Tigger and Shadow have been with us now for seven years and looking back over their time with us has got me thinking about my first bunny experience. I met my first pet rabbit back in 1980. A coworker of my father had two pet bunnies who did had one litter of four bunnies and a month later another litter of 8. The woman brought the first litter in to where my father worked when the bunnies were six weeks old and offered them to anyone who would give them a good home. My father picked out the spunkiest one in the bunch and Thumper came home to us.

We were all clueless about taking care of a bunny, but we had had some experience with hamsters and guinea pigs and started out at that point. We got Thumper a cage, water bottle, food crock and some small animal pellets. We had him in the kitchen which was the most interior room of the house, but even so, he caught cold during the first two weeks in the bitter North Ohio winter weather. That is when we got lucky and found we had a small animal practice in our area who treated cats, dogs, guinea pigs, birds, and thankfully rabbits. They helped us to learn about feeding, clipping nails, rabbit health, and so much over the ten years we had him.

I was still living at home but had just started my first full time job. It was a night job and I would stay up on my off nights. That first night after Thumper caught cold, I listened to him sneezing like crazy. I got him out of his cage, wrapped him in a towel and sat down in a huge upholstered rocker. He snuggled his head under my chin, stopped sneezing and went to sleep. That began his reign as a snuggle bunny. Thumper liked to be picked up and held and would paw at my ankles when he wanted some cuddling. He would always squirm up my chest until he had his head tucked into just the right spot of my neck.

Since this was 1980, there was no House Rabbit Society. Anything written was by breeders and geared towards raising rabbits as farm or show rabbits Thumper himself proved to be the best rabbit teacher besides the vet. He picked out one place in the kitchen as a bathroom and we wondered if we could put a litter box there. As soon as we put the litter box in place, Thumper was trained. We checked out things geared for cats and bought a kitty harness and leash. As soon as Thumper realized the connection between being put in his harness and going outside, he would hold perfectly still so that we could get the harness just right. We would take him on short walks in the front and back yard and it was always funny to watch people do the double take when they realized it was a rabbit. Thumper had some life long tummy issues that we realize now were probably due to his leaving Mom a bit too early. We would fill a bucket with warm water and lower him in back feet first up to his waist. One person would hold him and the other would get him cleaned up. He would just lean back like he was in his own personal bunny hot tub getting his spa treatment.

Thumper was the sweetest little bunny in the world and really easy to handle, but he did have his own style of Rabbittude. He threw the most awesome Rabbittude fits that actually followed a pattern from start to finish. To read more about them, read his expert page. We had to medicate him numerous times over the years for his tummy problems and he learned a few tricks. We would use a syringe for the medicine, but he learned how to not swallow and let it just drool back out of his mouth. We would mummy him in a towel and he learned how to play turtle and get his face below the lip of the towel no matter how close we tried to get it under his head. Mom had a cocoanut on the kitchen floor waiting to break it open. When Thumper saw it, he pounced on it, batted it into submission with his front paws, and then claimed it as his by chinning it to death. We had a large retriever that we were careful to let out in the yard when Thumper was running free in the house. Someone let the dog in by accident during Thumper's run time and the retriever started to chase him. We were terrified and so scared for Thumper. He was running top speed when suddenly he doubled back straight through the dog's legs. The dog was immediately thrown off balance and while the retriever was trying not to fall, Thumper hopped back in his cage and we were able to safely close the door protecting him.

Thumper lived ten beautiful bunny years and taught my family the joy of having a house rabbit. When I married, my husband knew that my favorite pet was Thumper bunny. Apartments in Ohio wouldn't allow pets. When we moved to Georgia and could have pets, he suggested we get a rabbit. About a year after we got Tigger and Shadow, he told me that he hadn't understood why I had wanted a rabbit. He had no idea how much fun they could be and how much they would interact with us. Thank you Thumper!

~ Rebecca Pullin