Sunday, December 16, 2007

Thumper

Well, I went out and bought myself a rabbit. Yes, a baby rabbit. She or he is called Klupko, which means 'Fluffy' in Serbian. She (or he) is not particularly fluffy but the name seems to go quite well. I should explain the 'she or he' bit - I don't know if little Klupko is a female or a male, the guy in the shop didn't explain. After some reading on the net, I found out that in order to determine the sex of a rabbit, you have to pick it up and turn it over on to its back and push with your finger just above the genitals - if a circle pops out it's a guy; if a slit appears then, well, it's a girl. It's enough trouble trying to pick up Klupko anyway, and even if I could, I don't particularly fancy prodding around in his/hers nether regions.

I got Klupko about three weeks ago. I went to Belgrade Zoo to the little pet shop there. It was kind of annoying having to pay the 250 dinar enterance fee to get in the zoo, solely to go the pet shop. For the first week Klupko was very timid, shy, every time I went to stroke her she'd run like the wind. I suppose she though I was going to eat her. Now, three weeks later, Klupko is pretty much tame. She likes to get petted and at times she goes completely mental. It's quite amusing to watch, especially considering I have a wooden floor, which is slippery! At full speed she'll dart around the room, jumping and twisting in the air, shaking her head. It almost looks like some sort of spasm or fit. Klupko is also a nightmare at times, biting expensive laptop power cables and being very disobedient.

I love animals and have always had some sort of pet while growing up as a child. Hamsters, budgerigars, guinea pigs, and now a cat back home in Edinburgh - I even had a tarantula for a few weeks, but promptly got rid of it as I was terrified. In fact, I also had a rabbit, a huge white New Zealand rabbit from when I was 1 year old until I was 12. She really was like a member of the family.

You're probably thinking a rabbit is a bit of an odd pet, well, they are just like cats and dogs, if not more troublesome to look after! I allow Klupko to run around the flat freely, like a cat or dog, it doesn't seem right to keep her in a cage constantly! Her freedom comes with a price however, lots of tiny little presents all over the flat, I counted 30 such 'presents' in the space of 2 minutes once.

I had originally wanted to get a cat or dog, but when you want one, you just can't seem to find a stray one on the street - so I opted for Klupko and I think it was the right decision. She brings back nice memories from my childhood when I had Hazel (the white New Zealand rabbit) and I'm an animal person and it's great to have this little thing running around, keeping me company - even if she can really piss me off sometimes.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to meet your rabbit, Adamski! :)