janedoe
Active Member
New bunny owner and new forum member, here.....
The only previous experience I have with rabbits was a short attempt to breed them when we raised Burmese pythons. I had to buy them from the feed store to feed the pythons so I thought raising them would be easier and cheaper. Now, 20 yrs later when I see the bond and the intelligence that is possible with rabbits I'm horrified that I could have so easily done such a thing..
Anyway, I dunno if this is overshare or not, but I will tell you a story of how we (my family) became new "bunny people." We adopted 3 kids. Our middle child had been in the system since he was 7 months old. He was taken and given 3 weeks to live because he was so emaciated, had not been fed, etc. At 2.5 yrs old, was then given back to the bio parents until he was 3.5. He was found walking down the highway in his diaper, which was the catalyst for his 2nd and final removal.
In the psych eval, it was noted that his father or uncle (unsure which it was) did horribly sadistic things to him. One of the things he did to him, was to take his pet rabbit and slash its throat in front of him. This was done sometime between 2002 to 2004. We never spoke to him about it, and he never mentioned it.
This year, he turned 11 and 4 nights ago, we were all sitting around the computer playing on the internet, etc. We saw a website about rabbits and his sister wanted to go see it. We clicked and there were pics, stories, etc. Out of nowhere my son's face turns red, he screws up his eyes and begins to sob like a 2 yo that misses his mommy (this is very significant, because he rarely cries like that, nor shows his emotion, etc). Well, the whole story about his pet rabbit comes pouring out....I hold and comfort him, and we talked through it.
The very next day, we took some guinea pigs (we raise the Baldwins and skinny pigs) to a place out of the area. As we walked up to the entrance, what do we see but a cage of rabbits.....They are, what I believe to be, Altex. The big ones, with white bodies, himalayan markings of nose, ears, feet, etc. I've been doing a lot of reading and I THINK I'm using correct terms...LOL.
My son asks the man there about the rabbits. The man begins to tell him that they were there, for the people that butcher them for food (we live by the Mexican border and there are a lot of different cultural practices in regards to what is eaten, such as goats, rabbits and so on).
Drake looks horrified and as if he is about to burst into tears again, but he fights down the urge and works up his courage to ask the man if he can have them. I tried to break in and explain to my son, that the man already said they were spoken for, but I guess the man saw something in my son's eyes because he asks him how much he has. Drake dug down into his pocket and pulls out $7.76. The man looked at me and I smiled. He looked down at Drake and told him "that'll cover it." With beaming eyes, Drake reached into the cage with even more excitement than he did in his pocket and promptly got nipped. He decided that was the one he wanted. I asked him why he wanted the one that bit him and he replied "so I can work with her and let her know she is loved." He then made the command decision that since the 2 bunnies were living together, we couldn't take one from the other.
As you can imagine, we came home with 2 Altex does........
Of course, my other 2 kids wanted rabbits (and with no shame whatsoever, I admitted to wanting one, as well :big wink
so we decided to get 2 more (Flemish). Now, we have 4 (2 Altex, 2 Flemish). They are such lovely animals and I am so glad we got them. It gladdens my heart that my son will now have a positive experience with a pet rabbit, as well as my other kids.
So nice to meet all of you. I live in SE AZ and I'm excited to be on this forum to hear about everyone else's experiences, as well!
The only previous experience I have with rabbits was a short attempt to breed them when we raised Burmese pythons. I had to buy them from the feed store to feed the pythons so I thought raising them would be easier and cheaper. Now, 20 yrs later when I see the bond and the intelligence that is possible with rabbits I'm horrified that I could have so easily done such a thing..
Anyway, I dunno if this is overshare or not, but I will tell you a story of how we (my family) became new "bunny people." We adopted 3 kids. Our middle child had been in the system since he was 7 months old. He was taken and given 3 weeks to live because he was so emaciated, had not been fed, etc. At 2.5 yrs old, was then given back to the bio parents until he was 3.5. He was found walking down the highway in his diaper, which was the catalyst for his 2nd and final removal.
In the psych eval, it was noted that his father or uncle (unsure which it was) did horribly sadistic things to him. One of the things he did to him, was to take his pet rabbit and slash its throat in front of him. This was done sometime between 2002 to 2004. We never spoke to him about it, and he never mentioned it.
This year, he turned 11 and 4 nights ago, we were all sitting around the computer playing on the internet, etc. We saw a website about rabbits and his sister wanted to go see it. We clicked and there were pics, stories, etc. Out of nowhere my son's face turns red, he screws up his eyes and begins to sob like a 2 yo that misses his mommy (this is very significant, because he rarely cries like that, nor shows his emotion, etc). Well, the whole story about his pet rabbit comes pouring out....I hold and comfort him, and we talked through it.
The very next day, we took some guinea pigs (we raise the Baldwins and skinny pigs) to a place out of the area. As we walked up to the entrance, what do we see but a cage of rabbits.....They are, what I believe to be, Altex. The big ones, with white bodies, himalayan markings of nose, ears, feet, etc. I've been doing a lot of reading and I THINK I'm using correct terms...LOL.
My son asks the man there about the rabbits. The man begins to tell him that they were there, for the people that butcher them for food (we live by the Mexican border and there are a lot of different cultural practices in regards to what is eaten, such as goats, rabbits and so on).
Drake looks horrified and as if he is about to burst into tears again, but he fights down the urge and works up his courage to ask the man if he can have them. I tried to break in and explain to my son, that the man already said they were spoken for, but I guess the man saw something in my son's eyes because he asks him how much he has. Drake dug down into his pocket and pulls out $7.76. The man looked at me and I smiled. He looked down at Drake and told him "that'll cover it." With beaming eyes, Drake reached into the cage with even more excitement than he did in his pocket and promptly got nipped. He decided that was the one he wanted. I asked him why he wanted the one that bit him and he replied "so I can work with her and let her know she is loved." He then made the command decision that since the 2 bunnies were living together, we couldn't take one from the other.
As you can imagine, we came home with 2 Altex does........
Of course, my other 2 kids wanted rabbits (and with no shame whatsoever, I admitted to wanting one, as well :big wink
so we decided to get 2 more (Flemish). Now, we have 4 (2 Altex, 2 Flemish). They are such lovely animals and I am so glad we got them. It gladdens my heart that my son will now have a positive experience with a pet rabbit, as well as my other kids.So nice to meet all of you. I live in SE AZ and I'm excited to be on this forum to hear about everyone else's experiences, as well!
