Lennie becomes excited about petting or possessing soft animals, especially rabbits. At the beginning of Chapter One, he is carrying a dead mouse just so he could pet it while they walked. Throughout Steinbeck's book, Lennie is continually referring to the fact that one day he will get to "tend rabbits" on the farm which he and George hope one day to own. At the end of Chapter One, he is quite interested in having "different color rabbits" and "furry ones." In Chapter Two, Lennie becomes equally excited about having a puppy after overhearing a conversation between Slim and Carlson. He urges George to ask Slim for one of them:
“A brown and white one,” Lennie cried excitedly.
After receiving the puppy, Lennie is always in the barn with him and George is grateful to Slim for the gift. In Chapter Three, George says,
“It wasn’t much to you, maybe, but it was a hell of a lot to him. Jesus Christ, I don’t know how we’re gonna get him to sleep in here. He’ll want to sleep right out in the barn with ‘em. We’ll have trouble keepin’ him from getting right in the box with them pups.”
Later, in Chapter Three, as George is telling his story about the dream of the farm, Lennie gets overly excited over the prospect of gathering alfalfa and feeding his rabbits. When George suggests that Lennie will need to keep the cats away from the rabbit hutches, Lennie responds angrily:
Lennie breathed hard. “You jus’ let ‘em try to get the rabbits. I’ll break their God damn necks. I’ll . . . . I’ll smash ‘em with a stick.”
Ultimately, Lennie's obsession with petting soft things is fatal. As he is stroking Curley's wife's hair in Chapter Five, she begins struggling and Lennie, who often isn't aware of his own strength, accidentally breaks her neck. In Chapter Six, George has no other recourse than to kill Lennie, rather than allow him to fall into the hands of Curley.
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