Tips on caring for an elderly rabbit September 26, 2006 11:45 PM   Subscribe

Perhaps I'm a sentimental fool, but I found this askmefi very touching.
posted by orthogonality to MetaFilter-Related at 11:45 PM (31 comments total)

Best of luck and I hope for many good days for you and your old-age grey, rabbit with ears like a well-loved toy.
posted by orthogonality at 11:47 PM on September 26, 2006


Call me a cruel, inhuman monster, but it'd probably be better off dead.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 12:01 AM on September 27, 2006


Awwwww.

Seriously, though. I'm gearing up for an askme of a similar sort.

(Though about more how I deal with it than the animal)
posted by sourwookie at 12:24 AM on September 27, 2006


We should start a Sentimental Fools Club, orthogonality. I got a bit misty reading that, as well.
posted by brundlefly at 12:33 AM on September 27, 2006 [1 favorite]


Oh, bless.
posted by freshwater_pr0n at 12:50 AM on September 27, 2006


My parents had a bunny.

It was named Spike.

Spike was a boy bunny.

One day, my Mom introduced Spike to Leo, who was her co-worker's boy bunny.

Spike in Leo got into a fight.

Apparently.

Not too long afterward, Spike had baby bunnies.

Spike wasn't a boy after all.

Much later, Spike decided to attack a Russian Wolfhound.

Bye bye, Spike.

I'm sorry, what were we talking about again?
posted by dersins at 3:10 AM on September 27, 2006


*falls about*

(I'm sorry, Australians want all rabbits on their continent to die.)
posted by Wolof at 5:54 AM on September 27, 2006


So what, I shouldn't post my stew recipe?

(Compensating crassly for misting up at the "well loved toy" line because she never, ever got over being read the Velveteen Rabbit as a child.)
posted by CunningLinguist at 6:08 AM on September 27, 2006


I like roasted red peppers in mine.

(Don't feel bad, CunningLinguist, you weren't the only one...)
posted by gnomeloaf at 6:17 AM on September 27, 2006


The terrorists have won.
posted by bardic at 6:34 AM on September 27, 2006


Aaaaaahhh. Aaaaahh.
posted by brownpau at 6:58 AM on September 27, 2006


Best of luck and I hope for many good days for you and your old-age grey, rabbit with ears like a well-loved toy.

Thanks. She's having a good day today-- she's alert and in a good mood (she's irritable a lot now). She took a few steps outside her hutch, ran a little circle around my feet and then went back inside.

Don't ever take your pets for granted. When I was younger, single and living alone there were blocks of days where I barely acknowledged her and I'd like to have them back now.
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:01 AM on September 27, 2006 [1 favorite]


Mayor Curley writes "When I was younger, single and living alone there were blocks of days where I barely acknowledged her and I'd like to have them back now."

Yeah. Words to heed.
posted by orthogonality at 7:13 AM on September 27, 2006


Some people I know were having some trouble with rabbits eating their vegetables, so they put out traps. Not nasty metal-jawed death traps, but cages with bait and pressure plates inside so that when the rabbit goes in to eat the food it gets trapped inside. When you catch one, apparently you tip it into a sack and then hit the sack against a tree a couple of times. Then you make delicious stew.

Well, it's faster and probably less painful than myxo.

They also sometimes have trouble with hungry kangaroos, but kangaroos are harder to trap and it would take too long for two people to eat a whole one.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 7:15 AM on September 27, 2006


Ah, sentimentality meets the open cesspool that is MetaTalk. Remember your most cherished memories and special moments? You really don't want to know what we're doing to them down the hall.
posted by blue_beetle at 7:27 AM on September 27, 2006


I didn't like that I have the same name as this old rabbit.
posted by orange swan at 8:09 AM on September 27, 2006


beth??!!
posted by naxosaxur at 8:20 AM on September 27, 2006


Jesus Christ, I was happy with my mental image of the Mayor as a badass, cranky, snarky sonofabitch, and it turns he's a big sweet teddy bear of a man

but he's right, pets (well, some pets) can become, strangely, part of one's family. their decline and eventual passing really affects us more than we thought it would. I've never had rabbits, just dogs, and I know what the Mayor's talking about.

anyway, I'm disappointed
(and the well-loved toy line killed me, too, CL)

*shakes fist at the Mayor*
posted by matteo at 8:45 AM on September 27, 2006


"Perhaps I'm a sentimental fool,"

Perhaps you are.

"but I found this askmefi very touching."

I did too.
posted by davy at 9:30 AM on September 27, 2006


Me too.

*runs to give cats some love whether they deserve it or not*
posted by languagehat at 9:39 AM on September 27, 2006 [1 favorite]


this is sweet. but i watch those youtube videos of animals talking too. gawd, they make me smile.

and, of course, the story of Faith is sooo sweet.

i'm surprised how many mefi'ers have bunnies as pets. do you they co-exist with other pets (like cat or dog)? is it best to get one from a rescue shelter?
posted by Bear at 9:40 AM on September 27, 2006


the fact that "Bear" asks a pet question in a bunny thread on MeTa made me smile. thank you.
posted by matteo at 10:01 AM on September 27, 2006


is it best to get one from a rescue shelter?

Yeah, it is. I say this even though two out of our three rabbits were pet-store bought around Easter time. We like to think that we were 'pre-rescuing' them as Grendel's pet-store cage lacked any form of available water and Beef Wellington was the runt of the buns at his store (plus he was constantly surrounded by Noath Shoah mutant teenage girls).
posted by robocop is bleeding at 10:27 AM on September 27, 2006


i'm surprised how many mefi'ers have bunnies as pets. do you they co-exist with other pets (like cat or dog)?

They do in most senses, but they're very different from dogs and cats. For one thing, they're markedly less smart than either. And it makes their reactions to things very funny, but they generally have less depth of personality.

They are very easy to litter train so they're clean in that sense. But they're notoriously destructive if left unsupervised. Beth has the run of the house in theory, but she won't go very far in practice because she won't cross bare hardwood floors or linoleum. But it was a monumental task to protect the furniture that we care about from her (with only limited success), as well as all the electrical cords/ethernet and TV cables. Of course, we could have instead just elected to let her out only under supervision, but my wife and I felt it was important that she go anywhere she wanted, especially after she spent many years in my tiny Downtown Boston apartment.

Rabbits are definitely not for everyone. And when Beth goes, we are not going to rush to get another. When we move to a larger house where we can have a room that is devoted as much to a rabbit as anything else, we might consider another one.
posted by Mayor Curley at 10:51 AM on September 27, 2006


I propose that we extend the use of NSFW to posts that might make me people sniffle.
posted by dilettante at 1:24 PM on September 27, 2006


I'm sorry, Mayor Curley. I've never had rabbits but I think most animals have an uncanny gift for reading human intentions. They know when they are loved.

I hope you found some good advice to help you keep giving the best possible care to your friend.
posted by melissa may at 3:20 PM on September 27, 2006


Beth, I hear you callin
But I cant come home right now
Me and the boys are playin
And we just cant find the sound
Just a few more hours
And Ill be right home to you
I think I hear them callin
Oh, beth what can I do
Beth what can I do


Hey, she's not living under the TV anymore. That's gotta count for something.
posted by yerfatma at 4:25 PM on September 27, 2006 [1 favorite]


No wonder we get called a bunch of pussies ;-)
posted by dg at 5:44 PM on September 27, 2006


I wonder... if I provided a safe place for it (perhaps going so far as a collar-controlled door, to prevent cats from getting in) could a pet rabbit survive living freely in the back yard? Would it be smart enough to return home to food and shelter, or would it bugger off? Would it be smart enough to avoid being eaten by the neighbourhood cats or the various predatory birds around here? I'd love to have pet bunnies, but not in the house and not always in a cage...
posted by five fresh fish at 7:14 PM on September 27, 2006


FFF: rabbits will dig, and they have PREY written large all over them. I don't think I'd let one roam free outside. Though now that I have a housebunny, I can't imagine keeping a rabbit in a cage. It's true that you have to rabbit proof your house, but it's really cool to watch him do crazy little rabbit sprints though the livingroom and terrorize the dog.

... and Mayor Curley is my hero now.
posted by oneirodynia at 10:34 PM on September 27, 2006


[My elderly cat] got a soft bed with a desk lamp pointed over it to keep him warm like a little french fry.

Mmm, delicious rabbit.
posted by hugsnkisses at 11:34 AM on September 28, 2006


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