Spenner
New Member
Hello everyone, my name's Spencer, proud owner of Hopper :biggrin: I received him when I was 5 after my mom accidentally sent our sea monkeys to the plunge of doom off the kitchen table.
Hopper's 13 years young (hehe) and still very happy, surprisingly! Hopper's been through a LOT (I can't even begin to say how much >_> gah, but alas I shall elaborate-- this is not for the faint of heart :3)--
When he was young, he'd had multiple cases of cats ripping through the chicken wire in his outdoor cage, and we found him doing laps around it with the cat
surprisingly he had been untouched, and the cat was removed, but we actually heard Hopper SCREAMING-- something I didn't even know rabbits could do :shock: but yeah, that's happened twice in his ourdoor cage.
Other incidents involving his outdoor cage include a large Husky repeatedly jumping on the top of the much more reinforced outdoor cage multiple times throughout the weeks it lived beside us. Eventually we put small spiked on the roof of Hopper's dungeon to prevent the dog from jumping on it at all, which seemed to work; however, one day, Hopper got clever and/or bored of his outdoor cage, and dug under the walls to escape. Unfortunately, Hopper, not being the brightest of bunnies, ran right into the yard with the dog o__o I just remember my mom screaming and running over as Hopper limply flopped in the dog's mouth, and when released, was paralyzed with fear, a small (thankfully!) puncture wound in the loose skin behind his ears. Needless to say, we don't use the outdoor cage anymore.
Besides that, there's been crushing by my fairly large Grandmother (he bit her weeks later), electrocution (he snuck behind our freezer and chewed on the wires, no idea how he survived that o_o), and, (yes, this part is TERRIBLE, I cringe when at all remembering it :c) he's had two toenails/toetips removed accidentally... both, unfortunately, from trying to trim his nails :/ he gets very nervous when held, so he'd jerk as soon as he felt any pressure on the nail-- the first time, which was a number of years ago, he jerked when the blade must have been halfway through cutting, and forced his foot up further before the cut could be stopped, chopping it and the end of his toe (AHHH)-- the next time he lept from the grip, and had his half chopped toenail caught in a vent upon landing, which he must not have noticed, because he JUMPED right after landing O__O I can't even imagine the pain. I feel so bad for the little guy ;__;
But yeah, Hopper always has something interesting he's doing, like chewing anything he can get to (he's bitten the fingertips, hard enough for it to bleed, of over 30 different people in total), and we made him this wooden house for him to sleep in (which he loves like it's his teddy bear or something), who's walls were chewed down as he grew so he'd fit better, same with the doorway.
He's very stubborn-- you cannot physically pet him without being bitten unless you feed him exactly three treats :biggrin2:
He's self trained in every way though-- goes to the bathroom in the same place every time when he's out of his cage in our laundry room, and he never leaves the room no matter how welcoming the open doors may seem. Even luring him with treats, which are like his drug of passion, cannot lure him out of the room. He knows exactly where the door swings when it opens, so he doesn't stand there at all, and if there's shoes in the way where he pees (in the shoe mat, top right corner) he'll drag them away first.
All in all Hopper is a great old guy and I'm happy to introduce him! He's a hell of a trooper, I'll tell ye' it really strikes me as fascinating how he seems so alive and well right now though, seeing as he's a bit past the life expectancy for bunnies that have been kept well, but through all that trauma... does it really count as him being kept well? I don't even know, I sure wouldn't count on it >_>
But, yeah. That is Hopper
Hopper's 13 years young (hehe) and still very happy, surprisingly! Hopper's been through a LOT (I can't even begin to say how much >_> gah, but alas I shall elaborate-- this is not for the faint of heart :3)--
When he was young, he'd had multiple cases of cats ripping through the chicken wire in his outdoor cage, and we found him doing laps around it with the cat
surprisingly he had been untouched, and the cat was removed, but we actually heard Hopper SCREAMING-- something I didn't even know rabbits could do :shock: but yeah, that's happened twice in his ourdoor cage.Other incidents involving his outdoor cage include a large Husky repeatedly jumping on the top of the much more reinforced outdoor cage multiple times throughout the weeks it lived beside us. Eventually we put small spiked on the roof of Hopper's dungeon to prevent the dog from jumping on it at all, which seemed to work; however, one day, Hopper got clever and/or bored of his outdoor cage, and dug under the walls to escape. Unfortunately, Hopper, not being the brightest of bunnies, ran right into the yard with the dog o__o I just remember my mom screaming and running over as Hopper limply flopped in the dog's mouth, and when released, was paralyzed with fear, a small (thankfully!) puncture wound in the loose skin behind his ears. Needless to say, we don't use the outdoor cage anymore.
Besides that, there's been crushing by my fairly large Grandmother (he bit her weeks later), electrocution (he snuck behind our freezer and chewed on the wires, no idea how he survived that o_o), and, (yes, this part is TERRIBLE, I cringe when at all remembering it :c) he's had two toenails/toetips removed accidentally... both, unfortunately, from trying to trim his nails :/ he gets very nervous when held, so he'd jerk as soon as he felt any pressure on the nail-- the first time, which was a number of years ago, he jerked when the blade must have been halfway through cutting, and forced his foot up further before the cut could be stopped, chopping it and the end of his toe (AHHH)-- the next time he lept from the grip, and had his half chopped toenail caught in a vent upon landing, which he must not have noticed, because he JUMPED right after landing O__O I can't even imagine the pain. I feel so bad for the little guy ;__;
But yeah, Hopper always has something interesting he's doing, like chewing anything he can get to (he's bitten the fingertips, hard enough for it to bleed, of over 30 different people in total), and we made him this wooden house for him to sleep in (which he loves like it's his teddy bear or something), who's walls were chewed down as he grew so he'd fit better, same with the doorway.
He's very stubborn-- you cannot physically pet him without being bitten unless you feed him exactly three treats :biggrin2:
He's self trained in every way though-- goes to the bathroom in the same place every time when he's out of his cage in our laundry room, and he never leaves the room no matter how welcoming the open doors may seem. Even luring him with treats, which are like his drug of passion, cannot lure him out of the room. He knows exactly where the door swings when it opens, so he doesn't stand there at all, and if there's shoes in the way where he pees (in the shoe mat, top right corner) he'll drag them away first.
All in all Hopper is a great old guy
and I'm happy to introduce him! He's a hell of a trooper, I'll tell ye' it really strikes me as fascinating how he seems so alive and well right now though, seeing as he's a bit past the life expectancy for bunnies that have been kept well, but through all that trauma... does it really count as him being kept well? I don't even know, I sure wouldn't count on it >_>But, yeah. That is Hopper
