As happy as we've been with our little bunny Gizmo, I couldn't help but notice that he didn't have company for large stretches of the day. Sometimes I'd be out of town for work, sometimes I'd be busy, but whatever the reason he seemed a tad lonely. Ever the problem-solver, my subconscious started processing the issue.
A few days later, I was cruising the animal shelter sites online to see if any female bunnies had been dropped off. Was I in for a shock! There were so many bunnies needing new homes, they couldn't handle them all. In fact, some loving folks had seen this problem going on for so long that they independently opened rabbit rescues and shelters to take the overflow and prevent the buns from being euthanized. That's a serious commitment!
Slowly the idea grew in my head that we should do some volunteering at the shelters. So for a few weekends my family and I drove 40 miles to the closest shelter and tried to help out. We cleaned runs, mopped floors, chopped veggies, socialized with shy buns, groomed them, exercised them, you name it. It was fun, and four hours went by in a blink. We didn't realize how exhausted we were until we were finished. We met so many great rabbits. There was Kevin, who was a Flemish Giant with an inner ear problem, and couldn't keep his balance all the time. He was friendly, clumsy, sweet and goofy. My son loved him, but we were really looking for a female. There was a tiny black New Zealand
I decided to try the other local shelter, and there was Josie! She was an elegant chocolate colored Rex who seemed to like us. She was a little younger than Giz, but about the same size. So the next weekend we brought Gizmo to the shelter to be boarded and socialized with Josie. We waited on pins and needles to hear about their progress. Finally after 3 days I called to get the scoop. Nobody was friends, and they might actually dislike each other. Awww. The head of the shelter wanted to keep trying, so we let her. Then on the 8th day she emailed us to let us know it wasn't going to work out. Josie had growled at Giz and wasn't having any of him in the playpen that morning.
I was disappointed, but I knew that we couldn't force anything. I'd rather have happy bonded bunnies than unhappy fighting ones. After all, if someone put me in a pen with a strange guy, I don't know that I'd do anything differently. So we thought some more, and asked her to try to bond Giz with a laid-back rabbit named Pipin we had also noticed. The reason she was not our first choice – she was huge! She was a French Lop the size of large cat. We were afraid if she accidentally sat on little Gizmo, she would flatten him into an actual bunny pancake. But she was so sweet, we had to give her a chance.
Well, it was love at first sight for Gizmo. He groomed her, feted her, sang bunny love songs to her (buzzing/honking), everything except buying a diamond ring (which he might have if my left my debit card unattended). And Pipin? She accepted it all graciously, not quite sure what all the fuss was about. She groomed Gizmo in return and sat calmly while he kicked up his heels and made a fool of himself for her. I told Sandi the owner that this was it, we couldn't ask for a better result. We would adopt Pipin, Gizmo's plus-sized girlfriend.
