^_ Babysitting Bagel

  I was asked to babysit Bagel, a house rabbit, for a few weeks. I went to pick her up and she was quiet in her cage. She was put in a little carrier for me to transport to my house 59 miles away, an hour and a half drive. Bagel did not look too happy, I could tell she wanted out, so when I got home I let her out to check out her surroundings. She started running around sniffing everything. Cautiously though. Then I brought her cage in, and I should have left it, because Bagel from that point on did not sleep in the cage, she would look in it, but it was not where she spent any time. She set up places to sleep in my room . Bagel had a little nest in the walk-in closet between a bathrobe that reached to the carpet and my suede hiking shoes. For exercise Bagel would go in one end of the closet and run out the other, then jump up on the bed.
  Bagel had me under her spell, and soon I moved anything away from the walls that would prevent her from running around the perimeter of the rooms. Bagel would jump up on the bed and groom my hair while I was sleeping, so in order not to be awoken I would hide my head under the covers or wear a hooded sweatshirt.
  Bagel would jump on my lap when I was sitting at the computer and bury her head in my arm, so I ended up typing, and using the mouse, with one hand. One time she sat still with her head buried on my lap for two hours. She was sleeping so peacefully I couldn't disturb her.
  I got an email from someone asking me why I didn't call them back, that they left a message. I went to check my messages and the phone line had been cut, with small teeth marks. I also made the mistake of putting stereo speaker wires on the floor near the edge of the wall that had become a rabbit hiding place. Was Bagel trying to tell me that wireless technology was what I should have for a rabbit catered house? I began to envision houses when rabbits become the number one household pet; the house would need tunnels and tubes throughout the house, chew-proof carpeting or stone floors, a room with timothy hay, every room and closet would have at least two exits. Oh and a garden filled with wheat grass, parsley, dandelion greens, celery, broccoli and other plants for a bunny to eat.
  When Bagel wasn't grooming my hair, she would sleep up near my head or in a fold in the blankets. Sometimes I would lift up the blankets and Bagel would crawl under, once she bit me and I gave a yelp. Bagel would crawl through to the other side of the blanket, then come around the outside of the blanket to say hi to me, and she wanted to be stroked on the head.
   I never knew rabbits could be such good pets. Bagel was so sweet, and a great companion. I'm a house rabbit fan now.