Busy Mums

So the Children want a Rabbit?

As I sit down to write this I know I am putting off the dreaded deed. It is probably my least favourite job. But sadly it has got to be done. If I don't do it no one else will.

What is it? You may ask. It is clearing out the rabbits.

Almost seven years ago my daughter suddenly starting asking for a rabbit for her birthday. I was not keen. I don't "do" animals that are kept in cages. I am more of a dog person myself.

Anyway my protestations were far too feeble looking back. and guess what, a baby dutch rabbit appeared on my daughters birthday, bought as a present by a friend. Dutch rabbits are the small black and white variety, and I must say Woody as he is known was very sweet.

We went out and bought the hutch and took him to the vets for his vaccinations and to be "done".
All of which set us back the best part of £200.

Initially he was cuddled and played with loads, predictably. He was so cute that he ended up spending far too much time in the house. ... stupidly. He even had a litter tray in the kitchen and became house trained. Sounds too good to be true ...well it was really.

Well it was until we went away for a long weekend. Friends were staying with us so they said they would look after Woody. I stupidly decided that as Woody was so well behaved he could stay in the kitchen and then have a run of the garden while we were away.

It was with surprise that when we returned three days later the kitchen looked a little different.
Our house sitters explained the problem. Every time they went out Woody went on the rampage. He managed to jump on the kitchen table and throw off whatever he could, which included crockery and glass tumblers. He had also somehow managed to get on the window sill above the kitchen sink, and eat all the leaves on my plants. Worse than that he had found a way to pull out the paneling underneath the kitchen units. He obviously considered this a great burrow.

And to really rub in his glee at the chaos he was causing, he then even went on to trick our friends into thinking he was hiding in his new found burrow, which they were crawling round, while in fact he was watching them smugly from another corner of the room. My house sitters said it was like the film "Mouse Trap". It was the two of them against the rabbit. And the rabbit was winning!

Woody much to his disgust was dispatched to live in his hutch. (And I felt very guilty because of course I don't like animals being kept in cages.) But there seemed to be no other choice. Woody was quite capable of wrecking the house.


As the months wore on daughter number three decided she wanted a rabbit for her birthday. I was even less keen, but of course a precedent had been set. So when it came to her birthday a few months later, I found myself driving round the local pet shops looking at baby bunnies.

We ended up with an identical dutch bunny who seemed to be living a forlorn life in an old fashioned pet shop, in an outlying village, some way from where we lived. Worse than that the rabbit had a gammy eye. But daughter number three saw herself as this bunny' saviour, and as she had saved up her birthday money and was buying the bunny and another hutch, what could I say? Well actually, what I should have said was NO, but I didn't.

Approximately another £200 later, hutch, vaccinations and treatment for the gammy eye, which never has really cleared up, we had two rabbits, in two hutches, as we were told unless they had been "brought" up together they would not mix.

Well that wasn't true. Their hutches were placed opposite each other, and eventually we put them together and the two rabbits became the best of friends. Although Jessie, (yes they are both named after the Toy Story characters) , was always the more bossy and least tame of the two.

I would like to say that it is the end of the story and the expense. But the adventures of Woody and Jessie rabbit go on. But I now really do have to go and clear out their rabbit hutch, so I will continue this blog tomorrow.

Labels: animal care, busy mums, busymums, childrens pets, family meals, looking after pets, mom, moms, pets for children, rabbits, rabbits as pets

posted by Diana and Steve @ 11:37