Move Over Beethoven - A Contest Entry

Hello everyone. I hope you are all as excited as I am with this Community Boost Contest by @ocd. This time the community being highlighted is the Hive Pets Community and the theme is, of course, all about pets. Anything and everything about your pets. Read up on the contest rules and mechanics here and tell us all about your pets. Come one and come all. Let's all join this fun challenge together!

I find this very timely. And do you know why? It's because just very recently we had the chance to welcome a new addition to our family and the story about how this all happened is my entry to this contest.

We have a pet rabbit! Move over Beethoven.

The kids named him Moses Maximilian, Max for short. Kids have their own world when it comes to naming pets and I just defer to their choices. So that's that. Max, as his story goes, had a previous owner. About 2 months ago his owner, for reasons of his own, set Max loose at the lot behind our house. This lot is being developed into a subdivision but was bogged down with all sorts of legal problems, one of which is non-payment of taxes, resulting in the indefinite suspension of the project. The legal fight has been ongoing now for over ten years without any settlement in sight. So it is likely we will still be enjoying a few more years of open fresh air at the back of the house. Here are a few photos of the area.

This area is right in front of our kitchen window. One afternoon, 2 months ago, my wife called me excitedly and told me she saw a rabbit running in the area while she was doing the dishes. A rabbit? Now what would a rabbit be doing out there? So I brushed it aside and told her she must have seen a stray cat that looked like a rabbit. She insisted it was a rabbit but reluctantly dropped the subject. A few weeks later, while I was jogging in this same area (this is where I now run regularly) another guy who was also exercising in the area stopped as though looking for something. I asked him what he was looking for. He said he saw the rabbit that some people were talking about. According to him he heard from others in the area that the rabbit was set free by the owner here to fend for its own. Now what kind of pet owner would do such a thing? When my wife found out about this she became more concerned about the rabbit. What was he eating? Where does it get water to drink? What if it rains? What if a snake bites it or worse, eats it (snakes have been caught around here occasionally, including Boa Constrictors).

"We must catch it and give it a home!", says the wife. So, the next day, with our gardener helper, we brought along a sack and the big puppy cage we had and searched the area where he was often seen. And lo and behold! There he was. It was difficult to catch him because he would hop quickly away from us. So we decided that I front him while our helper sneaks in from behind with the sack to wrap around him in case he bites. Here he is during the chase.

He kept on moving away and hid under the tall sharp cogon grass. We almost gave up.

But finally we caught him and placed him inside the cage. We still do not know who the previous owner is and still don't know why he set Max loose.

We did not know anything about taking care of rabbits. What does it eat? Bugs Bunny loves carrots. So carrots is definitely one. I also noticed that while we were trying to catch him, he was nibbling on a leaf of a wild vine growing in the area. So that was another one. Google came to the rescue. He can eat cucumbers, bokchoy, morninga leaves, cabbage, apples, bananas and Chinese Cabbage. Fortunately we have five trees of Moringa Oleifera growing at the side of our house and the leaves are plentiful. Here he is with the Moringa leaves.

He definitely loves this stuff. Looking on warily in the photo below is Soap, one of 9 cats we have. He's checking Max out. He's probably wondering what kind of creature this thing is. First time he's seen one.

Boy this Max is one certified eating machine! Seems like everything we place in his cage is all gone before we know it. Could this be the reason why the previous owner gave him up? That he was expensive to maintain? Google said to feed him Rabbit pellets as this would give him a feeling of fullness and eat less. We ordered pellets. And of course, he loved it too.

Max now has been with us for more than 2 weeks already and we felt he needed to exercise to stay healthy. He hardly moves inside his cage. So two days ago, we set him loose on our patio. We left the cage door open and he wandered out very slowly.

Oh wow. That feeling of being able to walk and hop again must have been very good. Here he is wandering along the patio with some of our other curious pets keeping an eye on him.

And finally, the ultimate joy of it all. Being able to pet him and make him feel secure with us. He is such a sweet creature. He doesn't make a sound. He hardly moves and he always chews on something. I'm glad we were able to rescue him from the lot at the back. And it is such a joy just to sit back and watch him being himself.

And that's the story of our new addition to the family. The cats are now used to him so they don't bother him anymore. Our two dogs, Patch and Bandit, still bark at her, sending shivers all over her body. So for now we lock up the two dogs inside their cages when Max is exercising. Soon they will also grow familiar with him and may even wind up playing with him soon. I just can't help thinking about Max's former owner and why he did this to him. As my wife says, "Pets are almost always a reflection of their owners. Show me your pets and I'll tell you who you are."

And that's it for this post. I want to thank @ocd for this community boost project. I had a really enjoyable time writing this post and I do hope you enjoyed it as well. So for now, please stay safe and may I wish all the participants the best of luck in the contest.

(All photos are mine and from our family album.)