A Tale of Two Kitties (Plot Twist: One of Them is a Rabbit)

If I were to give a State of the Union address during my Fall Break on Haverford Campus, I probably would have included my frustrations with my living situation. Here’s the thing: I was being completely spoiled by m wonderful mentor. She was letting me stay in her house, use her kitchen and her laundry machine (that was NOT coin operated), and generally exist in her personal area as opposed to my very empty hall in Barclay. The only catch? I was responsible for her two pets: a cat named Pip and a rabbit named Hector.

See, I was originally thrilled about this. I missed animals. I love cats and I had never thought about owning a rabbit but Hector was cute and fluffy. And the icing on top of the cake? I was being paid for this. I was being paid a pretty fair amount, as a matter of fact. So why was I so upset?

Caring for animals – especially when they aren’t your own – is neither fun nor easy. I was a wreck through the majority of the week because I was so terrified I would lose someone or not feed them enough or clean their messes improperly – the entire ordeal was stressful. And yes, there were some gleaning moments of adorable goodness. I have a picture of a bunny kissing a cat and it is adorable in every sense of the word. But I also lost sleep to a cat meowing outside the door for hours, and possibly the most alarming is the fact that I was bitten by the rabbit.

Yes. The rabbit bit me.

And do you know what? He broke skin! It was terrible! And I couldn’t even take revenge because it’s a rabbit and he probably thought my finger was a carrot or something because rabbits are so dumb.

So I’ve spent the last few weeks cataloguing my actions to see if anything has changed significantly; if I can somehow manage to get superpowers from this experience then I would say it was all worth it. So far, here are my noticeable changes:

• I can ingest much more of the standard “Oreogasm” from Lunt Cafe than I could before the bite.
• I am much more emotional at TV shows, most notably: Gilmore Girls.
• My appetite for pizza has decreased significantly (which means I still eat a lot of pizza, but relatively, it’s much less than before or during Fall Break).
• Meanwhile, my appetite for carrots has gone up. (Unfortunately, I can’t get a hold of carrots very easily.)

I have yet to obtain any skills related to higher or farther jumping, the enlargement of teeth, the ability to hide eggs well, nor have I found myself drawn towards Playboy at all. (Very thankful for that last one.) If anything new develops, you, dear reader, will be the first to know.

Cross your fingers on those hopping skills.