Hello Everyone!  My name is Amy and I am a 41 year old married mom of a 13 year daughter and new mom to a beautiful 2.5 year old lionhead bun named Ziggy. (not neutered yet but will be VERY soon)  My story is a long one but worth telling I think–if you are able to stick it out til the end you are a trooper 

So it begins…A dear friend of mine took Ziggy in after friends hers had to give him up.  While she did a great thing by giving him a home I don’t think she realized the work entailed in having a rabbit as a pet.  She allowed him to live in her kitchen (cage free for the most part) and always made sure he had plenty of food and water.  Attention on the other hand is not something he got very much of. Whenever I would go and  visit her I always made it a point to visit with Ziggy for a few moments–I don’t know why but I was just drawn to him.

Anyway, about 5 weeks ago my friend had to go to FL (she’s still there!) for a family emergency and asked if we would be willing to take care of Ziggy.  I jumped at the chance…it didn’t take long before we were madly in love.  My husband and daughter have both bonded with Ziggy but not to the extent I have.  We are two peas in a pod, he follows me everywhere–even waits for me outside the bathroom.  The more attached we got to Ziggy the more anxiety we had about having to give him back.  I began to do a ton of research on rabbits and was amazed to learn what social creatures they are, the fact that he spent so much time alone at my friends house broke my heart–how sad he must have been.  Almost from the moment he came to stay with us we did away with his cage and gave him full run of the house.  He was in heaven, he also seemed to love the fact that someone was always home with him.  I work overnights and my husband works days so quite literally there is always someone here.  During this time I would give my friend updates on how he was doing (he did his first bunny flop today–he was a binkying maniac this afternoon etc) and hinted at how hard it was going to be to give him back.  My husband and I both started having massive anxiety about returning him and tears were shed…but we knew we had no choice, he wasnt ours.  

Then Ziggy did something that changed the course of his life…My husband and I have a bad habit of falling asleep on the couch, we rarely make it upstairs to our bed.  I was off work on this particular night and more exhausted than usual so I decided to drag myself upstairs.(Ziggy had yet to brave the stairs–no amount of coaxing could get him to even try)  My husband soon followed and off to sleep we went.  We woke up a short time later to a bunny in our bed! Ziggy, not used to being left alone at our house, made his way up a flight of stairs and came and found us and hopped into bed! Talk about surprised! We gave him some love, let him hang out a bit and then brought him back downstairs. It didn’t occur to me that a rabbit could be like a dog or a cat a sleep in the bed with you!  We got him settled gave him a treat and went back to bed.  Within 10 minutes he was back–this time we let him stay and he slept with us the rest of the night and has done so every night since. (he hops in and out of bed to go exploring since this tends to be his most active time but stays in the room with us all night)

The next day I posted the sweet story on facebook. My friend saw it and couldn’t believe he had gone to such lengths to find us.  Later that day I got a message from her asking if we would consider keeping Ziggy for good.  She said she could not take him back, that particular story combined with all the others made her realize it would probably break his heart to leave us.  She acknowledged that he did not get enough attention living with her and knew he would be miserable if he was forced to return.  To say I cried tears of joy is an understatement! I couldn’t believe this beautiful creature was really ours! We were thrilled—never in our wildest dreams did we ever believe we would get to keep him.

We have come to see Ziggy as our missing piece,,,he has made our family complete.  I never would have believed I could love a bun so much…I would go to the ends of the earth to make him happy and I am thankful everyday that my friend gifted us with such an amazing little boy.  This site has made me see that I am not the only one who feels this way and I have loved looking around and reading all your wonderful stories…Thank you for taking the time to read Ziggys story—he sends love and kisses to you…he knows how happy his momma is to have found you all!

Amy