My friend asked me to meet his grandmother who lives in Portland, Oregon. She is turning 104 years old in 4 months, and is still vibrant and loves telling dirty jokes. He was afraid of losing the last chance of seeing her again.
And me? How could I miss such opportunity to see a different state in the United States?
We were on the road 3 hours later.
One morning.
One decision.
Off we went, with two female bunnies we recently got that are 3 months old, and four newborns that our older bunny(Blanket) gave birth to just a week earlier.
Why did we have to take all the rabbits with us? For attention! Duh.
No, it’s actually because we couldn’t find any friends at the last minute to take care of them while we were gone. The baby rabbits need special care, and milk from their mother everyday. So we could not separate the babies from their mom and leave any of them unattended. We had to take them all on the road.
I was very opposed to the idea of taking rabbits on a long trip, because they are so easily scared and may stop drinking or eating during the drive. But my friend reassured me that he would take care of them. I also did some research on the internet just to make sure it is not too crazy to take a family of rabbits on a road trip.(It isn’t.)
It was a beautiful day in San Francisco on 2nd of August. We started driving to Portland in the early afternoon after we quickly packed our stuff.
I like the idea of being able to go as we wish. Without a plan. That is the beauty of it. Everything is unknown.
We put the 2 older bunnies in a foldable playpen that I recently purchased for them to play and exercise in.
The babies were in a shoebox filled with hay and a towel as lining; They had not yet opened their eyes, and seemed to be unaware of their surroundings. They were usually sound asleep in their dark, warm, and comfy shoebox as we drove.
The bigger bunnies were quite alarmed at first, but after a day became accustomed to the drive. We stopped every couple of hours to make sure they drank and ate, thanks to all the rest areas on Interstate 5. What a smart thing to have on a road! We stopped quite often to check on the rabbits and sometimes cook a small meal for ourselves on our camp stove. This was one of the highlights of our trip.
As we stopped and set the rabbit tent outside. People were “all eyes” and showing their fascination with the rabbits. One couple from Switzerland were especially amazed that a wild baby squirrel was posing for my camera when I told them it was my bunny. Those big-eared, fluffy friends are irresistible to anybody I have to admit. Their sweet, non-threatening looks are ”awwws” guaranteed.
The only downside of having any animals with you on a road trip is that they make it harder to find a hotel at night. But we can’t sleep in the car. So we had to bring the bunnies in every hotel that we stayed at and keep them in the bathroom in their tent. Luckily, no one found out. We cleaned up very well. These little obsessive cleaners are incredibly neat and are always grooming themselves. They are so clean that their poop doesn’t even stink.
We only put the babies in with their mother at night before we went to bed, so their mother would feed them without accidentally stepping all over them all the time and possibly hurting them. We knew Blanket did an incredible job as a young mother, because we found all the babies had round and full bellies each morning.
After visiting my friend’s grandmother in Portland and showing her all our bunnies, which was an amazing experience, we decided to keep going North to Washington State as we realized Seattle is just 3 hours drive away.
We didn’t do all the touristy stuff we wanted to — we had 6 rabbits to take care of after all!
We drove around a little bit and saw the city briefly. It was so brief that it’s almost hard to say I have been there. But I was satisfied as it is.
The main impression I had of Seattle and Portland is that there are many bridges. The other thing I noticed was the homeless people were quite friendly. I saw more females living on the street in Portland than there are in San Francisco. It was interesting to discover that.
“Sorry for the drama”
Blurted a young woman as we walked by a group of homeless people on the street in Portland.
Two of them who appeared to be a couple were screaming at each other. We did not know what they were arguing about. Twenty minutes later, after we had already walked around the streets and were ready to go back, the same couple were still arguing.
I wondered what they were arguing about.
As we drove back we stopped in quite a few towns, including Astoria, Seaside, and Eureka. The drive was breathtaking on Highway 101. It was slow as there are a plethora of towns that we had to drive through at a reduced speed.
The weather was nice for us throughout the trip, even in Seattle, which is a city known for rainy days.
Sadly, one of the baby bunnies did not survive. He was already weak when we found him one morning, his belly was not round like the others. I tried to feed him, but he would not eat. I held him in my hands to keep him warm until his little heart stopped beating a few hours later. He fell asleep forever. We set him down in the bushes, in nature, and said goodbye.
The bottom line is you can still take your rabbits on a long trip provided that everybody is prepared. We took our bunnies by car for walks in the park every morning for weeks before this road trip, so they were already familiar with the feeling of being in a car.
It’s never a good idea to leave your lovely friends unattended and go off to be a tourist, for too long. Granted, there will be certain limitations to bringing pets on a road trip, but don’t let that discourage you. They will provide you with plenty of love and company. And of course, attention. Like always.
I enjoyed the company of my bunnies on the road. It was quite an experience!
