Saturday July 25th, shortly after returning from our Summer vacation, Sterling made his whole family truly happy. How? He went to Black Hawk and bought a young bunny rabbit.
We asked around and tried to find how to get a good and cheap rabbit in the area at this time of year. Without luck we got the first one we found. It is a female Lop bunny and beautiful. She looks like caramel or Easter. Mom was given the gift of picking the name. Buttercup (like from Princess Bride).
The first few days we've had her have been great. She is proving to be a perfect pet for kids. She is cuddly and loving. Friendly and fun. She already treats me like her mom. When I take her outside to the yard she hopes and runs around me and hops into my lap for some affection every minute or so.
At first she was nervous and uncertain. When we brought her home she seemed young and scared. She was about 8 weeks old. She warmed up fast though. We love her and I think she can tell.
She loves to like everyone; hands, legs, faces. And Athena loves trying to kiss Buttercup..usually on her soft fluffy back.
When we (I) decided to get a rabbit I thought that pet bunnies can live in their cages and not need exercise (what was I thinking?). I also thought bunnies would love to be outside in the sun and free to run in the grass. Turns out bunnies fear predators and don't want to be out in the open. Buttercup feels safer inside than outside. If I take her outside to run around the back deck she will run back into the kitchen (and no, the floor isn't softer or easier to walk on in the kitchen than the deck).
We got a bunny cage for $10 at a yard sale just hours before we bought the bunny. Ster picked up her other necessities just before picking up the bunny. The most expensive thing about the bunny is the bedding which we change weekly. I also learned, just today, that bunnies need toys. So I am going to make some great bunny toys using things we already have at the house.
Today, four days since Buttercup joined our family, we went to Storybook Island to play. While gone I knew Buttercup would be home alone and probably lonely.
From the park we went to Runnings. We'd never been in that store before but heard that had a great bunny supplies selection. And they do. In fact they had two cages of bunnies! Baby bunnies for $15. That's $10 cheaper than we got ours for. Of course, these bunnies are not Lops. So they might not be as great at being pets for young children as Lops. But they are so cute and proved that they do well with different breeds of bunnies int he same cage (at the store).
So even though we had gone to get rabbit bedding we ended up buying a 2nd bunny. An adorable gray dwarf rabbit. Both our bunnies are female. The 2nd bunny is probably almost as many weeks as Buttercup but she is much smaller.
We took the 2nd bunny home to meet Buttercup. Sterling gets to name this one.
Buttercup loves her new friend! The little bunny was of course unsure and nervous but Buttercup is now comfortable and somewhat confident.
With two bunnies and needing to give them out of their cage time we ended up taking Athena's play pen and giving it to the rabbits. Athena might not need her pen anymore and we rarely used it anyway.
We all love having bunnies. The kids don't like to hold the bunnies because of their sharp claws. But they loves seeing them, petting them and playing around them.
Buttercup and her first days in our family:
And today with the new, not yet named, bunny...
