I’m a sucker and will do anything for my kids, including buying them cool stuff for their birthdays.  And, if I promise my kid something I will 4 out of 10 times honor that request.  You hopefully read my previous post were we were forced into giving our now 10-year-old daughter a rabbit for her birthday, but that’s what you get when making promises when she was only 5!

However, the rabbit quickly became a member of the family and adopted the very relaxed behaviours of farting and drinking at all hours of the day/night.  The biggest challenge was keeping the kids from constantly pulling the little fluff ball from the cage every few minutes.

But, having a rabbit as a pet comes with a number of challenges, especially if you are 10 years old and think it’s cute when it poops on the floor or your bed.

Within days of arriving, the first floor was smelling like a petting zoo and we had trails across the floor made of hay, sawdust, poop and carrots.

I quickly realized that it was turning into one of these parent traps where us parents were forced to look after the newest family member.  Both of us were reluctant to take on this added responsibility as the deal had clearly been made with our daughter that she would look after the rabbit – including all the not-so-cute tasks.

We had small pellets on the sofa, which I feared my 4-year-old would eat as they looked like little liquorice pieces, and they were rather painful to step on at times.  Not exactly cute to step in dried up rabbit droppings either, when waking up in the mornings.

Another few disturbing trends were also emerging in the little house.

• the 4-year-old was dragging the rather frightened rabbit out of the cage when we weren’t looking, and gladly stuffing it into a little basket or ‘flying’ it through the room while holding it by its neck.
• I almost sat on the fluffy thing, on the sofa, as the ‘owner’ had left it there while she went to the bathroom
• Homework has never been completed that quick before, and I do question the quality and interest in these important exercises

In the last few days I’ve started to provide some strong hints that perhaps a rabbit is a lot more work than she expected.  But, my pièce de résistance came when i placed a lovely Easter recipe on the dinning table for stewed rabbit.  Not many appreciated my subtle hint, but I do think that they agreed that more work is required.

Have you ever bought a pet for your kid and found that it had / was being neglected?

Honestly, I’m not going to give it back to where we bought it or sell it, but it’s awfully tempting to release it into the Wild, letting it mingle with the wild rabbits.  They might appreciate the little gordita for a late night cuddle.