The Rabbit Follies
Sometime back, we had rabbits.
It started one spring. Myria had had rabbits when she was growing up and had told me about them. My folks weren’t into animals - especially small ones so I had no idea what a bunny member of the family would be like. We decided to see what was available and if anybody seemed like they might want to come home with us.
Nebula
For a long time, we gave her “running” time in the bathroom. The bathroom in our old apartment was fairly large and, though oddly shaped, gave lots of running space for a young bunny who was feeling frisky. Aside of exercise time, she lived in a large, roomy cage in the bedroom. We weren’t happy about caging her up - neither of us is comfortable with animals in cages - but we didn’t know what else to do. We were worried that the cats would view Nebula as lunch and didn’t want to chance having her hurt - or worse.
So we kept reading and studying various resources and kept running into accounts of cats and rabbits co-existing, not just peacefully, but companionably. One night, with due precautions, we let Fluffy into the bathroom while Nebula was having her run.
He just stood there while Nebula ran around him in tight circles. In bunny, that means she felt she’d found a new best friend. The cat seemed curious, but not the least inclined to pounce. We only let it go on for a few minutes, but we were cautiously optimistic.
We repeated the process every night for the next couple of weeks with both cats. Fluffy liked Nebula and Goldie was completely indifferent. There were no signs whatsoever of aggression.
After that, we let Nebula live in, and have the run of the living room. Aside of her devotion to stripping the wallpaper and her tendency to bite through any electrical cord she could find, all was well. In fact all was so well that we decided to get another rabbit - another female, of course, so there wouldn’t be any unexpected surprises :)
In November, we introduced Nova.
Nova
It was particularly entertaining to watch the rabbits and Fluffy (Goldie, for all the time we had them, continued to pretend that the rabbits didn’t exist) interact. In the morning, when everybody was feeling feisty, the rabbits would run around the living room (doing the Bun 500) and Fluffy would lay on the floor watching. If, during the course of their mad dash, the buns got close enough to him, he would extend his front legs into the air and the buns would hop right through them.
One Friday night, after a really bad work day, I came home and sat down on the living room floor to play with the animals. For me, the critters have always been a source of comfort and relaxation so this was something I often did. Myria was talking to me about her day when she suddenly stopped mid-sentence. I looked up at her to see her eyes round and her mouth open in surprise. She was looking across the room at the disreputable piece of sectional that we had ceded to the rabbits.
“Holy shit!”
“What? What!?!?”
“Something moved over there.”
I could see both rabbits and both cats, so it wasn’t any of them. I got up, went over to the sectional and carefully removed the buns’ litter box (yes, rabbits will litter train).
Babies! Baby bunnies! And, since rabbit kits are born without fur and with their eyes closed, and since these two had their eyes open and their clothes on, they were at least two weeks old!!
Babies on board!
It took us a few days to sort out who was the mother and who was the father. Nova was female, as advertised. Nebula was male. An appointment was immediately made for Nebula’s conversion to “consultant” but we already knew from our reading that Nova was likely pregnant again.
Locusts on the land...
In due course, Nova gave birth to her second litter. We had determined that we would find homes for all of this group, but there was a surprise we hadn’t anticipated. Since both parents, and all of the first litter were black, we expected only black kits. There were four kits this time, three black, and one white with sooty ears, nose and tail.
Uncle Fluffy
Luna
Unfortunately, due to a variety of circumstances, the day came when we felt we could no longer keep them. We were, thank heaven, able to find excellent homes for all of them where they would be loved, cared for and spoiled with people who were as nuts about them as we were.
I still miss them after almost two years. We hope, if things go well and we eventually are able to have a house of our own, to have another rabbit or two someday. In the meantime, I am grateful to have been able to get to know them and share space with them. I hadn’t known until then, that there was a space in my heart just waiting for bunnies to come live in it.
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Lovelovelove the bunny story! Read every word, lingered over ever picture.
When I was a child, my family had had a rabbit and a cat, too, but the rabbit was very aggressive and could frequently be found chasing the cat around the yard, with Very Bad Intentions. When we picked the rabbit up, we had to hold him as far away from our bodies as possible because he would do everything he could to disembowel us with his hind legs. Still, I loved the furry little hellraiser.
Baby. Bunnies.
Baby. Bunnies.
**dies from cuteness.
Ryan - I have heard of rabbits like that! I can understand your affection for him, though - a family member is a family member - even if they’re a little crazy…
Christina - Imagine something about the size of a golf ball, covered in soft, SOFT black fur, with LONG ears, hopping around the living room floor. I’m lucky I could get myself out to work every day because all I wanted to do was play with the babies!
I’ve had several rabbits as pets. My favorite was Thumper, my first and the one with the least original name. He used to play chasing games with the cat, around and under the dining room table. The cat would go over the top to try and cut Thumper off, and Thumper would stop short under the table then turn around and run out the way he came in. Boy, did the cat look surprised the first couple of times. We have guinea pigs now, and they are adorable but not quite as much fun as bunnies.
Sarra - Piggies are so cute! Adorable little cavie characters. I used to have one that made sculpture out of his carrot every night.
