Meet Locke

On Tuesday July 26th CJ and I adopted another rabbit - we call him Locke.

For quite some time CJ has been browsing the Human Society web-site and KSL for rabbits that are available to adopt while I'd been reading up on bonding multiple rabbits - bonding means making them love each other. Neither of us knew what the other was doing until CJ found Peter on KSL and just had to show me, that was Monday the 25th of July. One look at that precious little rabbit (as seen in the picture to the right) and we had to have him even though he looks so much like Samus and I had kept saying that if we got another rabbit I didn't want a black one because I wanted to be able to tell my rabbits apart from each other - I justified it because he is smaller than Samus and would, therefore, be easy to tell apart. We called up his owners and set up a time to meet the next day.

We'd both been thinking about adopting another rabbit because we felt bad for leaving Samus alone all day while we were at work. We knew that rabbits are social animals and like having another rabbit as a companion. I had also read that having a rabbit companion for a pet rabbit can keep each rabbit happier than it would be by itself and therefore less aggressive and prone to bad behavior (unless, of course, they are both evil, evil rabbits and start working together to fulfill their evil plans).

For our meeting we decided to take Samus with us to see how the two interacted together. There were three ways it could go:

1. Love at first site - they instantly fall in love with each other and decide to live happily ever after.
2. They ignore each other - this is a good sign. If they ignore each other it means they don't hate each other.
3. One tries to dominate the other who also wants to be dominate, a fight ensues - this isn't the end of the world. Given time, most rabbits can come to love each other.

As we drove all the way down to Provo we wondered what would happen. We hoped for love at first site but knew the chances of that were low. I guess our most realistic expectation was to hope that they wouldn't fight.

When we got to Peter's place he was already out and about the apartment, running around and hiding in packed boxes (his original owners were getting ready to move to West Virginia to go to medical school). We immediately noticed that he was a lot smaller than we thought he would be. I set Samus's carrier on the couch and Peter immediately got interested. Samus, on the other hand, was reluctant to come out into the open.

She eventually stuck her head out and Peter licked her on her nose then proceeded to try to mount her (could be a sign he wants to be dominant or could be a sign that he's just horny - too soon to tell at this point). We immediately noticed how much smaller Peter was compared to Samus. Samus didn't seem to enjoy being mounted but came out of her carrier anyway, which is when Peter then proceeded to try to mount her again. Samus wasn't going to have any of it so she turned around and mounted him (because she has been spayed, this was a definite sign that she wanted to be dominant).

After a little more of the same behavior we put Samus back in her carrier (she didn't complain, I think she had grown tired of the little boy rabbit) and chatted with Peter's then owners. We decided to take him home and assured the Provo couple that he'd be in good hands.


While driving back home our conversation rested mostly on what to name him because, let's be honest, "Peter" is not a very original name for a rabbit. We didn't come to a conclusion during that car ride or while at home that evening. We came up with a lot of good names but nothing seemed to fit when we actually called him those names. Eventually we settled on "Locke" - a sneaky thief (as rabbits tend to be) from the video game Final Fantasy VI - originally called Final Fantasy III in the US, the nerds know why.

Locke spent his first day and half at our place "squeaking" like a mad man. "Squeaking" equals his horny grunts but since he is so small he just sounded like a little squeak toy. On the second morning we had him I took him to the vet to be neutered - he doesn't squeak as much anymore and he doesn't try to mount Samus as much either.

While at the vet we learned that Locke was 2.1 pounds and Samus, who was at the vet for her yearly check-up, was 5.1 pounds, 2.2 pounds more than she was on her visit last year. We've concluded that Locke needs to put on some weight.


Locke has proven to be a very social rabbit. He likes being around people and Samus (more about how he and Samus have bonded is coming in a later blog post), he doesn't bite or nip, he rarely thumps, he's an excellent jumper and runner, and he enjoys just laying around people and being touched.

He's also turned out to be quite the eater. I think he consumed his body weight in hay every day for the first two weeks we had him, plus eating his vegetables and rabbit food pellets plus he'll steal Samus's vegetables at any chance he gets. Unfortunately he doesn't seem to have gained any weight.

Right now his only downside is that he's having a hard time consistently using his litter box. He'll leave poop almost everywhere in his cage and he tends to pee half in his litter box, half out of his litter box leaving a mess for us to clean up daily. To the right is a picture of Locke just laying around his litter box. He'll also sit in it while he eats which is probably for the best because he often poops while he eats.

Overall, we are very excited to have Locke. Samus is happier and less aggressive and they keep each other entertained. But don't worry, two is enough for us.