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Winning Pet Poetry

© Dorothy Hoffman

Our crack team of bunny poetry judges - Lilith and Eve - were working round the clock over the past month reading and critiquing the fabulous entries we received in our first pet poetry contest.

We wish we had more than one prize to offer since we had so many favorites! But after much arguing - and some grumbling in the ranks when I insisted we couldn't just declare all the bunnies winners - we finally awarded first place to CELESTE J. RAT, companion of Jim Kading, for her terribly clever, concise, and insightful untitled verse:

Some say I do creep,
But I really love to sleep,
And make the others go peep peep.
And sometimes they go EEP
But me I'd rather sleep
Unless...IS THAT A TREAT?

Eve loved the way Celeste captured the spirit of rattiness in these few lines, incorporating both popular misconceptions about rats (they "creep" and make people go "EEP") and their true nature (they love to sleep and can't resist a tasty treat). Lilith agreed it really says it all, and very cleverly.

We selected several runners up which we all thought deserved special recognition even though we don't have a prize to give for them. We couldn't decide which we liked best so we just awarded them all second place.

First for the bunnie

Lilith selected Her Highness Miss Sable D. Bunny's epic "Ode to Penelope", as dictated to her loyal secretary Kayne D. Bunny:

Shall I compare me to a Penelope?
I am more lovely and more intelligent.
loppy ears hath all too short a length.
Sometime Rough words do shock the darling wife of Minx,
And too much she takes of my slave's time,
And often is her gold complexion shed;
And it's fair to say she ought to be gouged,
By Mistress Sable's growing nails untrimm'd;
But my eternal beauty shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that grudge I owest;
Nor shall Minx threat'n when I wander his land,
Where, eternal slave to you, he growl-est:
So long as I can poop and you can pee,
So long lives this war between you and me.

Rabbits aren't all fluffy little lovebugs, and Sable's poem covers the gamut of bad bunny emotions from envy to vanity to undying hostility. A tour de force on the dark side of rabbit rivalry!

Eve voted for this joyful bit of self-expression by Louisa May Apricot Peoples, aka Lammie,

I'm small, I'm fast, my feet are quick
I slip, I dart, I do my tricks
Flash back and forth, to and fro,