Sunday, June 14, 2009

Big bunny Sunday

There's always a few bunnies hanging around Toronto Animal Services South and every so often I'll go over and check them out. About a month ago, I looked over at the bunny wall and thought someone had put a fat cat inside one of the cages. It turned out it wasn't a cat but the biggest bunny I'd ever seen.

I'm sure for anyone who's familiar with bunnies, this would've been no big deal, but for me, not knowing anything about them other than they eat carrots and say "What's up doc?" I was kind of fascinated.

Compared to the other bunnies, she seemed pretty friendly but she also had a bowl full of chow in her cage and after a 3 second hello sniff, she returned to her food.

For the next couple of weeks, I'd go over and give the bunny a quick visit every time I was in at TAS and then one day, she was no longer there. Adopted.

A few days ago, I got an update. From Alice's new owner:

Sorry it took so long to send the photos. We were trying to find an appropriate size comparison!

Alice is a Giant Chinchilla rabbit. She was given to the shelter as a stray and stayed there for a few weeks. I had the benefit of getting to know her right away, and we'd already grown quite fond of each other by the time we decided to take her home. I think this helped her adjust (or perhaps she was just glad to get away from the shelter and all those barking dogs - no offense to the dogs!), but she certainly settled in fast.

She is completely unflappable, not bothered by anything (thankfully including the three parrots). Her favourite place in the world is out on the balcony, where she can attempt to eat our entire garden.

We tried a few things to show off her size. Our first idea was the dwarf hamster Strauss (also from the shelter - don't ask me why you'd give up a tiny thing like that), but unfortunately neither of them would stay still. We tried a few other things, but eventually we settled on a good old-fashioned tape measure, stretched out to two feet.


I also sent a photo of her stuffing her face with some home-grown parsley, because that really shows her true personality.


She really is a friendly, gorgeous rabbit, so I'm happy we can give her a nice forever home.

7 comments:

Jan said...

I had a pet bunny when i was a kid. We let him run loose in our backyard. He ate everything in sight from morning til night and got very large. He lived for ten years eating every waking moment of those years.

Fred said...

Sounds like bunnies really know how to live the good life.

Anonymous said...

I wondered what happened to that Rabbit. I was so impressed with its appearance! thanks for the update. She got a fabulous home by the look of things.

Susan

EB said...

I saw Alice in the shelter! It's great to hear that she ended up in a great new home. We adopted a big white bunny from TAS last year, and she's also a sweetheart. Loves to be held and cuddled.

Laura HP said...

It's great to hear you adopted a rabbit, EB! I volunteer with the rabbits, I'd love to know the name of your new bunny =)

Fred said...

Hey Laura, I just checked out your blog! It's looking good. Great of you to be spotlighting the smaller animals.

EB said...

Hi Laura! The bunny's name was originally Tess and we've renamed her to Terra. We got her last summer during the CNE. We also adopted a little black and white bun named Samantha around the same time.

I look forward to reading your blog.