Ever since the resident cat in our house was shuffled off to the sunny South, I've had a vague yearning in my heart for a pet.
My upstairs housemate's dog is, with his begging and farting and habit
of tossing my garbage all over my room, actually worse than no pet at
all.
Last Thanksgiving, I visited my boyfriend's friend's apartment, which
was inhabited by an enormous lop-eared rabbit. When I saw the rabbit
wandering freely around the house, just like any cat would do (to my
astonishment—I had previously believed that rabbits lived in
cages and that was that), a rabbit became the new pet of my dreams.
But still I waited. I didn't want to risk getting another animal that would hate the dog as much as the last cat hated him.
But as the Law of Attraction and my former landlord state (in approximate terms), when you want something, it will come to you.
I visited some former coworkers last Sunday and found a rabbit grazing
in their backyard. One of them had acquired it despite a "NO PETS" policy (capital letters and all) on their lease agreement. Without relating
the whole boring story of the discussion among housemates I witnessed, regarding this
new addition to their household, I am still sure you can guess how the
rabbit came to be mine.
I brought him home with very few supplies and even less information. I
spent that first evening reading about rabbit care on the Internet. I had no
idea where he had come from, how old he was, or whether he had ever been
to a vet. I later learned that he had been raised for food (food! He is
the friendliest rabbit I ever met! How could anyone want to eat him!?)
so I doubt he's been neutered. My first action as a rabbit owner was to
buy a bag of hay for him to eat. My second will be to take him to a
veterinarian.
When I got him, he was living outside (bad, because rabbits need socialization and a safe haven from predators) in a dog crate (bad
as well, since the sides of the tray are not high enough to keep any
kind of litter within it) with a vegetable crate inside it for
shelter. He came with no food bowl or water bottle, and no food either,
since his new owners had just been feeding him vegetable scraps from the
store where they work. I've rigged up some supplies from the thrift
store and around the house, but he definitely needs a better home, and
soon.
For exercise, I'm letting him run around on my screened-in porch in the evenings, but I want to housetrain him.
When the bunny first arrived, I thought the dog was going to die of
excitement, but over the past few days, he has calmed down to just mild
curiosity. The two met face-to-face today and handled themselves gracefully, but for one overeager bark.
My third action as a rabbit owner is going to be to give him a new name. His name was Red, but he had only been Red for a couple of
days, so I figure he won't mind another small change. I've been waiting years to be able to name something after all, and I'm not going to miss out on that opportunity! I have a list of three candidate names, and I promise to have selected one of them by his vet appointment on Tuesday.
Friday, June 8, 2012
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1 comments:
Awwwww!!!!
I have some name ideas if you decide to go against your list of three:
Brer
Cadillac
Mufasa
Rabbi (RAH-BYE)
Rabbii (RAHB-EYE)
Rabbiii (RAH-BYEE)
Rico II
Trent
Zeke