FRUGAL VERSES CHEAP.

What's the difference between being frugal and being cheap? Frugal people understand that some expenses are necessary whereas a cheap person skimps on everything.

In When a Man Loves a Rabbit (Learning and Living With Bunnies), I learned the difference when I thought my home remedies were sufficient to cure my rabbit, Esther. Here's what happened in May of 2003 when I was too tight-fisted to call the vet.

-----------------------------------------------------------------.

Several times during the winter, that naughty girl had ripped up the carpet. When I took down the beaded curtain and the door was back in its place, she started ripping up carpet in front of it.

In April 2003, she stopped eating and all my home made remedies didn't work. When I went with her to the vet, I was told that Esther had been ingesting the rug and the vet managed to dislodge a lump that was blocking her intestine.

Esther ate well for a few weeks and then stopped again

I was extremely fed up at being broke and having to pay bills that I tried to cure her at home. By early May, nothing had worked?not even rubbing her belly or giving her canned pumpkin through a syringe.

After breakfast one morning, I went down to the radio room to check on her. When I tried opening the door, something seemed to be blocking it. I pushed it hard, thinking that a bundle of junk mail had fallen over.

To my horror, it was Esther's body that jammed the door.

She lay next to a puddle of pumpkin that had risen in her throat .I mentally kicked myself because I should have taken her to the vet again, but I'd been too cheap.

I resolved then and there not to adopt any more pets of any kind, until I was in a better financial position and had a reliable way to get medical help for them.

Then I wept.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

When a Man Loves a Rabbit contains many more fascinating stories of life with house bunnies. These range from the tragic to the hilarious. Click here to read more about this book and to order it. You may also e-mail me directly if the comment form doesn't work.