Going to foster a rex rabbit girl *update May*

[liza]

Her name is Velvet. She is at one of our shelters here and is on the euthanasia list because she is apparently very cage-aggressive and is not doing well at the shelter.
I was contacted by the rescue to foster her. We have never had a rabbit in the house, I haven't had rabbits since my childhood!
It will be temporary, only until another foster with an x-pen has space for her. We will set up the x-pen tomorrow.
I have gathered a few toys already and rug pieces and will try to make her life as comfortable as possible.
I want her to feel safe and to be able to relax a little.

Any ideas you have to make her feel better?
I will leave her alone for a few days, which means I won't interact with her in her pen at first. I want her to feel like she is not threatened and she won't have to fear anybody. I hope she will settle down and be adopted into an understanding home.

Wish me luck! She will be brought here tomorrow afternoon.

[undergunfire]

This forum is not actively used and you will get tons of information from tons of experienced rabbit people at: www.rabbitsonline.net

 

[liza]

Thank you undergunfire.

Haha, I have figured out by now that this forum part is not really used.. 
Bunny has settled in quite nicely by now. She loves my husband but cannot stand me, not even the sight of me.
She will fall asleep while he pets her but the second she sees me, it's all over and she becomes attack-rabbit. We will keep her until she has really calmed down and has become somewhat nice (well, she is, but she really attacks me).

Thank you for that link!

[mowgley_the_rat]

i second that recommendation. I go there alot since I have a rex rabbit with health issues.  There are lots of friendly and knowledgable people there. Congrats on the new foster and be sure to post pics.

[liza]

Bunny might have found a home. I have no clue how to say goodbye to her. We have grown very attached to Velvet.
I will post pics soon. She is BEAUTIFUL!

[liza]

This Sunday, Velvet will go to an adoption event. There are two homes interested in her. She would be living in a free-roaming place with a bunny companion.

We love her so much, I am having a very tough time with this, but I need to focus on the fact that Velvet would have a bunny companion there and that she came to us as a foster.

We have grown very attached to her.
She used to be a very difficult bunny, she was on death row at the shelter. She has become absolutely nice (well, she doesn't like to be picked up, but that's ok) and is very, very social now.

  I wish saying goodbye wasn't so difficult. I really love her.

[undergunfire]

You are definitely doing the right thing if you can't adopt her  ! It sounds like she will have a wonderful home, where ever she may go.

I have an 8 1/2 year old foster bunny right now. He is blind in one eye and appears to be deaf. Saying "goodbye" to him will be hard for me. I just got him on Tuesday and haven't spent much time with him yet because he needs to settle in, but I am sure once I get to know him...it will be super hard to let him go. He will only go to a very bunny experienced home, though, and if one can't be found....I will end up keeping him.

[liza]

In three hours I will take her to the adoption event.
We just cuddled. She loves it when I curl up on my side on the floor. She will come up to me and squish herself right against my chest. Then she noses me with her nose and demands scritches. She falls asleep that way too.

I keep telling myself that if she can live with another rabbit, then I will be able to give her up and be happy for her.

She is our very first foster bunny. Our house is too small for more than one rabbit, it wouldn't be fair to keep her on her own without even trying her out with other rabbits.

This whole experience has been very, very rewarding! Someone so afraid of the world, someone labeled as "extremely aggressive" and the next label on her "euthanasia" - and here she is, happy as a clam! It shows us, with just a little TLC we can make the best of them come out. Velvet is the perfect house rabbit. She doesn't chew, she doesn't dig, she doesn't attack anymore, she is perfect with her litterbox - who wouldn't want her?

[liza]

She was adopted out and returned.

We have adopted her for good now. We are actually in process of bonding her to a neutered boy who has been at the shelter for most his life. So, we went from no bunny to a foster to two bunnies!

 

[Marybelle]

Hee hee!  Congrats!