A gourmet rabbit.

As long term readers will know, we recently added two rabbits to our family. One is a golden rabbit called Sushi. The other is a grey, very fluffy rabbit called Mochi. Aptly, they are both named after Japanese foods, given the behaviour I am about to describe.

I had the pleasure of observing them as two very young rabbits, on one of their first experiences of the outside world. We had placed them in the garden, under the watchful gaze of all, since we also have cats, who might think two baby rabbits were somehow meant for them, in an unpleasant sort of way (for the rabbits, anyway). Both were very excited to see the grass beneath their feet. Up until then, food had arrived at our hands, in limited quantities: now the very ground beneath their feet sprouted edible goodies. It was fun to see them hop around excitedly, perhaps quite not able to believe that the world, the very world could be constructed of food, as it was, for them.

Mochi's behaviour was most interesting. She wandered about the garden, seeking different varieties of plants. Once she had found a new variety, she would nibble on it, experimentally and come to some inner assessment of its worth. Sometimes she nibbled more enthusiastically, after the first nibble, at other times, she seemed fairly neutral towards the plant. Once she had tasted a plant, she would then hop away in search of another variety. It was quite clear what she was doing. She was on a conscious, deliberate survey of the food options in her environment: she was tasting each and every variety of plant she could find.

She was particular fond of a type of small white flower - name unknown to me. To this she, in fact, returned more than once. It was the only plant, on this particular trip into the garden, that she returned to. With all others, she nibbled, then moved on.

On subsequent adventures in the garden, Mochi would return to where her favourite plants grew and nibble on them. She had come to an understanding of where in the garden the best pickings grew. There was nothing random in her food search: she always seemed to know what she liked to eat. It is notable that she takes the trouble to pick out favourite plants, from among all the alternatives

From this behaviour, it can be seen, that even a rabbit can be a bit of a gourmet. Our rabbits, in particular Mochi, have very individual tastes in food and go out of their way to meet those tastes. In a garden filled with different plants, they don't just nibble the ones at their feet, when placed in the garden - but go hopping off in search of particular treats - at least, they always seem to end up nibbling on these more unusual plants, in preference to more abundant, more readily available ones. Conscious choices seem to be being made.

It has been fun, so far, having rabbits in the house. More than that, however, it has been illuminating. I have come to better appreciate the intelligence of these seemingly simple animals. I think Man rather overestimates our place in the world. Yes, we have language and technology - but even quite humble animals have a degree of intelligence that too many overlook. They are not dumb creatures - they are just not as able as Humanity as a whole. That, however, does not make them unimpressive.

I recommend, to anyone, to have a pet or two in the house. The children will learn a lot - but so will you. The lessons you learn might surprise you and prompt you to reassess a number of your basic assumptions about the world's animals.

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Friendship between species: a love of animals.

Tiarnan, twenty one months, rather likes animals. He reacts to them as if he is seeing a particularly sweet thing: with a big smile and evident excitement.

A couple of days ago, I was walking Tiarnan in the park when he saw a dog. He took me by the hand and dragged me towards it. He then stood watching it for a while, before reaching out, tentatively, with a single outstretched finger, to touch its white hair. It was a small dog, perhaps a third of his height, with white hair all over, apart from brown on its face. As soon as his finger touched it, he pulled it back, as if unsure of the reaction. His face was all intent, his lip covering his lower teeth, in concentration.

After nothing untoward happened and the dog didn't seem to mind, he reached out again. This time he let his touch linger longer. He pulled away more slowly. Nothing happened. So this time he reached out again and patted the dog. No reaction. So then he placed his hand on the dog and squeezed. Again, no reaction: I thought the dog was most tolerant. Finally he set about touching various parts of the dog to see how they would feel and what would happen. He squeezed the back (again); he grabbed the short white tail; he patted the head; he pulled at the ears - and then his wandered around to the front of the dog's face, near the teeth. I pulled him back at that. Yet, it was good to note how well the dog was taking all of this. It must be used to the ministrations of children.

After some minutes, of this, I thought that the dog and owner had had enough of this, so I dragged him away. He was most reluctant and kept on looking back. "Doggie...doggie..." he kept on moaning. Finally, when we were about 30 metres away, he took a stand, and pulled against my hand, trying to halt me: I did. I let go of him. He ran off to one side where there was a giant, fallen palm branch, about 6 or 7 feet long and he began to drag it behind him. He walked over to the dog and placed the palm before it, such that green leaves rested on the dog.

He looked at the dog's failure to react, then moved forward and shoved the leaves towards its face. It was clear that Tiarnan, in a gesture of concern, for the dog, was trying to feed it. Little did he know that it wasn't a natural vegetarian. "He eats meat, Tiarnan, not plants." I said, to him, but he ignored me, thinking, perhaps, that if only he tried harder to attract the dog's notice with his offering that it would eat. He pushed it towards the dog again. Then he placed a couple of leaves on its face, directly. Nothing happened. The dog treated the plant as if it weren't there.

Finally, Tiarnan understood that the dog didn't want to eat it. He then picked up the branch and dragged it back the fifteen metres or so, to where he had found it, and replaced it.

We said our goodbyes to the dog and Tiarnan walked off happily with me.

I found the whole incident very sweet to behold. Tiarnan was clearly trying to befriend the dog and had made an offering of what he thought would be food for the dog. You see, we don't have a pet and he has never seen a dog eat - so he doesn't know that they are carnivores. He just thought that that giant branch looked appetizing.

It seems, from this evidence, and much else beside that we should really get our children a pet - preferably a furry one, if Tiarnan's reaction to the dog's coat is anything to go by.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eleven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and four months, and Tiarnan, twenty-one months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Construction of the Grand Snail Hotel

Childhood doesn't seem so far away, when one has children to observe, at play.

At the weekend, Fintan, 4, and Ainan, 7, decided to make their snails more at home. (See the post Children and Pet Animals, for background). They decided to build the Grand Snail Hotel.

The Hotel was quite large, if you were a snail. It was built on the landing of the stairwell outside our flat, between our flat and the neighbour. The construction materials were of the lasting kind: polystyrene and a range of plastics (selected, I believe, by Ainan, because the snails would be unable to eat their residence, it being made of inedible plastic. This is always a good consideration, when one's hotel guests are hungry and unable to distinguish between food and furniture.)

The Grand Snail Hotel had all the attributes of a great and thoughtful hotel. Some polystyrene with a dip in it about a foot and a half long, provided what was, to scale, an Olympic sized swimming pool. Another section with a ramp leading up to it (for snails, like disabled people, are not good with stairs, and need ramps to reach elevated areas), provided a kind of dormitory where snails could sleep en masse. There was a snail restaurant providing the best of leaves - the staple being lettuce from my fridge - and even a supermarket, where there was a large store of unused vegetable leaves, for later purchase by any self-catering snail. The entire complex was self-enclosed in its own wall, protecting the nibbling snails from the difficult environment they might find in the world outside. All in all, it was a masterpiece of Snail Architecture. Credit for the Architecture goes to the creative team of Fintan Nadym Cawley and Ainan Celeste Cawley, who were the sole designers of this innovative construction initiative in the nascent hotel field known as Gastropod Tourism.

Anyway, all this actually happened and was carefully explained to me by the earnest architects: Ainan and Fintan. My wife and I were most impressed at the miniature compound they had created for their adopted snail pets.

As we left to go shopping, my wife called back at Ainan and Fintan: "We will take a photograph of it when we get back!"

We were both happy to see the two aspects of character embodied in that work: creativity in designing it in the first place - and the care for animals that they should think to do so in the first place. Besides, it was hilarious to see what they had done to the stairwell: it had become a Gastropod Hotel. There are not many stairwells in the world like that one.

(If you would like to read more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eight months, or his gifted brothers, including Fintan, aged four years and one month, or Tiarnan, eighteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, genetics, left-handedness, College, University, Chemistry, Science, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

The mystery of the disappearing lettuce.

This post won't mean much unless you have read the post on Children and Pet Animals first.

On the morning after my sons had made their own snail colony, Ainan came to me:

"It's gone."

"What?"

"The leaf we left out for the snails. It is gone."

Sure enough the rather large leaf we had left in the stairwell with the snails had disappeared - not just a little gone - but as if it had never been there.

The detective on the Case of the Missing Lettuce, that is, me, is looking for a small, slippery customer, strong enough to carry his own house on his back, escaping from the scene at about 0.05 mph. Shouldn't be too difficult to catch.

Seriously, though - letting the children play with garden animals like this does, I feel, teach them a lot about life. It also has a very subtle, important, and vital implicit lesson: a respect for the environment, for nature and for life. A child brought up with that value is a lot more likely to do the right things for this world, than one who misses out on that lesson.

As for us, we have three children who like animals - and play with them with respect. I feel pleased about that.

(If you would like to read more of the Cawley children, including Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eight months, Fintan, four years and one month, and Tiarnan, eighteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, genetics, left-handedness, College, University, Chemistry, Science, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children. Thanks.)