We just got our first one star review from somebody who had actually come by the shelter. (The handful of others are from weird countries, mistakes or fake names). A woman contacted us wanting to foster or adopt a bunny. She was very anxious and wanted to come right away after filling out just our brief online contact form and not our full five-page questionnaire. We were super busy but said yes. When she arrived, kids in tow, Deanna quickly put her in a room with Sugar and Buttercup, who weren’t up for adoption, but they were bombproof. It was a test. When she came back in, one of the two kids, a 3-year old boy, was slamming the pen wires up and down with the mom making no effort to intervene. This as an immediate ‘FAIL.’ While we are in certain cases willing to adopt to families with children, they need to be gentle and interact with the bunnies (on the bunnies’ own terms), and most importantly, the parents have to take the lead. (We’re adopting to the parents, not the kids). They need to be closely supervising (physically next to the child) and teaching an excited child how to interact. Even a brief observation of this not happening isn’t worth the risk to the health and happiness of our rabbits. (OUR kids). Her form said she wanted a relaxed rabbit, but she’ll never have a relaxed rabbit in that environment. She was upset (we wasted her time, we ‘judged’ her, etc) and she will now go get a rabbit from Craigslist. We sincerely hope she really listened to us though, what we said to her about interacting with rabbits (in great detail), so that whatever rabbit they get won’t spend years of silent unhappiness. No loud noises, no touching (without the rabbit’s express permission), provide a kid-proof zone, a kid-proof hiding box and work on gentle interaction using small bits of healthy treats. Good luck! (To the bunny).
