You Hopped Into Our Hearts

This Easter my husband’s sister, Sandra, decided to, without asking us, purchase a baby bunny to surprise my little Peggy with. I am furious with Sandra for not talking to us about it first. This is no way to treat an animal, but it’s ours now and I have to take care of it. Peggy is only six and it’s preposterous to put any responsibility like that on her. The problem is, I know nothing about rabbits, lucky for me my coworker knows a lady that runs a rabbit and other small animal rescue centre. And she has agreed to help me.

Peggy, my little curly, redheaded firecracker with her gorgeous green eyes were running loops around me as I was holding the carrier with, Eddie, as Peggy had named the bunny, in my hand.

I was taking him to the rescue centre to speak about him with the lady.

Five minutes later I strapped the carrier on the front passenger seat, and gently closed the door when I finished. The car seat was quite cold so I put the heater on to raise the temperature. Someone as small as Eddie must feel the cold even more than I do.

We reached the rescue centre after a fairly short drive and Eddie looked more than excited, poking his nose through the gaps in the metal bars of the front of the carrier. He’s so small, can’t believe he was ready to leave his mum and siblings already.

The woman at the reception greeted us with a smile and asked if I was putting him up for adoption, but I told her I planned to do no such thing. I told her my name is Emily and that I am here to see Janet. She kept on smiling and looked through the daily agenda, I assumed. After a moment she nodded and told me to sit down and wait while she went to check if Janet was ready.

Eddie was digging away at the bottom of the cage, jumping over it and then digging it back to where he started. I giggled to myself, I may not know anything about his behaviour or needs, but he was going to fit right in with this family.

Janet poked her head out from around the corner and told me to come along inside to the office. I brought Eddie with me and placed him on the seat next to me.

“I hear you’ve been given a rabbit as a Easter gift. It happens all too often, I wish people knew better and would stop treating animals like objects”, she huffed and puffed in annoyance.

“Yes, my husband’s sister thought it was a good idea. I can’t just put him up for adoption, as soon as he entered our home he became part of our family.”, I looked at Eddie and gave him a smile.

“Well, I’m glad you feel so strongly about him. Because rabbits are not a low maintenance pet to own”. I had no clue that they were high maintenance. I had always thought they sat in their cage and ate food all day. Someone you could let out when you felt like playing with them or socialising.

Janet and I talked for a good hour and a half and she told me all kinds of things that I had no clue about. I was handed so many papers with information about caring for a bunny. And she asked me if I knew if he was neutered and vaccinated, but the truth was I didn’t know. I would have to call Sandra and get that information.

Eddie’s carrier was placed on the desk and Janet opened the cage door, out popped a tiny little head as he sniffed around and checked out this new area. She placed one hand behind his front paws and the other under his bum and she carefully got him out the cage and placed him to her chest. He was a bit uncomfortable and worried at the start but when she placed her hand on his back and gave him support from there and from underneath, he calmed down. In a stable and safe position.

We figured out that Eddie was a Netherland Dwarf rabbit, they apparently stay small pretty much all their life, although she said that he would definitely get bigger than he was now. She showed me pictures of fully grown rabbits of the same breed and I thought they looked adorable, cute and grumpy at the same time.

She put him on the table and placed her hand under his front paws again, this time lifting him up with his back paws still on the table as she fumbled around with her other hand.

“Oh, he is definitely neutered.”, she said with a chuckle.

I shook her hand and Eddie and I departed. This time, a little bit more familiar with each other.

Outside the pet store were a bunch of balloons and people raising money for abandoned cats. I gave them a few pounds and made my way inside, Eddie got to wait in the car as I didn’t want to stress him out in case there were dogs in the store. I had brought the list of items that Janet had told me to get. Food bowl, water bowl, hay, toys, the largest cage I could find, cage bottom material that was absorbent and soft to step on, a hidey-house, a hayrack and a big litterbox. I managed to find everything I needed and was now looking at the different types of pellets, baby bunnies need more pellets than adults when growing up. Janet had told me to get the pellets with the highest fibre count, so I asked for some help from one of the people working there and left with a bunch of heavy bags, and a kind shop assistant carrying my cage. We stuffed it all into the boot of the car and I drove back home to set everything up.

Eddie got to roam around in Peggy’s room while I sorted the spare bedroom out for him. Our little guy would get a whole room of his own. The cage took a while to assemble but it looked great once it was done. It had been painted white and had a built in hidey-house and a lot of windows covered with metal bars. I put the cage bottom material in and placed the litterbox in one of the corners, with a hayrack above it. I had been told that rabbits like to poop while they eat, and hay should be the biggest part of their diet. I filled the rack with fresh timothy hay and put the food bowls down. I got fresh water and some pellets in there, leaving a tiny slice of cucumber and banana in it too. Treats were to be given sparsely. But I had to treat him after a day like this.

The floor was wood and a bit slippery so I borrowed a rug from the kitchen to allow Eddie to roam around a bit further, I had made the decision to let him free roam in that room and let him run around the rest of the house after he got settled and only when we were home. I didn’t have to do a lot of bunny proofing as there were no cables and I didn’t know yet if Eddie was a chewer or not. Time would tell.

After I was done I stepped to the doorway and looked around, it was incredibly cute in there with a hidey-house along one of the long walls and a straw tunnel, with a few other little toys scattered around.

It was time to let Eddie see his new room.

Peggy gently carried Eddie in his carrier to the room and put it down on the floor. She opened it and I told her to sit on the floor and wait, patiently and calmly, while he checked out the new space. It would take him a few days to settle in, maybe more, and I had been told not to pressure him into physical contact with us, but instead just sit on the floor and allow him to come to us when he was ready to do so.

Eddie’s nose wiggled a lot as he took in all of the new smells. But he bravely jumped around, sniffing everything and marking it as his territory by rubbing his chin against it.

Peggy and I left him to explore on his own and with the door closed so he could focus on finding his favourite spots and checking out all of his new stuff. We sat down on the sofa in the living room and I took out all of the paperwork that Janet had given me. Meanwhile, Peggy was flipping through the channels on the TV, trying to find a channel with bunnies in it.

There was so much to learn that I had no clue about before meeting Janet. At least eighty percent of their diet should be hay, ten percent vegetables and greens, six percent good quality and fibre rich pellets, or nuggets as some call it, no muesli mixes as they are basically candy for a rabbit, and the rest, healthy treats.

Janet had also told me how it’s more natural for a rabbit to drink out of a bowl rather than a bottle. They could also risk getting dehydrated if they used a bottle as they get less water from it. Which is why I had decided not to bother with a bottle at all. Instead I had found two matching bowls with a painted on rabbit in the bottom. They were adorable, looked just like Eddie.

There was even information about how a rabbit’s poo should look like, but I’ll spare you the details on that one.

I put Peggy to bed and told her that tomorrow we’d be learning how to bond with Eddie, to help him learn to trust us so we could play with him. She laughed and said that she wanted to teach him tricks, and I honestly didn’t know if we could do that. I did not know how smart rabbits were. I kissed her goodnight and closed her door, then I made my way downstairs to check on Eddie before I gave him some more pellets and then I would get into bed as well. This day had been filled with a lot of new knowledge that I had to take in and process.

Eddie was sitting in the hidey-house along the wall and hopped out to greet me when I opened the door. I saw that he had finished the pellets I gave him earlier and that he had peed, but not in the litterbox. He peed in the corner on the other side, so I scooped up the material and the pee and placed it in the litterbox, then I moved the litterbox over to that corner, figuring he had chosen that as his pee corner. I moved the hayrack with it as well.

Pellets fell into the bowl and I could see him racing up the ramp of the cage and to the bowl, inhaling it almost. I got a bit concerned and thought I’d try another suggestion from Janet, scatter feeding. So I spread the remaining pellets over the upper floor, bottom floor and the rest of the floor in the room. He’d really have to work his way around the room to find all of these.

I said goodnight and closed the door behind me. Sinking into my bed and thinking how strange my life will become from now on. But I loved Eddie already and I could tell he would charm my husband too.

The next morning I woke up and hurriedly got out of bed to check on Eddie again. To my surprise Peggy and my husband Dan were already in there, sitting on the floor and watching as Eddie sniffed them. I was so proud of Peggy for being so gentle and calm, giving Eddie the space he would need to learn to trust us.

I kissed my husband on the top of his head and asked what they wanted for breakfast. After all orders had arrived I strolled into the kitchen. Cereal for Peggy, as always. A egg and ham toast for Dan, as always. And I decided to share my breakfast with Eddie, so I had a few cucumber and carrot sticks sliced up and some berries on the side.

All of us crammed into the guest bedroom, on the floor, and we ate our breakfast quietly, whispering when we talked so not to spook Eddie. He on the other hand didn’t seem like he could be spooked, he kept jumping between us all, asking for food. He quickly learned that he could only eat the food I was eating so he planted his fluffy little butt on my lap and held his paws on my stomach while reaching for my food. I gave him a slice of cucumber that he hopped away with and sat in his hidey-house to eat. When he was finished he’d come back and ask for more. This time I gave him a blueberry that he nommed in a split second. Seems blueberries was something he really liked because after that he began climbing on top of me, desperate to reach my plate. So I put some of the food on the floor for him.

After our breakfast was gone and all our bellies were full we continued to bond with him. Sitting quietly and watching him hop around.

Eddie was a brave little guy, and quickly realised we were not a threat. I did hear that it wasn’t usually like this though. We had been lucky with Eddie. I didn’t care how long it would have taken though. I was determined to make him a loving part of our family. I would have worked on it for years if I had to. Because he is worth it.

I was a reluctant bunny owner at the start, filled with worries and to be honest, misinformation. I found it all very intimidating. Janet was a wonderful person who had taught me so much, and she’s enriched both my life and Eddie’s. I am now a proud bunny owner and I work every day on my relationship with Eddie, we are learning tricks, like, spin around and stand up. He is so smart.

Eddie’s life is so much better now than it would have been if I hadn’t asked for help. I thank Janet for that every day. She has turned me into quite the rabbit expert.