RAISING RABBITS

     When I was a little girl, somewhere between the ages of 7-9, I decided I wanted to raise rabbits.  Rabbits were such soft, furry animals, and I was sure I wanted to have some as pets.
     My dad agreed to let me have some rabbits, and it would be my responsibility to feed, water, and take care of them.  I was excited and couldn't wait to get them.
    We found some for sale in the Clovis newspaper classified ads.  So we went, and I think we got two, a male and female.  We took them home and put them in some cages that looks similar to the one pictured, but ours was way older and more rustic.  (As a side note, we used these cages to put setting hens in, but that is a different story. )
I had to water the rabbits, though I can't remember exactly what the water container looked like.  I gave them some rabbit pellets that were of a cylindrical shape and kind of brownish green.  There were metal trays under the cages where the rabbits were, and I had to dump the rabbit poop each day.
   At first this was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed getting the rabbits out to play with them.
   After a time, the female rabbit was going to have babies.  This really seemed exciting.  When it was near to the time of the birth of the rabbits, my dad put the mother rabbit into another building,which I think was an old chicken coop.  It was a wooden building with wooden floors, and was mostly used to store farm equipment or tools.  The mother made a nest in the straw, and one day I went out to check or feed her, and there was the shock of my life.  I expected to see little tiny furry cute baby rabbits.  What I saw was some tiny animals that looked more like pink mice than anything.
They were the ugliest things I had ever seen. Talk about disappointment!  I ran to the house and told my mom that there were these pink ugly mice looking things in the rabbit house. My mom laughed, and said, 'Those are baby rabbits."
     Well, in time the ugly newborn rabbits turned into cuddly, sweet, furry animals---the kind I had expected to find when I first saw the newborn rabbits.
It was so much fun to take the little rabbits out of the cages and play with them in the yard.  We had to watch our cats and dog though or they would want to chase and kill the rabbits.
     A little further down the road, we had LOTS of rabbits, so it was time to do something with some of them.  I did not want to kill them and eat them, but this was the plan.  One day while I was taking a nap, my dad, mom, and brothers went out and butchered several.  That evening while we were eating (I thought I was eating fried chicken), one of my brothers said, "You are eating rabbit!"  He thought it was funny to tease me since he knew I did not want to kill and eat my pets.  Eventually, I got used to the idea of eating rabbit, and it wasn't so bad.  Rabbit was good fried.
    I don't know how long we had rabbits, but I got to a point where I was very tired of feeding, watering, and cleaning cages.  I was probably being nagged every day to do my chores.  So, it was time to sell them, and leave rabbit raising behind.  It was fun, but I was not sorry to see them go.