Thursday 24th August 2006
by JennyI mentioned to a co-worker earlier today that I have a pet bunny, Honey Bunny, and he recalled a childhood experience that he had with bunnies and a loving pet Lab.
He told me that his pet bunny gave birth to a large litter of kits, but the doe died soon after. His pet Lab had also recently given birth, but most of her litter died.
On her own, this pet dog decided to take in the baby bunnies, and she nursed them, and treated them as if they were her own “puppies.” She would keep them near her, and if some started hopping away, she would gently round them up, and keep them safe.
I was absolutely amazed by this story – I couldn’t believe that a dog, who is a natural predator to the rabbit, would be so loving and gentle, and be able to raise these baby bunnies. The baby bunnies thrived under the care of this gentle dog, and ended up living long, happy lives.
My co-worker is going to bring in pictures of this. It is such a heartwarming story – I was happy and amazed to hear it. I will post the pictures if I get them.
Hi Charlie,
This dog was actually the pet of a co-worker, and the above mentioned incident happened about 20 years ago. The dog was a golden retriever-lab mix, and was just a very good pet. The dog wasn’t trained at all…She just decided on her own to raise the bunnies. I’ll try to get more details about how the dog was trained. I saw a picture of the dog nursing the bunnies, and it was one of the most adorable pictures I’ve seen. I will try to get a copy of it and post it here. Thanks for your interest!
Jenny
Were did you get your dog and how long did it take to train it.