While on our honeymoon in 1992, my wife and I decided we wanted to get a pet. Some people have kids, we wanted a pet. My wife had been online since 1990 (before the Internet as we know it now) and had been reading about rabbits as house pets in newsgroups. As we talked, we ruled out dogs for one reason, cats for another. Eventually we decided on a house rabbit.

I'll admit at the time we weren't conscious of the difficulty of many bunnies in finding a loving home, so after checking with the local shelter, our first thought was to find a pet store. Now of course I would suggest that people contact the nearest House Rabbit Society representative, and attempt to locate a homeless bunny, without supporting pet store sales and breeding.

In June it's hard to find rabbits in pet stores as around here they always seem to be very seasonal (read: Easter) pet. After calling all around we found one store in the next city that had bunnies.

When we arrived there they were, little adorable buns of a proper age (about 12 weeks) in a large wash tub with litter on the bottom. There were six or eight; we held each one and talked to him or her, and tried to get past the whole cutesy thing and sort of really get to KNOW them so we could pick the right one (or they could pick us). Dink was the clear winner, so with the little bun and a huge airline style dog carrier, away we went.

Obviously Dink was and is an adorable little guy (but he's not so little, now). Great personality, much smarter than we'd ever imagined, and very personable and attention loving.

While he's not the biggest animal in the house, he's pretty much the boss. He isn't afraid of our dogs, and they have a special relationship. Our GSD, Bijou, wants so badly to cuddle and lick Dinkum, and Dink loves to tease, but when Bijou is resting Dinkum will hop right up to her and do a nose to nose greeting.

Given that he'll eat anything, we believe that somewhere along the line there is some goat in Dinkum's heritage. His favorites are banana chips, his papaya tablets, and... dog food. We try to keep him away from the dog food but if he sees a stray crumble on the floor... he's there.

Dinkum, of course, is head product tester of all Leith Petwerks products. It doesn't get approved unless the humans deem it proper, and Dinkum gives it his chin of approval.

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