CHAPTER 269 – The Rabbit House
Dad shook his head as he looked at his once-pristine couch, now dotted with little white specs and holes in the cushions from rabbit teeth. He glanced over at the bookshelf. The corners and edges of his books and magazine were ragged. The corners of the baseboards were rounded off. Even the door to the guest room had been “shaved.”
Enzo’s first answer to curiosity about anything new was to take a bite out of it. Dad had ordered new kitchen cabinets with a hard, glossy coating. “This should be rabbit proof!” he thought. Less than thirty seconds after he removed the first piece from the box, Enzo came running over and bit a chunk right off of a corner. “Well, so much for that idea,” thought Dad, “Those are some sharp teeth!”
The bedroom level wasn’t any better. The carpet bore several bald spots. Baseboards had a scalloped design. Bentley’s Bunstruction Company had been hard at work, day after day.
Dad looked at the marks on the house and then at Abigail and said, “It looks like our house has a disease – 'house rabbit' disease (haha). Not an actual house-rabbit disease, but 'house' disease caused by spunky rabbits. Everywhere you look, there are signs that rabbits live here. Funny, when it was just you, this never happened. All you did was dig up the carpet in a discrete corner. People said rabbits chew everything, but you didn’t. You were such a good girl. But, now…” He rolled his eyes.
Abigail looked at him quizzically and thought, “But Dad, remember when you were researching rabbits and read, ‘If you like your house just so, rabbits probably aren’t for you?’ Are you surprised?”
Dad replied, “No, I guess not. I just have to adapt. I cover the furniture with fleece. I use double layers of carpet. I put up fake baseboards for chewing. All the new baseboards are plastic. And I put anything that shouldn’t be chewed on a high shelf.”
Abigail wondered, “Do you regret getting rabbits?” Dad smiled, and said, “No, sweetie. Not at all. To me, rabbits are magical. I love you guys.”
Abigail was relieved to hear that. She did a little half-binky and ran off behind the couch for a nap.
Signs of a house with rabbit-disease: teeth marks on the couch, magazines, and doors...
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