She came to live under our gazebo about a year ago. We saw this beautiful reddish/golden-haired rabbit showing up periodically on our lawn, munching grass. She grew somewhat used to us and made increasingly frequent appearances, coming out from under the gazebo and “listening in” on the conversations and Torah studies we had in the gazebo during the summer months.
At that time my wife, Pearl, had been giving private summer lessons to our friend’s older daughter. One day, waiting in her car for the lesson to conclude, our friend saw the rabbit on our lawn. My wife brought her up to date on the situation, and our friend said she’d love to take care of such a rabbit. Of course, my wife was already attached to her and felt she belonged in our yard.
A couple of weeks later the two daughters of that same friend, Chaya Gitel and Shaina Perel, dropped by one Shabbos afternoon to socialize with our two visiting granddaughters Esti and Malka’le. They saw the rabbit and took such a liking to her that they decided to give her a name.
Together we looked into Perek Shira, a work dating back to Talmudic times that lists all the songs that animals sing daily to their Creator. Most of these songs are based on verses from Tehillim.
Though rabbits are not mentioned by name, they are included in the category of “small animals of the non-kosher species.” The verse listed for such animals is: “Do good, oh God, to good people and to those upright in their hearts” (Psalms 125:4), with the word “good” – tov in Hebrew – mentioned twice. Based on that, they named the rabbit “Rebbetzin Tova.”
In the first few weeks after we became aware of her presence, Rebbetzin Tova hung out on our lawn, situated on a dead-end street, sheltering under our gazebo. However, she apparently wanted to venture out, perhaps to recruit other rabbits, and soon started crossing the main street near our house, always loyally coming back to us and using the gazebo as her shelter. This main street, however, is extremely busy and goes into several curves that impede a driver from seeing in a timely manner who or what might be crossing the street at the wrong place.
We knew we’d better do something before she got run over by a car. What to do? With Rebbetzin Tova in mortal danger, we agreed to give her away – sort of. We called our friend, who was more than willing to take her in. I put Rebbetzin Tova in a box, telling her, “Little rabbit, you must come with me.” I then transported her to our friend’s yard.
Our friend, who is very handy, built a special big cage atop an elevated platform in the yard. It consists of two compartments: the bigger one as a living room and the smaller one as the bedroom. In addition, half of the smaller one serves as a bathroom, which is cleaned by our friend every two days. She once was late in cleaning it, upon which Rebbetzin Tova pulled the droppings-filled straw from the bedroom into the living room, giving the clear message that she expects prompt cleaning service.
Rebbetzin Tova is allowed to romp daily for a while in the fenced-in yard. When she’s had enough, she actually indicates she is ready to go back in her cage. Our friend’s two wonderful daughters, ages 12 and 9, love her, hold her, and pet her. My wife feels attached to her, and her spirits are always uplifted when she sees her. She, of course, has “visitation rights” to Rebbetzin Tova. During certain holidays, and when our friends are away on extended trips, we go over to their yard every day to take care of her.