The Story behind moppet

Moppet is the heartwarming tale of a misunderstood pet rabbit who, through no fault of her own, is rehomed. The story behind Moppet is a mishmash, an amalgamation of bunnies I’ve loved over the years. It’s also a very common and tragic tale for sad and lonely rabbits all over the world who are kept as pets and who suffer and die alone because rabbits don’t always make great ‘cute’ pets for children.
The rabbit here is Boo, a sad hand-reared bunny who was born of an accidental litter – his mother had been bought at a petshop and was already pregnant. Neither his mother nor his siblings survived the birth and Boo was given to me as I’m a dab hand at handrearing littlies. It was exhausting and I almost lost him a few times. This bunny here is Bee and I only said yes to him because rabbits shouldn’t live alone. they were both handreared by me and bonded very well, which was unusual but handreared animals are weird. Well weird and don’t necessarily make good pets as they don’t have normal animal human boundaries.
Another rabbit I had was Poppet, a frightened, lonely, aggressive female who took a lot of work to stop her being afraid of humans. When she was frightened she’s lash out – it’s a natural fear response. She was given to me by a family friend who’d gotten her as a present for a child. Don’t even get me started on how stupid and selfish that is – living creatures should never be simply commodities!
Poppet eventually went to live with a lovely young family who had calm, patient children who never tried to pick her up – they would just sit with her and their other rescue rabbit, Mopsy, who Poppet bonded well with.
These rabbits had a happy ending to a difficult start. That isn’t the case for many rabbits.
‘Moppet’ is based on a lot of sad rabbits. If you’re considering getting a rabbit, you need two. You’ll need space for them to run about and binky and play. You’ll need to be able to provide them with the right diet – NOT carrots and lettuce. You also need to be sure that you’ll still love them if they bite your kids, because guess what? If you bring a pet into your life you are responsible for it’s happiness and well-being. For ever.
‘Moppet’ is available here for the special price of £3.50 and £1 from the sale of every book this year (2017) will go to Rabbit Welfare Association and Fund or RWAF who do a lot of important work.