What a great question.

My big white sweet and loving bunny Jack is really a very emotionally expressive bunny. (though my other two, of course, also have emotions, they just express it through more subtle body language)

I first met Jack at Animal Care and Control when I was taking pictures of their rabbits for the local House Rabbit Society.  Jack would lunge,huff and growl, but then afterward he’d get this adorable expression on his face with his brows turned down in a sad scared look (yes, the top of his eyes, his brow bone area, turns down when he’s scared or upset.)  I’ve never seen it so obvious on any bunny before. It almost looks like how dogs express sadness.  

Anyway, I felt for him so much, and I reached in to take him out of his pen so I could get a better picture, and he just settled right down and became a sweet gentle bunny.

I ended up fostering him. (later adopting him)

I put him in the bathroom the first night where I knew it would be quiet and he would be away from my other bunnies.   I told my husband to offer Jack a treat each time he put his hand down to pet Jack, but that Jack would first growl very loud, but I told my husband not to worry because Jack wouldn’t bite,

Well, the next morning, I heard my husband yell something about “Crazy Bunny”as he raced out of the bathroom.

“Uh, Oh!” I said, “Did he bite you?”

My husband said, “No, but did you hear that growl?!!, He sounds like a dog, and he flew out at me. He scared the $#%! out of me!”

Anyway, Jack never did bite us, EVER, and so we learned to close our eyes when we reached out to him with a treat, and then we’d pet him – he loved affection once he realized that was another thing hands were good for.   And soon he stopped lunging and growling.  

Now he does binkies everyday before he gets fed, and when his girl Rucy has left his side and comes back,and just because he’s happy to be out and about! (That’s why I can get pictures of him binkying – I have so many chances)

If he’s upset about being shooed from a naughty chewing spot he’ll huff and growl, unless he’s feeling playful, then he’ll just do another binky on his way out.

When he wants affection, he’ll come over and nose us, or stand nearby in a “chocolate bunny” stance and eye us.  Then if he even thinks we’re going to pet him, his brow goes up, his eyes get wide, and he pushes he head quickly toward our hands, and then as soon as our fingers touch his head, he presses his chin to the ground, still with his eyes wide – looking excited to be pet, then when he realizes we’re there for more than a passing scratch, he closes his eyes completely with relaxation.  

If he thinks we’re making too much noise putting the dishes away, he’ll hide in his house, but poke his head out with that “sad puppy” face, and we know we need to be more quiet for his sensitive ears.

I could go on and on about what an expressive personality he has.  He is so easy to read with that flexible brow of his!   He’s such a fun bunny to be around, I can’t believe anyone ever gave away such a gem.  But we are so blessed to have him.   He can really make a the roughest of days better – I know that’s sooo sappy, but it’s true.

Our previous bunny ‘Missy’ was a star!  She was a single house rabbit and we doted on her – i know this probably made her worse – but she was so clever!  When i went looking for a rabbit i went to the pet shops and there was no dwarf lops and i thought that was it, but something made me go back to a certain one and there she was, she was hiding before behind a bigger rabbit, but this time she came out. When i bought her i was told that she was a dwarf lop, but it turned out that she wasn’t lop at all and her ears were all over the place, mostly one straight out to the side and the other slightly up at an angle… a bit like a helicopter.  you could tell whet she was thinking by the position of her ears.

In the end she didn’t have a cage she just had her area in our dining kitchen, next to the patio doors so she could look out into the garden.  When we were home she had the run of the house.

She knew when it was bedtime and sometimes when we would stay up late, she would come in to see us in the lounge at our ‘normal’ bedtime, but when she realised we were staying up she would go upstairs to bed on her own!! we would find her dozing in the bedroom, but she always woke up as she knew that we took a treat to bed for her!  She even slept next to me under the duvet a couple of times towards the end of her life!

In the mornings at 7.30 (every morning) she would jump on the bed to say that she wanted her food! (She had the habbit of weeing on the bed sometimes when we wern’t expecting it so each time she jumped up we had to be alert) she probably thought we were doing just what she wanted, and did it even more!! 

When we sat on the sofa she would nudge her head under our feet so that we stroked her head (she wasn’t fussy about it being a hand – so long as she was fussed)

When she went through sexual maturity she absolutely adored my husband and whenever he would lie on the floor she would jump on him, licking him, and grunting, and doing things i thought lady bunnies shouldn’t do!!! During this time when it was bedtime, we would try to coax her into the kitchen, but if she didn’t want to go she would growl and charge at us for disturbing her – it was so funny!

When ever i would be preparing any kind of food she was there, just looking so damn pretty, waiting patiently for me to praise her for being ‘beautiful’ with a tip bit.  I ever managed to get to ‘sit up’ for treats, butt his didn’t happen every time, only when she was in the mood.

We were only blessed with her for just under 4 years, she had dental problems, but we did whatever we could to help, and she was so brave every time.  In the end she died at home and we were both there with her ( i know it sounds pathetic but i’m just glad she wasn’t alone – if only they could talk)

I just wanted to say how special she was to us and that rabbits aren’t just supposed to live in cages in the garden! If it wasn’t for Missy being such an angel we wouldn’t have Mable and Booboo now – but thats a whole different story!

Oh, what a precious story. I am sorry for you loss though.  I know that had to have been hard.  Thank you for sharing how wonderful she was.   I completely agree with you about where bunnies should stay.  When they are living with you, you can really see their personality and enjoy them to the fullest!

Pepper is such the trickster/troublemaker and I love that about her, she makes me laugh so much. Some examples of her bunny’tude; I was watching TV upstairs when I wanted to come back down with me I called to her and took a couple steps and looked back, took a few more steps and looked back and called her, I got to the door and she rose up from the "meatloaf" position she was in, stretched her front legs and yawned stretched her back legs, looked at me and flopped over legs sprawled out like "yeah, yeah I got it, you want me to follow but I’m not going anywhere". Then another night she was behind the couch and started pulling at the carpet which she knows is a big no-no my mom looked back at her and told her to come out from behind the couch. Pepper did her big dramatic flop and layed her head down and closed her eyes so my mom sits back down. A minute later she hears the unmistakable sound of bunny teeth pulling at the carpet, mom peeks at her agian and agian she flops over "I’m not doing anything, just relaxing back here." So my mom sits back down, the third time she was not fooled and Pepper got scooped up and put back in her cage.

Then her cage is by some curtians in the living room she liked to pull the curtians into her cage and gnaw on them, they were old worn curtians anyways so my mom decides to just cut them off a couple inchs above her cage so she can’t pull them in anymore. Well, Pepper was out when she started to do this so Pepper runs over and puts herself between my mom and the scissors even batting at the scissors to try and get her to stop cutting. When that wasn’t working Pepper runs into her cage and starts furiously pulling the curtians into the cage so she can’t cut them, actually getting in a tug of war. Pepper lost in the end and sulked for a couple days after that.

Another funny story, while she is getting used to the new addition of Boofa and doesn’t show agression anymore she still isn’t happy about it and shows this by leaving a poop fence around
Boofa’s cage when she is out. Well my mom was trying to clean this up and again Pepper runs over trying to interfer. When my mom finally got all the poops swept into a dust pan and goes to walk away, Pepper grabs the dust pan in her teeth, yanks it away and does a big flip with her head flinging poops everywhere in all directions. ROFLMAO!!!

Now Boofa is just the biggest lover and the most jovial of bunnies, I have more pictures of the floor or the wall because I am not fast enough with the trigger finger and Boofa seems to be a perpetial series of binkies and head flips and running the bunny 500. I can usually only get a picture when Boofa is napping. Boofa is also the most fearless of bunnies, exploring everything and I have never seen startled or scared of anything.

Here are some pictures of my fur babies I FINALLY got downloaded, Boofa is the lop-eared one and Pepper is the other one. LOL

Phanriver – What a funny character Pepper is.

Great pictures!!!  I love the last one Pepper on the top of her thrown there.  Like she’s saying…"yeah, you just try it missy!"

Oh yeah – I have a real little divabun on my hands.

My Pepper was not satisfied with the quality or freshness of her hay last week.  I put off dumping the litter and freshening the hay because I was having a party on Saturday and wanted everything to be all nice and neat.

I came home on Friday to find that she had dragged her hay-box out into the middle of the kitchen floor and pooped in it!  Right – I’ll get right on that then…..

She’s going to start demanding an entourage any day now.

wendyzski, your bunnies are absolutely adorable!!! i love black bunnies, they’re so pretty. at first when i saw the pics, i thought pepper and boofa were the same bunny and i thought, “wow, look how their ears can go from lopped to all the way up!!!”

OMG i love that last pic of pepper!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Clarification – I have a bun named Pepper – so inspired by PhanRiver’s bunny, but also because it seemed to fit her personality.  She’s a black and white lop mix.

The lovely Pepper and Booh pictured in this thread belong to PhanRiver.

Maybe I’ll start referring to my bun on here as Pepper Z?

My one and a half year old mini rex Sophie is my child. When I am doing anything other than gazing lovingly at her, she gets ridiculously jealous. Like a child, I will be on the phone talking and she will start scratching at my leg.  If I am sitting reading a book, she immediately jumps in my lap, with herself between me and the book and starts climbing up my chest.  Oh yes, she has a personality.  When I call her "naughty" she binkies and shakes her butt at me and then runs away. It’s the cutest thing I have ever seen!

She sounds adorable!!!   What a cutie pie.   Would love to see pictures or video.  I’ll post them to the gallery.

Note: I will FINALLY be posting new pictures and video next week when we have this site on a new server to prevent it from suffering fro SLOTHalitis…   or extremely slow!    So as soon as we have that fixed, I can post new stuff!