So there's a new girl in town, another mini-lop. Initial meeting went very well; Rudy was dominant, and she didn't care, and seemed very relaxed around him. Great. Perfect.
Three days later, she's lost her shyness and has decided SHE wants to be boss. No biting, no viciousness, but she wants to do the mounting and Rudy is beside himself with despair, partially because he can't accept it, and partially because she weighs twice what he does. The thing is, I can't give her back, because she came from a bad situation: a woman, trying to be helpful, took in six rabbits and had 4 altered on her own dime. The problem? She doesn't like rabbits, they live in cages in her basement, and never get out. The intermediary told me she herself was disturbed by what she saw, and was going to foster whatever rabbit I didn't take because she couldn't bring herself to return it.
So now I've got Amie (working name, after the Pure Prairie League song), who is very cute, very curious, and also a little neurotic from being confined so long. When I grab her to pick her up she semi-freaks and makes a noise like a kookaburra. No biting or scratching, though, which is good, and she's not shy about standing on her hind legs and checking me out. She does enjoy a good head pat and a snuggle.
She has not bitten Rudy either, and doesn't seem to be vicious, just determined to be dominant (at one point, in her determination to mount him, she had the poor little guy rolled over on his back. I intervened before it got ugly). I need to bring her to my vet to make sure she's been spayed - this could be part of it.
In the meantime, segregation is still the name of the game.
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