Thursday, April 20, 2006

Welcome home, Theo


Today my sons and I went to rabbit rescue organization to adopt a bunny. Older son has been obsessed with rabbits for months. He has a bunny dance. He reads bunny books. (Did you know there is a series about a rabbit vampire called "Bunnicula"? He sucks the life out of vegetables!) So I agreed that we would get a rabbit after Easter.

When I was a kid, rabbits were meat animals.

But when I was a young adult, my mother and her boyfriend adopted a rabbit when they lived in a tiny apartment in NYC. The rabbit was a Flemmish Giant named, uh, Bunny. She had strawberry blond fur and was very very funny. One of our favorite NYC stories was when we ordered a pizza to be delivered. The guy that delivered it was a very cool/tough looking young man who took one look at the rabbit and just melted into goo. He sat on the floor (after handing the pizza to my mom) and the rabbit was all over him. It turned out that the man was a recent immigrant from Haiti and used to have rabbits at home. And boy did he miss them! We noticed tears in his eyes. New York can be such a difficult experience for new immigrants...

Bunny lived with my parents for about 5 years. Eventually, though, my sort-of-step-father developed allergies to her, so she lived out her dotage with a friend who had a dog and a cat. The three of them were great friends til the end.

Today, we drove 45 minutes to the Sweet Binks rabbit shelter and spent an hour getting to know the bunnies. Pam, the owner, assessed the kids and suggested rabbits based on their personalities. We were very interested in a Flemmish Dutch mix called Fiona, but she was having none of it. Little Theo, though, seemed to warm up to the boys just fine. He is a very small guy... an adolescent, and he is sort of a reddish color too. So far he hasn't ventured out of the animal carrier we brought him home in, but he seems pretty relaxed in there, so I think he'll fit right in.

Here's the link to Sweet Binks.

3 comments:

will smama said...

Wow! What a cool Mom you are. And I really like that you waited until after Easter and went to a rescue. Every year this time of year - as you well know - there are bits on the news about all of the unwanted chicks and bunnies.

Enjoy your boy Theo!

Rachel Nguyen said...

I was hesitant, to be honest. Having had a house rabbit in the past, I knew that bunny proofing would be a big issue. But by the time we really got ready to go get him, I was as excited as the kids! LOL.

And yeah, the shelter was a great choice. My Brother in law and his girlfriend have a Flemmish Giant named Speedy and they were the ones who reccomended Sweet Binks. We are very pleased.

Easter is a terrible time for bunnies. Sweet Binks picked up 6 on Monday. Yeesh. (Some brilliant organization was raffling off infant bunnies to kids on Saturday. These guys weren't even weaned yet. Luckily one of the lactitating mommies at the shelter adopted them!)

Smells like sweet timothy in my house now. I love that!

Karen Sapio said...

We love the Bunnicula series here at Chez Rebel--I think the first one is the best, though.