Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home - Part Three (final part)

"Wake up," said a voice. The voice echoed in my head. The floor was no longer felt cold and metal; it was rough and plastic. I opened my eyes. Where am I? I looked around as my vision began to clear up again. My eyes widened. I was in a cage. But this cage wasn't like the cage at home. It was small. My ears reached the roof of the cage which had a hard plastic roof over it. It was not like any cage I'd seen before. Where was I?

"Did you tell the boss?" whispered a voice. My ears raised up. "Yeah, he said to keep Pinky isolated for now," said a woman's voice. Those voices sounded familiar to those I heard earlier.

Throughout my life here, I was sometimes addressed by the name Pinky. I think it had to do with our tags, since I was the only one with a pink tag while everybody else had a green one. I wasn't completely sure, but that didn't matter right now. I wanted to get back home. I got up to where I could stand and put my face up against the cage's bars. There it was. My home. I watched as all my brothers and sisters played with each other while my mom took care of the younger ones. I didn't like being separated from my family, but I sighed with relief knowing that they were okay. I missed them so much and hoped that I could see them again. I then searched to the left of me. In shock, my older sister was staring right at me. I turned away as quickly as I could. My older sister didn't like me. She was also different from the rest of us. She was the only black rabbit. The rest of us had white fur. And although her tag was also green, it was a lighter shade than all the others. I questioned this many times, but I felt like asking her would be like committing a crime, so I just moved on.

"Sir, she's awake", said another voice from my right. I turned my head.

"Good, make sure that she's not sick. I heard footsteps approach me. CLICK. The cage opened, and I was taken out of it by blue latex hands. I was placed on the table again. I did not know what they were doing, but that didn't matter. I wanted to know when I could go back home—back to my family.

Back in my cage, I sit there, waiting and thinking. "Should I escape? I thought as my heart raced. "No, that's impossible," I thought. I had so much weight on my shoulders. I looked back again at my home as I saw my family getting fed dinner. That was around the time I would've returned home. Dinner. I missed them. A blue latex hand suddenly opened the cage. CLICK. A load of lettuce and parsley got dumped into my cage. The space was so tight, I was basically one with the veggies.

I was so hungry. I looked up. "Thank you," I said, knowing very well that the humans could not hear me. I sighed, knowing that I could not enjoy this meal with my family, and began to munch on my lettuce. Afterwords, I dozed off early into the night and onto the next morning.

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of footsteps. "Good morning, we ask you give us your carriers in exchange for some money. We are running low, and your boss approved of this, so there is no need to ask," demanded a woman. The man started at the lady.

"Fine, fine, let me go get them ready for you." I heard footsteps approach me. The human unlocked my cage and lifted me to their face. I could finally see light again. "Well, Pinky, it looks like you get to go back to your family," he said with a smile. It was that same human from the other day. The one that looked like it was going to kill me I didn't know if I was going to be happy or scared, but that didn't last long. Not like before. If anything, I was grateful and surprised. I was getting carried back home. I was so happy!

Once I got placed back into the pen, my siblings came sprinting at me and greeted me with thousands of hugs. "Sister sister! We missed you!", they all shouted with enthusiasm.

"I'm so glad! I missed you guys too!" I said with tears filling my eyes. My mother looked over from the other side of the room while tending to my younger siblings and smiled with relief. I nodded at her, assuring me that I was unharmed and okay. I was so happy that I was back, and I never wanted to leave again. Tears that had quickly built up flowed down my face like a river escaping a dam. There my sister was, the one who I thought hated me the most, the one who I have avoided my whole life, smiling at me and mouthing the words, "I missed you." I was so glad she did. I rushed over to her and gave her a hug.

Sure, it might have been luck, but I was glad that I could be back with my family. Even if we lived behind bars, even if these were our boundaries forever, it was still our home. Our home sweet home