Over the years we have adopted many rabbits, and keeping track of them all became a bit of a challenge. As a consequence my son designed a chart to help us remember when we adopted rabbits - or when they simply turned up, as with Bear who was found crossing the road in Dunham!
This record was helpful because we could forget their ages - if we ever knew them accurately in the first place. It also helped you see the passage of time and the rabbits coming along with us.
One of our favourite bunnies was Ollie, who was known as the biggest binkier! A binky is a kind of jump with a twist movement.
Ollie was a lithe, two toned lion head cross, and he had the most massive jump. From nothing to 6ft all at once it seemed. He could binky in the run but mainly when free - which he was every day for a while.
I was herding him back to his run one evening from a field by the garden. I ran after him and he pranced around me doing multiple binkies. He seemed to be showing me quite plainly how he would use this to avoid capture. Whilst attempting to keep up I rolled my ankle and it has never been the same since!
His personality was very much there for us all to see and at the time the children loved to hear stories about him. In every story he would leapt 6ft out of trouble, always to the amazement of his pursuer! I think we had the rabbits burrowing into the local shop for fresh veg, meeting wild rabbits in the wood in another, and generally we imagined their voices, which made Ollie the joker while the other rabbits were more sensible and rolled their eyes at him.
There was also a completely wild rabbit that used to visit all our bunnies. When we went up in the morning he would be chatting through a mesh tunnel to one of the Runaround buns. He would dart away so quickly it was brilliant to watch. He must have thought it was a new warren perhaps and he even entered a mesh tunnel on one occasion. The curiosity of rabbits was quite clear with the interest that wild one showed.
It was a long job with 6 rabbits in pairs but when we moved the Runaround about they did love exploring. They got right under your feet while you shifted tunnels and runs and spent ages re-scenting their new set-ups afterwards. They were so interested in any changes that we never had to herd them in - they were already in there taking a good look!
