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Hopalong wasn’t even his name, at least not the name his owners called him. I don’t know what his real name was, but one day in my back yard he hopped along very determinedly, like he had some place definite to go, so I started calling him Hopalong. He (maybe she, I don’t know) was the first rabbit I had seen up close and was a beautiful broken black and white full size rabbit. I pieced together part of his story later, a sad story of owner apathy and a lack of knowledge on our part. We fell in love with Hopalong, but didn’t know enough about rabbits to properly help him, so we failed him too. Still, he loved his freedom, and was full of the joy life.
His life started in an outdoor pen. His parents weren’t even
kept in a hutch, they actually dug burrows within the pen. He and his siblings, although technically domestic rabbits, were not really very tame. His half-wild start to life marked his personality and may have set his fate from the beginning.
My neighbor bought Hopalong and one of his siblings and put
them in a hutch in their backyard. They were intended as pets
for the children. At one point, one of the rabbits scratched
my neighbor, I assume, due to improper handling. Then
they “got out” and were “too fast to be caught.” I don’t know
for a fact that they were let out, but it wouldn’t surprise
me if that is what actually happened. Some time later,
Hopalong’s sibling was killed by a car.
The first time I saw Hopalong, he was sitting on the boundary
of my property. It was early one weekday morning and
I was leaving for work. He was such a handsome bunny, he
caught my eye immediately. For some reason, I didn’t connect
him with my neighbor until after he had disappeared, about
two months later.
A few evenings later, he was seen sitting on the patio. I went out and picked an apple, and cut several slices for him. He didn’t let me get too close, but accepted the apple. I noticed that he ate, but didn’t seem as hungry as I had expected. A few evenings later, I went out to pick an apple for him, and there he was under the tree stuffing himself. No wonder he didn’t act too excited over the first apple I fed him.
He would always appear at dusk, and sometimes stay until the morning. When my friend, Suzanne, saw him, she, too, fell for the handsome rabbit. We bought a gravity feeder, pellets and some carrots, but made no attempt to catch him. If only we had. I didn’t think he was in any danger. His survival skills seemed good, he was always alert, wouldn’t even keep his head down when he ate. (Our pet rabbits don’t pay much attention to anything but the food, when they eat.) And he was sure fast. We watched when he would visit, enjoying the sight of him eating, yawning and stretching. He would hop around the backyard, usually returning to the patio, sitting under a tree near the fence. One night we saw him standing on the border, getting ready to come over to the backyard. He must have felt safe staying overnight in the backyard on the patio. Once he jumped three feet straight up in the air from a sitting position. That was amazing. He was so full of joy.
By then it was December and I went on vacation. Suzanne continued to feed him bringing him carrots. Once she opened the gate and surprised him. She was then treated to an exhibition of his blazing speed.
And then late in December, he disappeared.The last day Suzanne saw him, he was lying under the tangerine tree (see photo).
She gave him some carrots and some pellets, but he didn’t seem too hungry. The next day she looked for him, but he was
not there, even though there were still a few carrots left under the tree. That was a stormy day, she thought he had found a dry place to hide, but he never returned.
In January, we finally talked to the next door neighbor,
after looking and waiting for him unsuccessfully. She said they
were her rabbits, Suzanne showed her the picture, but she didn't even take time to look at the picture. She said something like "Rabbits are cute when they belong to someone else and, they were too much trouble to keep inside the house.”
Since then we have learned how dangerous the world is for a domestic rabbit running “free”. Dogs and raccoons are just two of a wide variety of potential predators who will kill and eat rabbits. And then there is the finely tuned digestive system, did Hopalong get sick and die from too much of a change in his diet? The weather was cold and rainy, did disease and exposure get him? Or did he suffer the same fate as his sibling, hit by a car? Of course there is some small hope that one of the other neighbors caught him and kept him, or that he’s still out there roaming free, but it’s very unlikely. Most likely his freedom cost him his life, maybe he felt it was worth it, but we sure miss him. He deserved better from us humans. His owners didn’t care, and we didn’t know enough to realize that he was in real danger.
Hopalong did teach us what wonderful creatures rabbits are. So, when we decided to get rabbits ourselves, we searched for a Hopalong look-a-like. Dixon was the result of that search. He and Daisy are Hopalong's spiritual children, prized and pampered.
Even now, though more that a year and a half has passed since we last saw him, we still look out at night wishing he would reappear. Hopalong, you passed through our life much too quickly, but we’ll never forget you.
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