Was there any reason why you bought a bunny?

[Hermelin]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to hear everyones story why they got a bunny as a pet.

Myself always wanted to own a dog or cat when I was a kid. My parents promised me a cat but I got a bunny, the same thing was when they told me we where going to get a dog and I got a stuffed dog toy on my birthday when I was pre-teen. But at least I was still happy for owning a bunny. While the stuffed dog made me sad and mad, my parents could just come home with a hamster. I would accept it without a problem

I got quite attached to want to own a pet because I wanted a friend. I wanted to be able to let down my guard around and find comfort from as a kid. That bunny was my best friend until he passed away. He was the only pet I got to own as a kid and growing up. He died when I was 10 years old, too bad he didn’t pass away later because I truly needed his comfort later on

When I moved away from home the first thing I did was to get a pet. The reason is the same as when I was a kid. Seem like a few things you don’t grow up from. So I got a bunny, still not the first pick of pets that I would want but I don’t regret getting one.

Now I need to tell myself to not get more pets and have a rule on how many I can own. If I didn’t restrict myself I would definitely end up with a mini zoo

 

[zkeaton]

i got a bunny because we just moved into our house and i was getting tired of playing with my sibings 24/7.... i did some research and put together a slide show (that was very very wrong) but it convinced my parents and we started looking for bunnies!

 

[Hermelin]

@zkeaton glad that worked for you and can get a bunny as your friend. They are lovely pets

 

[Button]

I got a bunny mainly because of my anxiety and panic attacks and the fact the my family doesnt want indoor pets led to a bunny in the shed. My bun isnt a therapy animal but it seems like she knows when i need her to calm me down. When my family thinks im getting close to a break down they say one word as alot just ryle me up more and we agreed to have me go out to my bunny. The word is Jypsy i immediately go out to her (more than likely run) and just sit with her.

 

[Mehidk]

Back story: Growing up, I was not allowed to have pets - not even a hamster. Maybe a fish but I found fish not so entertaining. My mom was very strict with me when I was younger. I wasn’t allowed to have friends over, nor could I go out so I was pretty lonely. I felt having a pet would be the closest I could get to having companionship. I begged my mom every few years for a dog or a cat but her answer was always no. Flash forward to Nov 2019. My boyfriend took me out for a ride and brought me to House Rabbit Society. I had never heard of them before, nor did I ever think I would adopt that same day. Needless to say, I hid Trixie for a week before coming out to my mom and telling her that I adopted a rabbit. Maybe it’s just because she’s older or something but she was ok when I broke the news. Adopting Trixie was one of the best decisions I’ve made. There is just something special about an animal filling that missing piece in your life.

 

[poopandpee]

I never even considered a bunny for a pet and knew so little. I never wanted a pet as an adult as much as I love animals, the commitment and responsibilities didn't suit my lifestyle as I didn't want anything to tie me down.
Dogsat quite often at home with my housemates and that worked out perfectly,

My friend asked me to house/pet sit her sick bun this year for a couple of weeks, her ***** of a bun had so much sass and very similar to a stereotype cat! so much entertainment, I never knew they had a personality! coz her bun was sick and I was terrified of her coming back from her holiday to a dead bun, I youtubed so much and learnt heaps, fell in love with buns .

I applied to foster for any type of animal cat/dog/rabbits at several places few weeks after finishing the house/petsitting and my friend told me about this wonderful no-kill rabbit orphanage and was going to volunteer for a while first til I was setup but corona happened and we expected lockdown to happen, the lovely orphanage lady was trying to get most of her buns into homes ASAP as it's obviously too many buns for her to care for without volunteers being allowed.

I almost made it out without a bun coz I was trying to be responsible but.. here we are hahaha.. cleaning half of my free time lol

 

[Orrin]

Our cat is responsible for us getting into bunnies. It nearly killed a cottontail kit. When we discovered the poor little thing out on the lawn we rescued and rehabilitated it, raising it to adulthood.

Wild creatures belong in the wild; so, when the time was right we released Angelo (Angel, Bun-Bun for short). That left a huge void in our hearts and lives which could only be filled with another rabbit. It (they) had to look like a cottontail, nothing else could do. So, we adopted a pair from a shelter. Eventually, we wound up with seven that live with us, enriching our lives every hour of the day.

 

[TreasuredFriend]

Orrin, your rabbit companionship and bond is similar to mine.

Hubby and I always admired cottontails. I became a wildlife rehabilitator for several years. The stories about cat-killed, predator-killed cottontails and the numerous experiences I had led me to volunteering for HRS at the local shelter. Wasn't much longer and I adopted one, then another, and became aware of ALL the euthanasia's that occurred at the shelter. People not wanting or no longer able to keep the rabbits they acquired. Or were given as gifts from boyfriend, et al. My avatar is my sweetheart harlequin gal that was on the floor to be euth'd in 2005, b/c the shelter had to intake 185 cats from a hoarder.

The accidental pregnancies, and breeder surrenders were mind-boggling. 'Tis staggering how ignorant people can be wrt guardianship, lifelong responsibility and ownership of a pet, and not doing research. Gratefully DVMs are trained in rabbit care, and do spays and neuters and educate unsavvy humans on many levels. A knowledgeable DVM is always needed.

Rabbits aren't given the same equal treatment as the top 2 surrendered pets.

I continue to learn and bond with lagomorphs.

Also, when I was in grade school the man down the street gave my parents one rabbit. Then another. The ignorant man didn't care or didn't know. The unbonded, unaltered young bun was placed in the hutch with the larger (unspayed, unneutered NZW). The youngen didn't have a chance. My dad came out with his gun to end the suffering of the little rabbit. That picture is forever locked in my mind.

Have many other stories to tell, will stop here. Grateful for the agouti buns we cared for when 3 domestics were captured by Hubby and gave birth to 16.

Grateful for my kissers, cuddlers, tooth-purring family members or sanctuary keepers who are emotional support pets in many ways. Oh, no foolin' ya, we have a couple that test our patience with their chewing talents. We are emptying multiple litter pans each day w/buns ranging 2 to 13 1/2 years young.

Orrin, I'm glad you cared for the cottontail and gave lil' one the best chance until release day. These vulnerable, innocent, defenseless pets are precious to all who speak their language.

 

[Toffee and Valentina]

That's such a cute story. Do you know if Angelo is still alive and well? Also, my bun Toffee looks like that. Is the breed called cotton tail or is that a generalized term?

 

[Orrin]

We have no idea if Angelo is still alive. We live next to a fairly busy road and there is some prime habitat on the far side of it. The buns cross back and forth and every now and then they lose an argument with a vehicle tire.

More exactly, the variety we have around here is the Eastern Cottontail. We merely shorten it to cottontail.

We love them, dearly, and thrill to seeing them grazing on our lawn; however, we live in the country with an abundance of coyotes, owls, hawks and raccoons, to say nothing about cats. They are all death on rabbits. To give springtime kits half a chance we keep our house cat indoors; he's a born hunter who seems to have a knack for discovering rabbit nests. This year, so far, we've not found any signs of bunny kills around our place. That's encouraging.

Here is a picture of Angelo, taken just before we released him. I don't very often look back at his pictures because they tear me up, I miss him so.

 

[Toffee and Valentina]

He's beautiful, Orrin. My pics seem to be too big to upload but the similarity is uncanny. My guy was hanging out with the wild bunnies but he didn't have the same savoire fairer so the raccoons and cats very nearly got him. That's when I took him.
Have you thought about putting a bell on your cats collar? It would give birds and other critters a heads up so they don't get needlessly hurt.
All the best with your beautiful buns.

 

[Mac189]

When my sister and I were kids, she desperately wanted a bunny and I am an enabler, so I defended the idea and was down for anything. Our dad was not a rabbit fan (he had one as a kid and knew they weren't particularly cuddly in general and his had babies it killed), but he agreed we could get a rabbit if we read three books on rabbit care cover to cover, made an accurate powerpoint presentation on rabbit care/potential illnesses, and helped construct everything it needed. Our dad thought all those tasks would make us lose enthusiasm, but we did it all (I still have my extremely battered copy of Rabbits for Dummies all these years later). He still said no until two of his childhood friends were in town, both of which delighted in chaos, and convinced him with the phrase "don't be a d*ck, Bones, get the kids a rabbit." We got an adult rabbit, Bun Bun, a few days later. My dad never really warmed up to any of the rabbits until Neal, who liked to sit with him and watch Breaking Bad.

I am eternally grateful that my dad made me put all that work in beforehand. I use his "three books and a PowerPoint" method to make all major decisions to this day and still remember so much of what I learned that year.

 

[TheSketchyBunnies]

At about five years old I had a hamster, guinea pig, & dog. I was a very responsible & gentle kid so I convinced my parents to allow me to get A LOT of animals! And I am so glad! First it was a dog, then guinea pig then nine hamsters off & on in between all of the pets then another dogo then a couple fish then another guinea pig then a cat then a chinchilla AND THEN I got a lil bunbun! (That took a while... lol!) And that lil bunbun was Lincoln. At that time I owned a dog, cat, and a hamster. I got Lincoln because I watched some rabbit videos and I never realized how cute, funny, playful, and comforting they were. I also wanted another friend to have around. And I never experienced owning a rabbit before. After Lincoln I got three other rabbits that died. One died because he was kept in bad conditions before I got him, another had a heart attack, and the last one had G.I.Stasis. After the three past I got one more rabbit that was older then the ones that had past and that is Lucina! Currently I own a deaf German Shepherd named Star, a tabby/Bangle mix cat named Jamie, a Winter White hamster named Cloud, a Syrian hamster named Waffles, a very handsome lionhead named Lincoln, and a very beautiful rabbit named Lucina!

 

[Preitler]

Welp, yes, there was a reason. Not going into detail about that now.

Anyway, in my first year with rabbits Myxomatosis struck, when I realised what was going on it was almost too late, sole surviver of 14 rabbits was my Fury that got quarentined in my kitchen (I had a rabbit quarantined in every single room). Had her indoors for 8 months, and she really changed my views about rabbits. Almost succeded in killing me twice by removing insulation from power cords, pretty much destroyed the apartment - turned all plinth to flakes and splinters, PVC and wood alike, peed in every corner she could squeeze into, started to dig a tunnel, straight into the wall - after 2" of plaster the bricks stopped her. I got a second "doe", so happy how well they got along - Fury had her first litter of five in my kitchen. Not afraid of anything, cats, dogs, all just kind of intresting debris. Still my favorite girl, 8 years old now, retired her from breeding this year - she's not happy about that.

Now, since it's my own house and not a rented apartment, I share my home with my, due to athrosis in the hip soon to be retired herd buck, and his spayed cuddlebun Dotty (Note: She's not my pet but his)

 

[Orrin]

As a matter of fact, it had not occurred to me to put a collar and bell on our cat. Splendid idea! Now that you mention it, long ago I had heard of doing that; but, put it out of mind. Thank you for the suggestion.

Here is another picture of Angelo. He and I got along very well. Every night at bedtime I would check on him and give him treats. Then, and also at every feeding time, I'd call him and he'd come. I figured he'd understand Bun-Bun better than Angelo, so that's how his nick-name came about. He was truly an angel, a sweetheart. He taught me all about rabbits. I knew hardly anything about them; so, the day I paid him a visit and found him grooming himself, I was totally floored--had no idea rabbits did that.

I also found out that "conventional wisdom" has it all wrong when it comes to rabbits. Everything that people told me about them was wrong.

 

[BunBun71]

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to hear everyones story why they got a bunny as a pet.

Myself always wanted to own a dog or cat when I was a kid. My parents promised me a cat but I got a bunny, the same thing was when they told me we where going to get a dog and I got a stuffed dog toy on my birthday when I was pre-teen. But at least I was still happy for owning a bunny. While the stuffed dog made me sad and mad, my parents could just come home with a hamster. I would accept it without a problem

I got quite attached to want to own a pet because I wanted a friend. I wanted to be able to let down my guard around and find comfort from as a kid. That bunny was my best friend until he passed away. He was the only pet I got to own as a kid and growing up. He died when I was 10 years old, too bad he didn’t pass away later because I truly needed his comfort later on

When I moved away from home the first thing I did was to get a pet. The reason is the same as when I was a kid. Seem like a few things you don’t grow up from. So I got a bunny, still not the first pick of pets that I would want but I don’t regret getting one.

Now I need to tell myself to not get more pets and have a rule on how many I can own. If I didn’t restrict myself I would definitely end up with a mini zoo

He's adorable!

 

[TreasuredFriend]

I created a log for one of the cottontails released on our property during my years as a wildlife rehabilitator. Took lots of photographs.

All the entry logs of predator attacks on infants, juveniles, and adults are accurate. I knew from the submissions at the wildlife center.

As mentioned above, predators and humans and vehicles don't care whom they opt to kill. Humans will purposely defiantely maliciously choose to cause death to a sentient being like a cottontail or lagomorph.

Two special cottontails knew their names, also. One gal ** binkied ** across the lawn from underneath the blue spruce evergreen when Hubby called her name, and shook the oats/kernels container! A cottontail doing binkies and happy head shakes as she ran to get her sparse handout. She lived in safe havens (built by us as release sites) on our less-predator populated property (back then) for 5 1/2 years. I documented sightings, and interaction.

We observed contented bunny flops. Oh those binkies. They were a Joy to see.

 

[TreasuredFriend]

True, Orrin. When my last batch of rehabbed patients were released in fall, hubby suggested I go to the local shelter and look for a domestic. Hence my shelter experiences and a huge learning process began about lagomorphs. The experiences of nurturing my cottontail patients had created a pathway for domestics to survive and be well-cared for. I learned so much.

There's a huge sector of Humans who have a so-what mentality. Much better to be with humans who care.

One lil' cottontail patient licked my face after I held him/her next to my cheek after oral syringe feeding from the wildlife center's rehab formula. ~ I can look back at the numerous rehab pics and know I gave them the best possible chance.

 

[TreasuredFriend]

Yes cats are instinctive hunters and will kill. Hubby awoke one nite to screams of nestling babies being eaten by neighbor's cat. We didn't know at the time. Not until I began rehabbing cottontails...

My friend continues to get calls from people who think it's an inconvenience wrt keeping a dog/cat indoors or leashed and away from nests.

 

[Catlyn]

I remember we had three small rabbits that looked like European hares when me and my sister were still very small. I was about four or five and she was three years older. I don't remember much about them. They were given to our family by our great grandma, they were kept in old-fashioned conditions, in "row apartments", had barely no room to move or freedom to eat whatever they wanted. I remember that they had barely any interactions with us. One of them ended on the table and the other one was road killed. Nobody remembers what happened to the third one.

After that, we had an unnamed cat we've all forgotten about, it died. Blacky was a little, malnourished she-kitten that died after a week after we got her. Dad said that she'd gotten greedy of hunger and died. After that, we got another she-cat named Niki. She was a sweet and stern cat that led a long and happy life. At the same time, we had a she-dog named Stella. She was a happy-go-lucky greman sheperd mix pooch. After her came Roxy. She was also a sort of german mix with a cheerful personality. She was freed from her line and taken away.
Krässu was a big black furry he-dog given for my second birthday. I loved him so much. He was also taken along by someone. He and Roxy had pups who got to go to loving homes although one was taken away by an owl or a hawk.
For about 7 years we had no pet at all although i wanted one so so bad. I pestered my parents for a dog, cat or a hamster but they refused. They said that they wouldn't take a dog to a small apartment, and i developed allergy for cats and rodents.
Then i remembered that one of my classmates had rabbits, she even brought one to school. It was so cute but i didn't get a chance to interact with it since everybody pushed me away. (I was/am bullied a lot) i remembered our past bunnies too so i started pestering my parents for a rabbit instead.

" Why not? Why can't we have a more compact pet? I'm old and responsible enough to take care of an animal of my own. Besides, you don't deal with me so often and i really don't have friends to fill the role. You know so damn well like i do that my class and others in school hate me for no reason, i couldn't make friends with jerks who are just jerks! An animal however would never do that, it'd give me unconditional love. I'd pay for all of its costs and take care of it, and trust me, you'd secretly like a pet as well right? Please, i'll look up the information for caring and stuff, so please, can i get a rabbit?"
Dad finally agreed with my argument and got mum dragged into it too.
In the end, it's mum that spoils him with inappropriate treats no mattter how much i deny or advise her otherwise.
A small, quiet and clean animal that doesn't require outdoor walks and is just fine in a bit smaller space than would be okay for a dog. A sociable animal that can get on with everybody. I researched a lot of facts and even got a rabbitry book ordered. ("Why does my rabbit...?") When that wasn't enough, i said that i wouldn't mind giving it away when they didn't like it (mildly put) and that i am old enough to take care of and pay for it myself.
I even reminded them how close by the road was a sign that said "rabbits for sale" so we contacted the guy and went to pick a bun. I was clearly minded that i wanted a white one but NOOO, mum hates red eyes so i decided that a black and white one was equally great. I picked my bun that was funky and said to be destructive. I got drawn to him because he came to sniff and crane his neck at me. He was also alone in his enclosure and i felt sorry for breaking bonded pairs, so HE came home with us. We hadn't really accounted for how big the french lops can be, so he didn't fit in the old cages(they are no more). Nevertheless, within a week, he had moved into his bigger better enclosure and also our hearts. We wanted to discard him no more.
And as such, on the very same day, june 8th, 2019, i named my giant cuddlebun Musti.

I considered him the best gift for graduating 9th grade.