Wet bunnies look weird.

Three weeks ago, I adopted a bunny rabbit. Her name is Gabby and she is small and white. She is the best bunny in the world, though I may be a little biased, she is quiet and calm. She loves to sit in my lap and when I come into the room she pushes her little twitching nose through the bars of her little pink cage, so that I can rub her nose. From the moment I picked her up at the pet shop and she nuzzled my neck, it was clear that we were destined for love. Everyday I go into my bathroom, her bedroom, and pick up that little cotton ball and kiss her on the nose. She has been the ideal pet, except the time that she crawled into the whole beside our stove and I had to attempt to drag her out with the vacuum (and actually, if I'm being honest, cleaning out her cage is pretty nasty and has really tested my weak stomach). But like every relationship, we have hit a few bumps and we have managed to roll on over them.

Yesterday I went to get Gabby out of her cage. When I picked her up, I noticed she had dirt (or something else) on her face. Because she is completely white, she shows a lot of dirt. I decided it was probably time to give her a bath. So I ran her a warm bath in the sink, and placed her in there and began to lather her up. Let me tell you, SHE WAS NOT HAPPY. She quickly tried to make an escape, hopping out of the bath, splashing water everywhere and knocking my hairdryer into the water (in retrospect I probably should have moved that before I began). Because she was unhappy I was tempted to give up, except the problem was that she was completely covered in soap. So I did what every good rabbit owner does and grabbed her tight around the belly and quickly ran her under the sink faucet.

Now I had a clean bunny and I wrapped her in a blanket and tried to give her a kiss on the nose. Except something had changed. The sweet, loving Gabby I have come to expect was gone. Now Gabby was angry. She wouldn't look me in the eye or let me pet her. When I put her on the ground she didn't hop she just sat there with an expression that was a mix of hatred and sorrow. She was not looking too good, either. The usually cotton soft fur was feathery and mangled.

I will admit, I really expected Gabby to get over her anger within a few minutes. I left her to hop around my apartment, while I went to rent a movie, because she loves to explore and hop freely. But when I got back it was clear that she was waging war on me. There was poop everywhere and the soaked bunny was hiding in a clean clothes basket. I picked her up, put her back into her cage and decided that I would just let her cool off and dry off. I tried not to let it bother me that everytime I went into the bathroom for the rest of the night she would be balled up in the corner, mean-muggin'.

When I came into the bathroom this morning, her cotton fur had returned and she promptly stuck her nose through the cage for me to pet her. I guess she got over the trauma I put her through yesterday (or just doesn't have a good memory) and decided that maybe I'm not a bad mother after all.