The Bunnies

The Bunnies

I can’t remember how, but somehow, we had a domestic bunny rabbit out to the ranch. If my memory is correct, it was a girl and we only had one. Then one of our deer hunting friends showed up with an award winning Male Bunny to give to us for free. He was a really pretty white bunny with pink eyes, just like the pictures on posters display. Lilly and I gladly adopted him into our bunny family.

For Lilly and I this was our first sex education class. We would put the male in with the female and watch him chase her around and around until he finally leaped onto her and did his thing. Sometimes they would make squealing sounds and when they were done, the male would flop over on his side almost like he was dead. We weren't sure if it was good sex or bad sex, but it was pretty entertaining to us farm girls.

Before long the female started making a nest and preparing for the birth of her babies. We watched her close so that we could see when they were born, but usually it happened at night, so we were just surprised in the morning to find babies had come. After doing this several times, we were soon the proud owners of a nice bunch of bunnies. We had to limit our entertainment and slow down the multiplication process. 

About that time, Mother got the idea to butcher a few and have fried rabbit. At first we thought she was surely joking, but quickly realized she wasn't. She had one of the boys or Father show us how to break their necks, skin and gut them and sure enough she cooked them for dinner. I don’t think Lilly or I ate one bite that night.

We next had to do it ourselves. It didn't take us long to become good little rabbit skinners. We even learned that if we were careful we could preserve their lungs and blow them up and play with them for a while before they dried up and stopped working. Whenever I tell people that, they look at me like I’m crazy. Maybe I am. We learned to smile and try to have fun in a lot of unpleasant situations. This was definitely one of the times that Lilly and I bonded.

Donna