the
backyard. They weren't the only ones that did it, everyone did in the
neighborhood-it was a common practice. I was real small then and didn't
have a full awareness of why, it's more like it just "was". At some
point I recall my dad mentioning the big word "pollution" and that
trash burning became "against the law" (in my young head I imagined the
police hauling my dad off to jail for burning trash in the backyard).
I
also remember (perhaps it was on Earth Day) in the early 1970s helping
my older teen cousins, who were probably about 4-6 years older than me
(their parents forced me on them when I was a guest at their house for
a few nights), clean up around and in a stream in their community. I
was thrilled! It was like what we were learning about in school and like the
public service messages and news on television. I was too young to have
done something like that with the young adults on my own, but it gave
me an opportunity to be like the "hippies" and "students" I always
heard about cleaning up areas in the environment. On TV, I heard about
fish coming back to rivers that were once polluted with trash and
chemicals. Oh how I long for television with more positive messages
like that.
Now, what does all this have to do with my
rabbits? I am sure you are asking that by now. Well, I loved Richard
Nixon telling us to conserve oil and gas, etc. (although I didn't
understand the politics about it at the time). I always took part in
campaigns to help the environment through my years, but it was my
rabbits that taught me so much more and almost the zen of the
interconnectedness of it all! I have had other pets over the years, but
the rabbits taught me how it all works.
First
part focused on that these little animals were prey animals and that
their whole psychological make up was different than mine, dogs or
cats. Rabbits are on almost every animal's food chain. They are given
those special ears, fast hopping legs and eyes on the sides of their
head for a reason. It all helps them get away from their enemies. It is
also why they have so many babies, it is a method of making sure their
species survives.
It's
a compliment when you earn a rabbit's trust. Rabbits are very social
and the relationship is very mutually rewarding, but it all has to be
earned and the rabbit is the boss. Rabbits teach us to be slow, patient
and to pay attention to the subtleties of their behavior and
environment around them. It's part of the zen they teach us. Their
vulnerability as being a prey animal also helps us become protective of
them.
Then as
we learn about their diet and feeding them, we learn about chemicals,
pesticides, and all that may come to harm them. They are herbivores-
vegetarian! I'm the one on the block that goes out in my backyard ( I
avoid the front yard because of the fumes from cars on our highly
trafficked street near the center of town. I don't want my rabbits
ingesting that residue) and encourages the dandelions to grow! I
harvest them too, before the lawn is mowed. I've had rabbits longer
than I've had my own lawn and knew they would be sharing that lawn and
yard with me. I have never used chemicals on it.
 |
| As you can see, they get to munch on some long grass! |
When
they are outside in the pen with my supervision, they fertilize my lawn
as well as eat at the all-you-can-eat salad bar consisting of the weeds
(what most men consider trash is a bun's treasure!) and grass out
there. Those bunnies have created some highly sought after fertilizer.
One thing I learned is that because they are vegetarian and the way
their specific digestive system works, their manure can be used
straight from the rabbit to the garden. No time to let it season is
required! Most other animals have certain bacterias (such as e.coli)
and other things in their manure that would make it unhealthy either for the garden or for us unless it's seasoned over time. There are so many subtleties that the long earred ones make me pay attention to.
At
first learning all these things might make some things seem
nerve-wracking, but every time I learn something from these buns, it
makes me feel closer to the earth, nature, the buns and myself. Having
grown gardens for them and myself has taught me about the cycles of the
earth. Composting and using their "bunny berries" in the garden has
shown me how the old and used becomes the new and nurturing. It even
shows the reason for mold, certain bacterias and insects (such as
houseflies). In their own way, without describing the process (I'm
getting long here as it is), these things that annoy us help break down
the old veggie cuttings and the like into soil full of nutrients! I
still hate mold, certain bacteria and houseflies but I know why they
are here. (As an aside, to annoy you more about flies, did you know
that they are part of the pollenization process to everyone's favorite weed to hate- poison ivy?).
Even
animals & birds help mother nature spread the wealth with keeping
the growth of plants on earth. They might eat seeds or get them stuck
in their fur and then inadvertently drop them in their travels. The
seeds they eat, when coming out the other end then may come out with
their own fertilizer attached. It's all part of the cycles. The bees
pollinate, as well as the wind. Very interesting. Many of us have
lost touch with the original meaning of the birds and the bees- but
that's what it's about. The bunnies, the birds and the bees.
When
we put toxic things on our earth, in its other inhabitants and in
ourselves, we hurt a part of the earth. The bunnies have taught me
about all different things. Ideas of weeds (weeds and their roots often
grow more where the soil is bad and help keep the soil together instead
of being loose to be blown or washed away by erosion) and some things
being bad and chemicals (fertilizers, pesticides, additives to food and
most other aspects of our lives), as well as processing/altering things
(food-removing and breaking down the healthy parts of food, GMO foods,
etc.)being considered good all changes when you have rabbits and really get to know them.
I
could write a lot about all this, but I think it would be too much.
I've written a lot already. We need to take care of our Mother Earth!
She's where all our quality of life comes from. What we put in is what
we get out. I think I might start adding topics to this blog that
address this as part of a commitment to help with living better in
harmony with this world. Every time I look up stuff or research more,
it will not only help me to keep my commitment but may help others too.
We are all in this together.
Please share all your thoughts and ideas on this. My bunnies have helped me want to protect and preserve our earth more, for it's better for them.
If you have bunnies, how have they affected your thinking about life? Have they changed the way you think??? I often think of them as a special gift from God to be cherished for all they have taught me.
Rabbit Slippers has a new e-mail address rabbitslippersblog@gmail.com
if you want to e-mail any ideas, suggestions, comments, concerns or
share anything.
Please follow Rabbit Slippers Blog on
Twitter, too, @RabbitSlipprs .
You can also sign up by e-mail notices at the top right of the page.
(Your privacy is important to Rabbit Slippers).
You can also follow through Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs,
both located in the right side bar.
Check
out the new Etsy shop "Bunny Burrow Boutique" with handmade
rabbit-themed and other jewelry, art and the occasional vintage item!
Here's the link: Bunny Burrow Boutique
Please also "like" the Bunny Burrow Boutique Facebook page
too! Some of the money also goes to rabbit rescues and non-profit
organizations! Thanks for checking us out. Also, just for reading
Rabbit Slippers Blog, you can use the coupon code: "RABBITSLIPPERS1"
at checkout to get a 20% discount off your purchase until the end of
day April 30th,
2012.
