My pet Rabbits

Here are Sooty and Sweep, my six year old lop-eared rabbits. Sooty is the white rabbit and Sweep is brown. As you can see from the photos they both have long floppy ears which is typical of lop-eared rabbits. I always wanted a lop-eared rabbit when I was a child but I was never allowed, although we did have lots of other pets: dog, cats, tortoise, cockatiel and hamsters, but no rabbits.

So as an adult and still wanting a rabbit we (my family) decided to go and pick our bunny. We phoned ahead to the pet shop and they had two left, when we arrived there was just one! We couldn't leave him once seen so he came home with us. We didn't want him to be by himself so we went back to the pet shop a couple of days later and picked another male rabbit. Male rabbits are known as the buck.

We named them Sooty and Sweep after the glove puppets in the childrens television show. Sooty in the show was a yellow teddy bear with soot on his ears and nose, therefore I named my almost white rabbit who has bits of black on Sooty, so they became Sooty and Sweep.

I sometimes think we should have named Sweep Peter, after Peter Rabbit, a character from a Beatrix Potter tale. Peter in the tale is a fat naughty rabbit, just like my Sweep who is slightly overweight and always trying to get into mischief.

At first Sooty and Sweep were fine: they cuddled up and seemed to love one another. After a couple of weeks we noticed that they had started fighting. They would roll around in a big ball and fur would go everywhere. We had them both neutered and hoped they would calm down and sort themselves out, but one day Sooty really injured Sweep, his ear was split and he had a chunk taken out of his paw. After a trip to the vets and Sweep was patched up, we decided to separate them, and they have been separated ever since. They still do see one another as their hutches are opposite within a fenced off area so they can take it in turns coming out to play and have contact through the wire mesh door.

They both have very different personalities, Sweep hates other rabbits but loves people, especially children, he's very bossy, hates change and likes his own way. Whereas Sooty is quite shy, loves contact with Sweep and loves routine. They have a love hate relationship.

I enjoy reading and looking at all the different rabbit characters in books with my children. Below are some stories which feature rabbits:

Little Grey Rabbit series by Alison Uttley – Little Grey Rabbit is a motherly, gentle character who has many adventures with her friends Squirrel and Hare.

Brer Rabbit – a central character from Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris. For those of you unfamiliar with this rascally character, he is a trickster who gets by using his wits as opposed to brawn. Enid Blyton has published a series of Brer Rabbit books, re-told.

Ladybird series 474 Tassletip Tales – these little books each tell a story in the life of 'Tassletip Rabbit' and his friends of woodland, meadow and lane. There is much excitement and many thrills, with plenty of surprises.

The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams may be an old childhood favourite... it chronicles the story of a stuffed toy rabbit that desires to become real through the love of its owner.

And how could we forget my favourite Peter Rabbit and his siblings Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail.

My rabbits are healthy and clean, they are fed on dried pellets, hay and a carrot a day. They are vet checked once a year and have their claws clipped whilst we are there. We have litter trained them so this makes it easier when cleaning them out.

Contributed by Fiona

(Published 30th Nov 2016)