“I don’t think they’re going back to HRS.” 

The words for failed fosters everywhere, but this time they were for Magic Mike and Sully, who had been taking residence in our home office and slowly stealing our hearts with their affection and silly antics. However, we already have our girls, Elsa and Anna, who have free run of the house minus the office. After living in our house with multiple baby gates separating pairs of bunnies in different rooms for a decade, it was so nice to have the bunnies all living together in one area, so we were reluctant to go back to living that way again. My husband then asked, “how about we try bonding the four of them?” 

When the bonding process gets difficult, some of us start to wonder if it’s a recipe for disaster instead of love. But anyone who has ever had the privilege of seeing a difficult bonding through to success knows it’s worth it. In fact, the most difficult bonding I did at home became the strongest relationship between rabbits I’ve ever seen. Not only were they inseparable, when one of them became sick, the other was able to provide a level of both physical and emotional care beyond my and my vet’s abilities. My rabbits were also closely bonded to me, but I’m certain they lived happier, more fulfilling lives together than they would have had I not found the courage and patience to work through the challenging dating process with them. 

Late last year, I was contacted about a bunny named Blue. Blue was a seven-month-old, white lion-head rabbit, with red eyes. Blue and her bonded mate, Swiss, were part of a rescue effort called The October 45.

In October of 2019, 45 baby bunnies were left on the doorstep of a local rescue here in Asheville, North Carolina, during the night. They were all huddled in boxes when the staff found them the next morning. The rescue quickly had them examined by shelter medical staff, scheduled their spay and neuters, and sent them to foster homes.

Swiss and Blue, at four months old, were living with a wonderful foster mom, when the unthinkable happened. Swiss died suddenly. A necropsy was performed on Swiss but had no results on the cause of death. Little Blue went into deep mourning, and we were worried she would mourn herself to death.