The pet I’ll never forget: we thought Titan the rabbit was female - until he tried mounting everything that moved

He fought off a fox, became firm friends with our dog and never gave up on burrowing out of the garden. Truly, a prince among rabbits

I can never remember whether I fell in love with rabbits thanks to Watership Down or whether the reason I loved Watership Down so much was because I already had a pet rabbit. Either way, it was the backend of the 1970s when Titan came into our suburban London lives; I was 10, my sister 11. He was an Old English kitten (yes, baby rabbits are kittens, not bunnies) with velvety brown ears and a smooth white coat spattered with brown markings, including a patch around each eye and another covering his ever-quivering nose.

To say Titan came into our lives isn’t strictly correct. It was Titania who arrived in the straw-lined cardboard box. My grandad made a fabulous hutch, from which we’d carry our “Queen of the Fairies” to a solid wood pen on the lawn. Within a few weeks, she was leaping effortlessly over the side and exploring the whole garden (walled, thankfully) with that characteristic hop and sniff. It was then, owing to certain rabbity behaviours, that we discovered she was actually a he. The cat quickly learned to steer clear after repeated randy mountings.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/asY3V5k