They say a dog is (hu)man’s best friend, but Katelyn Lynd’s rabbit is so receptive to people that he would have you questioning if his species is the most affectionate.
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The three-year-old Holland lop has lived with his 15-year-old owner, Katelyn, and her family at Shepparton East since he was eight months old.
His name is Bingo and Katelyn reckons she’s hit the jackpot with her playful little bunny.
“He enjoys chasing people around, and when he’s outside his favourite thing to do is jump as high as he possibly can,” Katelyn said.
Bingo is not the family’s only pet, so he possibly gets up to such shenanigans to help him stand out from the three dogs, a cat, a horse and a fellow rabbit he must share attention with.
After all, Katelyn says he is a fan of the spotlight.
“My favourite thing to do with Bingo is definitely when I’m able to take him out in public and he gets to meet all the little kids and adults, he absolutely loves the attention,” she said.
His attention-seeking ways are far from pretentious though, with Katelyn reporting he’s a “sweet and awesome boy”.
“In the future I’d love to see Bingo become a therapy animal for kids,” she said.
“I feel like the energy he gives off is really calming.”
Katelyn said when Bingo first arrived in the family’s home, she began litter-training him.
“I’d always give him a small kiss on the head as a reward along with a treat, but little did I know I was also training Bingo how to give kisses,” she said.
“So now if I was to say, ‘Can I have a kiss?’, he’ll come up and rub his nose against my chin.”
The lovable rabbit is comfortable inside and outside, despite the menagerie of animals around him.
Katelyn said sometimes he would stay outside the whole day or free-roam around inside the house, but was always put into his pen when she headed to bed.
The cat has only met the rabbits through their pens.
The dogs get along with the rabbits, but the family members ensure they are never left unsupervised around them.
The dogs are also the only animal members of the family privileged to have met the horse, with the introduction leaving the pooches a little baffled anyway.
Much the same way Katelyn was when one day, not long after getting Bingo, she lost sight of him in her bedroom.
“I had this wall of teddies and stuffies, and he decided to lay in them,” she said.
“I genuinely thought I had lost him and looked around for an hour just for him to scare me by licking my leg while I had my back turned.”
It turns out Bingo’s not just a winning pet.
He’s a smoocher, a healer, an entertainer, and, like a magician who pulls his type out of a hat, he’s also a bit of a prankster.