| Bunny Tales |
| My Favorite Phone Calls by Jeanne Welch As the secretary of a national breed club, my phone number is published just about everywhere. I get about 10-12 phone calls a week and most of them start out with "I found your phone number in . . . . ." whatever magazine, book, or website. Surprisingly, not many of these questions are about lops, let alone French or English Lops. They are from people with questions about their pets. Many of them own other breeds but can't get a response or call back from their own national clubs and are desperate for advice. I thought you might like to eavesdrop on some of my phone calls. "Hello. I have two girl-bunnies that had babies yesterday. Each one had a bunch of them, but they keep scattering them all over the cage and don't seem to be taking care of them. Some are already dead, others are missing legs and are bleeding." "Did they have the babies in the nestbox?" "What's a nestbox?" After some explanation, the excited "breeder" promises to make nestboxes, put them in, and call again if there are any problems. The next day's phone call came in. "I made nestboxes and put them in, but they are still killing them." Both does are killing their litters? After some discussion I found out that both does were housed in a cage together. I gave my standard territorial lecture and the caller finally caught on. "Well, then, should I take the bucks out of the cage too?" And I just loved this phone call. "I've got a 6 year old French Lop doe and would like to get her bred. I've been trying for 5 years but have not been able to." Discussing the slim-to-no chance of getting this doe to produce babies, especially since she had never been bred before, I asked her what made her think that if it hasn't happened for 5 years, why does she think the doe will get pregnant now? Her excited reply, "I finally bought a buck!" Another lady called in a tizzy because het pet female rabbit was pulling all her fur out and piling it up in a corner behind the sofa. Every day the woman would find more fur, until one day she found a litter of babies in the corner. We took care of the immediate problem, but she was very puzzled as to how this could have happened. Immaculate conception? Of course, the obvious question was whether there was another rabbit in the house. "Well, yes, we have her brother." Fixed? "Oh no. There's no need to. He wouldn't have sex ith his own SISTER, would he?" Thank you, callers, for keeping me amused. |