Joy Dasgupta had always wanted a dog but never did as his daughter is asthmatic and the doctor had warned against animal fur. But a tragic incident last year changed their minds and their lives.
“Our domestic help landed up one day with a basket in hand. Inside was a rabbit that she had brought from another house where she worked,” says Dasgupta. “She had been asked to ‘get rid of it’.”
The other house had a male and female rabbit but when their litter got too much to handle, they decided to do away with the male. “The help asked us to keep the rabbit, failing which she would release him in the open. Street dogs would not have spared him then,” says Dasgupta, whose family took in “Bhutu”.
“My wife Mousumi named him Bhutu but my daughter Avira and I call him Bro,” laughs Dasgupta. The rabbit responds to both names.
Initially, Bhutu was depressed as he had been uprooted from the only family he had ever known. “He was refusing food too. We even considered meeting his previous family and urging them to take him back,” says Dasgupta. “But then we heard from the help that Bhutu would be hit there for eating up the Marigolds offered to the gods. We realised giving him back would be sad and dangerous for him and gradually, he learnt to trust us.”
Bhutu nibbles a carrot for his afternoon snack
Brinda SarkarDasgupta runs a home delivery service, Annobhog, but none of those delicacies is allowed for Bhutu. “He eats only raw food — kolmi shak, basil leaves, carrots, peas, brinjals,” he says. “In fact, he eats almost 24 hours a day, even all night when the rest of us are asleep. He takes naps during the day under the bed or by my side in the evenings when I relax after work.”
Bhutu is fast, agile and prances all over the house. He is a high jumper and can jump straight onto Dasgupta’s lap from the floor. “But he must be kept caged sometimes as he tends to run out of the house. He’s done so four or five times and neighbours have spotted him and brought him back to us,” he says.
The delicate rabbit has a white coat, pink-grey ears, black eyes, and a grey patch around his mouth. “He had long front teeth that the doctor said would need to be filed but before we could call the groomer for it, Bhutu himself gnawed on his metal cage and filed them,” says Dasgupta.
When being petted, his ears are relaxed to the back and when alerted by some sound, they stand straight up. “He licks us profusely to express his love and scratches when scolded,” Dasgupta says as his wife displays her arms full of scratches.
