After seeing one of my friends post her daughter getting a pet rabbit on Facebook, the whole forgotten part of early childhood flashed back in front of my eyes.
I am 46 years old and 100% Japanese living in America so I often don’t think about my home country and especially about things that happened 4 decades ago.
So let me bring you to this memorable journey in a rule part of Japan where there were only 4,000 people in this tiny village and where I got my 1st ever pet and it was a panda-colored rabbit that I named “Tontoko”.
My friend Kenichi (means health number 1) had a couple of pet rabbits when I went to a playdate at his house and he showed off his cutest pet rabbits.
A side note, Kenichi had a crush on me and instead of expressing his love since he was also 6 years old, he kicked my Achilles tendon while walking back home and I got injured so when I think of Rabbit, I think about the pain in my leg for a few months.
I was completely jealous about his pet rabbits so I asked my family to see if I could have a pet rabbit just like Kenichi who kicked me in the leg.
Growing up in a huge nature looking at the tallest and the most beuatiful symbolic mountain Mt. Fuji every day and surrounded by two big mountains, I was always playing in the wild, no video games, and not so much entertainment around, therefore I so wished and dreamed that someday I would have a pet.
I have no idea how or from where but one day my family got me Tontoko, my lovely cute cute 1st ever pet rabbit!
He was kept in an outside cage and I went to see him often.
As young as 6 years old, no one taught me much about the different behavior between a rabbit and a dog.
I have no memory of where I got this bright red leash for a small dog but I thought it was so perfect to walk my Tontoko which obviously was not a dog.
Tontoko never wanted to go for a walk. So I always have to carry him in my arms with the bright red leash all over his body, the one that wraps not only the neck but the upper body, too.
The leash did not have a bell but I remember I was so elated that I got to walk the rabbit like a dog in the wild.
The big difference that I never knew about was that rabbits are lazy animals.
They don’t want to walk much like a dog. They are happy eating food and sleeping.
So after carrying Tontoko for a while, I put him down and asked him to walk with me but he never obeyed his 6-year-old pet parent.
So I pushed his bunny butt a little but he would not move so I pushed a bit harder then……
He got pissed off and TOOK OFF.
Tontoko completely disappeared into the green bush.
No, he actually did not disappear, he dashed into a stream of a river after his rabbit sprint to escape from the forceful rabbit walk that I am sure he was super annoyed by.
It was too sudden from zero movements to 40 miles per hour dash, so I could not catch up and my leash meant nothing at this point.
Tontoko got carried away in the small river stream, and down he went, I ran to the bottom of the tiny river stream and a teaching came to my mind suddenly which I don’t think is true but someone once said rabbit’s ears are the best part to grab because they don’t have a feeling on their ears.
So I grabbed his both ears quickly and rescued him from the stream.
Of course, he looked shocked and drenched like hell.
I still recall his stoned face and water dripping endlessly from his black and white panda-ish fur.
He was getting heavy so I just put him down on the ground.
THEN HE TOOK OFF AGAIN!
This time, it was right in the heart of the rice field.
The golden-colored rice plants were grown and it was almost harvest season, therefore as short as I was, the rice field was like a corn maze, it was very tall and I just started to scream his name at the top of my lungs, TONTOKO, TONTOKO, — — — — Ton chan — — and I started to cry.
However we did not have a cell phone in the early ’80s and obviously no Facebook nor Instagram LIVE, for some reason, villagers heard the lost rabbit commotion, and one after other people started to show up and help to find my pet rabbit surrounding 4 corners of the rice field and had a strategy of search and rescue by going in the field a little by little.
I remember running through the rice field when the sun was starting to set, panicking more, and even worse, small green frogs were jumping in between the tall rice fields everywhere. I had no idea I was getting a frog jumping attack since I never explored inside of the beautiful looking rice field.
I was absolutely scared and disgusted by these creatures so I cried more while managing to still call for Tontoko.
Now that I think of it, does Rabbit even remember their names?
Finally, some adults spotted my lovely Tontoko and grabbed his ears. (He did not cry, maybe the theory I heard was right but actually, I never heard rabbits cry)
He was all dry by then so instead of me thinking he was a dog that I can put back on that bright red leash and take a walk back home, I carried him tightly in my arms and put him in that outside cage safely.
At the tender age of six, I learned my hardest lesson to never walk my pet rabbit again in my life.
And I learned that I can’t walk a rabbit and if you want to, they can rebel and cause you so much bunny drama.
And just another side note, I am actually in love with Bad Bunny and with his amazing music.
So thank you to my friend who triggered this lovely memory of my 1st pet rabbit, Tontoko.
So what is your 1st pet story?
