As Mars & Jupiter already occupied the garden we discovered the fun of house bunnies.  Flower & Thumper have a room upstairs and a large indoor bunny run, with a bunny door so they can easily come out and play.  Derek made our bunny run taking great care to listen to what the bunnies wanted, Thumper insisted on windows so he could keep and eye on what was going on.  We used large cardboard boxes as tunnels and as Thumper likes to climb on things Derek made him a platform.  With Thumpers love of climbing we also had to fit a lid to the run to keep him in.

Having house bunnies is a great experience.  They are a very sweet little pair, who entertain us with their antics.  Flower is very sweet it is hard to do anything without him coming to help, he enjoys standing on our feet.  He is not as adventuress as Thumper often getting left out when Thumper goes climbing.

Thumper is much more serious, he will bang his bunny door when it's time to come out, we don't get the opportunity to be bad bunny parents.  Although Thumper is very naughty for banging his bunny door until we open it and then going to sleep in the run.  His greatest obsession is getting into our wardrobes, open the door for a second and he will charge at it, the little horror has been shut in before.

While having house bunnies is very hard work, their fluff gets everywhere and the vacuum gets a bit clogged up.  Flower and Thumper are great fun, it is hard to remember our home without them scampering about.  The hair dryer cable has fallen victim on several occasions to our little bunnies and a pair of slippers!  They also enjoy the odd nibble at the bed clothes, in fact anything hanging over the edge of the bed is at risk.

In April 2003, our house bunny Flower gave us a terrible fright, he began having seizures.  It started one afternoon when Lindsay found Flower under the bed.  He was lying on his side and appeared unable to get up.  Lindsay picked Flower up and cuddled him for a while, although he seemed fine once Lindsay had picked him up he had given her quite a scare.  As Flower seemed happy, we did not take him straight to the vets, though that night he had several more turns.  That morning we took him straight to the vet who listened very carefully to Flowers symptoms and tested his reflexes.  Our sweet little bunny was very groggy and his reflexes where quite poor.  The vet gave Flower an injection and asked us to bring him back the next day.  That night Flower had several seizures, we were getting very scared not only was it very distressing to see our bunny so helpless, but we were also getting up several times a night to take care of him.

On our second visit to the vet we were given some medication.  While this helped to control his seizures we had to increase the dose a couple of times to get him sorted out.  Flower is a very brave little bunny and we are very proud of how he is coping with everything he has been through.  Having his medicine twice a day cannot be much fun, but this has not stopped his bright and cheeky ways.  While we will probably never find out what caused Flower to begin having seizures, we are hopeful that they won't prevent him enjoying a happy and mischievous life.

Friday 23rd May our precious little Flower passed away.  His seizures had been under control for many weeks but Friday morning he had a very severe one and then continued with several more seizures as the day progressed, until he passed away peacefully at home.  Sadly both Derek and I were away from home while Flower was ill, we had been in Cornwall for the week and my mum had been taking care of our family for us.  She had called us early in the morning as we were preparing to head home, at first we just thought it was a normal seizure Flower was having.  Mum told us that although Flower was back on his feet he was still quite wobbly.  It was very difficult being so far away and we phoned home several times during our six hour journey home.  Flower had several more seizures throughout the day and we were very relieved to finally be home.  Mum greeted us at the front door saying that she had just checked on Flower and he seemed okay.  Lindsay went upstairs to see him, but he had passed away.  It was a terrible shock for all of us, but at least we knew he had not suffered.

Thumper was lost at first without his brother, he did not want to leave his run and just slept a lot.  A few weeks on and he has brightened up again.  We love Thumper very much but it is hard not to feel sad to know Flower is gone, he had only been in our lives five short years and we had hoped the cheeky pair of bunnies would be getting into mischief together for few more to come.  We both spend a lot of time talking to Thumper, letting him know we love him and just how special he is to us.

On Sunday 9th of August we had to make the difficult decision to have our special little bunny Thumper put to sleep.  When we woke up on Sunday morning we were horrified to find he was showing the same symptoms that his brother Flower had suffered from.  To see him struggling with his balance broke our hearts.  Thumper had shown no symptoms before and so suddenly he was struggling to stay on his feet.  Our vet confirmed our worst fears and took care of our little bunny for us.  It was a terrible shock, we had hoped Thumper would fill our home with his antics for many years to come.  Since he has gone our house just isn't the same, but we have made the difficult decision not to have any more bunnies for awhile.  We miss you Thumper.