Pet Sounds: There’s a rabbit in my house
I’ve been a little bit quiet lately, which has been mainly caused by a series of Manchester Girl Geeks events, partly also by my new flatmate. Little Gethin is 18 months old, black, furry, and goes absolutely crazy for coriander*. This may sound weird to some of you who have been growing up with cats, dogs, and plenty of other animals surrounding them, but I am genuinely excited, almost ecstatic, to welcome my first ever pet to my house.
I adopted the rabbit from a friend who was going to move house and couldn’t take him with her; and to say I was a little worried about doing everything right would be understated. I spent hours bunnyproofing our flat, sticking cables into plastic tubes, removing books from the bottom shelves, reading up on ‘how to look after your rabbit’, their diet, how to keep them entertained, and generally panicking about coming home one day, finding the rabbit had rioted in our flat, turned his cage upside down, peed in my flatmate’s bed, pulled apart his 1st edition copy of Robinson Crusoe, chewed through our £200 solid wood coffee table, eaten several bars of chocolate before attempting to electrocute himself with the Playstation 3 cable and eventually drowning in the loo.
When Geth moved in, I made sure I spent a lot of time just sitting on the floor, talking to him (trying very hard to avoid babyspeak) and resisting the urge to go all ‘ooooh cuuuuteeee bunnyyyyyyyy, wanna cuuuuudddlle’ on him. Having previously looked after him for a couple of days, I expected the rabbit to be quite timid, ignore me and go about his own business. I was surprised to find that the excitement about his new environment had made him rather inquisitive and bold, overlooking my cage cleaning activities, hopping over my legs, following me into the kitchen, and even jumping onto the sofa next to me a few times. In fact, while I’m writing this blog post, he’s on a tour across the front room, squeezing through a tunnel, trampling over jars with candles and jumping onto his cardboard box (I’ve called it ‘the bunny fort’). My flatmate, who is mildly allergic to rabbits and can’t touch them, has figured out that Geth seems fine being stroked by his feet, as he proudly demonstrated one night - while I appreciate his attempts to show the bunny some affection, I’m not sure if I agree with the whole foot stroking thing yet.
After a week at our place, the rabbit is still in good health, the furniture looks okay(ish), the cables and wires haven’t been touched yet, the litter tray is in use (well, including the general area around it), he eats and drinks like a champion, and he’s accepted us as his new friends. I do very much hope he doesn’t start hating me once he finds out that I’m going to have him neutered…
Oh, and while we’re at it: the RSPCA Manchester and Salford have lots of rescue bunnies that are waiting for a nice person to adopt them. Have a look at the adorable little furballs on the RSPCA website.
* I’m keeping a list of things he does and doesn’t like to eat. So far I’ve found that he’s into coriander, bananas, carrots, sugar snaps, parsley and pak choy, but only the green bits. Fussy eater.
[Photo by Matt Orlinski, model: the beautiful Mr Gethin himself]
Category: Like, Rabbitwatch 7 comments »
March 24th, 2011 at 23:17
Its great that Gethin has settled in so well and quickly. Be prepared for being overwhelmed by cuteness as you start to see his character coming through as he settles in more.
Oh and that is a fabulous picture. Might have you pop round and get some quality pics of my pair.
Dave
March 28th, 2011 at 13:03
The picture was taken by the mighty @robotswanking – but I’m sure he’s up for some pet photography, he enjoys crawling round people’s living room floors :)
March 28th, 2011 at 13:42
What an adorable little furball Gethin is!
My little Kirby has always been quite fond of a foot stroke. Although he has decided that being stroked on the nose with a hand is enjoyable, he still tries to make it as inconvenient for me as possible (behind my back, on the far side of the table, through the bars of his cage etc).
I’ve wondered if he considers a foot to be acceptable as there’s no chance of it picking him up!
And we’ve met the RSPCA bunnies – they’re lovely!
March 28th, 2011 at 23:42
Oh my lord, Gethin is beyond adorable! :D :D :D What a gorgeous bunny! I hope you have many happy years with him.
April 2nd, 2011 at 22:46
<3
April 4th, 2011 at 10:10
Ha looks like I need to do another bunny post soon, with more photos. Pimping out the rabbit…
October 10th, 2012 at 21:57
[...] you may know, Geth moved in with us about a year and a half ago – and despite my worries about him destroying the flat and topping himself in the process, he [...]