How to catch a pet rabbit

After A LOT of thinking and re-thinking and more thinking! I finally decided to let the kids get a couple of bunny rabbits.

They're actually very cute (I did have my doubts) and the kids have named them Coco (black bunny) and Marshmallow (white bunny).   Although Miss L just calls them both Hop Hop Easter Bunny, because according to her, all bunnies are Easter bunnies.

These poor little bunnies have been cuddled and loved and squished and kissed to within an inch of their lives.  Thank heavens we picked a couple of good ones, as they have been so placid and gentle and we're hardly had any problems with scratching.  Even Miss H is happy to cuddle her bunny, which is a miracle because she is usually scared of just about anything that moves.

Everything was going swimmingly well until the toddler (little Miss L) discovered how to open the bunny hutch and set the Easter bunnies free!!!  The first time she did it, Marley, our neighbours cat thought he'd just won the cat lottery!!  Fortunately between Miss H's death piercing scream and me grabbing the hose pipe and spraying him, we managed to shoo him back over the fence again.  I think we must have given him the fright of his all his nine lives as I have not seem him back in our garden since.

Enjoying a bit of bunny freedom AND eating my hydrangea!

The second time she set them free I spent over an hour chasing them around the garden trying to catch them.  They're so damn quick that I had to literally dive bomb them several times......with not much luck.  I'm glad no one was watching either as I crawled around on my hands and knees trying to pounce an unwitting bunny!  I was pouring with sweat, out of breath, verging on a lot more than irritated, and starting to panic.  I only had a few minutes left before I had to pick the kids up from school and I could not leave them in the wilderness (of the back garden).  Luckily I managed to get them back in just in the nick of time!!

I told Mr D about how it was nearly impossible to catch the bunnies and he thought it was a great idea to let them out the hutch for some garden adventures, and decided to let them out again.  I warned him, but typically, he SO thought he knew what he was doing!  Guess what happened next?????  Marshmallow escaped under the back fence .............. and into no-mans land!

Oh how I laughed!!!  And panicked at the same time!! "Babe" I stressed "there is no was I am telling the kids you've lost their bunny.  You better get it back - NOW!!" "Don't worry", he assured me "I know exactly what I'm doing".  "You better!!" I said before going back inside.

I went back out about half an hour later and he was leaning over the back fence with a bucket dangling on a piece of rope.  With a carrot inside it!  "So this is your plan??" I asked.  "You're trying to coax it into a bucket with a carrot in it, while its chomping away on wild lettuce leaves (in the neighbours veggie patch).  Honestly that's like trying to get it to want a Malteaser in a garden full of M&M's!!!"

This whole debacle when on for hours!!  There was string involved, two cardboard boxes, a mini cricket bat (to hold the box up) and more carrots!!  Eventually he managed to catch them by luring them back into their hutch for food (which you would have thought was plan A not plan Z).

The very next day, little Miss L let them back out again!!!

We've given up now and just secured the any holes in the garden fence.  They are now happily living in our back garden, hopping around as if they own the place.  We still put food and water in their hutch which they do eat, but I think they actually sleep in the ferns.  It's quite weird seeing bunnies hopping around when I'm out hanging the washing up.  I think they've got quite used to us now too and are very happy for us to give them a cuddle.

Lets just hope Marley (that cat next door) has well and truly forgotten about them.

Do you have bunnies at home?  Do they live in a hutch or have they broken free like ours??

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