she wants me to believe...

... I am a grandmother. But if I have been successful at refusing to be called that when attached to a wide assortment of dogs and cats, as well as backyard chickens, I won't let that happen with a rabbit that gave birth yesterday. P. called and asked what I was doing last night. I said I was putting the boxes into the box to put them up on the closet shelf. So, yes, thankfully, I am done with Christmas.

Then she asked if I wanted to hear a funny story. Which I always do. You have probably guessed that my most favorite thing in the world is to spend time laughing with my daughters. If I cannot actually be with them, to get laughs delivered long-distance is surely the next best thing.

She said her husband called her when she was just leaving the workplace, late due to meeting, to tell her there was a surprised awaiting her arrival at home. She asked if it was poop. For some really odd reason he will save the poop when the dog or cat do their 'doo' inappropriately to show her when she arrives, several hours after he gets off work. But it was not something nasty. Strange maybe, but not disgusting.

He has had several rabbits in the back yard for a couple of years. Sadly, usually cooped up in small pens he and a neighbor built. The neighbor/acquaintance was really into the 'paleo' diet, consisting mostly of protein, and decided to go into the business of raising rabbits. You can now imagine what he planned to do with the results. The novelty, as well as the responsibility for the care of three rabbits soon wore off, the neighbor completely lost interest. And the rabbits became permanent back yard residents. So C. has been feeding, watering, caring for these un-assuming hares all this time. Two males and one female. He will occasionally put them in a pen he built of chicken wire and let them graze in the backyard, but they mostly stay in little small enclosures, raised up about three feet off the ground, made of 2 x4s and hardware cloth.

When P. got home, he told her to go look in the bathroom. Which she did, and found nothing odd, amiss, unusual. He said to go look in the other bathroom. Where, in the bathtub, she found newborn rabbits in a box. P. said C. had suspected something when he fed the rabbits early in the morning before work - noticing the female pulling out fur - which is apparently a sign of 'nesting', impending birth. So he found some clean hay, other nesting material, soft and suitable for insulating babies. And brought a box home from his work to put it all in.  So now the bathtub has become the nursery. I assume since it will be so cold in the next couple of nights, to keep them warm, as they will  not be living underground in a rabbit burrow/warren or under the roots of tree like Peter, Flopsy and Mopsy.

The newborns are, according to the phone call, about the size of your thumb, and naked as the day they were born: which is yesterday. But you are Not allowed to call me 'grandma'. If I have successfully resisted the nomination all this time, I am not about to fall into that trap now. Reportedly they will need to be handled to be domesticated, so they will have grown some fur and be ready to hold when I go to TN in a couple of weeks. Not too sure How Excited I Am about that....