New here: owned by bunny for three months now

[Liza]

Hello there!

I have just joined this forum because we have decided to keep our ‘foster’ bunny. I am failure when it comes to fostering, what can I say? Her name is Velvet, she is a mini rex girl, all black with the most beautiful little face ever! She is around 5 years old or so, we are not sure. She was on death row in one of our local county animal shelters because she was extremely aggressive and would attack anybody approaching her cage. She does not like to be encaged, not in the least bit, so she has a big x pen in the dining room with a lot of free run in the dining room, kitchen and living room. Velvet was adopted out about a month ago, I had to take her to the adoption event and it was the most awful thing I had ever had to do. I felt like I had abandoned her. It was bad. I cried straight for three days, day and night, at home, at work, at the grocery store… everything reminded me of her. On the third day, I was contacted by the adopter saying she couldn’t keep Velvet. She was a SUPER nice lady, very, very loving, but her bunny boy and Velvet were not doing well at all. I call it fate, I mean, what are the odds of a sweet little middle-aged mini rex girl returning to me? Yes, you have read it right: sweet. Velvet has changed a lot ever since she came to live with us. She worships my husband, she adores me – and we just love her insanely! The reason she was adopted was because she should be living with other bunnies. Velvet is very social and I cannot bare the thought of a social animal living alone. So guess what… We are working on adopting a companion for our pretty girl.

More to this later since I need to rush to work now.

It is nice to meet you all!!! I will post pictures of Velvet later today. Be prepared to melt for she truly is beautiful!

Liza

[Beka27]

welcome here! don’t worry, you’re not a failure! some people just can’t do the foster thing. i bet she’s so pleased to be home. was this your first time having a bunny?

[Liza]

Well, I used to be around bunnies my entire childhood but they were bunnies used for reasons I’d much rather not discuss or even think about at all. Growing up, I was traumatized because of that and stayed far away from any bunnies. I love rabbits very much, always have, but I just couldn’t be around them without having weeks and weeks of nightmares. I don’t know why we decided to foster Velvet. I guess it’s because we were asked by a dear friend to do so or else Velvet would have been put to sleep at the shelter. Velvet had been there for months and months and was doing very poorly there. When she started attacking people, of course, that was her death sentence. How would I have lived with myself knowing she would have never experienced true love? We just had to get her out. We have a house full of animals, we currently have 19 rescued rats here (of course, they are fixed, we don’t breed them, we don’t even breed ourselves!), all of whom live in gigantic cages. Three of them live freely in our bedroom, we sleep with them. We have an additional rat room as well. Our animals are our children.

Who would have ever thought we would have rabbits, that I would get over my trauma? Velvet has magical power over me. I truly adore her!

[Beka27]

wow! 19 rats! are the females fixed too, or just the males? well, the great news is that this is helping you get over your bad associations with rabbits. we can’t help how we grow up or what we see as children… but what counts is how you live your life when you can help it.

[rabbitsmba]

Awwwwwwwwww – how lucky is Velvet to have found you? I am the founder and president of my local rabbit rescue’s “I Suck At Fostering Club” and I can tell you you are not alone! It is so easy to succumb to the beauties and love of a rabbit. I can’t wait to see pictures! Thank you for giving her the chance she needed to know what love feels like.

[babybunsmum]

nice to meet you liza!  what a sweet story you have.  velvet is a lucky girl to have you for a bunny slave.  do you have any pics of her to share?

[COOKIE'N FLUFF MOMMA]

She sounds great! can’t wait to see pics!

[Liza]

Awww, thank you so much for your nice welcome! This seems to be a very nice forum!

Once I am more familiar with things around here (this site is very user-friendly!), I will post pictures (and once I get back from work, haha!).

Velvet is very, very, very pretty and so is her potential new boyfriend Dancer. They are being bonded right now… Hopefully it works out and I can bring both home very soon! I went to visit them yesterday. Velvet immediately flattened out on my lap (strangely enough, at home, she never lets me pick her up! haha!) and did the tooth grinding thing. She is so affectionate now! Dancer is very pushy, so we are working on the bonding.

Our local House Rabbit Society (San Diego, CA) is AWESOME!!! They have helped us SO MUCH, we have received so much moral support, they truly are incredible!

I will post pictures later! Is there a max. amount of pictures per posting?

[Nicci607]

…can’t wait for the pic’s

[JK]

What a great story!  I’m sure Velvet’s past behavior was due to how she was treated.  There are so many rabbits that appear to be “mean”  and for good reason!  They just need a chance to have someone give them a good life, affection and security and then miraculously their personalities change! This site is fantastic and there are so many great and knowledgeable people! Welcome!

[kralspace]

Hi liza

Welcome and don’t feel bad, there’s a lot of us here that could form the I-Suck-At-Fostering Club heheeh

I have 5 buns, 2 of whom were positively fosters. yeah, right. I have 5 buns.

One is a white mini rex, Lola, whom my male met at a rescue’s speed dating. I can’t wait to see pics of yours, she’s very lucky to have you.

Kathy

[Sage Cat]

Wow Liza,

What a great story! I would bite after being in a cage for months, too.

My bunny’s were over looked for a while at the shelter because they were “shy”. They ain’t shy no more! It is amazing what a little love and patience will do.

Congrats on Velvet. Best wishes to her & Dancer!

[wendyzski]

Bless you!

I adopted Pepper when she was a year and a half old and had been at the shelter for 9 months.  She didn’t like other bunnies, and wasn’t too sure about humans either – not mean, just aloof.  But she laid down (safely out of touching distance of course) in the X-pen with me, much to the surprise of the volunteers.  She’s around 3 now and slowly getting more comfy.  She loves people (particularly the sloppy kind who drop food on the floor) and is curious and friendly, as long as it’s her option to run away if she wants.  I don’t think she’ll ever be a cuddlebun, but she now will loaf on “her” shelf next to the couch for pets while I watch tv.  She’s come a long way, and I’m proud of her.

[Liza]

 

The blue boy is Dancer.

I didn’t want to post too many big pictures in case someone has dial-up. I haven’t read through all the rules and regulations yet.

Have you all fainted yet? Isn’t she just gorgeous? I can’t get enough of her.

She is very, very smart and I am just incredibly proud of her being able to trust humans again! We don’t know much about her. When we got her, both her feet were raw. One foot has nice fluffy soft hair grown in quite nicely, but the other one is bare. She has lost a good amount of weight too, so now she is very healthy. She was fat when we took her in. Shelters tend to free feed the rabbits, and let me tell you, Velvet LOVES to eat! I just heard from my friend who is bonding the two bunnies. They had a very good meeting today! YAY!!! That makes me happy!!! Dancer is from one of the Humane Society’s here. He is very shy and rather withdrawn. My friend (who is way more bunny-experienced than anybody else I know) says he hides a lot (I witnessed that too) and gets scared easily. He has run in our house already , he loved it!!! He came from a breeder who was shut down in November of 2007. Dancer’s only purpose was to mate, so that’s what is programmed in him. Velvet tells him differently though, so we will see how that goes. Dancer is already neutered, of course. Velvet was spayed once we agreed to take her in. 
We went from no rabbit to one foster to two rabbits of our own!!! I am so happy!!! Deep inside of me, I’ve always wanted a rabbit of my own but I just couldn’t. There was that fear in me of ‘losing’ them… of checking on them and they were ‘gone’ (thanks to my father). Now that I am an adult, I can finally put all that aside and open my heart to rabbits again.

Velvet needed us when we decided to foster her, but I needed her even more!

[JK]

Wow she is so gorgeous!  I can see why you are so smitten!  And Dancer!  What a hunk!  I hope it works out.  I bet he will be in heaven with a girlfriend and vice versa. I’m so happy for you.  I wish ALL pet owners were in love with their animals like you (and me)!  Thanks for the pics.

[Beka27]

oh Liza! you’re gonna make me cry!  i can tell how much pain you’ve gone thru… i really hope everything goes well with Dancer and you can have a big happy family with your bonded buns!  your girl is gorgeous.  she looks “regal”… like an Egyptian Queen ( does that make any sense at all?)  i am a bit partial to the mini rexes b/c of my Meadow… oh what the hey… here’s a pic of my girl.

[Liza]

Ooooohhhh, Meadow is beautiful! Her spots on the side look almost like a paw print! Neat!!! Thank you for posting that picture!

See, I had no clue what a rex would even look like before I laid my eyes upon Velvety. I had no idea these special rabbits existed. To me, color, size or fur type have never meant anything in any species. We have adopted animals without meeting them before, without knowing anything about them but their sex. When I heard about Velvety, I expected a huge big fluffy shedding bunny – instead, I got perfection!!! She is very litterbox trained (she never has any accidents!), she doesn’t chew on anything, she loves her hay and her veggies, she is very smart… PERFECT! That’s what she is.

Yes, when we got her, my goodness, she was a ball of nerves. She attacked me though she fell in love with my husband the second she saw him. She hated me, which made my husband feel all important and like a million dollars! The two of them have something special going on. She would attack me whenever she could, especially in her x pen. She is very vocal, so I understood her rather quickly. She still attacks sometimes, when she forgets, but I just tell her “hey, hey, hey” and put my hand right in front of her face without touching her and she stops immediately. Of course, everybody who meets her loves her but there are quirks about her that one needs to know about. You can’t just pick her up, for instance. No way. She is really good about everything else though. I have found that the less I confined her, the friendlier she became, so I gave her more and more freedom. She loves lounging around the living room on the rug and since she is so perfect about the litterbox and about not chewing, she gets a ton of freedom! She deserves EVERYTHING but I really, really want to see her with a companion of her own kind.

I’m typing a novel yet again… I am just so in love with her, I can’t stop talking about her!

[Jyka]

Isn’t bunny love grand? Lovely to see a new devoted bunny slave. She is beautiful. Enjoy! and thanks for giving her a good home.

[Sage Cat]

What a beauty. Sounds like y’all were ment to be..

[Nicci607]

WOW!!

What a BEAUTY!!    I’m in love!!

Thanxx for the pics!!    

[COOKIE'N FLUFF MOMMA]

She is totally gorgeous!

[Lagomorpheus]

oooh what a lovely rabbit you have…quite gorgeous! Love the shape of her head and ears!!

[wendyzski]

She has the most elegant profile!

[Author]

Messages