THE move to the new house was an exciting time for all of us - the rabbits included. Oh, it was sad leaving the old house behind. The kids went round every room to say goodbye: "Goodbye lounge. Goodbye dining room. Goodbye kitchen." I couldn't help feeling one of them was going a bit over the top when he ran back to say goodbye to the airing cupboard.

But we convinced them that new house would be even better. The garden has too much grass to cut for my liking but it's great for kids - plenty of space, loads of trees, and nothing but farmland behind. It also proved to be a paradise for Hannah's rabbits, Jasmine and Aladdin.

They'd gradually become firm friends since Jasmine Number Two came along to replace the original Jasmine, who had sadly died within weeks of joining the family.

Jasmine and Aladdin have enjoyed the run of the new garden and it was hard to imagine two happier rabbits, until tragedy struck once again.

One morning, Jasmine and Aladdin, who have always had a bit of the Houdini about them, dug their way under the fence and were discovered happily playing with next door's pet bunnies. It was a week later that our neighbour knocked with the bad news. One of her rabbits had been put to sleep after contracting myxomatosis from wild rabbits in the farmer's field.

Jasmine and Aladdin were in grave danger and both were swiftly taken to the vet's to be inoculated. We didn't know whether it was too late.

Both seemed fine for a week or so, but then Jasmine started to become poorly and it was Dad's job to take her back to the vet. There was nothing that could be done - Jasmine Number Two had to be put to sleep.

Hannah cried a lot when I told her and older brother Christopher announced that he couldn't cry anymore: "I used up all my tear ducts when I found out she was ill," he said, quietly.

Apart from pining for his lost friend, Aladdin seems OK so far, although it will be another few weeks before we'll know for sure that he's safe.

But it's funny how children come to terms with death. When their Grandma died a few years back, Christopher, our oldest, told me how there was "something good in it" and not to worry, she wouldn't be in pain anymore and she'd be having a great time in heaven because there were hundreds of flume slides up there, only you didn't land in water, you had a soft landing in the clouds. She wouldn't be hungry because there was a McDonalds and she'd be teaching God how to do magic tricks. She'd always been able to do magic tricks, like making sweets appear from behind one ear, making them fly round the room and appear from behind the other ear.

Hannah has now decided that Grandma will be staging a special magic show in heaven this Christmas.

"She'll do her magic in front of all the people who've died and God, and she'll make lots of things appear and disappear. Right at the end, she'll pull two rabbits out of a big top hat and they'll be the two Jasmines. Then they'll all sing Christmas carols and opera." Heaven's a wonderful place, isn't it?

THEY THINGS THEY SAY

TAMARA, a friend's little girl, was sitting with her mum, watching the final episode of Inspector Morse. A murdered body was being bundled into the boot of a car when the little girl made a telling observation: "He can't stay in there Mum - they'll never be able to fit the shopping in."

Visit the Dad At Large website on www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/leisure/ dad/htm