Rabbit Redux

Radar did not appreciate my Photoshop efforts to make him look like a rabbit from a "Friday the 13th" movie (see my 7/19/07 Standing Rabbit Monster posting), so out of fairness to Radar, here is what he really looks like. Contrary to what you may believe about rabbits, they are highly intelligent, playful and can be quite social. Whenever I come home from work, all I have to say is "Where's Radar" and he comes bounding over to me for a quick sniff and gentle strokes on his head. Then while I'm preparing his dinner, he patiently waits outside the kitchen. As soon as he sees me again, he stands up, I click my clicker, and reward him with a lettuce leaf before we skip over to his official dining room (my son's bedroom).

I'm still amazed by how social Radar is, considering the hard life he once had. Radar's original owner kept him locked up in a cage below other rabbit cages. All day long, other rabbits urinated on poor Radar. By the time the House Rabbit Society http://www.rabbit.org/ rescued him, his fur had turned from white to yellow. It took many months for his natural white fur to grow back in. When I discovered that Radar was litter box trained, I decided to give him free access to my son's bedroom, the hallway, entry way, and our living room (after I rabbit-proofed the rooms, of course). Unfortunately, our cat, Sally, views Radar either as competition or prey. Every time she sees him, she tries to attack him. So we keep Sally confined to the kitchen and family room. Unlike Radar, Sally likes to urinate on carpet so we cannot let her roam around in any of the carpeted areas of our house such as the bedrooms, hallway and living room.

I wish I could adopt a second rabbit as a companion for Radar, but my husband thinks we already have too many animals in our house. In addition to Radar and Sally, we also have three guinea pigs (Stanley, Olly and Munchy). Perhaps someday I can change his mind. . .