Are you sitting comfortably? Good, then I’ll begin. Here’s the tale of Blizzard the bunny.

On Sunday afternoon, the Postcard family enjoyed a lovely Sunday lunch together in Queensway Quay marina.

We decided to put off going straight home, so we went for a wander into the Alameda Gardens to show the boys the Green Men.

It had been a very grey day, but as the sun was going down, it poked through the clouds and we had a really lovely half an hour or so in the leafy glade.

As we headed for home we found two ladies with their young daughters standing by one of the flower beds pointing. As we approached, we saw what they were pointing at, 3 rabbits. A white one (below) …

…and two brown ones. Along with a cage, which was left with the lid off and a sack of food.

The bunnies had clearly been abandoned as they were right next door to the Alameda Wildlife Park (which has some rabbit inhabitants). One of the ladies called the police to find a number for someone to come and collect the rabbits. We waited for well over half an hour and no one was coming and it was getting increasingly dark.

We decided that we would try to catch them and get them into the cage before it went dark – otherwise we wouldn’t be able to see them (especially the brown ones). The white bunny was very docile and sat for quite some time under a clump of dead flowers so was easy to pick up. The other two, however, were having a whale of a time running free in the undergrowth and they scarpered. Spotting an exit point from their location into the slope behind and through the trees and brushes beyond.

After more time passed waiting for someone to show up, we decided to take the white bunny home with us rather than leaving it out in the stormy rain which was forecast for Sunday night. We must have been quite a sight walking along the road with a rabbit cage!

Poor bunny, fancy abandoning a lovely creature like that?

I feel at this point I need to  make something clear… I am NOT an ‘animal person’. I had several goldfish and a 1/4 share in a grumpy arthritic blue and grey budgie (called Nicky) as a child, but that did not make me particularly fond of creatures up close and personal. I can appreciate the beauty and elegance of a cat and I can see the merit of a pet dog (if you have the time and room and desire for one) but I’m happy as I am thank you very much.

So, just to recap,  we went out to lunch on Sunday and came back with a very quiet, furry lodger.

Once back at our house, the bunny (who had now been named Blizzard) got a bowl of spinach, clean litter and hay,  and the empty water bottle on the cage was refilled. The cage was placed next to Bunny Postcard’s run so they could get to know each other…

I’m not sure that Bunny Postcard was too impressed with the new arrival!

Sunday night went ok, but by Monday morning, there was an almighty racket coming from Blizzard’s cage. I was witnessing some completely new rabbit behaviour. Thumping. Every minute or so, Blizzard was thumping his/her back leg against the floor of the cage in a very aggressive way. A quick Google search revealed this could mean a whole host of different things, fear, anger, threat, territorial dispute, upset etc. Well the poor rabbit had just had a very upsetting 24 hours, abandonment, being caught by strangers and brought to a strange house with a rabbit already in residence.

On Monday morning, I returned to the Alameda Gardens and visited the wildlife park. The lady there had been alerted to the the bunny situation by the police and had actually seen one of the brown escapees running through the bushes close to where they were last seen. Sadly, this is not the first time that animals have been abandoned outside the park when it’s closed.

She told me that one morning, they had arrived to work to find a cage of ferrets which had been abandoned and left overnight in a stormy wet weather. How can you do that? Anyway, the main reason for my visit was to see whether they had room for a new addition. The short answer is no. They are not an animal shelter although they do take in exotic animals seized by Customs. Looks like we may be adopting a bunny.

Next stop, the vets…..

I can now reveal that Blizzard is a girl (may need to rethink that name). She appears healthy, although a little overweight. She had a treatment for fleas and parasites, a pedicure (as her claws were a little long) and a scan to check for baby bunnies (eek).

So far there is no evidence of babies, but as bunny pregnancies only last a month, the vet couldn’t rule it out. We have to return in a fortnight for a second scan and then we can get her injections done.

So there you have it, we now have another girl bunny in the house. We can’t put them together yet, as they need to get to know each other a bit first. So after 2 weeks of being side by side, we will try putting them together in neutral territory (vet suggested the bathroom) to test how they react.

I will keep you posted on Blizzard’s progress and ours…