How did I spook her?

[Huckleberry]

 Huckleberry is acting very weird today! She is acting like she is terrified of me! This isn’t anger, she is racing away from me, dodging under chairs and then out of the room if I enter. When she sees me, her eyes are huge, her ears are perked up and forward at me, and she is breathing very hard. She is not acting like this to anyone else really. She seems overall spooked but mostly with me. I dont know what happened. She wont even come get her favorite treats if I put them on the floor in front of me. 

What do I do to calm her down? I am worried about her. Why is she acting like this?

[Sarita]

I don’t think you necessarily spooked her and you may never know what did.

What I would do is just leave her and let her settle down and relax – trying to get her “unspooked” while she is spooked is probably stressing her out more.

[Stickerbunny]

Stickers does that to me if I make any loud noises, or even sometimes if I am wearing the wrong things (wrong scent maybe?) … I just leave her alone, but leave her able to come to me if she chooses and eventually she’ll come up and sniff me and all will be well again (though occasionally she takes a nip just to get her point across that I was being mean). *shrug* Rabbits are weird.

[TriBun]

I almost think they just have moody days. Kevin is very moody. Some days he does just what Huckleberry is doing; running away, startling easy, not coming for treats. The next day (or a couple days sometimes) he’ll come right over and let me pet him and begs for treats. She’ll get over it, but the others are right, you should let her settle down on her own terms.

[Huckleberry]

Thanks everyone. I left her alone… I took a nap on the floor while waiting for her to come around. She woke me by biting my elbow and then digging at my hair. I have no idea what I did to make her upset but she is not about to let me get away with not knowing.

[Silly Sungura]

I am glad Huckleberry is back to her usual self. Hodari was acting exactly like that this evening. We figured out that she could smell the dog, who was lying outside of our bedroom (which is also Hodari’s room). It’s raining here and the dog was particularly ripe with that lovely wet dog smell. Lol. She will avoid me when she’s nervous about anything like that, whether I am responsible for her fear or not. I think it’s because she is feeling really tense and vulnerable and wants to have a clear avenue of escape if she needs one; so she just doesn’t want me cuddling her. I also think she associates me with the dog because she has smelled him on me at times and gotten scared. DH doesn’t handle the dog much, so she has always been fine with him (unless he’s wearing boots that have eyelets that jingle. Ha, ha). Rabbits are definitely weird sometimes! Certain smells and noises just unnerve them.

[Author]

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