Monthly Archives: January 2009

I believe this post do not apply to you since that you’re here it means very well that you’re one of those “weird” bunny people.

My post yesterday was about getting caught in the rabbit fever bug. There are a lot of similar fever bugs in this world. To name a few, we have dog fever bug, cat fever bug, hamster fever bug, automobile fever bug and ROTA fever bug. Addiction you may call it. We are all chasing for the “first” high like how a drug addict is. Nothing in this world seemed to be complete without this addiction of ours. We talk, eat, sleep and breath rabbits.

But have you ever encountered people telling you, ” I just do not get what’s with you and these OVERGROWN RODENTS (quoting Lindsey)” or “It’s just a rabbit and I don’t see any significance in them”. But I can also tell you frankly, I know nothing about my car. It is for me to get from one location to another. Ask me anything about the engine, I’ll stare blankly at you. Yes, for that, I have been alienated by all the macho men driving their modified cards with exhaust pipes fit for a coconut. I also found that very outrageous! But for the sake of not losing friends, I normally just keep quiet when the topic of the day is, CARS.

At the same time when Lindsey was telling me how the world in general looks at us bunny people, coincidentally I was also discussing to SB why it is a “challenge” to be an ethical breeder.

The topic of the discussion was, is it hard to look for good homes for rabbits? To be very honest, it is BUT possible. We are not talking about good homes where owners buy toys for the rabbits. We are talking about those that have done enough research on the basic care. We are definitely not talking about the impulsive buyer running home with the new found treasure in the form of a cute fur ball to later grow bored of it as fast as it outgrows the cuteness. We are talking about long lasting forever homes!

It is quite a coincident and I thought I just have to write about this and hope more people in general come to realize how fun it is.

When my brother saw the article with me on Malay Mail yesterday, he was a little skeptical looking at the words Ethical Breeder. That is exactly what I am talking about. The entire world has doubt because of the few unethical ones. How many times have we purchased a pet and later found out (if we ever do more research) that it was not the breed as being told to us at the pet store? But the point that I am trying drive home is not how ethical or unethical breeders can be whether they breed rabbits, dogs, cats or any other household pets. I really want to talk about the LOVE one has for animals. Unethical breeders will not exist if there is enough LOVE in them.

Yes, my main point is LOVE. Mind you, I love my brother very much but he is a lot like the general public with the typical mentality. Pets will never be on his topic of interest. I guess that’s from bad experiences he had with the dogs we keep in the house. He is always the early bird that almost never catches any worms at home. LOL. I just cannot stop laughing thinking about this. All of us know how we are not resilient to have those “accidents” with our dogs kept indoors. Yes, I mean dog poo! So being an early bird, he always walk around the house (dazed) in the morning not looking where he goes and always end up stepping on dog poop first thing in the morning! Told you he never catches the worms! I guess for that reason he hates having pets for not wanting to clean up after them.

Whatever reason it is for a person not to love animals, I hope they give it a try. They will soon realize how fulfilling having a pet is. But the sad thing is, most of the time, they will not try. Not only that, they will never allow their children have any pets. Yes, we all dread the day when the pet we bought for our children end up being ours to care for. At the end of the day we’re in the position to correct this behavior if only we put our feet down and get the interest back into our children. The saddest thing about these parents is that, they go on with their lives have a few children that are not exposed to having pets. Now, not like how Air Supply sings about “2 Less Lonely People In The World”, we would end up with more lonely people in the world because these children will grow up to dislike having pets. Very sad indeed. But that’s the reality of things we cannot impose our standards and expectations on another human being. We call that human rights.

So now, not many people are interested in having pets. Divide that into the many different species of pets. We are only left with a handful of people that may like rabbits. And out of that, how many would be doing the ample research or be resourceful enough to learn let alone exceeds the provision of basic care?

And back to Lindsey’s concern. Are we crazy? Are we obsessed? I believe in our rights to be human beings, NO! It is the best thing in this world to be addicted to LOVE. We raise rabbits from our hearts (don’t mean unethical breeder, though). We share what we raised with LOVE with others hoping that this LOVE can be contagious. It is our way of “a random act of kindness”.

And with LOVE, ethical breeders exist! One of the main point to consider a breeder is ethical is how he/she strive to achieve a certain standard laid by a recognized establishment. Please note that this is only a part of being an ethical breeder. Because although many breeders are attached to an established organization, some are worst than unethical in their actions. A truly ethical breeder will turn their LOVE for the animals into taking upon themselves to produce the best of quality and share these with his/her peers without reservations/expectations (this we call unconditional love). And part of the “obsession/craze” comes from this passion chasing for perfection.

Another point to note is that we are always getting hit by peer pressure be it in school or in our personal lives in general. We always follow the bandwagon. I believe it is high time, we set the standards! We must retaliate and use our stance to pressure our peers back! Hit them with the rabbit fever bug!

If you are being labeled as obsessed or crazy, please do not take it to heart because when we are enthusiastic in what we do, they will sure to notice and that’s when we hit them hard. It much much better than to be addicted to drugs, smoke & booze!

My bunny friends, YOU ARE VERY NORMAL indeed. Rabbits for LIFE!