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We had done fish. We had done hermit crabs. We had done birds and hamsters. And every time, the kids came back with the same request: something they could actually cuddle.
The problem was allergies. A dog was out. A cat was out. And I was running out of ideas.
Then my youngest daughter had an idea of her own.
She didn’t just suggest a bunny — she built a case for one. A full PowerPoint presentation. And because that apparently wasn’t enough, she printed photos of bunnies and taped them inside every cabinet and drawer in the house so that every time one of us reached for a glass or opened the pantry, we were ambushed by tiny hopeful rabbit faces.
It’s hard to say no to that level of commitment.
My honest reaction to the bunny idea itself? Skeptical — but not for the reasons you might think. I figured bunnies lived in a hutch outside. How much work could it really be? We’d ordered the hutch from Amazon, the bunny was coming, and I thought that was that.
Then she arrived.
She was smaller than I expected and softer than I was prepared for, and while we waited for the hutch to be delivered she lived inside with us — this tiny fluff ball just going about her business in the middle of our family. And somewhere in those first few days I made a decision that surprised even me: she was never going outside. She was never living in a hutch in the cold and the dark away from the action. She was staying exactly where she was.
Tuxie, it turned out, loved her hutch anyway. So we did what any reasonable family would do.
One afternoon I picked my youngest up from school and asked if she wanted to tear out the back of our hall closet to see what kind of space might be hiding under the stairs.
She said yes immediately. Obviously.
About thirty minutes later — covered in drywall dust, slightly wild-eyed, and completely delighted — we had unearthed what would become Tuxie’s room. We built the space around the hutch she already loved, added a Dutch door so we could check on her while keeping the space contained, and cut a tiny Tuxie-sized door directly into the living room wall so she could come and go into the middle of family life exactly where she has always insisted on being.
She is litter box trained, free roaming, and completely unbothered by the fact that she has a better room than some of our college kids.
They know it too.
Nearly six years in, Tuxie is the pet none of us expected and all of us can’t imagine living without. She is lazy and aloof until she isn’t — then she’s demanding and playful and impossible to ignore. She’s somewhere between a dog and a cat, fully convinced she runs this house, and we’ve finally stopped arguing with her about it.
If you’ve ever wondered whether a house rabbit could actually work for your family — especially if allergies have ruled out the more obvious options — I’d tell you what I wish someone had told me before we got her: your perception of what a bunny is will not survive contact with the actual bunny. In the best possible way.
TUXIE’S FAVORITE THINGS
Everything she has tested and approved — and a few things we learned the hard way.
Litter box we use (I take out the drawer and instead line it with these pads)
We use this base under the litter box and pads; makes cleaning it a breeze
This is the only hay Tux will eat because she’s spoiled!
And I buy one of these for her every few months because she loves to dig in it (and prevents digging other places)
This is the camera we have in her room so we can keep an eye on her when we aren’t home. It gives clear images and I can use my phone to adjust the view around the room as needed! We’ve had it for three years and still going strong. No subscription fees either.
