Spring bunnies

I recently lost my cat to a car. He was a friendly fat ginger dude called Mango and he was part way through the process of registering as a Pets as Therapy cat. He truly loved people, and would put up with any amount of fuss.

My other cat (who is a very shy and nervy little lady) was still lonely after a month or so. You can tell because there's a bit of Siamese in her somewhere and she yowls! So into our lives came Santana.

Being a house rabbit, I feel it's a bit cruel to keep him cooped up at all times, so he's becoming a bit of a regular in my local park. He's on his second harness already because he worked out how to wriggle out of the first one. Not good, as I keep a very sharp lookout for dogs. A random rabbit is not something I think most people train their puppy to cope with!

So, to cope with his Houdini skills and also the fact that I have a feeling he's going to get an awful lot bigger when he grows up, I've been making his harnesses from whatever is left in the scrap pile! The first one (in the photo) was fleece but a bit easy to get out of. The latest one is a cat collar, a piece of 2" elastic, a popper and a 2"x4" strip of red cotton. Let me explain...

The cat collar will go round his neck, the elastic around his tummy. The cotton is to attach the two together so that if he wriggles out of one, he is still attached by the other and I can scoop him up for a cuddle before he gets himself in danger!

First I attached the poppers to each end of the elastic so it would lie flat around his tummy. I have a lovely pair of Prym pliers which do all the work for me!

Next, I looped one end of the cotton around the collar and sewed it down very firmly (back and forwards several times. I'm aiming for strong over neat here!) about an inch from the safety clip.

Then I sewed the other end of the cotton to the elastic, about an inch from the popper.

All done and ready to go to the park! The strip of cotton lies along his back, and I just clip a dog lead to the loop it makes with the cotton.

Now I'm wondering if I can train him to sit, down, fetch...