Today I am grateful for peaches. I had a delicious one for lunch and just had to write about it. As I live in Georgia, you would think I would eat Georgia peaches. And you would be wrong. Yes, Georgia does produce a lot of peaches, but they aren't where I live. (We had a peach tree, but it died this spring.) We have to go over the border into South Carolina to get local peaches. I bought mine from a wonderful fruit and vegetable stand called Good Earth. They handle truly local produce in season. The peaches I got were freestone (my favorite), juicy, not too ripe, not too green, and full of flavor. If we want to drive about an hour, we can go right to the fruit stands at the orchards and get the picked-this-morning peaches. Or if you want to make jam, you can get the slightly bruised ones for a very good price. Maybe I'll make cobbler tonight.
Now on to our story about Smoky the Angora rabbit. A trip to the pet store the next day filled all our rabbit supply needs - cage, water bottle, food, brush, etc. I studied that original magazine article over and over. It was really all the information I had about taking care of our rabbit.
He was just as friendly and snuggly as they described. He was a lot like a cat. He naturally used one place in his cage for a bathroom, no where else. He liked to sit on our laps and be petted. He couldn't quite jump up on our laps, but he would bump our legs with his nose when he wanted to come up. We let him out of his cage whenever we were home and could watch him, which was a lot of the time.
He did have one little habit that we had to watch out for. He liked to chew - anything wood was fair game, as were electrical cords. We were very concerned that he would electrocute himself, not to mention the damage he could cause.
Finally it came time to harvest the wool from Smoky. Every 3 months he would shed his coat. I would put him on a table, brush him (He had to be brushed most every day to keep his wool free from matts.), and then gently pull the wool off. This is called plucking. When the time was right, the wool came right out. (It was vital that I do it a soon as it started to become loose. Otherwise, he would pull it out himself, swallow it, get a big hairball in his stomach, stop eating, and die. Unlike cats, rabbits can't cough up hairballs.)
Here was the magic. A big cloud of soft, silky fluff ready to spin. This is what I was waiting for. And there was more every 3 months. Spinner's heaven.
We truly came to love Smoky. His personality was so sweet and loving. He loved to be held and carried around. He loved to hop around and play with the children. He gave Angora wool for spinning. We had found the perfect pet.
Now on to our story about Smoky the Angora rabbit. A trip to the pet store the next day filled all our rabbit supply needs - cage, water bottle, food, brush, etc. I studied that original magazine article over and over. It was really all the information I had about taking care of our rabbit.
He was just as friendly and snuggly as they described. He was a lot like a cat. He naturally used one place in his cage for a bathroom, no where else. He liked to sit on our laps and be petted. He couldn't quite jump up on our laps, but he would bump our legs with his nose when he wanted to come up. We let him out of his cage whenever we were home and could watch him, which was a lot of the time.
He did have one little habit that we had to watch out for. He liked to chew - anything wood was fair game, as were electrical cords. We were very concerned that he would electrocute himself, not to mention the damage he could cause.
Finally it came time to harvest the wool from Smoky. Every 3 months he would shed his coat. I would put him on a table, brush him (He had to be brushed most every day to keep his wool free from matts.), and then gently pull the wool off. This is called plucking. When the time was right, the wool came right out. (It was vital that I do it a soon as it started to become loose. Otherwise, he would pull it out himself, swallow it, get a big hairball in his stomach, stop eating, and die. Unlike cats, rabbits can't cough up hairballs.)
Here was the magic. A big cloud of soft, silky fluff ready to spin. This is what I was waiting for. And there was more every 3 months. Spinner's heaven.
We truly came to love Smoky. His personality was so sweet and loving. He loved to be held and carried around. He loved to hop around and play with the children. He gave Angora wool for spinning. We had found the perfect pet.
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