I felt like making a thread about my rabbit Hopper~
Hopper is my dwarf bunny who we got in march of 1996, who was only a week or two old at the time. I remember we got him in an uncolored Timbit box to carry him home in (he was about the size of a timbit too); we'd gone out to get a pet because my mom had accidentally knocked over my tank of Sea Monkeys. When I saw them spilled over the floor I was in shock, so my mom grabbed my brother and I and we went to the pet store to get a rabbit.
Out of the baby rabbits we were looking at, hopper was the only one that came up to us and started gnawing on the side of the cage as if the say hello. He still does that to this day 8]
My dad and I built a wooden house for him to have in his cage, which he also still has to this day. The wooden house serves as his source of security as much as any teddy bear would in a kid. Taking it away from him and he would look lost and saddened, and when placed near him he would run towards it and dive in. It's also how we carried him around, he seemed to have a tender tummy. As hopper grew, the wooden house became too small, but he was too attacked to it. So, he spent his time chewing on the walls of the house to make room. The house now has no walls and only has 4 posts supporting the roof, so he can fit in just fine.
Hopper's had a rough life as far as terrible things happening to him; it started out with the neighbors cats attacking him when we were outside letting him run around (so we ended up building him a chicken wire reinforced outdoor cage), then with dogs and other animals trying to attack, eventually a cat got INSIDE his outdoor box and was chasing him around the cage doing laps inside with him. This is the first time we heard him SCREAM, which I didn't think would come out of a rabbit ever. It sounded like a baby screaming "AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
Once we moved away to a place with bigger more open land, we had a more reinforced outdoor cage for him. Unfortunately the neighbors had a huge husky/german shepherd breed that would love to jump repeatedly on the top of the cage to try to break through. One time it got hold of hopper with his mouth, and was throwing him around. We were sure hopper had died, because he wasn't moving for a good 20 minutes after we found him, his heart felt pretty much like a Venetian Snares drum kick burst. Sure enough, he came to with time, and was back with us. Very scared, though. I feel like he definitely had PTSD as a result of that attack.
Other than that he's been stepped on by my very large grandma (she didn't see him), electrocuted (he chewed the wire of our deep freezer), and he has had two toes removed due to nail trimming accidents... which I won't get into graphic detail with. He's missing two of his main nails now. And lastly, but sadly, he has an eye infection now, and he's losing an eye. =[ apparently it's not a painful condition though.
But yeah he's a trooper. I feel no problem feeding him 9 treats a day, the one thing I think keeps him going (mostly because of the super high nutrients in the treats, maybe it's kept his system running???).
^here's a shot of his eye from a year ago that clearly had a problem with the amount of tears coming out, but I didn't think much of it.
yep
Hopper is my dwarf bunny who we got in march of 1996, who was only a week or two old at the time. I remember we got him in an uncolored Timbit box to carry him home in (he was about the size of a timbit too); we'd gone out to get a pet because my mom had accidentally knocked over my tank of Sea Monkeys. When I saw them spilled over the floor I was in shock, so my mom grabbed my brother and I and we went to the pet store to get a rabbit.
Out of the baby rabbits we were looking at, hopper was the only one that came up to us and started gnawing on the side of the cage as if the say hello. He still does that to this day 8]
My dad and I built a wooden house for him to have in his cage, which he also still has to this day. The wooden house serves as his source of security as much as any teddy bear would in a kid. Taking it away from him and he would look lost and saddened, and when placed near him he would run towards it and dive in. It's also how we carried him around, he seemed to have a tender tummy. As hopper grew, the wooden house became too small, but he was too attacked to it. So, he spent his time chewing on the walls of the house to make room. The house now has no walls and only has 4 posts supporting the roof, so he can fit in just fine.
Hopper's had a rough life as far as terrible things happening to him; it started out with the neighbors cats attacking him when we were outside letting him run around (so we ended up building him a chicken wire reinforced outdoor cage), then with dogs and other animals trying to attack, eventually a cat got INSIDE his outdoor box and was chasing him around the cage doing laps inside with him. This is the first time we heard him SCREAM, which I didn't think would come out of a rabbit ever. It sounded like a baby screaming "AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!"
Once we moved away to a place with bigger more open land, we had a more reinforced outdoor cage for him. Unfortunately the neighbors had a huge husky/german shepherd breed that would love to jump repeatedly on the top of the cage to try to break through. One time it got hold of hopper with his mouth, and was throwing him around. We were sure hopper had died, because he wasn't moving for a good 20 minutes after we found him, his heart felt pretty much like a Venetian Snares drum kick burst. Sure enough, he came to with time, and was back with us. Very scared, though. I feel like he definitely had PTSD as a result of that attack.
Other than that he's been stepped on by my very large grandma (she didn't see him), electrocuted (he chewed the wire of our deep freezer), and he has had two toes removed due to nail trimming accidents... which I won't get into graphic detail with. He's missing two of his main nails now. And lastly, but sadly, he has an eye infection now, and he's losing an eye. =[ apparently it's not a painful condition though.
But yeah he's a trooper. I feel no problem feeding him 9 treats a day, the one thing I think keeps him going (mostly because of the super high nutrients in the treats, maybe it's kept his system running???).
^here's a shot of his eye from a year ago that clearly had a problem with the amount of tears coming out, but I didn't think much of it.
yep
- Tosh 2014
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