Everybody Needs a Buddy

Okay, so maybe the title of this post should have been everybody needs a BUNNY. This is the new addition to our "farm." She's a lion's mane angora and in my opinion, she looks a little like a baby Ewok. I mean, have you ever seen anything so freaking cute??

But I digress. Here's why we bought this cute little thing: We had two bunnies and this spring, one of them died. It was pretty sad, and though we didn't do any sort of bunny autopsy, we're pretty sure he just died of old age (Bunnies have a life span of about 6 to 10 years. See, this blog can be educational!). After that, the remaining bunny got depressed. She became easily spooked and took to hiding in dark little corners and behind the hay bails we have stored in the chicken coop. Even with all of those chickens for company, she wasn't happy.

A couple of weeks ago, we came across the angora and of course, how could I resist her cuteness? We brought her home and stuck her in the chicken coop with the old bunny. It took a couple of days for them to get used to each other, but one day when I went to check on them I found the old bunny running around the coop, chasing the new bunny, kicking her legs, and for lack of a better word, frolicking. In the past two weeks, the old bunny has been hiding less. She lays stretched out (a sign that a bunny is content) and has been less skittish.

The hubs was watching Up in the Air with George Clooney the other night (FYI, what a depressing movie!!) and his character said something that really resonated with me: Life is better with a co-pilot. I believe this. We have two dogs, two bunnies, 2 male ducks, 2 female ducks, a flock of chickens, and come next spring, our gander will have a goose again. Animals, just like people, need companionship.

And since I write stories with some sort of romance sub-plot, that desire to connect with another person fascinates me. One of the reasons I'm drawn to romance is that I love to get elbow deep in my character's psyches and peel back the layers of their personalities in order to find out why they need a certain connection or why they've closed themselves off from a relationship. That's why people read romance. They want to experience that spark of connection, relieve the excitement of finding that special someone who can be their co-pilot. It's only natural to want to companionship, no matter its form or definition. Human beings need it, chickens, dogs, and even bunnies need it.