Little fuzzy rabbit face turns 10!

This is a huge milestone. We are ecstatic. Our little fuzzy baby is 10 years old today!


This is what she looked like when we brought her home. Tiny, with a head in proportion to her body. Then her body kept growing. :-) I took this picture by setting her up on a half wall in our kitchen. She was so freaked about being up high that she hunkered down and stayed still. Very unusual for a bunny.

Little fuzzy rabbit face was one of hundreds [it seemed like] that were living in a dedicated barn just north of the city. We met her breeder [more on that later] at the Royal Winter Fair and decided we needed a mini-rex in our lives. So we drove up there and hub picked her. She was bigger than all the other non-showable rejects [Who would consider our darling a reject? Screw 'em!] and hub thought she was perkier. I couldn't pick. They were all so cute!

So we put her in a little wicker animal carrier and drove her home. Hub had to go to work that night, so I sat in the living room and little fuzzy sat in her cage. Not sat, exactly. She stood up on her hind legs, tiny front paws clutching the wires of the cage, freaked out beyond measure.

She wasn't our first bunny, so we knew this wasn't quite normal. I called the breeder and he told me she'd calm down. So I sat with her and talked softly and eventually, hours later, she did.

About age 5, she began to mellow and enjoy being around people besides us. She's high-strung, but she is a prey animal, after all, and they tend to be a little wary of loud noises.

Mostly, she's the most loving slightly wild creature you can imagine living with. She knows us very well. She loves her routine and hates being disturbed from it. She gives kisses for hours and loves having her head rubbed.

She is a fine rabbit. We adore her.

And should the time come that we ever need to bring home a new bunny, we won't be going to a breeder. Since getting our baby, we became intimately acquainted with the House Rabbit Society, where we learned about how to care for her finicky digestive system and -- most importantly -- that there are enough rabbits in shelters all over North America to keep us all in bunnies for years to come. People buy them at easter and abandon them outside when they reach puberty and get destructive. It's beyond sad.

[Our little fuzzball was spayed at 6 months, and if she hadn't been, it's likely she would have had uterine cancer by age 8. The statistics are overwhelming. But in addition to the health benefits of spaying/neutering, it also results in a calmer, happier, less destructive bunny. ]