About Me and My Rabbits

As I child rabbits already intrigued me. Stories of Peter Cottontail and the Velveteen Rabbit were always my favorites. From the first day I can remember I always loved animals. My room was full of cages and aquariums, which each held varieties of different animals.

I loved to have them as pets and adored them dearly, but I loved to go to the woods and see animals in their natural habitats. I used to go on hikes with the boy scouts and they’d always be so loud and obnoxious when we went to the woods, that we’d never ever get to see any of the wildlife. Although I lived in town, it was only a five minute walk to the forest, a short trek through a field. I learned that if you wanted to see an animal, you had to be extremely still and wait for them. A human can be quite a distubance to the natural ways of the forest. Sometimes I would sit for hour before I saw anything. Winter was the worst season, because the bitter cold always forced me home. I saw many animals in those days. One of my favorite encounters was with a pale crane, which perched itself beside the river, unaware of my still presence. I watched as the tall creature drank and took a rest. It’s long legs made him look awkward. I was so intirgued because not only was I so close to the bird, but i had never seen an animal like it. I ran home and looked up the bird in my books and found him to be a crane. Amoungst all the skunks, and deer that I watched I only saw one small, tawny rabbit. The creature amazed me. I only saw him a few moments for he took off in fear when he saw me. I was so enchanted by the creature, that when an oppurtunity came for me to join 4H with my brothers I took it in a milosecond. I became club reporter the first year and took a few other projects, but my main area of focus were rabbits and Outdoorsman.

Perris is above

I got my first rabbit, who was named Fuzzy when I was only 9 and from then on I’ve had a total of eight rabbits come into my care. My brothers also had their share of bunnies, but grew tierd of the responsibilty, which only made more cage space for me! I became a member of American Rabbit Breeders Association, Maritime rabbit Breeders Association, Netherland Dwarf Rabbit club, Down East Rabbit club and Mini Rex Rabbit club. In all my younger years I raised a breed called Netherland Dwarfs, and they introduced me to the world of rabbits. The were a small, stout breed with very tiny ears. they came in a variety of colors and very a remarkable breed. When I became sick in the hospital I gave my last Dwarf away so he would be cared for, while I was away. He didn’t last long afterwards, from what I remember. When I got back I found that the rabbitry I had always been with was no longer in business after suffereing a horrible fire, which had engulfed their house. I had to search else where for my bunnies. Soon enough, I found the Eastwood Rabbitry in Caledonia mills and one slippery January day I set out to find a new pet bunny to fill my cage. I was a little nervous, because I had always stuck by my Netherland Dwarfs, but when I layed eyes on the Mini Rexes, my heart had now found a new breed. I picked a small black doe, who had a mystifying aura about her. I named her Noelle, since she was born on Christmas. Her show name became Mystique Noelle. She took in many trophies and awards and it was neat, but it wasn’t the trophies I wanted more of, but her. I loved to spend time with her. I loved getting to know her and what she was like. I bought her a leash which we used often in the fields and built her anew gigantic cage, since some of the others were getting old. In the summer I’d take her on top of the hay bales, which were piled beside one another, creating a platform, and let her run free on top of them. When she wasn’t munching the hay she had some good runs. I think the exercise was part of the reasoning for her trophies. She continued to intrigue me and others, by how firendly and used to humans she was. She liked to sit in your arms, with her head as close to yours as she could get it. Other breeders looked at me in amazement and I did notice a contrast between Noelle and some of the other rabbiots, who kicked and squabbled, bit and scratched, whil you tried to get them from their cages. But I’m sure there were others, who had rabbits just like mine. I spent days just studying her and her behavoir. I became to know fidgets she would make as words and I knew exactly when she was hungry, tierd, bored and so on. We became more than a pet and an care taker, but friends as well. Her breed interested me so much that I well, got two moreof the kind, Neeka and Jaesey and I learned everything possible about her breed. I knew the colors, the weight requirements. I knew it all. So, since there was nothing else to be learned I studied all the other breeds and found one in particular very intriging. The fuzzy lop soon enough joined my out back baby barn. A siamese point named Cosette. Her fur was long and her ears flopped downwards, unlike the others. My brother had raised mini lop, so I was used to the floppy ears, but the constant brushing of that long entangled hair was something I was definatly not used too! Before a show, I had to groom her like crazy to make her even “presentable”. She won a lot too. I loved those rabbits and still do. Noelle and Cosette are gone now, but Jaesey and Neeka are still hanging around and Jaesey really loves to be comforted. His fur is a bluish grey. The proper name is blue, but people react funny when I tell them I have a blue rabbit. He isn’t showable, because he has a plasma membrane around his eye and I took him to the vet to remove it, but it grew back within a short time and the costly operation proved pointless. Neeka is black, like Noelle, but has a differently structured body than Noelle did. Noelle was queen-like and older and more mature in appearance and though they were the same age Neeka always took the young, inoocent princess role. In biology class in grade eleven and twelve I learned a whoile new side to the rabbits. Their anatomy and the way they function. I didn’t care much for opening up animals, in fact it always hurt me to see it, but I endured it for the class.