I had a guest spend last night at my place. In the garage. Late afternoon I decided to close the front door. There on my doorstep was a small white rabbit. “Pinky”, I later learned he is called. I decided not to invite Pinky in, but rather treated him to apple slices before I made my move and grabbed him by the…I guess by the waist. He was clearly well groomed and too neat to be a wild rabbit. That, coupled with the fact that there are no wild rabbits around here, led me to deduce his status as a pet. Not my next door neighbour’s, but she knew that he belongs to the people one house down. So I knocked on their door, but no response.

And so Pinky had to spend the night chez moi.  I supplied him with water, more apple, and a towel for private use, but I worried all night that he might freeze to death.  It is winter, after all, and none of my other guests had frozen to death before.  I would not quite know how to handle it.

“Is this your former pet rabbit?”

A quick peek this morning told me that Pinky had survived, and I administered more apple.  I am not saying that he is greedy, but…  Anyways, Pinky’s owner arrived around lunch to recapture him.  I thought that it would more difficult because I noticed that he (Pinky) had built himself a little nest in the innermost depths of the cardboard boxes and assorted bric-a-brac I store in the garage.  I do not like to boast, but I have a suspicion that my garage is the most varied among all the garages in the complex.  It contains everything except for my car.

Nevertheless, Pinky was retrieved relatively easily in the end.  I did not figure him to be that bright, but I am clearly no expert in rabbitual…rabbinical…leporidean intelligence:  he recognized his owner almost immediately.  And so our ways parted.

Pinky was, I fondly recall, quite diminutive.  Not much pelt for clothing of any kind, and not much meat for a stew.  So I guess he will continue his happy life as a pet, escaping from time to time until killed by a cat.  And perhaps that is all any of us can hope for.