My rabbits are wonderful. Really they are. I didn’t take part in this thread because my little darlings don’t crap on the floor, don’t chew up much, and in general are model examples of good rabbit behavior. Most of the time.
Kanchongie is weird. She likes socks. She’ll steal them any time she gets a chance. When I return home from a long day at work she follows me around the apartment sniffing my feet. If she’s feeling especially affectionate, she’ll start licking them. This is what she was doing Sunday evening… I was ignoring her, fixing supper for myself. That’s when she decided to bite.
For those of you who don’t know, rabbit teeth are really sharp and rabbit jaws are like industrial-grade crushing machines. I don’t know why she decided to bite me; maybe she wanted some attention, or maybe the odor of my well-traveled feet just got her all excited and giddy. In any case, it hurt. I jumped and screamed, Kanchongie went running, and Kiki toddled over to see what all the excitement was about.
I took off my sock to examine the damage. There was a big red spot on the top of my foot, but the skin didn’t appear to be broken. No damage done, I thought, and proceeded to make my first big mistake. I didn’t go wash my foot immediately. By the time I went to bed the red spot on my foot had developed into an unpleasant brown bruise.
The next morning, I found that my foot was a bit swolen and red. That’s when I made my second big mistake. “I’ll just stick some cream on it”, I thought. I gave my foot a hearty helping of antibiotics, stuck a badnage on the wound, and wrapped it in a sock before sticking it into my hard leather shoe for the kilometer long walk to school. At the doctor’s office today I learned a few things about injured feet. I learned that feet don’t bleed much, so it’s possible for the skin to be broken without the wound being immediately obvious. I learned that the type of injury I have should be kept dry, not wet. I also learned that chafing and inflamation don’t go well together.
By Monday evening, when I returned home from a long day of teaching, my foot hurt really bad. As I fed the rabbits, I tried to give Kanchongie some sense of guilt. “See this? It’s all your fault. If I wasn’t such a nice person, you’d be soup by now, fuzzybutt.”
I decided that if my foot didn’t clear up overnight, I’d go see a doctor in the morning. That’s when I made my third big mistake. On Tuesday morning, I thought my foot felt much better than it had the night before, and decided to just leave it alone.
By this morning I had considerable swelling and pain all around my ankle. There was no escaping it any longer, I would have to see the doctor today. The nurse escorted me into the office and I pulled down my socks. The doctor examined the wound. He asked me what on earth had happened. “Toki bite”, I sheepishly admitted. You know, it’s embarrasing to admit that you’ve been mauled by a bunny. Now I know how Jimmy Carter felt. I was given a needle in the bum and a prescription for some antibiotics.
Hogye is a pretty small place. I’m on good terms with the local pharmacist and he is quite familiar with my various medicinal needs. When I handed him the prescription, he asked me “Oh… do you have a sinus infection?” “No”, I replied. “I was bitten by a rabbit”. The doctor had forbidden me from wearing socks until my infection is better so my wound was clearly visible. Everyone in the store had to come up and see what a rabbit bite looks like.
Now I’m at home. My foot is feeling much better. My ass is still sore, though. The rabbits are on top of their cage pushing boxes around, completely oblivious to the destruction they have wrought. That’s my story, and I can only hope that my pain and suffering have brought you some small amount of amusement today. Thank you very much.
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Click on my homepage to see a video of Kanchongie. That bastard.
