Fifteen years in a childhood paradise

"Do Horst and Bernd still breed rabbits?" "My word. We've got ours all started through them, as you know. They bought the Chinchilla breed, so did we. Their carpenter made them that beautiful rabbit house, so did ours. We always compare notes about our rabbits."

"How many single hutches has your rabbit house?" "There are twelve. And you know, the floor of ours is made of slats so the straw doesn't get so wet and dirty."

"Does the dirt then fall on the heads of the rabbits below?" "Oh, don't be silly. There's a floor between each row." Meanwhile we had arrived at our rabbit house, which stood in Oma and Opa's chicken enclosure.

"These rabbits eat a lot. They need to be fed twice a day, and fresh water also. Now that we live in Posen, someone else is looking after them, but we always do the cleaning out when we come home for the weekend."

"Can I pat one?" "Here, take this one, he's a young male. We're fattening them." "How can you tell that's a male?"

"It's not so easy when they are very young. But this one is already about six weeks old. I'll show you."

I took him gently by the scruff of his neck, legs up. Then I pushed the outer genitals towards the tummy.

"See, this protrusion? This is the penis. If there's nothing, it's a female. We keep only the females for breeding. Occasionally we have to buy a new male, so that they won't inbreed. When these males are big we sell them to Mutter for the kitchen."

"That's a good scheme." "It is. We then ask the kitchen staff to dry the skins and save them up for a fur-coat for Mutter."

"That should look nice, a whole fur coat of these blue-grey pelts." "Very nice indeed, but somehow I fear she will never get her fur-coat. The skins have a tendency to disappear."

"Somebody else must like them too." "I am afraid so. It's best to enjoy and admire them, when they are still alive, though."

Hans went back to Posen, thinking about how he could start breeding rabbits in his home. But I don't think it ever came to anything.

*

When we came home the following weekend, it was raining all Saturday. It was typical autumn weather. Sunday, however, was bright again, and Vater suggested we all go for a walk.

"Okay, we'll come with you, but what about Gerda?"

95