I am not sure about you but some of us grew up with stories like “the tortoise and the hare” and know very well the moral values that it instills in us. A story that teaches us to be humble and never underestimate others we perceive as weaker than ourselves. “Slow and steady wins the race” is in fact the essence of this famous story.
Back then we can imagine a huge green tortoise and a hare with very long pointy ears.
A 19th-century illustration of La Fontaine’s Fables by Jean Grandville (via wikipedia.org)
After so many years of selective breeding, who would have thought how different that image will be today.
If the story of the tortoise and the hare is rewritten today, how will the two animals look like?
Check out that disgruntled and disapproving look on that tortoise’s face
So which have outrun the other, the tortoise or the hare?
It really has been a long long time since I last posted something worth reading on here. I guess life’s been quite hectic for the past couple of years and it still is. But today, something made me think about what I used to enjoy doing over the weekends. Taking photos of my bunnies, of course! And that’s exactly what I did for the past couple of hours. I kind of miss bunny blogging as it turned out.
While taking photos of my bunnies, I thought about what caused most of the problems I had in the rabbitry. One of the reasons we pet owners and breeders tend to overlook is fussing over the rabbits.
I must admit, through the years fussing over the rabbits have caused more harm than good. I am not sure why but perhaps for two reasons. One, when we fuss over a certain rabbit too much, we tend to take notice of the tiniest of details. So much so, we become paranoid and in turn, causes stress on us as well as the poor rabbit. Two, I have reasons to believe that some bunnies are attention whores and tend to get way too manipulative. In fact, we trained them that way – fussing over them and each time they act up, we give them all the attention just like a wailing baby. Doing that often sort of makes it habitual and the bad cycle repeats itself.
In all honesty, my longest living rabbit is one I fuss over the least.
Moving forward, I will be posting handpicked photos from the past 8 years. Over the years I have amassed approximately 18,000 photos of the rabbits – some of which did not make it onto this blog previously. I feel that it is a good time to revisit the collection and share these beautiful photos.
There are many different versions of goodbyes but I do not wish to say it in the conventional way.
I like how they put it in the Matrix movie and to quote Santosh Kalwar:
“Every beginning has an end and every end has a new beginning, don’t worry, broken soul, life will one day come to an end. ”
I must say that I am bidding my readers farewell on a high note. It has been 8 long and hard years since I started this wonderful journey raising Holland Lops in Malaysia. My best and worst experiences was obtained through this hobby. I can now look back and cherish all the beautiful irreplaceable moments from the many wonderful births to the friendships that will last for a lifetime.
Perhaps, I will one day look back and sing to the tunes and words of Adele’s “When We Were Young”. But really, I will be proud to say that “I have been there and done that”. No regrets at all…
I like to think that I have been touched by the many gorgeous rabbits that graced my rabbitry. I also hope that those who have been touched and found wonder and love in a Tru-Luv rabbit have had their lives changed forever. Indeed, every single rabbit I have raised and responsible for bringing into this world have left an imprint in my heart.
Just because it is selfish to keep holding on even when it means nothing is the only reason for me to bid farewell. In the words of Don McLean when he sung the song “Vincent”, I can only say that “this side of the world was never meant for one as beautiful as you – The Holland Lop”.
So it has been the tradition for me to capture and share the Christmas spirit through photos of my rabbits in the Christmas theme, the photo above will indeed mark the Last Christmas for Tru-Luv Rabbitry.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all my readers and friends for your amazing support throughout the years. It has been a pleasure writing and sharing all these years. I hope you have enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) this blog as much as I have.
Here wishing everyone a joyful and warm Christmas wherever you are!
Looking at photos of rabbits spending their time sleeping in their quarters made me ponder how they actually feel in terms of relativity. I wonder how long is an hour to them and if they are able to keep time. Most of us spend our time away from home and our pets tend to have very long waiting time. Measuring in human hours, I would be bored to death doing nothing but waiting. As humans, we are able to find things to occupy ourselves especially now that we have the internet on our palm most of the time.
How does it actually feel as a rabbit, a dog, or a cat staying home all day long waiting for our owner to be back home?
Taking the definition of hobby, I guess that’s how it is – only in our free time. It seemed that we’ll only have time for our pets whenever we have extra time to spare unless we ensure that we make time for them daily.
Out of the twenty four hours a day, I am sure we will be able to find at least an hour or two to spend with our pets. Then again, we will never be able to feel and know if animals have a sense of relativity – space and time that is….
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