Christmas visitors

On Christmas day we heard the pitter-patter of little feet at our house. No, not reindeer, nor new babies. Instead, we're rabbit-sitting Carrot and Bear for a week, until Max's preschool teacher returns from vacation.

Here we have the ever vigilant Zhinka:

And here's the ever oblivious Carrot:

Carrot and Bear are something like Dutch dwarf rabbits, they don't grow too big. They're a nice size for kids to hold. They're very sweet, hopping around the living room, occasionally doing 4-feet-off-the-ground little leap-kicks. They also seem unperturbed by the 4 circling felines.

I've never had rabbits before, only cats. It makes me realize that one mammal is not the same as another mammal. For instance, I have many questions. Such as: why does Bear try to gnaw the collar off my sweatshirt? Is it normal for them to poop *so much*? Is that reddish-brown, foul smelling liquid in their cages urine? Will there be problems because I was clueless and accidentally let Bear and Carrot "get it on"? It was just once, and very very briefly, so I'm hoping nothing...um...happened. If you have experience with rabbits and can enlighten me, please do!

I don't have any pictures of Bear yet, he's a pretty solid brown in color. He's the more cuddly of the two, we sometimes watch TV at night together, at least until he starts nibbling me. Carrot was out for these pictures during her cage-cleaning. After the first incident of "getting it on", I'm not letting them out at the same time anymore. I'm also a little too worried about having two tasty snacks out amongst the four ravenous predators in our house.

I was a little surprised at Zhinka. She's normally the most reserved cat, but today she was in full pounce and attack mode. At least until she actually got close to Carrot, and then was very confused and backed away. It seems that instinct got her part of the way there, but then a lack of experience won out. Not that I'm complaining. I really do want to return two live rabbits with all their limbs intact.

Comments

[Laurie]

LOL Fingers crossed for no baby bunnies! I love that picture of Zhinka. She's waiting for that bunny to make one wrong move!

[Ayelet]

LOL!
Loved your description of the car-rabbit interaction :)
I never raised rabbits, but that reddish-brown liquid you're describing doesn't sound like urine. Urine shouldn't be red. If it smells really bad, you might have a problem with bunny-diarrhea, and should check what you're feeding them..
There are countless bunny-related sites and forums on the net, why not check? It could be interesting for Max, too, to learn what rabbit should eat.

[heidi]

oh you really made me laugh! thanks for the uplifting post. there is simply nothing funnier than pets and babes!