Rabbits can teach us a lesson

My daughter Molly's friend, Andrea, is moving out of her parent's house to go to school. Andrea had a rabbit for a pet in her bedroom since last September and didn't want to bring the rabbit to school, so Molly told her that I would take the rabbit. I was so busy Saturday getting ready for Easter that I wasn't listening to Molly when she said that we were getting a rabbit.

When Andrea drove up she unloaded the cage, the rabbit, and it's food and water bottle. She gave a long detailed list of instructions on how she took care of him.

Andrea said, "He's a great rabbit and is name is Lil Johnny. He is very gentle. I let him hop all over my bedroom and he always went back in his cage to leave his droppings."

When she left Molly said, "This is one spoiled rabbit."

Timmy fell in love with Lil Johnny right away. He is a very gentle rabbit, but he doesn't go back in his cage at my house to leave his droppings.

Right now he is staying in the room where we have the piano. So far, he isn't much trouble.

The last rabbit Timmy had lived with the chickens in their coop. Last fall, when Timmy had a friend to visit, the friend wanted to carry the rabbit around the yard. The rabbit hadn't been handled very often and it jumped out of Timmy's friend's arms and our two dogs took after it and killed it.

From that experience, Timmy is going to be more careful with Lil Johnny. This rabbit is used to dogs. My daughter, Bridget spent the weekend and she brought her dog, Maddie, along. The rabbit and dog played together and Easter morning , they were lying next to each other by the rabbit's cage.

I had two rabbits when I was growing up. My first rabbit died when my sister fed it bananas and jelly. That's why I thought it died, and I cried and cried. I think it really died because it was a wild rabbit and it shouldn't have been taken away from its mother. The second rabbit I had lived with the chickens and came to a terrible end when the family dog killed it. After that I though it was too much trouble having rabbit for a pet.

My husband Tom and I did raise rabbits for a while when we first moved out to this farm. Our neighbors raised them and said that they were good eating. We were breeding them and having babies. One of the doe's died when her kits were two weeks old. There were six kits and I brought them in the house and bottle-fed them around the clock for a couple weeks until they could eat food. They all lived.

Now the one thing about raising rabbits for food is that you have to kill them. Tom and I didn't have the heart to kill the rabbits. Our neighbor killed one for us and I cooked it up like he instructed, but we all thought it looked like a cooked cat when I set it on the table for dinner. We ate cheese sandwiches instead. After that, I gave up raising rabbits for meat.

Right now, I don't mind having Lil Johnny for a pet and Timmy is enjoying taking care of him.

Questions now surround student

Last week when it was reported that a young girl was missing from the University of Madison, Wisconsin, this story hit close to home for me.

My daughter, Theresa, is in her first year of college there. Every time a news item ran about the young girl Audrey Seiler, my husband, Tom would holler at me to come and watch the news. I finally told him, "I can't watch it. Don't ask me to come and see this story on television, that girl could have been Theresa."

I thought 'Are any young girls safe?' Two young women from Minnesota abducted this year, Dru Sjodin and now Audrey Seiler. I felt deeply for her parents and the trauma that they were going through. I imagined Audrey's body turning up, or never turning up, as so far has happened to Dru Sjodin. I talked to a grandmother whose grandson is going to school at Madison and she was crying over Audrey being missing. Many people were carrying around the pain of and angst of a terrible tragedy happening to another young girl.

Theresa called me one night from school to tell me that she was safe and that many of her classmates were out searching for Audrey.

Theresa said, "I know Audrey. This is so weird. She was attacked a month ago too. I don't understand any of this. My boyfriend, Steve, has asked me to be very careful. He's afraid. I walk home from a dance class on Tuesday nights by myself. I am scared too."

After the days of being troubled and praying for Audrey, she was found alive and safe. I was happy, relieved and then puzzled as the story unfolded. It was all a hoax. Audrey Seiler had planned her own abduction.

My feelings now changed after feeling sorry for a young girl who had gone to such an extreme degree to get attention. I feel empathy for her parents.

I wonder now how this young girl is going to be able to go anywhere without people being angry with her.

My oldest daughter Mary said, "I feel really bad for this girl. Going to college is really hard. I had a hard time. It is lonely and you don't know who you are. It was really hard for me."

I had forgotten how hard it was for Mary, as she is so happy now and successful in her work. Mary went to St. Ben's in Collegeville, Minn. She was ill often and very lonely. She would call home every week crying and say that she wanted to quit school. Her second year was even harder than her first year. I had to encourage her over and over to get through it and she did. I had to drive up to see Mary at college more often than I had to with my other children.

I talked to Theresa this past weekend about Audrey and the feelings of her classmates at Madison.

"It's just so weird, what Audrey did. The whole thing -- checking out parks and the weather, buying a knife and duct tape. I remember when I first met Audrey, she was angry and she did want a lot of attention. But I don't get this, none of us do. Why would she do this? Didn't she think about what would happen when it was all over?" asked Theresa.

As strange as what Audrey did, I understand it. I had a friend run away when I was in high school. She didn't run far, but she caused a lot of worry for her parents and she got a lot of attention. Audrey is immature, and she is getting help now. She screamed for help in a very extreme manner. I only hope that if something bad happens to another person and he or she is missing, that this does not deter the authorities because a young girl cried wolf.