House Bunny, Faithful Studio Helper, Friend.

I bet you were wondering why my logo is a bunny.

“What do bunnies have to do with necklaces?”, you said. Wonder no longer! The connection is that I’m in love with both. Bunnita (whom we called “Pisky,” a variation on “Pickle,” or Bunny Bear or Pisky Bear.) was my constant beading companion, house bunny and good friend of 7 years. I would sit on the floor by the coffee-table and she would sit by me and beg for attention, eat my peanut-butter toast and will steal seeds from my materials boxes if I didn’t keep them latched. When my husband got home from work, she would run out to greet him. When a bag was rustled in the refrigerator, she thought that meant it was time for some parsley or cilantro, and we would always cave in and give her some. If you’ve never had a free-range house bunny, you’d be surprised how much personality and charm they have! She was always curious, usually getting into trouble and cute cute cute. She really liked pulling out my hemp twine and leather cord to chew on, and was constantly on the lookout for dropped Job’s Tears to gobble up (a natural bead I grow in my garden.)

Pisky’s favorite foods

Pisky’s favorite foods were dried onionskins and garlic skins, peaches, cilantro and italian parsley (not curly parsley, oh no…that is for the commoners). One time, we left 5 peaches from our tree in the middle of the coffee table when we went out to the store. When we got back there were 2 still on the table and one half-eaten peach on the floor! We have no idea how she managed to pull them all down, it’s amazing what determination will get you She was also fond of apples and carrots and dried apricots.

Pisky’s favorite games

Pisky’s favorite games were hiding under blankets and finding her way out, ripping up newspaper and getting “chased” with our feet. She hated to be picked up, but loved to be pet on the ground. We became very agile at using our feet to pet her while we were eating at the dining room table or relaxing on the couch. My husband developed an excellent technique for petting. He’d start out by petting her a little with his foot, and then would slip off his sandle and leave it sitting on Pisky’s head. Our little house bunny would sit like that for 20 minutes or more! Then she’d wiggle out and come over and lick our legs if we had shorts on, and run around expecting to get some more petting. If we had blanket on our laps when we were sitting on the couch, we’d make a little tunnel behind our legs for her to run through. If we failed to get this tunnel set up after settling in on the couch for the evening, she’d chew the blanket and run around and stomp her foot until we complied. Hilarious, and adorable!

The Passing of an Icon

Sadly, and inevitably, Pisky passed away suddenly on 11 March 2010, having lived a long, full and rich house bunny life. Her obituary and more fun details about her life, and what she meant to us, can be found on my blog, Authentic Living. I drew this picture right after she died. I want to make an oil painting of it. We buried Pisky in the flower garden under a nice, large rock. My husband is going to make a cement plaque to put on top where I’ll draw the bunny symbol, and write her name and birth and death dates.

All this for a rabbit?!

You bet! I didn’t realize how much a part of our lives she was until now. It’s the little things that keep surprising me, like when I walk out in the morning and get the impulse to greet her, and remember that she isn’t there. When I hear a noise and automatically scan the floor for a little fuzzy friend. When we walked past the garden and saw a whole row of Italian parsley that we planted and that no-one would be eating. When we are laying in bed in the morning and I say our old joke “Raul, who’s gonna make our breakfast for us?” he responds “Not the Pisky.” I mean, who are we gonna blame for those messy countertops and un-folded clothes? I guess our new scapegoat is going to have to be Pisky’s ghost, ’cause we sure aren’t going to be owning up to our own messes any time soon.

Yes, life does go on. But not quite in the same way. We have no plans to get another bunny friend at this point. Maybe sometime in the future, but as there’s no replacing a lost child there’s no replacing a lost bunny companion. We’re glad that she’ll be ever-present in our lives as the logo of Authentic Arts. We’re bunny people. Thanks for all the laffs Pisky.