I’m not sure if I have ever mentioned my secret love? If not, I confess now to having an incredibly soft spot for wabbits. Yep, it’s true. Wabbits do it for me. Years ago, I got myself into a bit of a fix because everyone knew of my not-so-secret love for bunnies and people kept saying things like “I know of this rabbit that was bought as a pet for some children who have now lost interest and needs a new home”. I was a sucker for a hard-luck story.
Bunnies love company. Er well, they love you-know-what – they have a reputation for it. It has been estimated that a single pair of rabbits could end up being responsible for 95 billion bunnies over their reproductive lifetime! To be honest though, although they love a good bonking, they also love company in any form.
My first rabbit, the one that started the whole thing off, loved nothing more than the company of others. Before I left home, he established superiority over our next-door-neighbour’s cat by kicking it across the garden one day but after that day they would sunbathe on the lawn together very happy in each other’s company. Later, after I left home and got Toby, my first dog, the two of them would play chase around the garden. Toby would chase Big Bun in a circle. Both would have big smiles on their faces and there was never any suggestion of aggression from Tobes. Then, when Toby caught up with Big Bun, the chase would turn in the opposite direction and Big Bun would chase Tobes. This would go on for hours. He (Big Bun that is) won my heart by sitting on my knee and licking my face, long before I could get that pleasure from a dog.
After his death, wabbits started coming to me from all over the place and the odd guinea pig too. The males would unceremoniously get their goolies chopped off and then they’d be paired up with one or two females. They’d live the rest of their lives in a little group. They grieved their companions just as much as any other animal/person. On one occasion, a male wouldn’t let me remove his dead mate from their run and he sat on her ears to prevent me from getting her. Note that the two bunnies in the linked pic from DMs PAD were truly an "odd couple" - Sabine, on the right was an English Giant and at least twice the size of Fudge but they loved one another absolutely.
My last bunny died shortly after moving here and we have not “replaced” him. These days we have a wild population of rabbits that fluctuate in size and number depending on the level of Mixy that is prevailing at the time.
So, pretty regularly we see bunnies lolloping about on the lawn, sometimes we see cotton tails darting away in panic, hotly pursued by a Lola or a JD. This is a blessing – who could fail to be moved by the sight of a cutie little wabbit on the lawn? It is also a curse because the little sods don’t ever eat the grass – they eat all of my herbaceous plants and can decimate a border in a single sitting.
Mum and Dad turned up with this little garden statue a couple of years ago and its sentiment is good, although my experience is they don’t regard grass as dinner when there is something more luscious on offer!