Guarding what's yours

Many years ago when I was in primary school, my gave me a rabbit. It was beautiful; white in colour, with patches of black, and much fur that had a way of standing on its back whenever it was anxious.

It lived in a hutch that my friends and I built for it, from where it gave birth and became a doting mother of eight cheerful little bunnies that often made lively music skipping about and stomping their little feet happily. There is nothing I loved better than watching them nibbling at lettuce leaves!

The world is full of wolves; jealously guard your 'rabbits'

One day, I woke up to find my doe gone and its babies sprawled all over, dead. A wild cat --entuuru -- had broken in and wreaked havoc. I was devastated, and could not be consoled until my uncle gave me another rabbit, and a black puppy with a hulking chest he said would grow into a fierce police dog that would scare prowling predators. In fact I nicknamed that dog Police.

Our shamba boy built for me a much more secure hutch that no beast would break into. Even then, I took no chances. Every night I stood by my bedroom window which faced the new hutch, watching like a night guard. Dangling around my neck was a sling with which I was used to shooting down birds that used to terrorise our millet garden. I was ready, with one shot, to kill anyone who came close to my new hutch and rabbits like the boy David used one sling shot to slay the arrogant giant Goliath in the valley of Elah.

That is how I learned a valuable life lesson. The world is full of foxes that major in stealing and destroying, and a man must strive, always, to jealously guard what he owns.