The Twins

by Carol
(UK)

I had my first rabbit as a child when I was 8. She was called Queenie and she was a Seal Rex, with such gorgeous soft fur! Although she lived outside I often brought her into the house for play time. My dog at that time knew not to go to close or she would get scratched. Queenie knew how to defend herself!

A couple of years later we found a rabbit in our garden. She was an English Spot and much bigger than Queenie. We tried to find her owner, but no-one ever came forward so we kept her. It wasn't long before we found out that she was an escape artist! On two occasions we found that she had escaped during the night, and found her way to our vegetable garden. One of those times was in the deep winter, and we thought she was dead as she was so cold and stiff! After being in the house with us for a while she warmed up and was as lively as ever, thank goodness.

In later years, my children (ahem) had a steady stream of pet rabbits. There was Jet (a Silver Fox), Sam (a Tan), another English Spot (Smudge), a Blue Rex (Smokey Joe), and the twins, Danny and Sue, who were Blue Dutch.

Although they were supposedly the children's pets, it was normally left to Mum to feed and clean their hutches. Although the kids would have loved them to be house rabbits, we had gun dogs at the time, and I didn't feel they could be trusted not to try to retrieve them!

The twins were our last rabbits. I felt guilty for the way we lost them.

One morning on going out to feed them, Danny was walking around in circles with his head on one side. It was time for a vet visit! We took them both, to make sure it wasn't something catching!

It turned out that Danny had an ear infection, and the treatment the vet gave us put him right pretty quickly. Sadly, his sister dropped dead three days later! We will never know why. :(

Later that year we had a very cold winter. I felt sorry for poor Danny, so brought him inside with us. He was safe in our utility room, with his hutch to sleep in and the run of the room (which was empty at the time).

I left him at home when going to a village Christmas fair across the road, fastening his cage, just to be safe.

A while later a neighbor came slip sliding across the icy road to tell us that we had water pouring outside through our back door! Turns out our pipes had burst.

Sadly poor little Danny had drowned in his hutch. :(

I felt so guilty. If I had left the hutch open he may have been able to hop up to something to safety.

After losing both of the twins in one year I felt that was enough and we had no further rabbits. Although I would love a house rabbit now the kids have grown up, with a Jack Russell in the house I still don't think it would be wise!