Villa Sub Rosa House Rabbits

Flora and Benny were SPCA rescues, Flora had been feral for the summer (age 6mos) and Benny had been lovingly left by his beloved human at the age of 2 years. Toby was a pet shop baby bought at 4 wks. Flora was never happy inside so in spring of 2004 she began to be released in the garden almost as much as she wanted. Rabbits being a bit stupid she has to be forced to come in and kept in often when she'd rather go out but she goes out daily and often several times for several hours. She's much happier. Benny was heartbroken and unwilling to warm up to me till he met Toby and realized that with so many rabbits there was no way I'd boot him out like his last human. He's really coming around. Toby fitted into the home pretty quickly, the first few days Flora was a hazard to him but within a week all 3 rabbits were good friends. I sure love my long eared buddies. They're not close with Sarah because she keeps chasing them but at least Benny has quit attacking her on sight!
Benny's a purebred Mini Rex but Flora and Toby are both general mutt version Netherland Dwarfs. I've added a document on Flora's story.

Update: Toby's neutering has been a total success. He's a grown up boy with good manners and fitting in nicely with my family. Flora lost her outside privs after escaping to the neighbor's yard in search of company. They trapped her in there, mistakenly trying to help me capture her, and when I went and caught her she had a royal fit screaming like she was being killed. After that I decided that she just wasn't doing right outside. Sure she was healthy, but her mind wasn't. She was lonely and feral and I couldn't have cared for her if she got sick or injured. Since I brought her back in she has adjusted far better than I ever could have expected and become very friendly. She likes to sit in the windows but seems to accept being a house bunny now. I think she learned that freedom is fun but it's lonely and family is more important than running around under the sun. I hope someday to build a run outside so they can have both.
Benny's health constantly deteriorates then improves again. it's utterly impossible to figure from one day to the next where he's at. His teeth have stopped getting worse but neither do they get better. Some days he seems unable to remember to use the litter box, gets scraggly and dull looking and sneezes a lot, other days he seems perky and alert and shiny and has an appetite and no sneezing at all. On his bad days I consider having him put down, on his good days I think maybe he'll live years yet. He does better being kept in a large kennel in the living room so he is thus housed instead of being loose in the basement with the other two. I would say he's a living examply of why people who love their pets should do whatever it takes to KEEP their pets. His heart has never really healed from being rejected by his first family.

UPDATE: Benny James Bunnett took his last vet trip November 2nd, 2004.
I went to Poohka's Rabbit Rescue afterwards thinking that homeless rabbits don't really care much about mourning periods, they just need a home, and here I had one vacated. I walked in the door and there in a kennel, one of 5 rabbits she'd brought up to show me, was Freddy, a dark brown french lop doe. Big and soulful, Princess Winnifred the Woebegone stole my heart in a twinkling. Now I'm not one for lops, they're cute enough but they seem less rabbity somehow. I just really like erect rabbit ears. Well anyway, I had eyes only for Freddy and she cuddled right up to me while I waited for the forms to arrive and chatted with the lovely rescue home owners. Princess Winnifred is going to need spaying and she needs litter box educating but she's big and floppy and cuddly and soft and mellow. Winnifred is SO tame and people oriented she is getting underfoot her first day here! I am liking this. Toby would like to tear her cage apart and Flora just wants to leave urine and droppings everywhere. I imagine in time they'll adjust and I'll have a nice happy warren but for now of course they're being kept apart. I'll get some pics of Freddy soon but it needs to be done in the brief daytime or else the flash does a nasty job on their eyes.

UPDATE: Flora has won Freddy over nicely, they're friends who play and groom now. It took a long time but it's very good for Freddy to have a rabbit friend. Toby just doesn't really come upstairs though he no longer has it in for Freddy. The poop wars ended and they all share the house more or less, although Freddy isn't welcome downstairs. Freddy is still very people oriented, very affectionate. She'll come up and force herself on you if she needs attention. She's filled out beautifully and for some odd reason lost her dewlap. I'm glad because I thought it was ugly. Her dewlap shrank quite early on, perhaps from exercise and good food, but it took till Dan moved in and romanced her before Freddy got enough of an appetite to stop being thin. She's very fit and healthy these days. Now the poop wars will begin again with the fourth rabbit added to our household!

Click here for the story of Lucky Edgar Wapass.

01:13 07/07/2009 Toby is ailing tonight. We moved Lucky and Freddy downstairs because the poop wars from Lucky's arrival escalated till everyone was involved and the mess was intolerable. Freddy has ceased to have any kind of toileting hygiene and the other rabbits follow suit. It's quite frustrating, really. I've tried all the advice I can find online but it's all failed. We let them out in shifts and try to clean up after them and little more we can do!
09:45 07/07/2009 Hairball treatment seems to have fixed up our Toby. I was very happy to see him being his old grumpy self this morning. I really thought he was dying!
20:14 15/07/2009 Today at the vets around 6pm Flora drew her last breath. She'd just been Xrayed and it shows that her stomach was enveloped in cancer. I've buried her under the raspberries where she loved to hide on summer days. She will be missed, dearly. She went from well to unwell in less than 24 hours so her decline was fast and surprising all around. I'm glad she didn't drag on though. I guess she was about 7 years old. Not very old, but not young. A bit too young to lose though.

Want one of your own? First, read here, then, adopt one at your local SPCA.(Link goes to Saskatoon Spca.)