How Much Is That Bunny …
The free bunny in the box at the grocery store can quickly add up to more than you bargain for when you factor in the cost to spay ($300), food ($150/year), water bottles ($50), hutch ($400), vet bills for the periodic sick bun-bunny ($200) not to mention treats, toys, litter, litter pans and the non-tangible costs of cleaning up after poops galore. Unlike dogs or cats that we can hope to share a dozen years or more, bunnies somehow don’t stay around with us for as long as we hope. Add the $185 bill for putting our precious one down this morning due to a neurological condition that came on suddenly and was deemed untreatable and we’d probably still do it all again.
Knowing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is important for anything that we beg, borrow or steal. But when they steal your heart away, its hard to put a price tag on the value added components that they bring into our lives. Watching Utopia this week, I saw someone complain that the vet bill was $125 for a $5 chicken. Vegetarians understand the sentient nature of all things and when we have the means we mean to do all we can for any creature regardless of its size or stature.
From a very young age, I have been drawn to animals. Perhaps because I was an only child (lonely child, as Mother use to call it) I would spend a lot of time talking to animals from our Siamese cat, to random birds, tree frogs and fire flies. Everything had a story to share, each had a life lesson to impart. And I was patient to listen to the wisdom on the wing of a humming bird. Its been a while since I called the home vet under these circumstances … seven years since Bella’s passing. There were tears of course, and lullabies sung as I swaddled the bunny in a towel and tried to ease her suffering. I was pleased and blessed that it went so peacefully.
As an empath, I resonate deeply with all Life that is near to me. And I learned a long time ago that objects in the rear view mirror are closer than we realize. I know many healers that go to great lengths to protect themselves from “outside” influences. But my practice has always been Tonglen, I would willing take on anothers pain if it meant I could lighten the load for their journey … even if I did believe there was choice in the matter. Moreover, I don’t do this for anyone else …. because in those moments of intense compassion, no one else exists. There is no separation between the bunny in my arms and the song in my heart. There is only Grace.
Grace … and the TCO of having a monkey mind that dances the duality pas de deux.
As Life and Death come to us at the most inconvenient and auspicious moments, we were amazed this week to find a baby goldfish in our solar patio garden, just next to the rabbit hutch. Amazed because there are NO goldfish in that spat of water. Only a few dozen mosquito fish a handful of bitterlings and the odd army of snails. But no koi and no goldfish live there. So how did this little miracle arrive? Hard to say. We haven’t seen any “breeding” activity even in our koi pond since early spring. But we imagine that an egg must have attached itself to the floating roots of a water hyacinth that we brought over from the big pond earlier this summer. The redneck scooped the toddler up with ease and put him over in the big pond, where he still tends to swim with the mosquito fish rather than the school of goldfish who are all of course much bigger than the little fry.
It is easy to feel lost in open waters, when the waves seem to be coming closer to our shore. In as much as I feel apart from Life I can measure how much I suffer. But in those moments when I am clearly A Part of Life, then there is Peace instead of pieces. Which of course is the price of admission to be a Free bunny.
