Recently, one of Austin's friends from To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA), told Austin some sad news. She was moving away and could not take her full-blooded, black New Zealand buck with her!
She had kept him as a pet (not neutered because he was the only rabbit in the household) and wanted to give him to someone she knew and trusted. She knows we have rabbits and (after telling Austin "You're not allowed to eat him") asked us if we would take him. We, of course, said yes thinking we could breed our reluctant Jane with this new buck in hopes of having a litter from her.
We headed over to her apartment today around 11am and walked in to see a gigantic (3.5' x 1.5') cage. Inside the cage was a rather gigantic rabbit! (As you can see in the picture, Appa is not a little sprite. He lives up to the flying bison he was named after) Our friend opened up his cage and he skeptically exited his safe place, unsure of how to feel about Austin and I. He was scooped up by his owner and she cradled him like a baby telling us "He likes to be held this way, he's pretty relaxed". Austin and I were trying to mentally compare him to Fabio and we decided that Appa might indeed be bigger than our buck back at home. We were told that he nips when he is done being held but overall, he seemed like a sweetie.
Austin and I noted that Appa appeared to have a bit of a dewlap (which we decided was due to his lavish, indoor, house-pet lifestyle). I adore his dark fur, it's nice to have a dark rabbit in the mix with our three light ones (it's harder to see his fur on my clothing!) and we discovered he is extremely soft and doesn't mind being handled. Our friend told us more about him and how he is territorial in his cage and mentioned an anecdote of how she was worried that he had cysts on his stomach but it turned out that they were teats upon closer inspection.
By this time, if you know rabbits (at least as much as Austin and I know rabbits) you start to think something about this buck is a little off. There was also no pee flung everywhere (a characteristic of our non-neutered buck) and no stories about him trying to get busy with any one, the pets, or anything else. (can you see where this story is headed? It's a familiar tale for this blog.)
We struggled a little to get the cage into my Jeep but we managed and I plopped Appa into my lap and we were off to go home. While in the car, we flipped Appa over and checked his genitals and lo and behold, we had a third doe! We told her previous owner (who was of course shocked) and laughed a little about the whole situation.
We brought her inside, let her settle down, clipped her nails, and made sure she was okay before giving her her own cage outside. She will hopefully become used to the smell of our other rabbits and maybe one day she'll bear us a little litter of gigantic rabbits.
Our family grew by one today, and I couldn't be happier with our new sweet doe. Appa will hopefully feel at home and truly become one of our furry family.
Keep your ears up (HA!) for more stories about our adventures!
- Lauren
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