2011 Year of the Rabbit!

I was browsing around and wondering what to post about, when I stumbled upon a Chinese Astrology site and found out that we are in the Year of the Rabbit! With such a happy coincidence, as I owned one myself a few years back I'll make a quick intro on these cute flurry creatures.

When I first made my decision to get a rabbit, I confess that I had absolutely NO idea what I was getting myself into(again, cliche info which the mythbusters do not cover), fortunately I had reached a certain maturity by then and was responsible enough to look up the info required for their well being, and contrary to common knowledge and what Bugs Bunny would have you believe...

They will not say "What's up doc?"
It's NOT good to grab them by their ears
Carrots may be a treat for them, but not a entire diet

And many things to watch out for as they are in fact very frail and delicate creatures, it takes time for them to adapt to a new home and unfamiliar environments much the same as they need to adapt to new owners, Death by stress is a very real danger that specially targets smaller animals such as rabbits as they tend to be in constant alert for predators, this constant scanning for dangers and hypersensitivity to smell and sounds in a domestic environment can actually backfire on the little rodents as it signifies that alot within human dwellings and even the outside can easily become a stress factor for them. 

So to anyone who has a rabbit and might be thinking on getting one, I feel it is important to ask yourselves the following questions, for both your sake and the little member you wish to add into your family circle...not whether you want a cute animal but: 

Do you have the ability to feed it the appropriate food until it's full?
Do you have the ability to provide a proper dwelling environment for it?
Do you have the ability to play with it?
Do you have the ability to take it to the veterinarian if it gets sick?

However, these are merely the basic abilities to consider as there are more intricate things involved  that apply to having different animals, the moment we choose to include another life into our own lives, we should think carefully whether to take such a important step to avoid the pains for everyone involved should one day the need to abandon it raise, for whatever reason it might be. I strongly suggest to consider the basic abilities I have listed as a minimum requirement to fulfill before actually considering having a pet, it is a life and not a object, food, health, a place to sleep and attention should be our responsibilities as owners to them.

As I read once, the hardest thing in having a pet is to be able to provide a constant love for it!