Read Bommel's book

Bommel was a brown Netherland dwarf rabbit who ran the house from under a desk, among the cables. His book holds the sound that always worked, the red vacuum cleaner he feared, and who was who to him. An example, made after Bommel died.

• 

  Bommel
• 

  Bommel

  2017 – 2025

  Bommel

• Bommel

  2017 – 2025

  For Bommel, who ran the house from under a desk.

  Bommel1

  Breed

  Netherland dwarf, brown

  Born

  2017

  Household

  Joost, Anouk, Lieve and Sem

  Loved

  Dandelion leaves

  Feared

  The red vacuum cleaner

  Real bed

  Under Joost's desk, among cables

  Bommel2

• Seven o'clock, every morning

  At seven he stood with his front paws against the wire of the run and thumped a back foot on the board. Once every ten seconds, until someone opened the door. Then he ran three laps of the kitchen and sat under the table, waiting there, quite still, for whatever came next in the morning, as though the running had settled something and now he could simply wait.

  Bommel3

  

  Bommel4
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  Spring 2018, the first time in the grass behind the house. He ate the dandelion in one go.

  Bommel5

  The sound that worked

  The creak of the lid on the tub of dandelion leaves called him faster than anything. Not the fridge, not his own tub of pellets. He could be out in the garden, nose down in the grass, and still be inside within ten seconds of that creak, ready and waiting by the tub, as if he had heard it from another room entirely.

  Bommel6

• 

  Bommel7

  The red one

  The vacuum cleaner terrified him, but only the red one. The old grey one could stand right next to him and he wouldn't move. When the new one arrived he spent two days under the desk. Anouk opened the tub of dandelion leaves and he came out, ate, looked at the red vacuum in the corner, and went back under. On the third day he stayed out.

  Bommel8

• 

  Bommel9

  The letter k, forty-two times

  He sat on Joost's keyboard during a video call and sent an email with his back foot: the letter k, forty-two times. Joost's boss replied, 'Ok.' Joost wrote back 'the rabbit' and nothing else. His boss replied 'Ok.' again. At the Christmas do that year, she asked how the rabbit was doing, and Joost had to explain the whole thing over again.

  Bommel10

• The look of surprise

  Cables were his. Lieve's charger, the printer cable, and once the cable of the Christmas lights while they were still on. He was never told off for any of it, because he always looked so surprised, as if the cable had simply appeared in front of him and he hadn't asked for it at all, and nobody in the house could argue with a face like that.

  Bommel11

  

  Bommel12
• 

  Bommel13

  Where he really slept

  The hutch stood in the utility room, door open, mostly unused. Really he slept under Joost's desk, among the cables, where he fitted exactly and nobody could reach him. He also took the path to the shed, where Sem once left a piece of carrot and he carried it inside, and he worked through the dandelions in the grass, bottom up, ears above the leaves.

  Bommel14

• Who was who to Bommel

  Joost

  Owned the desk and keyboard Bommel claimed as his own.

  Anouk

  Kept the tub whose creaking lid always brought him running.

  Lieve

  Lost a charger cable to him and never got an apology.

  Sem

  Read to him every evening, even when he was asleep.

  Milan

  Neighbour who came Saturdays with a carrot, never came in.

  Bommel15
  JoostAnoukLieveSemMilan

  Bommel16

• Who loved him

  • Sem, reading aloud every evening
  • His school reading book
  • Milan from next door, every Saturday
  • A carrot, left at the door

  Bommel17

  Every evening, every Saturday

  Sem read to him from his school reading book every evening, even when Bommel was already asleep. And Milan from next door stood at the door every Saturday with a carrot, and never wanted to come in. Two kinds of loyalty, both turning up on schedule, whether or not Bommel was awake to notice.

  Bommel18

• Words of the house

  The tub

  Dandelion leaves; the creak of its lid brought him running.

  The red one

  The vacuum he feared, unlike the old grey one.

  His spot

  Under Joost's desk, among cables, out of reach.

  Ok

  The boss's reply to an email of k's, typed forty-two times.

  Bommel19
  The tubThe red oneHis spotOk

  Bommel20
• 

  Bommel21

  The kitchen window sill, where he watched the rain.

  Bommel22

• 

  Bommel23

  Finally on the sofa

  He got to eight. In the last year he was allowed on the sofa, which he never had been before. He knew exactly that it meant something, and he took the spot the way he took the dandelion tub and the cables behind the desk: without hesitation, as if it had always been his.

  Bommel24

• He got to eight. Some evenings someone still checks the corner under the desk out of habit, cables and all. The lid of the dandelion tub still creaks the same way, and for a moment the kitchen waits for the sound of him coming in from the garden.

  Bommel25
  

  Bommel, 2017 – 2025

  Bommel26

• This book was made for Bommel, from the words and photos of the people who love Bommel.

  bookofmypet.com