Leo has been a part of our family for, oh... 4 years or so now. He was a birthday gift for the kid the year we moved back here. She has been really good about taking care of him right up until this last few months when she has got to be a little scatter brained about it. Leo has a nice big cage outside by the barn with an enclosed house on one side and a cage on the other and a shingled roof over the top. In the summer I give him frozen 2 liter bottles to lay against to stay cool, and in the winter I pack his house with hay and water him twice a day (I water him mornings, kid waters him evenings).
Such has been the life of Leo the Lop until last week.
See, I was dreading the effort of caring for him through the winter, and I have never liked the idea of him being out there, alone. And we had bought that cage for the kittens earlier this year so it was just sitting there empty taking up room on the porch.... last week Leo the Lop moved on up.... and moved inside.
yeah.
Just what we need, another animal in the house. (Don't let me fool you, I'd have the horses in here as well if I could do it without it being dangerous or gross).
It's been nice having him inside. The cats like to lay on top of his cage and reach in to pat him on the face. he comes up to the side of the cage and sniffs them and nibbles at their toes. Sure, every other day I have to strip out his cage completely but I use the loose chaff from the horse's hay as bedding so his cage smells of grassy hay. It takes 5 minutes to pull out the yucky chaff, wipe down the cage with disinfectant, put in fresh hay and be done with it.
The nice thing is that Tiff has been taking him out of his cage and letting him hang out with her while she watches TV or plays on her computer.
The other nice thing is that i no longer have creepy nightmares about forgetting he is out there and finding him dead because i forgot to water him on the weekends... because now if his water gets low he raises a ruckus to remind me. And I think he likes it.
House bunnies are fun. Just be very aware of where he is 'cause bunnies loooove to chew electrical cords. We no longer have bunnies since DD is out of 4-H but we really had fun with them.
ReplyDeleteHe doesn't get to be a free range house bunny because of the cord issue and because Nigel finds him altogether too fascinating for me to feel safe allowing them to socialize, lol. Not that Nigel could hurt him (other than to gum him until he is covered in dog spit) but i worry Leo could give Nigel a good kick or nip. Yes, i have to protect my dog from the bunny. lol.
ReplyDeleteMy kids have all had house bunnies. They have to stay in their rooms because I have Siberian Huskies... Midget actually told when hers finally died (almost 8 yrs) that she missed the noise of him in her room.
ReplyDeleteDD had Flemish Giants. It was a riot when she would take one "out to play". We never worried about the cats 'cause the bunnies were bigger than the cats. We had one cat that loved her big Blue and would run over to him, rub against him purring and stayed with him until DD put Blue away. Those buns could weigh up to twenty pounds or more. Even the Great Pyrennes would come over to the buns and lay by them. They were never unsupervised, so it was fun to watch the specie interaction. We do miss having bunnies.
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