How do you make friends with a rabbit?

Deb:

For the first few days we kept the door closed when we weren’t in the room with Freckles. We wanted her to have a chance to acclimate to her new home before opening up the rest of the house for her investigation. She liked my son and my husband and would take food from their hands. When I held out a carrot or fruit treat, she would sniff at it, but refuse the offer. I’d place it in her cage and notice later that it was gone. Evidently, Freckles liked the guys!

A few years back we had a parakeet named Peeper who loved my husband more than me. Peeper thought I was okay. I'd been the one to teach him a few words, and he would saunter over to the side of the cage when I came near and listen for me to talk. In comparison, the second he heard my husband's car pull into the driveway he would hop from perch to perch and make the loudest noises possible (screeching, ringing his bell, and slamming his toys against the sides of the cage) until my husband came over to talk to him. Peeper would run to the side of the cage and rub his beak on the bars as my husband petted the top of his little blue head.

On the other hand, Nicky, the little lost dog who found his way to our home on Christmas Eve one year and stayed like a special present, developed a fondness for me. He had followed me everywhere -- even to the bathroom, where he would wait patiently outside the door until I emerged and then greet me as though I had been gone for days.

So, I understood pets liking one person in a family over another. Freckles dislike of me hurt my feelings, however, and I increased my determination to win her over!