As a young boy at the beginning of the war some 60 years ago I was in no doubt that I wanted to be an animal doctor when I grew up. At this stage, I did not own a pet but this was to change very quickly as I decided to use all my savings in purchasing a Sable Rex Buck Rabbit. It cost me five shillings, or in today's money £5. Returning home from Bridekirk with my precious purchase I felt very important and proud as I put my Rabbit, now called Mac, into the hutch which I had so carefully made over the previous weeks. During the months that followed I found I had a friend to whom I could talk and who listened, but never spoke back and who heard all about my happy days at school. He trusted me as I trusted him and each day as I groomed him and made his velvet coat shine our private friendship grew.

The feeding of rabbits in those days did not involve collecting food from a pet shop, and it was easy to provide good natural food from around home. Always plenty of hay was in his rack and this kept his teeth in good shape, and also I could collect in a bag little bits of many different plants from out of a hedgerow. A rabbit is nibbler and likes to eat a little bit of this and a little bit of that as he goes on a daily journey if free to roam. A bramble leaf is always a favourite and also the many plants we see in our hedgerow are delicacies. A piece of toast was always popular and a little bran mixed with used tea leaves was enjoyed. In season a small bit of turnip or carrot or a small piece of potato gave him his vitamins, but excess was not allowed to accumulate in his hutch. He had a private dark bedroom in one third of the hutch bedded with soft straw and in his open part of the hutch he had plenty of sawdust collected from the woodyard in the middle of Cockermouth. He was never allowed to have a dirty hutch and had fresh water morning and night. It is not difficult for me to see the pride of ownership of a young client in surgery with their pet and their love for it as it rolls back the years for me so described above.

At the beginning of the war Cockermouth had a Rabbit club and Inspector Woolcock, who lived at the police station, was in charge of the small ration of bran, which could.be bought for feeding rabbits. Also, it was possible to get some wire netting from him in order to build further hutches and this I was able to do. I purchased from the same source a female rabbit, which I called Muriel, and from then on was able to breed some very good rabbits. Once a month, we had a rabbit show behind the pet shop, and it wasn't long before I proudly took home some prize tickets.

Rabbit shows became very popular in the 50s and 60s and I continued to enjoy rabbit keeping then having completed my tortuous route from School to the Army, then down Clifton Pit for a year, and then six years at University. Each Friday night I used to send a couple of rabbits,well groomed for showing on the Saturday to shows all over the north of England,by putting them on the train at Cockermouth station and they would be automatically collected by show representatives and fed and watered and presented to the judges. Back they would come by train nearly always with prize tickets and the prize money would cover the expenses. My children enjoyed that excitement and fun and eagerly came with me to the station to pick up the little animals that had done their best for us. Alas, Dr Beeching put the Kybosh on the job by shutting down our railway.

You can learn a lot by watching rabbits in nature by sitting quietly where you know rabbits are. They love sunshine and, if you don't disturb them, you can watch them washing themselves like a cat with their big ears getting special attention. (I wonder Why?) They are very clean by nature and do not foul their beds underground, and of course this habit allows more of you to keep rabbits as pets in the house where they will use a sanitary tray in a corner. They are the third most kept pet in the UK and can be real characters.

There are many free leaflets on how to look after rabbits in pet shops and veterinary waiting rooms telling you all about vaccines.care, feeding, housing and ailments, but most of all to have one to love and talk to and to be your private friend and keep a diary of all you notice. This is all about growing up and fun too.