she smiles and wiggles her tail. she seems rather at home out here. its still an odd sight for such a tiny thing to be relaxed on a down like this. you should be seeing this one in a pet shop or a 4H show. you have to wonder what else you'll find here.

"i can 'splain you know..." she says in a quiet voice, her lapine more like a broken farm dialect. she knows you are puzzled by her location. this ought to be interesting....

"i was a show bunny...the owner had always had me, i was born in his barn. DayStar's Morning Rose is my real name...but its too long to bother with all the time. shows were nice ...got to sit with other bunnies that look like me. the man would pick us up and move us all around. then the one he liked best got pretty colored leaves...or at least the owner did. i lived in a cage. i had my pel-its and water...not so bad. the man never took us outside though...show rabbits stay in their cages and mate. i wasnt old enough to mate though...just sit, sit, sit...and think lots....lots of sounds to hear, so wasnt too boring."

"we were going to a show far off one time. all of our cages were loaded onto the owner's running thing....the hrududu...as usual. this time when the hrududu jumped my cage fell off. it broke open and cut me a little but it healed all up see?" she nods in a small rapid motion and wiggles her left hind paw. "i had never been outside before...everything is so big and green out here, you know? i think its nice though. anyway..."

"i was kinda scared outside. all them new smells and sounds, and i dared not eat anything cause i didnt know if it would make me sick or not. i missed my pel-its. i tried not to move around too much. wasnt really sure where to go anyways. the outside is so much bigger then my cage, you know?"

the little doe stops to pull out a clover leaf. she chews it thoughtfully for a few moments before swallowing. she does this several more times, to the point where you think her storyis done. it is then that she speaks again.

"one time i did move a little. i was exploring the area around where my broken cage was when i seen some other bunnies. they didnt look like me at all. they were BIG bunnies! they were fightin this....thing. i wasnt sure what to make of it so i just helped out, you know? why not? i did a good job fightin it too!"

Rose fluffs herself up as big as she can and gets a proud set to her chin.

"the other bunnies were nice. thats how i met mister Pinewood and mister Thunnerhead. they are real nice sirs. they let me follow em back here to the Down. aint it a big hill to get up here? really big."

"thats how i got here....nothing real special. not like the stories mister Dandy-line tells. but i am learning a lot about being outside. im learning to dig, and what i can eat outside. im also learning about el-il. they are the bad animals." she leans in close to confide a secret. "but there is a fal-cun that is REAL nice but i get yelled at for talkin to it." she smiles and nods again in that same rapid motion.

"there are lots of nice bunnies here. theres, ummm...mister Blackthorn, mister Hazel...he's the chief, kinda like an owner but nicer....there is also miss Yewberry, and mister Dandy-line, and mister Bigwig, but he can be cranky...and miss SilverInle, and miss Mallow, miss Clover is real nice, she was from inside like me. someday ill be smart like them about being outside."

"you know....there are some things i miss about inside though. its safer in the cage then it is out here. you dont have to wrry bout not eating or about whats around. but its also better out here cause i can do what i want. i can sit on the Down and listen to the quiet. not a lot of noise out here like inside. i think im really happy here though, you know? i can have lots of friends here and thats a good choice to have."

you thank rose for her story and she shows you where you can go from there