Mr. Cali the Bunny

The girls' first pet is still doing well.  We purchased a 2 month old "Mini Rex" at the end of March, so it would have been born ~Feb. 1st.  We took the girls to the pet store with us to keep them involved in the decision-making and selection of what food, pellets, and toys their pet needs.  They helped pick out which one to get and loved petting the super soft fur.  They got to hold it in the store, but had to wait a couple days before taking it home.  They advise not picking the rabbit up for a few days to help it acclimate to its new home.  The girls were anxious but waited patiently.  We picked out the name "Cali" to be short for Calico, which describes the speckled coloring.  

The first three months, Cali lived in Addisyn and Piper's room.  This made it very clear whose pet it is.  It is their job to make sure Cali has food and water every day, and they have to clean the cage every week.  When the air conditioning broke at home, we moved his cage to the dining room to stay cooler (apparently bunnies don't like temperatures above 80 degrees), and then we decided that it was nice having Cali where we see him and pay more attention to him so he will be taken care of and not get lonely.  Cali seems to like being near people too.

We didn't know the sex but had fun guessing.  Even the doctor guessed wrong the first time.  We tried to get her fixed before vacation, but had to invest in taking care of the mites in her ears first.  Then, we had to retrain our brains when we discovered she was a HE.  Cali went on our MH vacation with us, and Cali showed the girls a "new trick" -- leaving wet marks on their sleeve he just "shook himself" on (better get "fixed" soon!!!).  He did get surgery at about 6 months old, and he recovered well.  The girls helped him take his pain medicine to prevent him trying to bite on the incision marks.

 

Addisyn likes to let Cali hang out with her when she does homework and reads to him on her lap.

Our goal is to get him some more exercise--his is about 3x the size he was when we brought him home.  He is growing too big for his cage too, so we are looking at bigger cage options and maybe get him one by the end of this year.