Rabbiting On

We have a guest staying with us this weekend - a disabled, lop-eared, male English rabbit of indeterminate age. A. brought him home from the clinic on Friday.

Sadly, a few weeks ago, Teddy (the rabbit we adopted last September as a companion for our other bun, Fawn) died suddenly. A. was out of the country at the time, and I ended up having to deal with it all. :-( Opening our hearts to another animal feels like the last thing we want to do right now, but of course Fawn really needs a friend, and it's not fair to deprive her. And there's no shortage of abandoned animals looking for homes at the clinic where A. works. So, we've got this English lop we've christened Tim, who is currently healthy, but disabled. He suffered a bad case of 'head tilt', resulting from a middle ear infection - and so his sense of balance is buggered. As a result, his head is permanently tilted to one side! Poor guy! (but the effect is actually kinda comical)

Our observations thus far? He needs to be fixed before we can even think about adopting him. He’s completely hormonal, poor lad. On introduction, Fawn was her usual aggressive self, lunging at him and biting (she was the same way with Teddy before he was neutered - and then they became best friends). Yesterday, I put him in the cage for a bit with our guinea pig, whom he proceeded to chase, pin down and hump furiously. The guinea pig, of course, was having none of it, squeaking and chirping like her life was about to end. So I had to separate them, and gave Tim a plush ball for, erm, company. Quite enjoyed himself with that.

A. will definitely need to sort him out on Monday... *sniiiiip* But hoping he makes it through the surgery - he has some lung damage from a bad respiratory infection that he was suffering from when he was first abandoned at the clinic. But we can’t keep him unless we can rectify his hormonal state. So, fingers crossed....