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Occasional Rabbit Reports: Mickey Gets a Girlfriend . . . or Two

© Dorothy Hoffman

Mickey and I took a trip out to the Rabbit Habit foster home last month to look over some prospective companions. Mickey's been feeling his oats since his companion and tormentor, Lilith, passed over the Rainbow Bridge, but I wasn't sure his newfound confidence would be strong enough to stand up to another dominatrix. We were looking for a female bunny with an easygoing, friendly personality.

We had great success - Mickey found two foster bunnies that seemed to fit the bill. Bailey was a timid brown and white Dutch who pretty much ignored Mickey on their first meeting, but she certainly wasn't afraid of him. Mickey's next date was with a foxy little silver martin dwarf, Bebe. Bebe was a bit spunkier than Bailey and quite forward but nonthreatening.

I loved them both and thought, "wouldn't it be great if they all got along? We put the three buns together, and they really did seem to like each other. Everything was working out beautifully, and Mickey came home with a small harem. For a week, the trio seemed to be a match made in heaven (all three have been spayed or neutered, of course, so there was no chance of an unplanned population explosion).

Everything was great except I was starting to feel scars or bite injuries on the girls that I was sure hadn't been there before- first just on Bebe, then on Bailey, too. Telltale turfs of Bebe and Bailey fur were also appearing on the floor with growing regularity, some that seemed to have been pulled out by the roots. Then I finally caught the girls in an alarmingly fierce "cat fight" that I had to break up by inserting myself between the combatants. I thought Bailey was having some kind of asthmatic attack until I realized what that strange sound was. It was the first time I'd ever heard a bunny growling.

Most bunny people with fostering and bonding experience know that female-female bonds are the most difficult to pull off, so I'd been thrilled to see that Bailey and Bebe seemed to get along so well. The problem was, once they were acclimated in their new home and both felt totally comfortable with Mickey, their natural antagonism surfaced. Bebe was forming a tight bond with Mickey and apparently considered herself top female. Bailey disputed her assessment of the situation far more strenuously than I'd have believed such a delicate-looking bunny could muster.