The e-mail came from one of my co-workers two weeks ago. A little white rabbit was seen that morning happily munching on grass in his yard. It seemed pretty tame and not skittish in any way, so he figured it was either someone’s pet that somehow got loose or more likely, given my co-worker’s proximity to a local park, was let go to fend for itself after an unsuccessful trial period as a family pet.

Important note: The latter happens a lot around this time of year. No matter how much house rabbit proponents and enthusiasts try to educate the public that giving a child a pet rabbit for Easter simply because they’re cute and cuddly is a very bad idea (after all, rabbits require a lot of care and they do grow up), it still happens far too often. In too many cases, once the thrill of a new rabbit wears off, they are often neglected, mistreated, and/or ultimately let loose by people figuring that rabbits naturally know how to fend for themselves in the wild. But domesticated rabbits bred for public sale don’t.

But I digress.

Anyways, my co-worker asked me what he should do, so I told him if the rabbit was still there when he got home after work to call me. Of course, I said that thinking that by the time he’d get home the rabbit would be gone, and that would be that.

No such luck.

When my office phone rang around 7 that night I knew who was going to be on the other end. Sure enough, it was Dan – the rabbit was not just still at his house, he had cornered it and put it in a small pet carrier, his dog was going nuts, and his cat was scratching at the carrier trying to get at the bunny. Did I have any ideas – hint hint?

Fast forward an hour. Said rabbit is now ensconsed in our bedroom, occupying Marble’s old cage, devouring the food we had placed in Marble’s old food dish and drinking from his old water dish. If for anything else, the little bugger was already serving a valuable purpose by providing a sense of closure to a pet loss my wife was still struggling to overcome. Couldn’t help but think how God works in mysterious ways…

Tracey named the rabbit Peanut and threatened to replace my surf music mix with a combination of greatest hits CDs by Barbra Streisand, Air Supply, and Mary J. Blige if I dare turn it over to a local rabbit rescue organization. The only way that rabbit was leaving here is if its rightful owner were to turn up. I’m no fool – I estimated the chances of that somewhere akin to Barack Obama staging a “Let’s Drill In ANWR- NOW!” campaign event outside a privately-run charter school while recruiting members for the NRA.

After several days of the usual found-a-stray activities (ad in the paper, check the local classifieds and Craig’s List – THE hot go-to place for lost and found pets these days, BTW [who woulda thunk it?], obligatory trip to the vet, etc.) two things were certain: 1) the rabbit was a 3-6 month-old female and unspayed (most likely, another Easter gift gone wrong), and 2) rabbits have a keen sense of knowing when another is suddenly in their midst – even when sight unseen in another room.

Now understand that our other three rabbits – Marble Junior and Half Pint (both spayed females), and Cosmo (neutered male) have always been well behaved when it comes to their bathroom habits, keeping to their litter boxes pretty faithfully when nature calls. But having an unspayed female in the house has obviously short-circuited some inner bunny mechanism and set the whole place on edge. All of a sudden, everyone wants to stake out their territory, and for a rabbit that means leaving cocoa puffs all over the place and increased time in the litter pans. We’ve been going through bags of litter like crazy, and that stuff ain’t cheap. On top of that, each seems to sense in some way that they’ve been knocked down one spot in the pecking order, and a deep sense of melancholy prevails. Rabbits sulking – unbelievable!

As for Peanut, if her adolescent hormones weren’t raging out in the wild, being in such close proximity to other rabbits and their scents is having a profound effect. When let out of her cage for a romp and a stretch around the bedroom, she’s broadcasting her scent in virtually every way possible, chinning every piece of furniture she can find (rabbits have scent glands there) and leaving a trail of cocoa puffs wherever she goes. (Given the quantity of that trail, I’m thinking she holding extra in especially for these special occasions!

So… the whole rabbit world at 1025 W. Hearne Way has been turned upside down. Which, in the end, means the same holds true for the human occupants of the same quarters.

The good thing is that come Tuesday little Peanut has a date with the knife and within a couple of weeks she’ll start to settle down and the crisis will have passed.

I can’t speak for the other females in the house, but at least for me and my good buddy Cosmo, that day can’t come soon enough.