Saturday, 24th March – Exploring the garden

After a week of seeing Peter finding his way around, in and out of the cage, and getting settled, I thought the time had come for him to have a walk in the garden. I opened the small gate leading down to the garden, but he wouldn’t cross it, so I took him and held him while walking down the three steps. Then I put him down, and he seemed quite happy because presently he ate some fresh grass, but then he quickly ran back, jumping up the steps rushedly to get back in the cozy cage. He was obviously overwhelmed by the new dimensions of his dwellings.

I gave him a short break, but after that I carried him down to the garden again, and placed him next to the lemon tree, where the clovers grow. There he went crazy, eating as many as he could and sniffing all the plants around. But again, it wasn’t long before he decided to go back to the safety of his familiar terrace. Finally, he tried going down to the garden by himself, under my close supervision, and he seemed to enjoy his new green options.

So I thought that we might as well leave that gate open during the day, so that he could walk freely from the terrace down to the garden and back up to the terrace when he would please. The only wall delimiting our garden is a thick bamboo which is not impossible to cross, although a rabbit would have to take a mighty leap down to the street if it were to go out. However, the bushes around the garden’s white entrance gate are not as thick, and Peter could easily go outside through them.

That is why we were observing him for a couple of days, trying to decide whether he could be trusted to walk freely around the garden and terrace area. Peter showed himself as a sensible rabbit, using the garden to nibble on the grass and the daisies whenever he felt like it, and jumping back up for regular food, water, hay, and comfort when it got dark. During the night we would close the gate to avoid surprise visits, because sometimes cats wandered around the community gardens outside.

tasting the grass

and going back upstairs to his bedroom