A Taste For Rabbit

Freckles:

I wanted to share a really interesting book that I read recently. It has a terrible title if you're a rabbit, but the book is called A Taste for Rabbit by Linda Zuckerman (Arthur A. Levine Books). This book is a 2008 Oregon Book Award winner for Young Adult Literature.

Now, you might be thinking that this is a cookbook, but I assure you that even though the characters seem to manage quite a bit of eating during the course of the events in the book (in fact there were several times when I found myself drooling over the descriptions of things like apple turnovers or eggplant and dried tomato sandwiches), you won't be finding any recipes between it's covers. And just look at how scary that cover is! A fox bearing down on a poor little rabbit. BUT then look at the shape of the rabbit in the background. I think that's Quentin, the main character rabbit and one of the unlikely heroes of the book. The other hero is Harry, a fox, who at first you think is an obnoxious guy, but he's just being a fox. He comes to discover that he has many redeeming qualities, and you quite like him by the end.

This is the story of how Quentin and Harry, who come from two different directions and lifestyles, have to work together to stop the terrible things that are happening to the rabbits. There are bad guys and good guys and sometimes it's hard to tell who is bad or good -- but isn't that the way life usually goes? Anyway, it's scary and exciting and riveting (that means you can't put it down because you really, really want to find out what happens.)

It is a young adult book, but adults are going to find it interesting, too. There are some yucky and sad things that happen in it, so I wouldn't recommend it to younger children.

The Rest of the Story

Deb:

I see that Freckles filled you in yesterday on her remodeling project which has taken over our living room. What she didn't share with you was the huge mess that she has been making while creating her masterpiece. The picture on the right is only a small amount of the clutter that litters our living room on a daily basis. She also conveniently seems to forgotten to mention the small hole she chewed in the carpet while inside her box.

It is pretty funny to see her with her box. When she isn't inside the box, or chewing on the outside of the box, she is resting in the nest of chewed cardboard pieces. She also makes the box travel across the room from the inside. We'll be sitting quietly in the living room reading or watching television, and all of a sudden the box starts moving and jumping up and down! This was quite unnerving the first time it happened, but we are getting used to seeing it tour the living room.

Remodeling Update

Freckles:

As you probably noticed, I took a week off to work on the remodel of my box. This has been quite the project. First of all, I love my box. It is roomy and tall and dark. When I'm inside, nobody can see me. However, the doorways were a bit small. During the first phase of the remodel, I enlarged both doorways.

To remind you of what my box originally looked like, here's a picture. See how small the doorway is? Obviously, something had to be done!

So, I planned and worked and chewed and ripped. And then I ripped and chewed and worked and planned some more! All that planning, working, chewing, and ripping paid off as my remodeling masterpiece began to take shape.

Here are the "after" pictures.

There's still a lot more to do, but I'm well on my way to breaking through some peekholes on the sides! A bunny's work is never done!

Britney Spears & Jessica Simpson

Deb & Freckles:

Okay, this post has absolutely NOTHING to do with Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson -- or the Jonas Brothers or Ellen Degeneres or Rachel Ray or Martha Stewart or Oprah or Barack Obama or The Beatles.

This is a name-dropping post. We discovered from yesterday's entry about Clint Eastwood and his pet rabbit that if you mention a celebrity name, you get LOTS of hits on your blog. Clint Eastwood was a gold mine of hits! A lot of people searched out his name and found us. Some people even searched "Clint Eastwood + pet rabbit." We wondered why people would think to do that search!

This happened to us once before when we had a post related to house cleaning and bunny messes that mentioned Martha Stewart. We discovered all kinds of people visiting us (and some people still find that post from time to time when they are looking for Martha.)

So, we thought we'd drop a bunch of names to see if we got any hits from those celebrities. We'll let you know how it goes!

Oh, and we'd like to add rabbit, bunny, cat, kitten, dog, puppy, bird, hamster, snake, lizard, tarantula, and gerbil, just in case anyone is searching out celebrity pets!

A Celebrity Bunny Lover!

Deb:

Sunday's issue of Parade Magazine contained an article on Clint Eastwood that started with these words: "He’s sitting at home, stroking his pet rabbit." OMG -- Clint Eastwood has a pet rabbit! Who would have thought that Dirty Harry was a bunny lover? Well, live and learn.

This article led Freckles and I to ponder who else might be bunny lovers without our knowledge. Any ideas?

Resting Up

Freckles:

Here I am resting up after a busy Thanksgiving Holiday and watching all those silly shoppers who got up super early to hit the stores. Deb and I are cosy and warm in our house just reading, relaxing, and watching TV.

Hope you will take some time to relax this weekend. You know that December is gonna be busy!

Hoppy Thanksgiving from Freckles and Deb

We want to wish everyone a

HOPPY THANKSGIVING!

To those of you who live outside the United States -- you're welcome to celebrate with us! Just spend the day stuffing yourself with every piece of food in sight and then sit back and think about all of the things you are thankful for!

*************


Picture courtesy of Webweaver.nu - Free Website Tools & Clipart

We're Famous!

Well, we're sort of famous anyway. Our blog was mentioned in a video blog post on the Write 4 Kids blog Children’s Writing Web Journal! We're the third blog listed of the four showcased on the video under Children’s Lit Blog Posts of the Day. We'll try to embed it here:




We sure hope it worked! Freckles has a slight crush on Jon for saying such nice things about us.

If you want to check out the Write 4 Kids blog, click here.

Ahhhhhhh!

Deb:

My son took the towel and Freckles ran straight for him! No glaring where he is concerned. He wrapped the towel around her and rubbed her dry. You could almost hear her sighing with joy. Ahhhhhh. I knew that if I had done the same thing, she would have acted as through I was murdering her. I wonder if she’ll ever like me as much as she likes him.

When he was done with her rubdown, she settled herself down and went to sleep.

An Astonishing Turn of Events

Freckles:

The high-voiced one was coming at me with a large flat object. Oh no, I thought. She’s not going to smother me with that thing. I was just about to back away and hop to safety, when she did something surprising – she turned and handed the object to Nice Guy. Now this was an interesting turn of fortune! Nice Guy would never smother me. He had just rescued me from the terrible wetness.

Nice Guy leaned down and started rubbing my fur with the object. It was warm and felt lovely. The dreadful cold diminished as he wiped away at the dampness. Ahhhh! Wonderful! When he was finished, I hated for the pleasant massage to stop.

I settled my relaxed and semi-dry body down for a nap.

Passing the Buck (or Towel!)

Deb:

I ran down the hall to the closet where we keep our bath towels. Grabbing the top towel, I rushed it back to the living room. Freckles eyed me with distrust as I approached. I knew she wasn’t going to enjoy this drying experience, and I was going to wind up on her “bad” list for quite some time. Well, I thought, she seems to really like my son. Maybe I’ll make him the bad guy for once. I turned and thrust the towel into his hands.

Respect? I don't think so!

Freckles:

I shook really hard in an attempt to get some of that wet off of me. The high-voiced one stood in front of me and I gave her the meanest, fiercest look I could. How dare she allow me to get this wet! In fact now that I think about it, she was probably the one who turned on the water that drenched me while I slept! What kind of creature does that? Someone who has no respect for others, that's who.

It was right about then that I noticed she had something in her hands, something big. She approached me with the giant object.

Stunning Results

Deb:

The look on Freckles’ face when she emerged from under my son’s jacket was priceless. “Stunned” didn’t even begin to describe it. Her fur was drenched through and she shook herself to release the drops of rain that still clung to her back and feet.

Freckles is not a bun who accepts change easily. One minute she had been enjoying the sunshine in the tall green grass of the backyard, and the next she was snatched up, thrust into a jacket, and plopped unceremoniously onto the living room floor. Wet and scraggly, she glared up at me with a look that told me who was going to be blamed for this fiasco!

Very, Very Wet

Freckles:

I was wet! I could feel the wetness soaking through my fur and drenching my skin beneath. What in the world had happened to me and where was I that was so dark? I was jostled around inside the murky blackness. The bindings that held me tightly finally loosened, and I saw the light surround me as I emerged from the imprisoning cocoon.

In the glowing brilliance, I discovered that it was Nice Guy who had rescued me. He set me on the ground. But, as I said before, I was wet. Very, very wet. How did I ever get this wet?

A Sudden Rain

Deb:

Our beautiful sunshine had gone behind a cloud. With a shiver I realized that the weather had turned chilly. I returned to the house to get my sweater and my son’s jacket. Freckles had hunched down inside the enclosure to take a nap.

Shortly after I’d settled back down in my chair and picked up my book, the dark clouds burst open and the rain poured from the sky. I grabbed my book and jumped to my feet. My son grabbed Freckles and stuffed her inside his coat to keep her dry. We ran for the back door.