Australian Politics Forum - I once had a pet hare

bogarde73

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I once had a pet hare
Mar 26^th, 2014 at 1:02pm

It was a baby I found (luckily) hidden by its mother under some long grass when I was mowing a paddock.
I took it in the house till I had finished then put it back, hoping the mother would come back for it, but she never did.
So I adopted it. For a while it lived in a parrot cage but eventually it was allowed to run round the house.
When I made a thumping noise on the floor, it would come running back and sit between my legs.
It got to be toilet trained - literally - it would run into the toilet and do it behind the toilet pan.

When it was big enough I decided to gradually reintroduce it to the wild. So I let it loose near a creek and some cover. It would scout around and come back to me.
But one day I went to call it back and it never came back.
It was sad but I hoped it survived and found a mate.

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Winston Smith Gold Member Offline Ministry of Truth Posts: 1549 Oceania Gender:	Re: I once had a pet hare Reply #1 - Mar 26^th, 2014 at 1:14pm The moral of the story? Animals aren't toys.
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bogarde73 Gold Member Offline Anti-Global & Contra Mundum Posts: 18443 Gender:	Re: I once had a pet hare Reply #2 - Mar 26^th, 2014 at 2:56pm There's no moral. I avoided killing it and in the end I did my best to give it a chance. You can't help getting attached to little critters. . .unless you're subhuman.
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mantra

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Re: I once had a pet hare
Reply #3 - Mar 26^th, 2014 at 3:45pm

bogarde73 wrote on Mar 26^th, 2014 at 2:56pm:

There's no moral. I avoided killing it and in the end I did my best to give it a chance.
You can't help getting attached to little critters. . .unless you're subhuman.

As long as there aren't too many predators, rabbits, whether domestic or wild have a good chance of survival in a natural environment.

It's cruel to keep them caged up in a tiny enclosure so even if it met a sad fate, it was lucky to have the care and freedom that you gave it.

Rabbits usually die very quickly of shock - so they don't suffer for long thankfully. On the other hand - it might have produced a million or so descendants by now.

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Frances Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 3577 In a Castle in the Hills Gender:	Re: I once had a pet hare Reply #4 - Mar 26^th, 2014 at 4:38pm bogarde73 wrote on Mar 26^th, 2014 at 1:02pm: I took it in the house Would that make it an ingrown hare?
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bogarde73

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Re: I once had a pet hare
Reply #5 - Mar 27^th, 2014 at 9:52am

Rabbits usually die very quickly of shock - so they don't suffer for long thankfully. On the other hand - it might have produced a million or so descendants by now.

Hares are different to rabbits. They frequently end up on Mr Sly Fox's dinner table.
They don't die quickly. You hear them screaming in the night when they've been found. They don't burrow, they just camp. And they don't breed like rabbits (lol), they might only produce one or two offspring a year.

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mantra

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Re: I once had a pet hare
Reply #6 - Mar 28^th, 2014 at 6:11am

bogarde73 wrote on Mar 27^th, 2014 at 9:52am:

Hares are different to rabbits. They frequently end up on Mr Sly Fox's dinner table.
They don't die quickly. You hear them screaming in the night when they've been found. They don't burrow, they just camp. And they don't breed like rabbits (lol), they might only produce one or two offspring a year.

You would think that breeding so sparsely they would have become extinct by now. I just looked them up and apparently they're sleepers. They seem to disappear for a few years, then suddenly they'll appear in abundance.

Perhaps they take so much longer to die than your garden variety rabbit is because they're so strong. When they're used for experiments they have to be put in round cages because they end up breaking all their bones trying to escape in square cages.

I've heard rabbits giving their death squeal. It's not something you want to hear too often.

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« Last Edit: Mar 28^th, 2014 at 6:21am by mantra »

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NorthOfNorth Gold Member Offline OzPolitic Posts: 17258 Gender:	Re: I once had a pet hare Reply #7 - Mar 28^th, 2014 at 6:18am bogarde73 wrote on Mar 26^th, 2014 at 1:02pm: But one day I went to call it back and it never came back. It was sad but I hoped it survived and found a mate. But your fear is it probably got ripped apart by dogs. Tua culpa, tua culpa, tua massima culpa!
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Lord Herbert

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Re: I once had a pet hare
Reply #8 - Apr 11^th, 2014 at 9:08am

Speaking of hares ~ I had always thought they were cute bunny-type creatures that were nice, harmless, backyard pets for children.

Until I met a whole cage full of Harezillas in a small village in south of France where I was visiting my French cousins and aunt.

I was walking alone in one of the little lanes around the village when I spotted a cage full of 'bunny wabbits' ... and smiled in anticipation of some pleasant stroking and cuddling of these furry critters.

As I approached the cage they collected against the back wall ~ about 5 of them. And then I reached out towards the steel meshing at the front of the cage ~ and got the shock of my life.

All 5 of them threw themselves at me with terrifying speed and ferocity ~ hurling themselves against the wire mesh with a great crash of vicious teeth and claws.

With heart pounding, I must have leapt back a full meter in shock-and-awe.

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mantra

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Re: I once had a pet hare
Reply #9 - Apr 11^th, 2014 at 1:40pm

Lord Herbert wrote on Apr 11^th, 2014 at 9:08am:

Speaking of hares ~ I had always thought they were cute bunny-type creatures that were nice, harmless, backyard pets for children.

Until I met a whole cage full of Harezillas in a small village in south of France where I was visiting my French cousins and aunt.

I was walking alone in one of the little lanes around the village when I spotted a cage full of 'bunny wabbits' ... and smiled in anticipation of some pleasant stroking and cuddling of these furry critters.

As I approached the cage they collected against the back wall ~ about 5 of them. And then I reached out towards the steel meshing at the front of the cage ~ and got the shock of my life.

All 5 of them threw themselves at me with terrifying speed and ferocity ~ hurling themselves against the wire mesh with a great crash of vicious teeth and claws.

With heart pounding, I must have leapt back a full meter in shock-and-awe.

Now that was funny - although probably unnerving at the time. Just the appearance of a hare is enough to put you off stroking it. Even ordinary house rabbits can be vicious because of their large teeth and sharp claws. I've had a couple of them in past years and they ended up escaping. Never let them out of the cage even for a short graze because sometimes they don't come back. They're always after greener pastures.

Occasionally I see someone's pet rabbit hopping in and out of my front garden. A few years ago I would have chased and trapped it, put up a notice in the local shops then held the animal until someone claimed it. Now I try to ignore these creatures and hope that someone else takes pity and if not, that their death is quick. They are prey if they wander into the wrong garden.

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Lord Herbert Gold Member Offline Posts: 34441 Gender:	Re: I once had a pet hare Reply #10 - Apr 11^th, 2014 at 3:45pm Speaking of hopping creatures, at Sanctuary Point on the NSW south coast I saw kangaroos hopping up the road almost every morning from my brother's kitchen.
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John Smith Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 78311 Gender:	Re: I once had a pet hare Reply #11 - Apr 11^th, 2014 at 7:57pm I once had a pet hare and then fell out too and now I'm bald.
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Sprintcyclist

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Re: I once had a pet hare
Reply #12 - Apr 11^th, 2014 at 8:33pm

Lord Herbert wrote on Apr 11^th, 2014 at 9:08am:

Speaking of hares ~ I had always thought they were cute bunny-type creatures that were nice, harmless, backyard pets for children.

Until I met a whole cage full of Harezillas in a small village in south of France where I was visiting my French cousins and aunt.

I was walking alone in one of the little lanes around the village when I spotted a cage full of 'bunny wabbits' ... and smiled in anticipation of some pleasant stroking and cuddling of these furry critters.

As I approached the cage they collected against the back wall ~ about 5 of them. And then I reached out towards the steel meshing at the front of the cage ~ and got the shock of my life.

All 5 of them threw themselves at me with terrifying speed and ferocity ~ hurling themselves against the wire mesh with a great crash of vicious teeth and claws.

With heart pounding, I must have leapt back a full meter in shock-and-awe.

throw the cage in a river

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Lionel Edriess

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Re: I once had a pet hare
Reply #13 - Apr 11^th, 2014 at 8:51pm

I once had a couple of ferrets - hardly pets but cute l'il buggers if you handled them every day.

Used to run them down rabbit warrens.

I had to tie fishing line to the back leg of one of them - if he caught a rabbit down the burrow, he'd only re-surface when he'd had his fill.

Br'er rabbit would almost explode into the nets over the burrows when the ferrets went a'hunting.

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John Smith Gold Member Offline Australian Politics Posts: 78311 Gender:	Re: I once had a pet hare Reply #14 - Apr 11^th, 2014 at 8:54pm Lionel Edriess wrote on Apr 11^th, 2014 at 8:51pm: once had a couple of ferrets they wouldhave to be the most vile smelly things I've ever had the displeasure of coming across ... mens toilets at nightclubs smell better than anything within 100 m of a ferrets hutch.
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