It was the winter of 2011 and the kids were three and, almost, five. My husband I decided shortly after the second baby that we wouldn't have any more. It was an easy decision as life with 2 was double the fun...and double the work.
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| Thumper, one of our Jersey Wooly bunnies. |
It was strange however, because I kept getting this little nagging feeling that I needed something to nurture. Anyone who knows me will laugh, as the last thing I needed was something more to spend my limited time on.
Anyways the maternal instinct kept knocking and I needed to do something. If it wasn't going to be another child, it would have to be a pet. I knew cats and dogs were out. We'd had no luck adopting "normal" cats and we'd watched too many friends get puppies, which seemed a lot like having a newborn.
So what kind of pet could we get? We'd moved from our 5 acre property just over a year ago to an ocean view lot with a small yard. I started running through options in my head. Fish? Chickens? A lizard? None of these seemed very cuddly. A hamster? A guinea pig? Where in the house would we keep these guys? What about a bunny? I had a bunny as a kid and he seemed perfectly happy to live outside.
Eventually Christmas arrived, and much to our daughters' surprise, Santa brought our family two adorable Jersey Wooley bunny rabbits. He left the girls a note that it was their job to name them and look after them. And that's how we ended up with our cuddly new pet bunnies, Rudy (after Rudolf) and Thumper.
Now it was my turn to figure out how to be the best new bunny mom I could be. I did a lot of internet scouring and pieced together bits of information, but nothing seemed to be all in one place. What kind of cage is best? How much should we feed our bunnies? Should they be fixed? I discovered, just like kids, there is no instruction manual, but over time, I hope this blog will bring together everything I've learned to all of you new, and expecting, bunny moms.
