Eat him more likely Bill!
We have had pet 'wabbits' for some years now. One 'wabbit' has outlived all the others. Bonnie is 8; a big NZ White. He's gorgeous; a bit of a grump as he's getting on though.
We did this (got wabbitty bunbuns) because the kids MADE us...so I refrain from telling them too many stories about our shooting trips when I was a kid
. I also cannot put a wabbity bunbun meal on the table...given that my kids love all sorts of meaty meals I will refrain in the future from having pet lambs, calves, kids, chooks etc. I do not want a vegetarian family!
FWIW the 'wabbit', the pup and the fatcat all get along really well
. The cat jumps in his cage with him and snuggles up - very cute!
Bunnies are sweet - but the wild ones are in profilic population here as an introduced species and cause major headaches. For years the wild ones were subjected to mixamytosis in an effort to control their numbers (virus carried by mosquitos). Having seen many bunnies with mixo I can say it's not pretty. They started to develop a resistance to mixo; so now we have calicivirus as well. A vaccine for the calici is available for domestic rabbits, but the Law says no vaccine for mixo...
With our historically wet summer, there are many more mozzies around and the Vets are warning about the very real threat that domestic rabbits may succumb to it. Trying to mozzie proof a very large hutch for us is nigh impossible (Taj Mahal of bunnydom)...so I'm just hoping that Bonnie-boy doesn't get bitten by some nasty little mixo-ridden mozzie. I'd like him to just fade away of old age...