“There’s not a single egg in this Easter basket!”
“It’s not an Easter basket, Dee Dee.”
“And cats don’t get Easter eggs.”
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As a kid, before we went abroad, I looked forward to Easter because we always got a Cadbury’s chocolate egg that was filled with more chocolates.
There was also a sugar egg that had a window with a bucolic picture inside and I liked those too, though I don’t recall eating them.
Returning to England in my teens, suddenly I had access to all those edibles that had not been available in Asia. What I liked most was whole milk with that divine cream on top which I always saved for last.
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English boarding school food was stodge and as I was always hungry, I ate quantities of it. I had convinced myself that I was one of those people who can eat anything and not gain weight.
A year later when I shed my uniform for the summer, I found that my clothes were tight.
Whereupon I cut myself off from anything I regarded as fattening.
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Returning to school in the autumn, I survived on not much and lost so much weight, one of the not-so-holy nuns became alarmed.
She made me fill my plate but as soon as her back was turned, I pushed it off on someone else.
Looking in the mirror, I still felt FAT. I was flirting with anorexia although no-one had heard of it then.
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Luckily I was then done with boarding school and got sent to America which broke the pattern.
Forever after, I counted calories. I was careful what I ate but always felt fat.
It didn’t help a bit that I interviewed for a job with Pan American and was told being 140 pounds (I was 5’8), I was above the maximum weight to be in uniform. They gave me a job processing IBM cards in a hangar.
BOAC rescued me a week later. They gave me a previously-used uniform and let me loose on the public.
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In the bottom of a drawer somewhere, I still have that skirt which I kept as a sort of guideline!
Fortunately, during those two years of boarding school I seemed to have had my fill of sweeties and although I like hot cocoa, I don’t care for chocolate.
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The chocolate bunny in the above picture was given to me in 2007!
Even if I liked chocolate, how could I eat a bunny?
Mum used to make us blancmange in a bunny-shaped mould and she would ask which bit we wanted. I knew it wasn’t real of course, but I didn’t like the bunny being carved up!
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While living in Washington State, I was persuaded to adopt a bunny. Not that it took much to convince me.
Joely and the cats were fine together.
He was very fond of carrots that I grated for him.
He really got into them!
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Before long I decided Joely should have a bunny companion. We had to take him to the local shelter for a play-date, to make sure they would be compatible.
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It came down to a pretty black and white bunny or an all-grey one. I asked which had been waiting the longest for a home and adopted Macy.
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Joely and Macy were a good match and spent several happy years together.
Joely was older and I lost him first.
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By then Macy was getting on in years, so rather than getting another bunny I moved her pen to put her in the middle of daily activities.
The cats used to jump over her fence and she seemed to like their company.
I spent a lot of time with her myself and I was very sad when I lost her.
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There has never been an animal I didn’t grieve for.
Because their lives are short, you either accept the pain or you just don’t have pets, but my life would have been so empty without the many animals and birds I have known and loved.
House rabbits can become pets that you really get attached to. I was very fond of Oskar, my guinea-pig. He lived for over 6 years, a good long life for a GP. I buried him in the garden of the Wimbledon house where we lived at the time, and as far as I know he is still there.
Best wishes, Pete.
More to the point, their lives have been so much more fulfilling because you have known and loved them!
One tries. There was never a shortage of love anyway.
Love the bunnies! Ha, when I was a kid, I never liked eating chocolate bunnies either.
Berto is very fond of (any) chocolate. However, with his sugar diagnosis last year, we now almost never have chocolate in the house anymore. There are now more nuts and biltong (which I love, because I prefer salty snacks). But, on our way back home yesterday, we bought two chocolate eggs on the airport in Durban … that was a nice treat.