Some weeks ago, I was handed a priceless lesson on a platter of pain. I am finding it hard to type this. I shouldn’t make a big deal about it but I have to because the bigger picture seems scary.
In the early hours of that day, Dad called my attention to check up on my rabbits. He said our dogs were around the rabbits’ hutch and playing dangerously around it. Kai! (a Nigerian exclamation) I thought within me, I can’t miss this last lap of my priceless sleep. I remained cozied and enjoyed the early morning breeze. Besides, the rabbits’ hutch was safe from external aggression from rodents, dogs etc.
The day brightened after an hour or two. I participated in my family’s daily morning devotion. I got dressed for my morning warm up. Once outside, I paid my rabbits a visit and what I saw drained me of whatever gusto I had. I found one of my does (female rabbit) that I named Ferrari covered in blood. Her beautiful white fur was now coloured red. When I saw her, my Farmer’s instinct knew exactly what had transpired. I unlocked the hutch to confirm my fear and before me was a grizzly sight.
Does instinctively eat up their young especially when threatened by a predator or when being starved. It is a rabbits’ logic that I still don’t understand. This was exactly what Ferrari did. She ate all but two of her kits(baby rabbit) because the dogs were a threat to her. There I was staring at what I had read in books about rabbits’ behaviour when faced with danger.
I called for the assistance of my good friend, the CEO of Axiom Farms who promptly came to the scene and examined the mess. We are neighbours. The lockdown didn’t forbid neighbours relating. After a few consultations, we decided to put an end the misery of one of the surviving kits. It had both ears and four limbs eaten off by it’s mother.
Just a moment of lackadaisical attitude, I paid dearly for it. Should I have responded promptly to Dad’s call, probably the story might have been different. Now I never can tell.
Just as my rabbits were threatened by dogs which led Ferrari into eating her young, so also are many people around the globe being threatened by the bites of hunger caused by the lockdown that was experienced in most parts of the world. We will do anything to stay alive. We will go rabbits’.
As I had the power to save my rabbits but chose to be sluggish about it and paid dearly for it, so also are those in position to help but decide not to. It is not time to think but act. Hunger can reveal the ‘beauty or the beast’ in us.
Some individuals and organisations have taken up this challenge to be the beauties at this trying time in world history by providing soft landing for worst hit families. Humanity is proud of these noble men and women.
Aside the pandemic making people go rabbits’, our relationships be it a spouse, friend, family or colleague, it can bring out the rabbit in us.
Many of us see red flags but refuse or postpone attending to them. These are threats to our happiness in the relationship which may be as a result of actions or inactions of one or both parties involved.
It may even be as a result of external forces. We should note, that once we go rabbits’, there is no stopping until the harm is done. Hurtful words will be dished out, blows will fly past, bodily harm may result and death may be the final blow.
As you spent time with your family during the lockdown, did you trash out all the threats and heal your wounds? Did you come out of this worse than you got in?
This is a period of communication and not malice. A time for love and not hatred. This is surely a time for strong bonds amongst us.
Let me check on my rabbits. I think I heard something.