Saturday 15 March 2014

Rabbits

For reasons I cannot quite explain, I am a little obsessed with rabbits. I don't know if it's because we always had pet rabbits when I was growing up, or because Rabbit is one of Chris's nicknames for me, or just because they have those cute lil' ears, or a combination of all of the above but for a while now I've had a hankering for a rabbit (or two) of my very own.

I did ask Santa to bring me one:



but alas, there was apparently some confusion, for Christmas morning I received a vast array of delightful goodies, none of which had fluffy tails or twitchy noses.

Then, a little over a month ago a friend of mine posted some photographs of some sweet little bunnies on Facebook, she was fostering them for the RSPCA, and as soon as I saw them (about 30 seconds after she'd uploaded them, thanks to the joys of modern technology) I thrust my phone in Chris's face and began making cooing noises.

Granted, his response to the pictures was more eye rolling than googly-eyed, but nonetheless, with my blatant disregard for his opinion gentle powers of persuasion, a little less than two weeks later and we were visited by the lovely Jo, who does home visits for the RSPCA.  After ascertaining what we already knew about bunnies' needs, checking out the housing we'd bought, and giving us lots of useful info, she approved us to adopt the pair in question, and we brought them home the very next day.



They already had perfectly good names but one was very similar to the name we would have called Baby Number 3, which I thought might be a bit...well...odd.  Besides which, I thought it would be fun for us to name them ourselves. True to geeky form, we drew inspiration from Marvel, and both names usually provoke a reaction of "huh?" along with a complete look of bafflement.

The larger, fluffier, all-black male is Loki.



The smaller Dutch female is Amora.



For the record, I wanted her to be called Lorelei, (I'm a fan of alliteration) but I was overruled 3 to 1. Well, Rudy didn't vote against me but as he's 2 years old and can't pronounce Lorelei (or much else for that matter) apparently he didn't need to.

Amora fits better thematically anyway, particularly since Loki does occasionally try to hump her. I know, how rude, right? I'm so glad that they've both been neutered, as much as Chris is warming to sharing his home with yet more furry critters, a litter of baby bunnies might push him beyond his tolerance level.

Both bunnies have settled really well. I'm sure it must have been a massive change for them, going from being outdoors to becoming house bunnies, but hopefully in a good way? I keep wondering if they miss the grass and the fresh air but Chris tells me rabbit's brains' don't work that way, and in any case they do still get to eat grass, just not directly from the ground. And they're almost 100% less likely to be eaten by a fox, which has got to be a bonus.

Seriously though, they have adapted really well and seem to enjoy hopping around the living room, attempting to steal food out of the children's hands and mouths (literally- Rudy almost inadvertently shared a strawberry cone with Amora a couple of days ago), and stretching out on the foot stool.





I (I was going to type "We" but lets be honest) have got in to a little routine with them too, so slicing up veggies for them at the same time as preparing the boys' breakfast, and mucking their cage out every other day, is becoming second nature.

I think a few people probably think I'm a bit nuts deciding to take on two bunnies when life is arguably hectic enough at the minute, and certainly some people expressed reservations about certain aspects of bunny behaviour (chewing mostly). Yes, three days after moving in Loki gnawed through my laptop charger and I almost had a cardiac arrest thinking that he'd given himself a cardiac arrest from the electric shock, and yes they do need plenty of exercise and stimulation and more hay than you can possibly imagine for such small creatures, but it's SO worth it.

Watching them hop about in the evenings after the boys are in bed, when you can tell they really feel free to get their leap on, is awesome. They're pretty hilarious actually, and incredibly cute. They've got bags of personality and, most importantly of all, they're just so goddam cute and fluffy!  The cuteness and fluffiness is overwhelming actually.

So is it extra work at a time when I could be doing with making life easier? Yes. Is it extra fun at a time when we could all use some? Definitely!





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