I’ve put a banner up for the House Rabbit Society’s “Bunnies and Easter Don’t Mix” on our site for the next month or so. They have a lot of really good information up discussing the pros and cons of rabbits as pets. Having had a rabbit many years ago, I can personally vouch for the fact that they do make great pets, but do also require a great deal of work. Having worked in the vet field for many years before I moved on to IT, I would also add that they can also be quite aggressive if mismanaged. I find it really nervewracking trying to restrain a rabbit because not only can they injure their backs quite easily if you aren’t careful, but they can also put a pretty good hurting on the person holding them. They rank somewhere just below parrots on my list of “things I don’t want to face if they are really pissed off or in a panic” for similar reasons.

The rabbit I had when I was about 12 years old was a real character and got along great with the cats, believe it or not. However, he wound up having to be rehomed to Riverdale Farm (a local educational center) where I grew up, because I didn’t have a proper place to keep him and he was destroying the house. Come to think of it, he also kept wriggling under the shared balcony barrier and getting into our neighbor’s apartment. I was not exactly a good model of a responsible pet owner when I was a kid; I loved animals and would bring home anything and everything, but without thinking ahead of the needs and requirements of those animals.