Cut Telephone Cord

      Snowflake and Coconut were now 8 months old and had grown into healthy, beautiful, 9-pound, white fluffy rabbits. They lived in a “warren”, a cage in our office, where they felt very at home, and had plenty of food—hay, feed pellets and various green vegetables, during the day.
      Snowflake and Coconut enjoyed the freedom to be able to scurry in several rooms, during the day, as they chased each other, hopped and “binkied” to show their joy. I always monitored these sessions, since, though they were partially-litter-trained and somewhat obedient, they were also willful and unpredictable in their behavior. There were many house plants and only two were safe for them to eat. There also were many tempting electrical cords, mostly hidden, but known to the rabbits. Rabbits enjoy chewing and have been known to chew on electrical cords. This could be dangerous and cause the rabbit electrocution, as well as be a hazard in the house.
      Snowflake seemed to be unusually precocious. Several times, she plopped herself down to rest, in bunny fashion, right against an electric cord, as if to let me know that she was not going to chew the cord and knew exactly where they were (as if to say, “See, you did not catch me, but I did not chew on the cord anyway”.) Still, I was dubious that she was completely trustworthy.
      I began to leave open the rabbit cage door, as I monitored it, so that they could jump out, when they wanted to. Coconut did not try, but Snowflake quickly mastered jumping out of the cage, clearing both sides with one jump. She confidently investigated the rooms. However, she was a little too bold, going in areas, that were not permitted.
      One afternoon, as I was cleaning the cage, Snowflake squeezed behind the cage, which was a forbidden area, due to electrical and phone cords. I tried to corral her out of the area with a yardstick, and finally got her out of the area.
      A few minutes later, all the internet went off. It was a while since I had set up the internet connection and did not remember how it was wired. I telephoned the internet provider, and when they asked me to check the telephone wire and input, I realized that I did not know where these wires and connections were, so got off the phone, to check the telephone cord and see what it connected to. In following the telephone cord, I discovered that the cord was cut, right behind the rabbit cage, not once, but in two different places. It was not hard to make the connection, that our beloved Snowflake had done something dangerous and bad—she had severed the telephone cord, behind the rabbit cage. She probably had been hindered in her progress by the cord and easily cut it twice with her teeth. (We know that she is able to extricate herself from strings, that entangle her).
      It was not an easy problem to fix. Since we did not live near a store that sells telephone cords and we had no transportation, it was not possible to get another telephone cord. Indeed, the internet was the only way we could order our food or other necessities, indeed, our communication. Luckily, the cell phone was working and a friend suggested that I splice together the severed telephone cord, but I was not able to do that. Finally, a plan did work and I was able to obtain a telephone cord from another telephone in a different room, and replace the severed telephone cord. Then, we were back in business, with internet connection, and I could order a new telephone cord (for $7) as well as food for the rabbits and people in the house.
      Sadly, I had to remove Snowflakes’ privilege of jumping out of the cage and roaming freely about. The only room that she and Coconut could now roam in was the kitchen, and they were not happy about it. Snowflake, especially, seemed dismal about her loss of freedom and privilege. In the kitchen, they just rested on the floor and did not hop around. Though one might try to explain to Snowflake how much damage she did—causing myself and others trouble to diagnose an internet problem, and waste time, as well as be without internet service for three hours. Snowflake could not understand that she cut off any way for her to receive food. She also did not know how dangerous it would be for her to cut through an electrical cord. All she knew was that she could not longer jump out of the cage and roam around the way she wanted.
      How it is with us and our Heavenly Father. He gives us rules, that seem ridiculous and curtails our having freedom and fun. And He perhaps cannot even begin to explain to us the reason, for we could not understand. And how often have we made mistakes, without even realizing the damage or danger to ourselves or others! Maybe there are times that our freedom has been limited and we can’t figure out why. Thankfully, we have a Wise Heavenly Father, who knows what is best for us.