THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF PANDORA AND OTTO.

Continuing from my previous post, here is another excerpt from When a Man Loves a Rabbit (Learning and Living With Bunnies) in which I describe the trials and tribulations of managing two opinionated bunnies and one who was easily frightened.

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The next afternoon, I let Pandora out of her cage first. To prevent her and my little prince from fighting, I used the NIC barrier to block the kitchen from the hall. Then I put Gideon on the other side, giving Pandora the run of the kitchen.

As if it were her place all along, she took over right away and hopped into Gideon's litter boxes. Then she chinned everything bearing my fur-clad lad's scent, went into his cage
and ate some of his treats. She even jumped into the recycle bin and shredded a few pages. Pandora seemed to have no shame and she took over Gideon's domain. There wasn't any place that girl wouldn't go.

Meanwhile, The Earl of Hurl inspected the hall and other rooms?perhaps looking for new strangers who might be lurking there. Once Gideon realized his route to the kitchen was blocked, he was frantic. The poor guy kept putting his paws on the NIC barrier and nosing around the base of it. He paced the hall, desperately trying to figure out how to get at the new bunny that was shamelessly using his property.

Sadly for him, I had completely blocked him off.

After some time, I took pity on the poor pink-eyed lad and locked Pandora up. Then I let Gideon back into the kitchen where he promptly chinned every spot where Pandora had left her scent. Both rabbits sniffed noses through the cage bars and I was ready with a pistol-grip water bottle, just in case one nipped the other's nose.

Luckily, nothing serious happened.

Then it was time to let Otto out for his exercise. True to his timid character, he cautiously explored his new surroundings. While Gideon thumped in his cage and Pandora supervised from hers, Otto inspected the litter boxes and Gideon's toys.

I didn't notice him chin anything.

When he sniffed at Pandora, she tried to bite his nose through the bars. I thought her naughtiness might be because she was jealous, so I let her out while Gideon continued to thump defiantly in his cage.

Things were going well until Pandora became a bit bossy. The bunnies scuffled, but there was none of that rolling and kicking which rabbits do when they're in mortal combat mode. I could see by their reactions to each other that letting the three
rabbits out together would cause quite a war.

When I put both guest bunnies back in their cages, I let Gideon out. He immediately hoovered every spot where the strangers had hopped. After all, it was his home.

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When a Man Loves a Rabbit contains many more fascinating stories of life with house bunnies. These range from the tragic to the hilarious. Click here to read more about this book and to order it. You may also e-mail me directly if the comment form doesn't work.