Gatsby’s doing quite well in case you’re wondering. Two days in, Mr. Downybottom’s fully aclimated to urban living. He’s a free-range hopper who knows where to keep his poops and doesn’t even flinch at cat meowls.
Gatsby’s not the first pet rabbit I’ve kept. Round about the second grade, I had a white rabbit creatively named Snowball. One day, when playing with her in the yard, a feral neighborhood bunny came into the yard and “attacked” Snowball. Very traumatic. A month later, I came home from school to discover bloody mole rats in Snowball’s cage! Talk about trauma. Unsure what to do about these strange exotic creatures that were pestering poor snowball, I took them out of the cage and placed them in a nest of lawn clippings arranged in our dog’s water bowl. It wasn’t until mom got home from work a few hours later that I figured out that the “mole rats” would probably be happier back with Snowball, seeing as they were her newborn young.
My other rabbit memories are even more traumatic:
All the world will be your enemy, Prince of a Thousand enemies. And when they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you; digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. Be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.
When even the friendly seagull sidekick is picking out bloody shrapnel from the hero’s wounds, you know you’re talking quality children’s entertainment. Seriously, was there ever an animated film more nightmare inducing than Watership Down? To this day, when I close my eyes, I pray the death bunny doesn’t come…
Even though the film is English, this clip feels right at home with the German narration:
And as long as I’m posting foreign language fables, no storyteller can compete with the brilliant Capucine:
Once upon a time… from Capucha on Vimeo
