Say hello to Crawford!
February 25th, 2016
So, Crawford.
About a year and a half ago, I was minding my own business one day, when I suddenly started seeing this enigmatic rabbit appear on my Facebooks. Brenda, as it turned out, was checking out photos of this bunny, which were posted online by a rabbit rescue center over in Columbus, and sharing them on her feed. You may not know this about Brenda, but she's a Rabbit Person (capitalized and everything).
She has had many rabbits over the years, but hasn't done so since arriving in the suburban confusion that is Miamisburg, Ohio. Thus, I had a feeling that, as soon as I saw this strange, fuzzy curmudgeon begin to show up on the Facebooks, he was going to move in relatively soon. Mind you, a month or two went by, and we were still rabbit-less, but towards the end of '14, that had changed.
After visiting the center and hanging out with this rabbit a few times, we decided to take him in. I was a bit leery at first, having never actually had responsibility for such a critter before, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. So, once we were able to make a space for this tiny little bundle of smarm, they drove him all the way from Columbus to our place in Miamisburg. On my birthday, no less.
So that's when we really started to get to know Crawford.
We did not name Crawford, mind you, as that's what he was called at the rabbit rescue due to that spot on his tiny, tiny face. However, we figured it would make his transition easier to leave that as is, so we didn't try to give Crawford another name. No, Crawford was Crawford before we met him, and Crawford will remain Crawford from here on out. Besides, changing someone's name is just weird.
But anyway. Crawford quickly defied all the common wisdom about taking care of rabbits, and proved to be quite an exceptional little weirdo. I'm told by Brenda, our resident rabbit expert, that he is an exceedingly clever little critter. I wasn't sure about this at first, but I've since seen him in action, and actually watched him master one new trick after another, in relatively short order.
Heck, we've almost taught him to tell his right from his left. Almost. But he seems to enjoy working on puzzles and sorting things out when we try to pull one over on him. On the other hand, he enjoys pulling one over on us even more, and exults in each instance of burgling something or other out from under our noses when we aren't expecting him to. And, strangely enough, he does this quite often.
And not just when we just let him think he's getting away with it.
But despite being a bit antisocial at times, Crawford has really grown on me. And I know he's grown on Brenda a bunch, because she gets to spend all day with him while she's at work (working from home, and all that). I like to think that Crawford likes us back, but that may be a bit optimistic. At the very least, however, Crawford does tolerate the two of us, so that's definitely a start.
Sure, he's most likely to hang out with us when we're dangling treats at him, or when he thinks he can convince us to break out the bag of rabbit cookies, but he still gives us a bit of bunny time now and then. When he isn't massacring one bale of timothy hay after another. Or napping under the chair. Or napping in the wooden micro-palace in his pen. Or napping under our bed. And so on.
But yeah, I've been mentioning Crawford on and off, and even posted a picture or two of him, so I thought I'd tell all one of you who reads this site on occasion about him. And, you know, overload you with pictures of the little whipper snapper, because who doesn't like a big bundle of cute? I can't just rail about everything that irks my ire here, so this seemed like a nice change of pace.
You're welcome?