So yesterday I wrote a tearjerker about Boris the Pig, and I had to promise my friend Stephanie to write something a bit more uplifting so she wouldn't be bummed out all day. Fortunately, I have just the subject: Freddy, our six-week-old bunny, newly arrived on the farm. Freddy is here for one reason: to be a snugglebunny. For Boris.
I mentioned in my prior post that Boris was feeling "depressed" and "disconsolate" over the loss of his brother Hayley. Imagine my alarm, this morning, when I realized that Boris's sorrow translated into refusing to eat or drink anything. I mean, I'd just spent 3 or 4 days fighting to get Hayley to eat and drink, and I'd lost him anyway. Boris is a great deal healthier than Hayley was (as evidenced by the fact that we had a pig scramble in our kitchen when Boris realized it was time for his daily antibiotic shot) but if I learned anything from the experience of the past week, it's that pigs go downhill fast. And, even though we've started him on wormer for his coccidiosis, I don't want to get complacent. It was clear to me he needed some sort of companion to lift his spirits.
We tried cuddling him ourselves, and he seemed to enjoy it — but the problem was, we could only give him attention and companionship in relatively short bursts. Fifteen minutes here, half an hour there — not enough, to a piggy used to having siblings next to, on, and under him constantly. Then, my friend Gloria offered me one of two surrogates: a 4-month-old Basenji puppy (politely declined; puppies are every bit as high maintenance as unweaned pigs, and I had already lost enough of my work time to caring for piglets) or a 6-month-old bunny, the sole unclaimed member of a litter her rabbit had borne in September. Bunnies, I thought, don't require supervision, walks, or paper training. They don't chew your shoes or bark all night. A bunny sounded just fine. And thus, we got Freddy, a small black-and-white longhaired lop-eared bunny.
Freddy was a little nonplussed, at first, to find himself in a large plastic tub with a pig. For a while, he sat there and just panted, looking stressed. Boris, however, perked right up. He got up out of his food dish (in which he'd been sitting) and wandered over to give Freddy a thorough whuffling. I could see he was puzzled and unsure what to do. He stood on Freddy. Freddy shook him off and hopped to the other side of the tub. Boris lay down, looking for all the world like he'd been rejected by the cool kid on the playground. Freddy sat there looking inscrutable. I didn't think Freddy was terribly happy about being where he was. But, I thought, we'll give it time. I put a cucumber in for Freddy, a fresh dish of rice cereal for Boris, and walked away.
Not long after, as I sat eating my lunch, I heard slurping noises. I tiptoed back over to the bin (Boris is self conscious and won't eat with anyone watching), and sure enough, the rice cereal was gone. And Boris was busy gnawing on Freddy's cucumber, too. Freddy was still looking inscrutable, but now when Boris approached him, he did not hop away.
This evening, I looked in on them and found them snuggled side by side. Freddy's fur is a little the worse for wear — he's got clumps of rice cereal in it that I will likely need to wash or comb out tomorrow — but Boris looks supremely contented.
And this got me thinking:
Freddy was utterly foreign to Boris. Totally different from any creature he'd ever seen. Yet all Boris could think of when Freddy appeared was, "I want to be his friend." There was no hostility. There was no "get out of here, you funny-looking stranger." He treated Freddy exactly as he would treat a sibling, even if Freddy wasn't overly appreciative of being stood on. He accepted Freddy as a source of companionship and affection.
I don't think I need to point out the obvious parallel, or lack of one, in American society today, do I? Do I need to mention the anti-immigrant fervor in certain sectors of society? Do I need to talk about how "different is bad" permeates our culture?
Point made, I guess. And since I promised Stephanie it would be uplifting, I'll end by saying this: If they can, we can. Goodnight.
Fri Mar 23, 2012 at 1:36 PM PT: Pictures? I can post pictures? Someone tell me how, and I will.
Fri Mar 23, 2012 at 1:43 PM PT: Oh, never mind. I found the info. Here are pictures. Sorry the lighting isn't great.
http://www.flickr.com/...
http://www.flickr.com/...
Fri Mar 23, 2012 at 8:37 PM PT: For all those concerned about Boris's well-being... his appetite came back with a vengeance tonight. He sucked his bottle so hard, the sides caved in. So between the wormer and the antibiotic our vet gave us (stronger than the one we'd been using), it's helping. Next step is to address the pneumonia, but we're going to wait till after we've finished the wormer & antibiotic. Don't want to overwhelm the little guy.
Oh, and his buddy Freddy is doing just fine, too.