Lily was almost a year old when she came to board with us in July 2011. Quite a timid little bun, she was in extremely good health and quite fit, in fact the first thing we noticed was her ability to spring into the air from standing position in a matter of seconds without any warning, especially when the hutch door was opened, which was quite startling to discover. We knew it would take a while for Lily to become familiar with her new hutch and us, and so took time out to talk to her through the hutch door so as not to startle her whenever the hutch was cleaned or she was fed. Throughout the first few days of her holiday she would always run away from me, so I would kneel in front of the hutch with the door open in the hope she would eventually approach me. The first few times were uneventful however I persevered and the tactic paid off; Lily became more and more used to the goings on in the rabbitry, and began to trust me in so far as she would lay full length on her tummy and let me stroke her, which was a major victory considering her original behaviour; each day Lily felt confident enough to sit by the hutch door waiting for dinner and wouldn’t run away. Despite not minding a fuss now and then, Lily disliked to be picked up for any length of time, so we didn’t, opting instead to fuss and tickle her forehead, which she preferred.
