I know, it’s been a few days since my last post, but frankly there hasn’t been a whole lot to say. We’ve had beautiful weather here in the Valley of the Sun – the brief bout with “Arizona winter” and 50-60 degree temps lasted no more than a week, and now we’re back up in the low 80s. It’s actually been warm enough that I could tell my new queen palms needed a drink in between waterings, so today I filled up their bowls. You can also sense the change in the sun angle, and I’ve actually worked up a sweat doing my walks this week.

My primary focus this week has been searching for a new friend for our rabbit Cosmo, who has been miserable since he lost his mate Peanut three weeks ago. There are quite a few rabbit rescues here in the Phoenix area but even with all the rabbits to choose from we’re still in search mode.

The best of the bunch – Tranquility Trail Animal Sanctuary – has nearly 80 rabbits under their care, but the vast majority of them are pairs, and the single rabbits are single for a reason – like our Marlie, they don’t get along with other rabbits. And one thing we’ve learned over the years about bonding rabbits is: a) there’s no scientific way of telling how a rabbit will adapt to bonding attempts with another rabbit, and b) you can’t force the issue. We lucked out with my sister-in-law’s rabbits “The Beastie Boys” – they were really mellow and any chicks we’ve introduced them to just lapped up the attention. We also lucked out with our rabbits Geronimo and Butterscotch – it took a few days but they became fast friends.

My experience at Brambley Hedge Rabbit Rescue was just bizarre and frustrating. The majority of their rabbits are single and we found a couple of possible candidates for bonding. But even though we’ve adopted three of their rabbits in the past – Cosmo being the first of them – they wouldn’t allow any rabbit to attempt to be bonded in our home; we would have had to bring Cosmo there. How stupid. Cosmo’s at least eight years old, and as a gentle elder statesman doesn’t need the stress of being away from his familiar home and stuck in a strange place with a bunch of strange rabbits and people. And no amount of prodding would convince the BHRR folks of our experience and intentions, so the hell with them.

What’s left? Well, we’re checking networks of fellow rabbit owners out and there are a couple of rabbits at the Humane Society that might be candidates. There’s also Craigslist – folks around here have quite a few rabbits for sale. Problem is, if, for whatever reason the bonding attempt with Cosmo doesn’t work out we’d have three rabbits who require separate living areas, and we just don’t have that kind of room. So who knows what will happen.