Adventures with House Rabbits
Oct. 14th, 2008 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
saffronhareThis past weekend, I went to a "bunny briefing," sort of a meet-up hosted by the local House Rabbit Society chapter. It's a monthly thing, where people bring bunnies being fostered (who are up for adoption), bring their own pet rabbits for social time, buy hay, and get bunny nails trimmed by people who aren't freaked out by that sort of thing.
This was part of my continuing research into what it's like to have a pet rabbit instead of a pet-rabbit-eater. I've done a lot of reading and question-asking, along with pet-sitting![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
diermuid's rabbit, and the Bunny Briefing was my first chance to meet lots of other bunnies. I brought the little princesses along as well. They agreed that bunnies, while Not Doggies, can be Real Pets.
It was kind of fun to meet and be snorgled by lots of bunnies. OMG, are some of them ever HUGE! Like, bigger than a lap dog. Wow. I'm happy to report that my allergies did not go all 'splody. At least, not until we were in the kitten rooms to play with more baby animals. :)
From everything I've learned, adopting a mostly-grown bonded pair who are already litter-trained would alleviate a lot of my worries about the first-time bunny-owner learning curve. But I'm really not sure I can reconcile myself to a pet that I can't wrassle with, though. As long as I'm caring for bunnies, I can't own a dog. And I REALLY LOVE dogs. I still can't bear to go visit Marley, I miss her so much. (Yes, I know lots of people have dogs that live Just Fine with their bunnies -- liketryst_inn, fer instance -- but I don't think I can manage the necessary vigilance while they all get acquainted, and I can't quite stomach the notion of failure. And I'm terrified I will accidentally kill one. I mean, I know one can accidentally kill a pet dog or a cat, but doggie doom is a known quantity for me. Not sure how to explain it.
I need to do some checking on my lease. If the management considers bunnies to be more like guinea pigs (for pet deposit purposes), then it's much more manageable in terms of up-front cost. If they consider bunnies to be more like cats, then the option is Right Out for a few more years anyway.
This was part of my continuing research into what it's like to have a pet rabbit instead of a pet-rabbit-eater. I've done a lot of reading and question-asking, along with pet-sitting
diermuid's rabbit, and the Bunny Briefing was my first chance to meet lots of other bunnies. I brought the little princesses along as well. They agreed that bunnies, while Not Doggies, can be Real Pets. It was kind of fun to meet and be snorgled by lots of bunnies. OMG, are some of them ever HUGE! Like, bigger than a lap dog. Wow. I'm happy to report that my allergies did not go all 'splody. At least, not until we were in the kitten rooms to play with more baby animals. :)
From everything I've learned, adopting a mostly-grown bonded pair who are already litter-trained would alleviate a lot of my worries about the first-time bunny-owner learning curve. But I'm really not sure I can reconcile myself to a pet that I can't wrassle with, though. As long as I'm caring for bunnies, I can't own a dog. And I REALLY LOVE dogs. I still can't bear to go visit Marley, I miss her so much. (Yes, I know lots of people have dogs that live Just Fine with their bunnies -- like
tryst_inn, fer instance -- but I don't think I can manage the necessary vigilance while they all get acquainted, and I can't quite stomach the notion of failure. And I'm terrified I will accidentally kill one. I mean, I know one can accidentally kill a pet dog or a cat, but doggie doom is a known quantity for me. Not sure how to explain it. I need to do some checking on my lease. If the management considers bunnies to be more like guinea pigs (for pet deposit purposes), then it's much more manageable in terms of up-front cost. If they consider bunnies to be more like cats, then the option is Right Out for a few more years anyway.
