I think rabbits will definitely ‘glom’ to one person, like any other animal. My husky hated my husband when we first got him because a man had beaten the dog, burned him with cigarettes, scared him with loud noises and forced him to pull freight in competitions. It took me half an hour to befriend him with a pack of hot dogs and a skirt. (Anything in blue jeans terrified him and he became very aggressive.)
My cat, Q.T., was supposed to be my son’s cat. While I was trying to decide how to bring home another animal without my hubby going ballistic, I allowed him to sit in my lap, played with him (there were ten other kittens around him with all sorts of little kids from the school trying to mangle them gathered nearby) and then he crawled up in my jacket sleeve and went to sleep. One little girl kept asking me for him and I told her he was sleeping and shouldn’t be disturbed. On the way home, he scaled me and hung onto my neck with his little pins and needles until we stopped, I couldn’t get him back in his box so I had to walk into the house with him stuck to me…hubby arrived at the door (my son had called home to tell him that I was coming with cat) and said “NO”, but I begged. Told him the boy was to take care of him. But I don’t think he ever left my lap for those first few weeks. Needless to say, guess who he loves?

I hope that Fiver will eventually come to trust me. He seemed genuinely comforted while I held him in the store and that first evening here. I think though, he’s beginning to realize that, instead of screaming, nasty, obnoxious little children hovering over him all the time, he’s got quite a masochistic, easily startled sycophant on his hands. Once he sees that I am the bunny slave, I think he’s going to grow into the nickname I have given him…The Little King. ^_^

Yeah, I know he may never really warm to me Markus…but something in his eyes tells me that he is really looking for someone to speak to him on his level. I won’t push anything with him, since that doesn’t work with any of my other animal companions, so I certainly am not working on the premise that it would start now. But I hope to give him hope.

My vet tends to take off early in the week for three and sometimes four day weekends. But, she’s the only semi rabbit savvy vet I know, so…. :-/ I’ll be bringing him in on Monday afternoon.

I’m looking at the hay manger. I haven’t had success with one yet. ^_^ For some reason my bunnies like their hay right on the floor next to their noses.

Aw, they’re sold out. Oh boo!

Wow, look at the fleece bed! Hmm…(thinks of the possibility of sore hocks in rexes) Do you suppose a few of those would be nice for him? I notice he does slip and slide along the floor and that irritates him.

And I keep my hands washed as best I can, but he needs SOME smell to recognize. (My feet are immaculate, you could eat off them! ^_^ ) I cleaned out his litter box last night with vinegar and he had to sniff at it for quite a while before it obviously dawned on him, “oh yeah…my throne…I remember this thing.” xD
After I took a shower last night, he didn’t recognize my scent at all and gave me a beautiful stink eye. >.<

I can see him calming down. But he’s a year and a half old. If he was abused all that time, those memories are not going to fade easily.

I actually had a great few moments with Fiver today that have me very hopeful.

First of all, he is actually becoming much more curious about his surroundings. He is also not flicking me with his ears as much, or startling at the least touch on his person every time we bump into each other. Instead of keeping to the far corner of the pen with bunny butt firmly positioned in my direction, now he often comes up to the side of the pen and seems to be looking for nose rubs or a familiarity sniff. As long as I don’t move too fast, or touch before permission is given, we have precious moments there.

Today I left his door to his pen open to the bed after I cleaned, (I can actually put my hand into his cage now with surprisingly little interference from Fiver…I almost get less growling from him than I do from Mimzy!), and with a little coaxing, he came out onto the bed and began making mental notes about where everything was. You can just see the wheels turning; “creep forward, sniff, creep sideways, sniff some more, look something up and down, poke it with your nose and if it doesn’t fight back it’s safe, move over here, sniff again”….you get the idea. ^_^

This went on for about half an hour or more, and then we had to retire as I had to go out for a bit. But somehow, this wasn’t enough for Fiver, he seemed genuinely disturbed that I had shut his door and kept giving me these plaintive looks that just shouted, “Hey, I wasn’t done making my map yet!”

This is better than I had hoped. Of course sometimes a touch, unsolicited, can still cause Fiver to either leap completely back into his pen, or at least get as close to the door as possible. But you can see he’s just loving the idea that he can take himself out where he wants to go, instead of having someone grab him by whatever appendage they think is appropriate, and haul him around like a sack of rice, which is what I feel has happened to him in the past. The lady at the store said he did fine once you got him in your arms…well of course, because part of a rabbit’s fight or flight response is to become as small and diminutive as possible when cornered. That may be the only reason he was complacent when being held. I assume that will change as he realizes he has more freedom now to be the bunny God meant him to be.

I also got what I think was meant to be a kiss today from Fiver. I had put my hand up to the pen bars at Fiver’s request for a sniff, and felt his little lips moving over my hand…suddenly there was the feel of a little tongue on my finger. He could’ve been licking me…or maybe just tasting to see if there might still be a hint of Craisin on my skin. ^_^

Either way, it was a sweet moment. I had a few of those with Mimzy too, when he first got here, and then they stopped when I became more bunny slave than true friend. But now, I can see Mimzy is just a bit jealous, and so very fond of our times alone together.
I had forgotten that it took months to bring Mim around to realizing I wasn’t going to hurt him in any way. I can only expect as much, if not the same fears in all areas, from Fiver.

Now, if only the eventual bonding will go as well as it has in the past when we get to that point, it’ll be 3 bun heaven! ^_^

Yes, this is true. ^_^ And I think I may know who….
Please if you have time, see my new post in Bonding called “Here’s a strange…”

I’d love your opinion.

Ah, sorry about that, hehehe….

I shall work on getting a few more. He really hates the flashy box, but I’ll persuade him somehow.
I hope to get piccies of his binkies. ^_^