There were times we were alerted to Shadow’s presence not by what he was doing, but by what he wasn’t doing.  There would be a stillness in the room, but a strong feeling of a presence.  We would look and Shadow would be completely motionless, but very focused in looking straight at us.  Very often, he would be on the top of his cage staring at the back of Blaine’s head as Blaine was reading on the sofa.

I called it Shadow’s practice in the power of positive bunny thinking. Shadow would sit completely focused on thinking about getting someone to give him a treat.  Since Blaine was the one who usually doled out the bunny biscuits or dried fruit treats, Shadow would usually focus his stare on Blaine.

On one memorable occasion, Shadow also used the power of his positive thinking stare to get the treat he really had a taste for.  Blaine pulled out a couple dried raspberries and put them in front of Shadow.  Shadow looked down at them and then looked straight back up at Blaine in that focused stare.  So Blaine picked up the raspberries and put down a couple of pieces of dried mango. Shadow looked at them and sniffed them and then focused his steady positive bunny thinking stare back up on Blaine again.  Blaine picked up the mango and put down a couple dried blueberries and Shadow wolfed them down. Success!

Little Leo the Lionhead is home and recovering from his neuter surgery …