timetowaste
Well-Known Member
i want to know what you think. this man saved this sickly little female bunny, but some people are up in arms over him keeping a wild bun as a pet.
i want bo b bunny to come here and respond to this! isn't cloverbunny a former wild bun?
tracy
http://www.marinij.com/marin/ci_7899842
How Rascal the rabbit became part of Tiburon family
IT HAS BEEN an interesting and surprisingly domestic life for Rascal, a wild jack rabbit that has become the pet of a Tiburon family. "I never would have thought you could get to know a wild jack rabbit," said Leanne Sindell, who works in publishing with her husband, Ger. "It's amazing."
Rascal's story began eight years ago when the Sindell's son, Max, and their dog, Tesla, a German shorthaired pointer, came across a sickly, female jack rabbit that was wobbling in the brush near Ridge Road in Tiburon.
Max went home and got dad.
"I went up there with a towel and there was this poor jack rabbit kind of hobbling along sideways," Ger Sindell recalled. "I brought it home thinking it wouldn't live longer than two hours."
Eight years later, Rascal is alive and doing well, and has become a big part of the Sindell family.
Max named the rabbit after Bugs Bunny, whose cartoon sidekick Elmer Fudd often called him a "rascally rabbit."
Even though it was away from predators, like hawks, and was getting treated like a queen, the rabbit didn't exactly take to its human housemates.
"For the first few years, she would never let anyone pick her up," Ger said. "So at the end of the day, when she was done hopping around on the rug in my office, I would build a little tunnel of books to the cage. She really became tame only in the last three years. She became OK with us and realized we weren't going to eat her." Family friends and visitors are alternately fascinated or oddly uninterested by the presence of a wild jack rabbit in the family home.
"Some people come over and they notice a jack rabbit on the floor and they have this astonished reaction, but others are so self-involved, they don't even know," Ger Sindell said. "They think it's a dog or cat, I guess."
As Ger and Rascal posed for pictures, the rabbit nuzzled its owner while Ger cradled the animal in his arms.
"She has changed a lot and she has become more loving and more like a little baby. She was never mean, just wild," said Leanne Sindell, who sketched Rascal into the family Christmas card this year.
Ger Sindell is astonished at how Rascal's tale unfolded.
"I have never heard of a domesticated jack rabbit. It's amazing how she has adapted," he said with a smile.
The rabbit gets two visits a year from a veterinarian and is fed a diet of cantaloupe, banana, herbs and dandelion greens. The animal already has outlived its life expectancy of five years. Rascal once got surgery for an impacted tooth.
Her relationship with Tesla, while not close, is one of live and let live.
And Rascal is a bit of a music fan, developing a taste for Rachmaninov.
"She melts when she hears good music," said Leanne Sindell, who adds that she and her husband no longer have the stomach to dine on rabbit in restaurants.
Rascal is not as spry as she once was, and has trouble standing sometimes, but she still exhibits quick reflexes as she shoots into her cage.
While Rascal has found a cozy home with the Sindells, Cindy Machado, animal care specialist with the Marin Humane Society, advises wild animals should not be domesticated.
"Wild animals need to stay wild," she said. "If someone finds a wild animal, it's best to bring it to us or WildCare," she said, referring to the San Rafael wildlife rehabilitation center.
But Leanne Sindell said the presence of Rascal has given the couple a new perspective on animals.
"We have discussions on whether animals have souls and wonder if you believe in heaven, do they go to heaven? I was taught animals don't have souls and don't go to heaven and I have definitely changed my mind.
"There is a little sp(i)rit in there."
Contact Mark Prado via e-mail at [email protected]
i want bo b bunny to come here and respond to this! isn't cloverbunny a former wild bun?
tracy
http://www.marinij.com/marin/ci_7899842
How Rascal the rabbit became part of Tiburon family
IT HAS BEEN an interesting and surprisingly domestic life for Rascal, a wild jack rabbit that has become the pet of a Tiburon family. "I never would have thought you could get to know a wild jack rabbit," said Leanne Sindell, who works in publishing with her husband, Ger. "It's amazing."
Rascal's story began eight years ago when the Sindell's son, Max, and their dog, Tesla, a German shorthaired pointer, came across a sickly, female jack rabbit that was wobbling in the brush near Ridge Road in Tiburon.
Max went home and got dad.
"I went up there with a towel and there was this poor jack rabbit kind of hobbling along sideways," Ger Sindell recalled. "I brought it home thinking it wouldn't live longer than two hours."
Eight years later, Rascal is alive and doing well, and has become a big part of the Sindell family.
Max named the rabbit after Bugs Bunny, whose cartoon sidekick Elmer Fudd often called him a "rascally rabbit."
Even though it was away from predators, like hawks, and was getting treated like a queen, the rabbit didn't exactly take to its human housemates.
"For the first few years, she would never let anyone pick her up," Ger said. "So at the end of the day, when she was done hopping around on the rug in my office, I would build a little tunnel of books to the cage. She really became tame only in the last three years. She became OK with us and realized we weren't going to eat her." Family friends and visitors are alternately fascinated or oddly uninterested by the presence of a wild jack rabbit in the family home.
"Some people come over and they notice a jack rabbit on the floor and they have this astonished reaction, but others are so self-involved, they don't even know," Ger Sindell said. "They think it's a dog or cat, I guess."
As Ger and Rascal posed for pictures, the rabbit nuzzled its owner while Ger cradled the animal in his arms.
"She has changed a lot and she has become more loving and more like a little baby. She was never mean, just wild," said Leanne Sindell, who sketched Rascal into the family Christmas card this year.
Ger Sindell is astonished at how Rascal's tale unfolded.
"I have never heard of a domesticated jack rabbit. It's amazing how she has adapted," he said with a smile.
The rabbit gets two visits a year from a veterinarian and is fed a diet of cantaloupe, banana, herbs and dandelion greens. The animal already has outlived its life expectancy of five years. Rascal once got surgery for an impacted tooth.
Her relationship with Tesla, while not close, is one of live and let live.
And Rascal is a bit of a music fan, developing a taste for Rachmaninov.
"She melts when she hears good music," said Leanne Sindell, who adds that she and her husband no longer have the stomach to dine on rabbit in restaurants.
Rascal is not as spry as she once was, and has trouble standing sometimes, but she still exhibits quick reflexes as she shoots into her cage.
While Rascal has found a cozy home with the Sindells, Cindy Machado, animal care specialist with the Marin Humane Society, advises wild animals should not be domesticated.
"Wild animals need to stay wild," she said. "If someone finds a wild animal, it's best to bring it to us or WildCare," she said, referring to the San Rafael wildlife rehabilitation center.
But Leanne Sindell said the presence of Rascal has given the couple a new perspective on animals.
"We have discussions on whether animals have souls and wonder if you believe in heaven, do they go to heaven? I was taught animals don't have souls and don't go to heaven and I have definitely changed my mind.
"There is a little sp(i)rit in there."
Contact Mark Prado via e-mail at [email protected]
