Pete

Yesterday was a big day for Pete: he made his first trip out of doors. Imagine the profound excitement that met him as he felt the green pulse of the earth beneath his paws---the scent of fresh, Springtime air, the conversations and songs of the robins and cackling of the crows---he had broken free from his cage, and now stood in total wonder before 360 degrees vision of the earth and sky. All at once he hopped three feet or more in a single bound, and then again and went off running, playing a game of chase with me. Before I knew it Pete was bounding across the neighbor's yard only to be met by the little white poodle's bark. To Pete's ears, having never before heard a dog's bark---it shook some ancient nerve, and he tore back in the opposite direction in a flash. I attempted to race toward him, yet lost sight as he cleared the new Rabbitry shed. Where could he have gone? I thought maybe he ducked out under the shed...no. That meant he was headed for the woods. What could these woods mean to rabbit, raised entirely indoors? What could he make of the mounds of brown and decaying oak leaves, the ivy, ferns and Trillium. I searched and searched, the thoughts running through my mind...thoughts of strange wonder mixed with regret, weighing the skills he might possess. I saw several wild rabbits, could they be of assistance, what are they trying to tell me?

One minute of exaltation and freedom, a freedom politics never reaches. The world pounding in all at once, the greatest work of art ever conceived---Nature and Pete pouncing across the lawn. This was a very big day for this young rabbit---a threshold which having once crossed, need never be rehearsed. The 'breakthrough' into Reality that Plato speaks of. What wonder and total amazement!