Bringing your bunnies inside can be a source of joy – and plenty of weirdness. Lauren McMenemy, mum to Saunders the lop, explains the unexpected pleasures of sharing your home with a house rabbit. 

We didn’t mean to bring a rabbit into our home. It just sort of… happened.

I’d always grown up with animals in the house but renting as an adult had put an end to that. A few years ago, my husband Chris and I bought our first house and I thought, ‘Well, now’s the time!’

I was driving past a pet store one day when I felt the urge. We went back together the next day, spent three hours talking to the man about rabbits and ended up adopting a bonded pair. We brought them home, all of us wide-eyed and bushy-tailed. We named them French and Saunders, and they settled into our home and our hearts.

Sadly, we lost Frenchie about 18 months later. She had one of those nasty parasites that seem so common in rabbits and which can be treated, but, unfortunately, she didn’t survive. While all advice recommends rabbits should live in pairs at least, we couldn’t get Saunders to bond with anyone else. So, she powers on solo, with me as her housebound friend (I work from home). She’s a huge, feisty black lop with a love of getting her own way, and I’ve learnt a lot from her over the six years she’s been in our house. Here are just a few of the lessons I’ve picked up along the way.

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