Echo Bunnyman – my pet rabbit 3

I’ve not posted on the blog about the bunny rabbit in ages, so brace yourself for bunny spam.

I adore Echo Bunnyman, he’s got a big personality for a small animal. He’s feisty, and loving, caring and sneaky, funny and clever. Whilst rabbits cannot talk, woof or meow, they really are masters of non verbal communication. Echo Bunnyman makes it pretty clear what he wants, if he’s sat on our sofa and decides he wants something he’ll stamp about. He has a sort of sign language of head movements, and it’s cute AF. He can tell me when he wants food or cuddles, he tells me when his water bottle is nearly empty, he growls if he doesn’t want to be touched, he even has a potty dance for when he needs the garden.

I recently read a vicious rant by an influencer on Instagram, by a rabbit owner. The short version is they said people like me who put rabbits on leads and harnesses are cruel and sharing images of bunnies on leads is causing an increase in clueless people buying rabbits then abandoning them for not being friendly enough. And, to be honest, I’m annoyed!

Echo DOES go out on a lead, and yes I post photographs on social media. I am not being cruel, in fact it’s quite the opposite. In the future, I want Echo Bunnyman to be a house rabbit, free roaming most of the time – but I have a rescued dog, Freya, who cannot be trusted near prey animals who would kill or injure him. So when Echo is indoors, he’s restricted mainly to the sofa, and the floor near it, entirely for his own safety. So to allow him more natural bunny behaviours until then, like digging, hopping, and binkying about he goes to the park or the woods on a lead. Being on a 5m retractable lead means I can let him just be a rabbit and follow him about, without the risk of him being lost and reducing his risk of harm. I don’t pull him about, I don’t expect him to do as asked, I consider it supervised playtime.

It lets him see things he’d never see, like dipping his toes in a river, or eating bark from trees. A favourite play place for us is the nearby cathedral, pre covid sadly as it involves a short drive. In the cathedral gardens there are so many things he likes to explore, stone cubes he hops on, solid benches where he’ll climb to sit with me then hops down to go munch more grass. There is a cute area with very short walls a bit like a maze, and there are plants and bushes to hide in.

I really don’t like being made to feel shite for trying to keep all my pets safe, loved, and happy.