Baby is living with us because of my husband. He took one look at her, with her floppy ears and
fell hard. She was so tiny that she had to climb into the food dish to eat and could sit in the palm
of your hand. She also had the nasty habit of using the food bowl as a litter box, but we won't go into that.Unfortunately, Baby had no idea she was a rabbit and no idea on how to be one. The other rabbits, after grooming her meticulously, would present themselves for a clean, only to have Baby totally ignore them. The only thing she knew how to do was thump for danger, which she did with annoying frequency. Like the boy who cried wolf, no-one pays that aspect of her behaviour much attention these days, including the other rabbits.
Her full name is Baby Spice and came about for a number of reasons. Firstly her ears always
reminded me of pig tails, she was white (read blonde) and she showed a personality that bought to
mind the blonde bimbo stereotype. And before I get a flood of angry emails, I'm talking about
a stereotype, not my personal opinion of blondes!
Baby fitted in well with the other rabbits, there were no heirachial disputes, maybe because she was so young. She was particulary attached to Apache, but all the rabbits seemed to be aware that she was young, and took special care of her.
Her progress into youth was certainly more peaceful than Sophie's. There was no aggressive behaviour, I just went out one day to find her with a bald chest, happily building a nest. I had her spayed a few days later, all without incident (although after the experience with Sophie I bandaged her as soon as we got home). The next day, she was eating and socialising with the other rabbits.
Baby is the digger in the group. If we hear someone busy tunnelling away, you can bet it's her. She will spend hours, digging and gnawing at the boxes I put out and we often find new "doors' appear in the side of them. Like Sophie, she doesn't like being handled, but unlike the others she's still a little tentative about approaching us. There are times when she gets panicked for no reason at all, but she never seems overly scared, so I wonder if it's just her way of reacting to anything a little different, rather than real fear.
Happily, she has made progress along the way. These days she's still the early warning system for the group, but she's learned how to be a rabbit and groom in return. In fact she's become 'Chief Eye Cleaner', the only part she seems interested in. She's still skittish and runs sometimes when I go out there as if she's never seen me before, except if she thinks it's 'sultana/treat' time, apparently I'm not so scary then.