On Monday, May 5th, my little black Fury passed away.
She was the very first rabbit I got, 11 years ago. After my mental issues got worse back then I needed something in my life, to have a reason to get up every day, something to care for. So I decided to start breeding rabbits, as my grandfather did, this was the most I could envision to being capable, no pet, and definitly no dog. I got her from a farmers/small animals market, along with a checkered buck.
I got other rabbits too since she was too young to breed this year, and there was offspring, but all of them died in a Myxo outbreak that summer. A quite dense wild rabbit popoulation had built up where I lived, and the disease spread like wildfire.
Once I noticed what was going on I tried to put all remaining rabbits into quarentine, one rabbit in every room and hutch, but it was too late, only Fury, living in my kitchen, made it. I took her indoor late summer so she had to stay there through winter since she didn't have a chance to grow winter fur, and because it would take months for the disease to burn itself out.
Well, now I had an indoor bunny, a very active, smart and pigheaded one
.
She stayed indoors until it got warm again, for 8 months.
She pretty much wrecked the apartment, turned all plinth - PVC and wood alike - to flakes and splinters, made me an expert in repairing USB cables, almost succeeded twice in killing me by removing the insulation from the power cords of the radio and the stick blender (second one was spectacular. it shorted in the sink with a big flash and the house went dark).
Then spring aproached, and she started a tunnel. Straight into the wall, after 2" of plaster the bricks stopped her.
I got another "doe" early spring, they jumped the barrier and I was amazed how well they got along - Fury had her first litter in my kitchen.
She left her mark, literally, when I moved out I found pee spots in every nook, cabinet and corner she could possible fit into.
Thank god I'll never have to rent again.
I learned so much about rabbits in that time, and gave up the notion of keeping rabbits the way my grandparents did, in small hutches without ever getting out, inconceivable.
With spending time in the garden she met the neighbours cat and dog, it was never a question who is in charge there. I loved that dog, Gina.
after 2 years I kept a doeling with her, Red, because I saw that they are more happy when not alone. Red is now 9yo, and alone, I have a litter of 6 week old kits and made holes in the fence so that they can get to her, to get her used to other rabbits around. I'll see if I try to introduce her to my other pair of does, Chantal and Ruth. We'll see.
Fury was a very dedicated mother with strong instincts, and I guess about half of her litters were planned by her, not me. Her record at getting pregnant was less than 30 seconds when I took her out of the hutch to inspect the new nest and had not noticed that my buck had escaped his hutch too. She had her last litter at 7, also not planned by me. It was hard work to keep her away from bucks.
She got calmer the last years, but did still start a fight whenever she accidentially came across one of the other does, and most times it was not her fur I found after such incidents. Those two old ladies were great diggers, every year they built tunnels with about 5-8m total lenght, across the dormant half of my fenced in vegetable plot and under the Topinambur plots. Now and then my leg disappeared up to the knee in the ground, and an winter when I harvest the topinambur I filled up the tunnels again. I made them a garden house, with a porch, they really liked that. But always went back to the hutch in the evening, it had become a perfect routine.
Now there is a fourth grave under my walnut tree, next to "Dicker"(died of shock after a fox attack in 2015), Magda (2019, 7yo), and Herrn Hase (2021, still need to make a thread for my poor boy )
I can hardly understand how attached I grew to her, can't really put it into words. She spent continuously 11 years with me, in one go, that's more than any other living being (I was at a boarding school at 11, and had spent many summers at my grandparents and summer camps...), I did chose rabbits because my crippling fear of loss didn't allow anything more likely to get close, like a dog, well, so much for that. That's also one reason why I keep emotionally away from people.
Goodbye Fury, my little wild one...
She was the very first rabbit I got, 11 years ago. After my mental issues got worse back then I needed something in my life, to have a reason to get up every day, something to care for. So I decided to start breeding rabbits, as my grandfather did, this was the most I could envision to being capable, no pet, and definitly no dog. I got her from a farmers/small animals market, along with a checkered buck.
I got other rabbits too since she was too young to breed this year, and there was offspring, but all of them died in a Myxo outbreak that summer. A quite dense wild rabbit popoulation had built up where I lived, and the disease spread like wildfire.
Once I noticed what was going on I tried to put all remaining rabbits into quarentine, one rabbit in every room and hutch, but it was too late, only Fury, living in my kitchen, made it. I took her indoor late summer so she had to stay there through winter since she didn't have a chance to grow winter fur, and because it would take months for the disease to burn itself out.
Well, now I had an indoor bunny, a very active, smart and pigheaded one
.She stayed indoors until it got warm again, for 8 months.
She pretty much wrecked the apartment, turned all plinth - PVC and wood alike - to flakes and splinters, made me an expert in repairing USB cables, almost succeeded twice in killing me by removing the insulation from the power cords of the radio and the stick blender (second one was spectacular. it shorted in the sink with a big flash and the house went dark).
Then spring aproached, and she started a tunnel. Straight into the wall, after 2" of plaster the bricks stopped her.
I got another "doe" early spring, they jumped the barrier and I was amazed how well they got along - Fury had her first litter in my kitchen.
She left her mark, literally, when I moved out I found pee spots in every nook, cabinet and corner she could possible fit into.
Thank god I'll never have to rent again.
I learned so much about rabbits in that time, and gave up the notion of keeping rabbits the way my grandparents did, in small hutches without ever getting out, inconceivable.
With spending time in the garden she met the neighbours cat and dog, it was never a question who is in charge there
. I loved that dog, Gina.after 2 years I kept a doeling with her, Red, because I saw that they are more happy when not alone. Red is now 9yo, and alone, I have a litter of 6 week old kits and made holes in the fence so that they can get to her, to get her used to other rabbits around. I'll see if I try to introduce her to my other pair of does, Chantal and Ruth. We'll see.
Fury was a very dedicated mother with strong instincts, and I guess about half of her litters were planned by her, not me. Her record at getting pregnant was less than 30 seconds when I took her out of the hutch to inspect the new nest and had not noticed that my buck had escaped his hutch too. She had her last litter at 7, also not planned by me. It was hard work to keep her away from bucks.
She got calmer the last years, but did still start a fight whenever she accidentially came across one of the other does, and most times it was not her fur I found after such incidents. Those two old ladies were great diggers, every year they built tunnels with about 5-8m total lenght, across the dormant half of my fenced in vegetable plot and under the Topinambur plots. Now and then my leg disappeared up to the knee in the ground, and an winter when I harvest the topinambur I filled up the tunnels again. I made them a garden house, with a porch, they really liked that. But always went back to the hutch in the evening, it had become a perfect routine.
Now there is a fourth grave under my walnut tree, next to "Dicker"(died of shock after a fox attack in 2015), Magda (2019, 7yo), and Herrn Hase (2021, still need to make a thread for my poor boy
)I can hardly understand how attached I grew to her, can't really put it into words. She spent continuously 11 years with me, in one go, that's more than any other living being (I was at a boarding school at 11, and had spent many summers at my grandparents and summer camps...), I did chose rabbits because my crippling fear of loss didn't allow anything more likely to get close, like a dog, well, so much for that. That's also one reason why I keep emotionally away from people.
Goodbye Fury, my little wild one...
