This may not work with ALL our rabbits, but it worked for Smudge!  The tape held the fur intact---no flying around---and I disposed of it without mess or fuss.  He had a wonderful visit that night and looked (and felt!) amazing!

Sarah (and Smudge)

This is a recent picture from Canadian BIB VRT, Marina Hebert. (The facilities do NOT allow picture reprints or posting on social media.) I notice first how relaxed and happy the rabbit appears-- "loafing" and very content with her friend at a children's hospital in Vancouver, BC.  I love the ample blanket, and the gentle handling. The little girl's smile melts my heart.....truly.....and I can only imagine how much happiness this visit is providing.  BIG TAKEAWAYS:  The "lap visit" is working beautifully here.  The blanket is very appropriate.  The petting is soothing and respectful. The rabbit and participant seem very happy.  I need a kleenex!

A Hare About the House
by Cecil S. Webb
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1957

Dear Mrs. Blanc, Thank you very much for loaning me your copy of A Hare About the House. I thoroughly enjoyed it and, as you can see by the book jacket, so did my rabbit Patrick. I walked in to see that my little thief had pulled the book off the night stand and was indulging in a snack on the bed pillows. Evidently he found the old paper delicious, for he did not stop his nibbling even when he saw me. He hasn’t done anything this upsetting since he was a year old and bit my roommate’s Bible. (Fortunately, after a while she found the bite marks endearing–all God’s creatures, so to speak. That is, after she cooled off.) Thank you so for sharing it with me. And, I am truly sorry about the cover.

Sincerely, Beth

You can meet such nice people working in a used bookstore. That’s where I met Pauline Blanc several years ago. Seeing a photo of my rabbits had reminded Mrs. Blanc of an old book she had. The cover, she said, was an amazing photograph of a hare hopping up a flight of stairs. A few days later she loaned me the prized book. So one can imagine how mortified I was when I caught Patrick in the act of devouring it. The title and the picture were still intact, but Patrick had effectively created separate front and back covers. In my embarrassment, I put the book, the jacket pieces, and the above note in a sack and hoped Mrs. Blanc would come to retrieve her book on one of my days off.The irony of a lagomorph (a member of the order featuring rabbits, hares, and pikas) chewing a book about lagomorphs would not have been lost on the book’s author. Cecil S. Webb’s attitude about long-eared, short-tall mammals with two pairs of upper incisors was forever changed the day his wife rescued a day-old orphan Irish hare. As Webb puts it: “Occasionally the opportunity arises for one to live on intimate terms with a great character of the animal kingdom who, bereft of fear, reveals his extraordinary individuality. …” As superintendent of the Dublin Zoo, Webb and his wife were used to their kitchen becoming an overflow nursery for a variety of wild animal babies, but this was their first wild hare. The leveret, or baby hare, quickly took to sucking warm milk diluted with one-third water and a touch of glucose D from a fountain-pen filler and was named Horrie, short for Horace.

A Hare About the House is about several orphaned wild Irish hares and one domestic rabbit, but it is primarily Horrie’s story, and Webb’s preference for him is obvious early on. One difference between hares and rabbits is that hares are born above ground, fully furred, with their eyes open. Day-old Horrie is described as “fearless” and “perky and full of energy.” When he’s 16 days old, an orphaned domestic white rabbit joins the household and is named Squirt, as in “poor little…” Newborn rabbits, usually called baby bunnies or baby rabbits, are born in burrows and, in Webb’s words, are “naked, blind, and ugly…By comparison with the beautiful wide-eyed, alert, fluffy little leveret, this was one of nature’s monstrosities.” When Squirt’s fur grows in, he and Horrie become pals.

Written in the fifties, the book’s charm is in its many photographs and the fascinating yet familiar descriptions of how secure-feeling lagomorphs behave indoors. Surprisingly there’s not a lot of insight into the differences between hares and rabbits because much of Horrie’s unanticipated behavior has also been observed in house rabbits. Horrie is relentlessly inquisitive; he chews walls and curtains; he prances. As a youngster he’d suddenly jump straight up, “a sort of involuntary bounce as if a spring had been released.” Both hare and bunny take to using a litterbox from the very start.

Webb concedes that “In his way [Squirt] is a great character….He is full of fun but has none of Horrie’s devilment and love of getting into mischief.” Horrie is indeed an individual with some flamboyant tastes and talents. A possibly unique skill emerges at six days of age when he begins loudly drumming his front feet on hollow items and cardboard boxes. Webb wonders if this is how leverets tell their mothers where to find them, though Horrie drums every evening of his life.The wild hare matures into an adult and lives in the yard and house. On occasion, Horrie would hop out a window. When Webb goes to find him, Horrie willingly comes when he hears his name and lets himself be carried home. Indoors, both lagomorphs excel at creating games. Horrie observes that if he drops an apple it rolls: “He learned that by flicking his head as he dropped the apple it would roll farther, and so the game went on, with Horrie chasing it all around.” Squirt shows Horrie how to lift the lid off a pot and drop it for an enthusiastic bang. They also delight in “jumping on the footpedal of a garbage can [for] a similar clatter.”

Squirt demonstrates that male rabbits can dig and what is required for excavating Irish land: “he pushes the mound forward, while his belly is flat on the ground, like a miniature bulldozer. Large stones are pushed out of the way with his nose. A great lump of iron was dragged up with his teeth while walking backward, and finally his nose was brought into play to push it clear.” For interactive play, Webb runs around dragging a rug onto which Horrie “takes a flying leap” for a slippery carpet ride.

Horrie also “loves tearing up and down stairs, going up two at a time with a most beautiful action. Once on the upper landing the urge to dance is irresistible.”

When Mrs. Blanc came to pick up her book, I held it in its brown wrapper and described which parts I recognized in my rabbits and what was new to me. As I was about to confess what had happened to the cover, Mrs. Blanc said, “You know, that book means a lot more to you than it does to me. Why don’t you keep it.” Happily I have. It’s been one of those funny reminders of what it means to have a lagomorph in the house.

Editorial comment: The fact that an orphaned wild animal was able to prosper in the home of an experienced animal handler does not mean that wildlife in general should be kept as pets..

For further wildlife rehab questions, please email here.

Beth Woolbright

House Rabbit Journal Volume III, Number 1, Winter 1994

After reading "Language of Lagomorphs" I feel enlightened and proud to know we do have a very happy bunny. Before I wondered if he licked us because we were salty. Now I know thats his way of saying "we are equal". This makes me even more enthused when I am showered with kisses :D Between our family and friends Appa def getshis needed grooming and gazing requirements :P Thankfully iv never seen him offended. Ok i take that back i now know the reason i was bit hard 2 times. We have been litter training from day one. Any time he poops outside his box i pick it up hold it out for him to see and toss is in his box. Well there were 2 instances i more so put it in my palm and directly in front of him with my hand on the ground. This would be followed with a hard chomp! Now i know that holding it almost under his chin was like asking to be groomed with poo in my hand! How rude of me, i would have bit me 2! I am still perfecting my own nose wiggle. The other day I did notice his little nose telling me something. Appa, my b/f Pat, Myself and our dogs were all enjoying an evening lounging in the living room. Pat sat over me in a playfull tickling manner and i began to jump. I looked on the lounge and there stood Appa facing forward his floppy ears slightly raised with a very concerned speedy nose wiggle. We quickly stopped our game and gave him a few nose rubs and I performed my sorry excuse for a slow nose wiggle. He lowered his ears and went back to lounge position. He loves to lay with all fours out, sometimes he even roles over. I love to see his daily run and  dance which i know are Binkies. Wonderfull read! 
I also read the stores of Marvin and Betsy. What a wonderful  patient care giver they have :D

After the rescue and release  of a injured baby cotton tail in the spring, our home was missing something. We bought  Appa in the heat of the summer. I had been searching for Holland Lops for over a month and didnt have hopes of finding one withing a hundred miles.I figured it would be no time soon that we would found our baby.  I happened to come across a phone number a lady posted at the bottom of her web page for a breeder who didnt have internet access. I gave her a call (not having my hopes up). When i got her on the phone i told her we were looking for rabbit. She explained she was now taking care of her mother who was bed ridden and  her rabbits were being kept outdoors and she normally did not breed in the summer. Saying it was hard to keep them cool and typically babies die when it is so hot :(  Mind u we were having 100 degree days at this point. She followed with "i DO have a Holland Lop litter they are 6 weeks old and thank god they are all ok at the moment"(apparently where there is a will to mate there is a way!). Typically we would want him to stay with his mother another 2 weeks but baring the situation i had him the next day! When we went to pick him up Jannet(breeder) was sitting under a shade tree with the little fur ball in a small cage. It was love at first sight! He was so tiny but Jannet assured me he was safer with me in the air conditioning than outside with her other buns(she had a fan blowing on each cage and had them all shaded but they all looked so miserable). So we brought him home ,spent as much time as possible petting him and letting him play. Within day 2 he has doing the happy dance and running circles on our bed like it was a race track. He was thrilled with his new home. I worried he would be lonely at home so everyday i work Appa and my trusty dog Riley  go with me :). Appa spends his down time sipping water, munching hay and watching nick jr. When i get breaks he does 2 . A day is never dull for him but he doesn't ever stress. He seems to enjoy the different ppl and sites to see. He just turned 5 months old and was nuetuered by our wonderful local vet. Everyone loves him including all the vet staff. I even have friends call me and request i bring the bunny and Riley by to visit. He amazes me how he entertains a group, hopping from one lap to the next giving out kisses here and there. He even seems to enjoy children. Our neighbor has a 3 and 5 year old. The fist time they saw him i held him and let them pet him then we sat him in his carrier and they giggled as he sniffed them through the door and begged to come back out. They begged to hold him but i was afraid they might squeeze him. So i explained to them how fragile he was and that they could hurt him but if they would sit Indian style and wait for him that he might hop into there lap and then they could pet him. Well Appa was listening to!  Once the kids settled i opened the door and he hopped right into the 3 year olds lap for some soft snuggles. After a few minutes me moved to the 5 year old for some love! I wouldnt dream of taking him to visit a group of kids that young but knowing the childred personally i knew they were capable of being gentle. He also seems to enjoy the company of my 7 year old nephew who likes to pretend his litter box is a car and scoots him around the floor (slowly). Appa seems to enjoy the game and will hop in the box just for a short ride. My parents even call him the granbunny. Appa is a wonderful addition to our family and i hope we can become a therapy team and spread his joy to others. Thanks so much for the info i cant wait to read more 

If asked to name the fluffiest, sweetest, most gentle animal in the world, most people would probably say it had to be the bunny. Rabbits are so upbeat and playful that we often think they need little more than a fresh dandelion to much on or a comfy bed of hay to sleep on, to be happy. Yet most new bunny owners may be surprised to learn that, like dogs, rabbits need exercise if they are to live a long and happy life; exercise is something we simply cannot postpone if we wish to do the right thing by our rabbit. Bunnies live in the here and now and they won’t understand why you can’t set aside a few minutes to give them the physical and mental stimulation they need. But here’s the good news: entertaining your bunny can be as good for you as it is for them, at least when it comes to stress busting and having the time of your life! Here are few tips that can bring the human-bunny bond to new heights of bliss!

* The Pampered Bunny: Bespoke Toys: The first step when it comes to developing a play/exercise routine for your rabbit is to get to know it; does it like racing through narrow spaces or tossing objects along the floor? If your bunny likes worming its way through narrow spaces, make it its very own tunnel with cardboard boxes, unvarnished wooden furniture and even old newspaper. Stuff one end of the tunnel with newspaper or cardboard and watch your bunny hone its burrowing skills as it attempts to dig and bite its way through the ‘road block’! You'll find a great idea for a cute paper tunnel here.

If, on the other hand, you notice that your bunny enjoys tossing objects across the room, it might be partial to treat- or hay-filled balls, which it will toss and run after for hours on end, possibly driving you crazy with all the ruckus! (Who said bunnies were quiet, anyway?). Even bottle caps and small wooden spoons are light enough for your bunny to toss around; whichever toy you decide on, make sure it cannot get stuck on your bunny’s nose and make sure it isn’t sharp.

* The Carl Lewis Bunny – Run! It’s the Bunny Monster!: You’d be surprised how many bunnies love playing cat-and-mouse. The bad news for you is, you’ll always need to be the mouse as rabbits generally get scared if you run after them! Take a few quick steps away from your bunny and see if he comes after you. If he does, pick up the pace for a few minutes. Be prepared to work up quite a sweat; your bunny is likely to be extremely persistent!

* The Conscientious Bunny – It’s Clean-Up Time!: Many bunny owners claim that their little one is usually extremely interested in brooms and mops. Once you’ve actually got the unpleasant housework out of the way, pretend to sweep the floor and watch your bunny pounce on the broom. Make sure to video the mayhem; it’s as cute a sight as you can imagine!

* The Fashion-Conscious Bunny: Bring out the Choos: Line up your sports shoes and see if your bunny will enjoy undoing all the shoe laces. Some rabbits are so crazy about shoes that they lift them up by the laces and toss them across the room.

* Sherlock Bunny: Anyone Up for a Game of Hide-and-Seek? Hide treats around the house and, in the same way you might do with your kids at Easter time, help your bunny find the treat with a bit of ‘subtle’ body language (like standing near the treat or moving the shrubbery the treat is hidden in).

* The High Jumper: Hang toys your bunny might be attracted to from a piece of rope and watch it box, bite and grasp for the toy (do not leave your pet alone with the rope as it could pose a choking hazard). For the toy itself, make sure to use a safe material like rope or wood, but beware of the type of wood you use, since cherry, redwood, peach, apricot and plum twigs or wooden toys are toxic to rabbits. Indeed, rabbit owners should be extra careful when exposing their pets to wood shavings (which some people like to use for bedding). The latter, sometimes used in bunny bedding, can cause lung disease – and not just in rabbits. Western red cedar, for instance is considered one of the most dangerous types of wood for rabbits and humans alike, since it contains high levels of plicatic acid, which has been found to cause asthma and other lung-related conditions . Pine dust can also be harmful. As a rule, you might want to avoid using any kind of dust in your rabbit's toys and bedding. 

* The Curious Bunny: Lie on your belly after a full day’s play and enjoy the soft thumping sound as your bunny jumps over your back and sniffs around, in search of treats you can hide in your hands or beneath your belly. You can even play a game of peek-a-boo with a silky piece of cloth. If your bunny is very self-assured, gently drape the silk over his body and watch it make its way out. As always, observe how your bunny reacts to any proposed activity; a ‘one-style-fits-all’ mentality definitely does not apply to bunny games.

A Final Word on Safety: Like most passionate bunny owners, you probably consider your rabbit to be an important part of the family. Therefore, make sure that its surrounds are safe, both at play and rest time. Do not give them any toys with sharp or small parts (the latter are a choking hazard); keep dangerous items like cables, glass items and twigs that may have been treated with herbicides and pesticides out of their reach. Never let them play with plastic bags or objects attached to ropes, as these can cause them to choke. Finally, keep balloons and all rubber items hidden, as your curious bunny could consume them and suffer from possibly life-threatening digestive problems. And lastly, enjoy your bunny, every day of your life together!