Rabbits....
Right, you know the bit where your kid is desperate for a pet ?
And, you know how you say "no"?
And, you manage to keep that up for aaaahaaaages, like, 2 years, even though your 5 year old insists that she actually IS a rabbit. You know, when she only communicates by wriggling her nose and hops the entire mile to school and mostly talks only about matters pertaining to bunnies?
Well, someone who vaguely knew me also vaguely knew someone who needed to rehome her two flop eared cute as buttons house rabbits. And, we had a wendy house in the garden which the kids never played in. So, it became a huge rabbit house.
The kids loved it. For about a day. The bunnies were totally unmanageable - they didn't like being handled at all. They were actually quite savage. Savage rabbits. Sheesh. Tears and wailing "why doesn't cute and adorable fluffy ball of joy liiiiiiiiike me?"
They were allegedly both dressed females, so why we landed up with three tiny wee naked prawns two weeks later was a mystery. Cue much excitement from the kids - right up until the other rabbit ate the babies. Cue tears and wailing. And, I kind of went off the rabbits.
About a week later the cannibalistic bunny died overnight. Who knew why. Buried in the garden. Cue tears and wailing.
Toddler dug him up "to see if he was ok". Tears and wailing. Mostly from me as I dug a hole so deep there was nearly oil at the bottom so I could rebury the rabbit.
The other one went all squiffy, so I took it to the vet who declared that it had ingrowing teeth and performed some surgery. And then handed me a bill for £250, treatment which would require repeating every 6 weeks. "I'm sorry, there seems to be some confusion. This is a child's pet, not a racehorse".
Rabbit died. Mysteriously. In the vets
Tears and wailing.
Rabbit stuffed into a shoe box and buried in the garden, next to his floppy eared pal.
Middley dug him up " to see if he was rotting faster than the other one".
Re-buried together (in the wheelie-bin).
Total disaster.
Rabbits do not make good pets for children.