How did we do it? Well, we had to resort to some guerilla bonding tactics. After much consultation of the relevant literature, we decided on Thursday night to try wedging both of them into the same small pet carrier, and then taking them for a drive in the car - the idea being that (rabbits being terminally nervous creatures) they will be so freaked about the weirdness of the car situation, that they'll forget to fight. To our surprise and delight, it worked a treat.
So on Friday, we decided to take them to Cape Breton with us for the weekend. Four and a half hours in the back of the car together, and not a peep out of either of them. We decided to risk putting them in the same cage together once at my parents' place (we nicked the dog's sleeping crate; she was none too impressed), and this too worked amazingly well. There were a few scuffles (nipping, circling, mounting) but nothing like the usual fur-flying, bloodletting scraps we've come to expect from these two. Putting them in neutral territory together seems to have finally broken down the hostility between them. When we got home tonight, we put them together in their cage, removed the barrier which has been between them for the last two months, et voila. Peace reigns.
It's amazing. We have never had so much difficulty bonding rabbits before, and I was really worried we wouldn't be able to keep Timmy if we couldn't get Fawn to accept him. So I'm delighted.
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