Friday, 16th March, 2012 - The arrival

Today, a new member has arrived to our family -a rabbit! He was offered as a present by a mother from the music school, because they had a new dog themselves, and it was barking at him and picking on him all the time. The poor thing was getting stressed because of it, and apparently his fur had been getting darker eversince -it used to be a light grey, almost white, and now it was greyish-brownish, with darker ears.

She hadn't finished making the offer and I had already accepted -yes, it was the right chance! With 7-year old I, 5-year old M1 and 3-year old M2 constantly asking for a pet, the time had definitely come to go for it. They would be so excited when they found out. So we agreed that I would pick him up on the next day. When I arrived there, his former owner had arranged a red lace around his neck, with a jingle bell hanging from it. He was so adorable, with his shiny little brown eyes sparkling bright, wide open looking at everything around him.

I instantly took him in my arms and cuddled him, and he answered with a kind of purr, while he pushed his head under my arm. I was given a nice cage with everything in it which would make our new friend's life more comfortable -sawdust for the cage floor, hay, grub, water dispenser, chalk stone for biting, even special sweets for rabbits! And I was equally given basic rabbit care instructions -no direct sunlight on the cage, no problem with the cold temperatures (Barcelona cold temperatures), protection from cats and dogs, ideally being able to access the garden in order to eat some grass and trot around. I was ready to take him home with me.

After he was introduced to the family, we had a votation for his name. The winning name was... Peter Rabbit! My kids love the Beatrix Potter character, they know his stories by heart, as well as other Beatrix Potter's animal stories. And they also pointed out something that had escaped me: The rabbit actually had a striking physical similarity with the original Peter Rabbit! We placed his cage in a shadowy corner of our terrace, and left the cage door open. He went up and down the terrace, exploring every corner, getting up on his back paws, sniffing the air and the plants around him.

Here is a picture of Peter Rabbit as I saw him for the first time: