Peter Rabbit came to us entirely by chance, one day I was scrolling through Facebook marketplace looking for something I could put outside and put the reptiles in, I spotted a decent looking hutch in one ad so I opened it up and went into the pictures. I could see from a couple of photos that there was a rabbit in there, he looked fairly large for such a small enclosure.
Peter ruling over his domain and guinea pig minions
The enclosure was actually perfect for what I wanted it for so I sent them a message, it was up for $120 which seems steep for what it is, and I also asked about "the rabbit in the pictures".
She replied saying they could deliver it or meet me somewhere and that the rabbit could come with the cage which was strange because there was no mention of the rabbit in the add. Now I have a bit of a soft spot for rabbits, I used to have one as a pet a few years ago and she was one of the funniest cutest little pets I have ever had. Onyx was her name and she was just gorgeous and ever since then I have loved bunnies, people sometimes find it strange when a large man covered in tattoos wants to play with their rabbit but idgaf.
Long story short we organised to pick up the enclosure rabbit and all, they obviously didn't care much about the bunny and when I asked how old, what gender and what his name was she simply replied "we called him bunny". Nothing else.
The enclosure Peter spent his entire life in before coming to us
The enclosure he lived in seemed to of been what he spent his whole life in until now, it's fairly large and open but for a rabbit his size is basically a prison cell. He was very skittish and didn't like being picked up or patted, he would hide away as much as possible and avoid us if he could. We took him back to our house and set him up in an aviary we have with much more space and set about cleaning his old enclosure. It was pretty disgusting, obviously hadn't been washed in a long time. There was faeces everywhere and old hay just matted into the floor, the water bowl had mold growing in it and there was old rotten bits of vegetable stuck in parts of the wire. Poor thing had been living in there for so long.
After a few months of living with us he had free roam of the backyard during the day and was locked into the aviary at night in case of foxes or cats. He really came out of his shell and would let you pat him, come hopping up at dinner time and even let our dog at the time come up and sniff him. Rabbits do a thing called binkys where they jump in the air and twist their bodies into funny shapes and positions while they're running and he began doing this every morning when we let him out.
When we had to move house we didn't have a very good spot for him so he became mostly an indoor bunny. It was good because he enjoyed the company of people and would come hopping out to see us but he wasn't a fan of the cat or the new dog so he started spending more time hiding away. He was toilet trained and very well behaved but he was getting less and less space as we had no proper outdoor area for him. We decided he would go live at my mums place because she has a kangaroo yard which is a big fenced off area designed for the young joeys. While construction is happening at the house we haven't had any joeys as the noise stresses them too much so we put peter in there.
The yard Peter now has to roam in
It is a very large space with trees and shelters and lots of grass, there's things for him to hide behind and even a secondary fenced off area with a pond where the sun hits most of the day. He loves spending his time sunbaking in this area and then when it gets too hot in the afternoon he moves to the shaded kangaroo yard.
second fenced off yard with pond, Peter loves sunbaking in here in the mornings
He loves it in there and has even lost weight having more room to run around. He still gets locked up at night in case of foxes or other predators but spends all day in his big yard doing whatever he wants. Mostly eating and sleeping.
Recently he got two new friends who are staying there for a year while their family is on holiday. 2 funny little guinea pigs which Peter does not seem to mind at all.
This weekend while my mum is away we have them back in an aviary all together so they have less room to get away from each other. It will be interesting to see how they get along as we sort of expected Peter to try and be a bit dominant and be in charge but so far he has essentially ignored them.
Peter and his guinea pig friends in the aviary
Peter has been to the vet a couple of times and from what we can gather he is a male (we had him desexed) around 4-5 years old (vets best guess) and no clue to his actual breed. He appears to be in pretty much perfect health and is a surprisingly tough rabbit. Very unfortunately the other day the large dog I had been looking after jumped up on the gate to the kangaroo yard which gave way under his weight and he got in. Thinking Peter was a big toy he grabbed him and we heard screaming, when I got there Boss had Peter in his mouth tossing him around. He dropped him immediately when I got there and Peter scampered off.
We checked him over thoroughly and there was no obvious injuries, just shock. We have kept an eye on him and he has since recovered perfectly and you would never know a 60kg French Mastiff had attacked him. In Boss defence he would of seemed like a toy and if he wanted to hurt him Peter would of been dead in one bite so he did just want to play. Still could easily of ended with Peter hurt so we have since reinforced the gate and no dogs shall be getting through.
and again
Peter is a strange rabbit with a lot of personality, he hates kids, loves pats. Most of all though I can tell now he is happy which is a far cry from what he was when he first came to us. Living in a tiny enclosure, obviously given very little love or attention and probably just left outside to the elements.
Now he has more room than he could possibly use, friends to keep him company, people who come to pat him and feed him and most importantly he's loved.
Peter will stay with us for the rest of his life as a loved pet and continue to be spoilt. Rabbits are notoriously sensitive and have weak hearts but as far as rabbits go he seems pretty tough so hopefully we still get a good few years with him yet!