In January, after the holidays had died down and the weather was still crisp and cool, I made the 1.5 hour drive to the middle-of-nowhere Florida to pick up a baby rabbit from a farm. She was a chocolate sable French Lop, and I was totally smitten with her. I had already fallen in love with an orange otter lop rabbit at a local rescue, and my plan was always for them to become friends.
Things did not work out the way I had intended.
Because Winnie was only a baby, I would have to keep her and my 2 year old neutered male rabbit, Teddy (who I adopted 2 weeks later from rescue), separated. In a small apartment, this already proved to be quite the challenge. I kept Teddy in the living room pen and Winnie in a separate pen in my bedroom where they could not see each other. Their exercise time was fully separate, and I did my best to ensure that they knew as little about each others' existence as possible.
Unfortunately, I made a fateful mistake. I left my apartment overnight, and because of a suction issue on my bedroom door, I didn't close it properly when I left. When I came home, it was mayhem. There was rabbit fur everywhere. I was searching for a dead rabbit. Luckily, both were okay and hopping around, though Teddy's pen was in absolute dismay, the panels kicked and tilted and the whole pen wall was warped. Teddy had returned himself to his playpen while Winnie was just out hopping about.
I breathed a sigh of relief.
If you know anything about rabbits, you know rabbit fights can be deadly. Luckily, it looked like there had just been some hair pulling. With Winnie being a baby, I knew it was entirely possible that Teddy could've killed her if he wanted to. But he didn't, so I saw that as a positive. I checked them both for injuries and found nothing, so I relaxed a little.
That was, until I started cleaning. That was when I found this.
It wasn't much, but it was evidence. One of them had drawn blood. I needed to figure out who was injured, and fast. So I went to Winnie first, obviously because she was smaller. I'd already inspected her once, but the quarter of her that was Angora hid her injury well. I found it on the second inspection. It was a huge gash right between her shoulder blades. I could tell it wasn't so bad that it needed stitches, but it definitely called for antibiotics, so we went straight to the vet. The emergency bill was about $150, which was actually better than I was expecting. She took her antibiotics willingly and gave me no trouble. 3 months later, her fur grew back and she was back to normal.
But unfortunately, my hope for getting them to bond eventually was dwindling. I feared that Winnie would hold a grudge against Teddy for injuring her, and I feared that Teddy would never forgive her for encroaching on his territory.
Another accidental escape (luckily while I was home) brought Winnie and Teddy nose-to-nose (with a playpen between), and it was clear to me that the aggression was coming from both sides. After knowing them both for 4 months now, I have no doubt that their personalities are simply not a good match.
But where did that leave me?
Well, I'd made my bed so it was time to lay in it. Living in small apartments, and now having to relocate for my job and live with a roommate, I knew living with two rabbits who hate each other would be nearly impossible. I made the incredibly difficult (and honestly at times it felt totally impossible) decision to rehome Winnie. I have turned down many families to her, but recently got in touch with a family that will be a perfect fit. The mom is a veterinarian and they have older children who will be assisting with her care. They've already given me the name of their vet and good references, so I finally feel at peace with this situation.
Did you even learn?
Even at my ripe age of 23, when I know absolutely everything (this is sarcasm), there was something to learn from this. My mistake wasn't that I didn't double check the door. My mistake was getting a baby rabbit after I had already planned to adopt an adult from rescue. What I really needed was time alone with Teddy to gage his personality after coming out of a traumatic situation in rescue so that I could find a real love match.
We're lucky that this situation has turned out well for us, but it doesn't always work out for others, especially those who can't or don't know how to properly vet potential adopters. With shelters full and breeders continuing to breed rapidly, rabbit homelessness will only continue to get worse. I was lucky that I didn't contribute to it this time.
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