We have created two bunny banana addicts. We didn't mean to do it. We didn't think we had done it, but we did it.

Everything we've read says bananas are bad for bunnies. They like them too much and they are too fattening. So we planned to make these a rare treat and not get them addicted.

When Tigger and Shadow were babies, just months old, we had them altered. As a precaution, the vet wanted them on antibiotics. We didn't want to try and hold them down for medication when they were recovering from surgery. So we had this great idea to give them medicated "banana sandwiches". We took small Asian dipping bowls and put a thin banana slice in the bottom, squirted the medication on the slice and covered it with another thin banana slice. Both bunnies were nice enough to eat everything and even lick the bowls. In that short week, we created addicts.

Fast forward to the present, five years later ... Banana treats have been rare, maybe once or twice a year and we think they don't remember those early days and that smooth banana taste and texture or the heady banana smell. Usually, we eat bananas in the kitchen where Tigger and Shadow don't have access. However, one day I walk into the living room with a cereal bowl in my hand and the last bite of banana in my mouth. As soon as I sit down, I have a black rabbit bouncing on my lap inspecting my bowl. Shadow rapidly looses interest in the cereal and starts stretching up my chest, patting me on the chin with his paws, and sniffing my mouth. He is so close, his whiskers are tickling up my nose. It occurs to me that he can smell that last banana bite in my mouth and I'm supposed to give it over. I swallow it quickly and warn my husband to be careful about our own banana use.

My warning is forgotten and a couple weeks later my husband walks into the living room with an evening snack for himself, a bowl of cereal with a cut up banana. He sits down on the sofa and is immediately overwhelmed with Tigger and Shadow bouncing all over his lap and trying to dive into his cereal bowl. It is amazing to watch two high energy rabbits bounce around so much and so fast they look like a pack of rabbits. After watching the show for a minute or so, I decide I had better respond to my husband's howls for help. Fortunately, our pantry included some dried banana slices and I was able to lure our two addicts to another part of the room so that my husband could quickly consume his banana.

The moral is that bananas and rabbits are a combustible combination. Watch yourself if you ever plan to combine the two! Addicts are easily created and humans are in danger if they ever try to keep a bunny addict from the banana.

~ Rebecca Pullin