Sometimes the best way to ease a hurt, or a betrayal is to go on with life as if nothing bad ever happened to your loved one. Give them space, lots of space, spend time with them but most importantly just when you think you may have won their trust and they’d take two steps back to the one step taken forward, it would be good to realize Rome wasn’t built in a day and same holds true when it comes to making fresh beginnings.

Building bridges of trust and friendship are tough especially with those who have been treated badly by us. This nugget of truth applies to animals as well.

We have three beautiful pet rabbits, two females and one male and while two have become a couple the third as been somewhat of a loner. As a rule we generally stayed out of their way, let them out of their hutch first thing in the morning, fed them grass, cauliflower leaves, cabbage leaves and carrots through the day and just sat around and watched them do their bunny activities in the backyard when we had the time which was generally lasted for not more than five minutes (goes to show that the art of being still is sadly lost).

The rabbits on their end stayed away from us. They were skittish, prone to scampering away if we got to close or even cringe if I happened to tap their tiny rumps if they escaped their hutch.

Obviously these were signs of previous abuse by the pet shop owners or the farm they had been brought from.

To win their trust I had told my family and maid not to pick them up, to be casual in our day to day dealing with them. To keep a routine (you know, fixed eating time, sleeping time, socializing time etc) as a routine gives a feeling of comfort and security. And it was working, slowly but surely.

They had begun to scamper to us when we got them their greens and didn’t cringe to the back to the hutch when the rickety wooden door was opened to let them out. I was so sure that we would be friends by the end of this month that I had been dreaming up taking family snaps of us seven- four humans and three animals but one fine day our burgeoning relationship was tested too soon atleast with one baby rabbit.

Last Sunday my maid had left the backyard door open and my three year slipped into the yard undetected. The cardinal rule of not leaving him alone with the baby rabbits was broken and disaster struck.

My little guy threw one of the rabbits into a four feet deep trough in which we store water to wash clothes. Being a fish lover he expected the rabbit to swim but he soon realized that he had done something wrong and began to cry in a way I have never heard him cry – all loud and horrified.

I ran past him to the trough he was pointing at and saw a little white fur ball trying to swim rigorously. I was quick to grab the poor thing and was shocked by its pitiful state.

The rabbit was a wet spiky haired ball of fear. It had the shakes and I was worried. I grabbed a nearby towel that had been drying on the line nearby. White on white, the rabbit seemed to blend in with the towel while I dried it.

Initially I was scared that it could die of fright or something but then realized that the little creature had found the massaging so comforting and relaxing that it had gone off to sleep. Forty five minutes of massaging could make anyone sleep.

I put the rabbit down gently next to its other companions but it refused to come out of the towel for about ten minutes. Then gently it pushed the towel away and hid behind a nearby bucket.

I chided my son and the maid for a while and told them to leave the animals alone. However, at that point I wondered if it would take longer to get that rabbit to come around.

As days passed the routine continued. The maid left them food in their bowl, two came, the third stayed away. But something peculiar had begun to happen.

The third rabbit that had come close to meeting its maker began to seek me out. It would scamper up only to me when we stepped out. It would nuzzle against my big toe, snuffle against my hand as I’d feed it some grass and today it even laid its little head on the back of my hand.

What had happened? The other two remained aloof though curious but this one curl’s into a fur ball next to me.

I, generally tend to run my hand gently done its spine and in these few days of silent friendship I even know the little one’s sweet spot. Its right between the ears and when I scratch the spot the little one stretch’s its neck all the way out, eyes closed and ears pushed back which clearly indicates a sign of security (at least that’s my half baked theory).

We are good friends now, bonded by an incident that has somehow made me a friend to be trusted instead of predatory foe.