A Bunny Tale~~

Easter was a gift to Hunter from his grandparents. We thought about providing him a friend for companionship but the thought of breeding bunnies or the cost of spaying or neutering to avoid that breeding were huge deterrents (costs more than to perform on a dog or cat). So, Easter made do with us and the labs for companionship.

Our old yellow, Shanna, was the perfect mother; it didn't matter what species the baby was, Shanna mothered it. Easter used to lay on her back and snuggle up in the middle of her forearms. When Shanna passed, our Murphy took over that position......a bit disdainfully, but allowing that it was just another of the jobs that he took over from our departed girl...like newspaper pick up.

Easter had a hutch outside and he spent his time divided between that and visits inside to socialize.....in five years, his feet never touched the ground - we carried him between our house and that hutch. Occasionally, we discussed building him a run on the ground, but fears that he would dig a hole and disappear outweighed our desire to provide him with a larger playground....so he hopped around our mudroom or the boy's bedrooms for exercise....

And then came the chickens; while surfing the net to learn all I could about Coops and Play yards, I noticed that someone had posted a question on one of the forums...."Can rabbits and chickens share a coop and yard?" I was elated when I saw that the answer was an unequivocal yes....................

So Easter went out with the chickens ~ and soon made it perfectly clear that coming inside the house was now not necessary. He spent the night out there about a week before the chicks were banished from the mudroom.

Then came the time to begin allowing the chicks to free-range....what about Easter? We needed to leave the coop open during free range so the chicks could run back to safety.....did we bring Easter inside the house during that time or leave him to free range as well? He's an old man now and totally dependant on us for his feeding ~ would he try to escape or would he be content to wander?

So we decided to experiment......setting up our lawn chairs with iced tea or sodas, we opened up that gate and let the critters out.....Easter followed the chickens and immediately went on expedition. He didn't dig, he sunbathed. He still doesn't dig and he still sunbathes....

Five weeks later, Easter has found his special spots in the yard.....he likes to lay behind the hot tub first thing in the morning......then he moves to the sand that surrounds the fire pit....then he goes back to the hot tub and shades under the steps....and during a horrific thunderstorm on Saturday, he took refuge in the old mule stall in the barn....coming back out with the sunshine when it finally came back out.......

Although at first, we had to catch him to get him back in at night, over the last few days, just like the chickens, he's begun to head back to the coop about 6 p.m. for dinner......

If I'm honest, Easter has been a source of guilt for me the last five years.....the sight of him in a smallish hutch - all alone - has niggled at me....those trips inside the house to socialize were attempts to make up for his alone-ness.....I am relieved to see that his last days as part of our family are much happier for him and less guilt ridden for me......

And if I'm totally honest....I'm very glad that he doesn't come inside anymore - rabbits shed worse than cats and dogs together...and rabbit hair floats....and sticks.....and they chew telephone cords.....and table legs.......