Bunny Tales

      The soft, low sound of a bunny grinding its teeth. ... That's the sound Las Vegan Bonnie Adar-Burla longed to hear after she and her husband adopted their first rabbit.
      Because that's the characteristic sound a relaxed, contented rabbit makes while being petted, Adar-Burla explains. It's equivalent to a cat's purr.
      "They don't make sounds, except for grinding their teeth when they're happy. They don't bark. They don't meow," she says.
      But rabbits have lots of other cute behaviors.
      "They'll leap and jump and snuggle," she notes.
      "They run in zigzags. They're extremely quick," says Allon Adar-Burla, Bonnie's husband.
      "They're very curious, too. They always have to get into stuff," adds Bonnie. "When a rabbit runs around in circles around you, they're making you part of their family."
      Of course, bunnies also have some habits that can be vexing, the two admit. But it pains them to think of all the pet rabbits given impetuously as Easter gifts that soon will be discarded.
      The House Rabbit Society, a national organization, warns annually about the seasonal infatuation with bunnies.
      "Contrary to Eastertime hype, rabbits and small children are not a good match," according to House Rabbit Society literature. It warns that "as rabbits have increased in popularity, they are suffering the same fate as our other companion animals -- abandonment."
      The Adar-Burlas now own seven bunnies -- a number of which joined their household because the original owners were fed up with the animals and had abandoned them. One had spent its entire lifetime in a cramped bird cage, until the Adar-Burlas rescued it from a tenant. The couple owns a real estate and property-management business.
      Rabbits enjoy eating coaxial cable lines, warns Bonnie, noting that it cost them several hundred dollars to replace all the phone and computer cords that one bunny, Penelope, chewed through.
      And rabbits are prolific. One of the Adar-Burlas' first pets had a litter of nine well before it was a year old. And it could have continued to do so every two months -- if they hadn't decided to neuter or spay their pets.
      If a rabbit is not gently and regularly handled by its owner, it's apt to shy away from human contact. Because rabbits are ground-loving, they particularly dislike being dangled high above the ground when held. In the process of trying to break free from an uncomfortable hug, the toenails on their powerful hind legs may cause scratches.
      If allowed free rein in a back yard, rabbits are apt to damage a landscape, too. "You can almost hear them cry, `buffet' " at the sight of a big grassy lawn, jokes Allon.
      To strike a balance between their pets' need to exercise and explore, and their own need to keep their yard and home interior in good condition, the Adar-Burlas have created spacious fenced and shaded runs in their back yard for the rabbits. Some of the bunnies, which do not eat the furniture or cords, even have a doggie door to enter and exit the house at will.
      The couple tries to place any extra rabbits it acquires with people who will adhere to their own high standards. Once, when they advertised they were giving away free rabbits to cage-free homes -- so the animals wouldn't be confined to a small space all day -- they turned away many callers who expected to receive a free cage for the new pet.
      They inspected the homes of candidates. Successful candidates "went with the sworn vow that if they got tired of the rabbit for any reason, they could bring him back," recalls Bonnie.
      Another local rabbit-lover is Diane Orgill, who teaches Spanish at Silverado High School. Currently the owner of three bunnies -- Buster, Winnie and Wally -- Orgill is also vice president of Animal Foundation International, which runs an animal shelter for the city of Las Vegas.
      Orgill got her first rabbit one Easter. "A student couldn't keep it," she recalls. "Her boyfriend gave it to her, and her parents wouldn't let her keep it."
      The Animal Foundation has a difficult time placing rabbits with new owners, too, Orgill says. In some cases, the shelter has sent rabbits to a local feed store that sells rabbits.
      Both Orgill and the Adar-Burlas have heard stories of rabbits being dumped after Easter to fend for themselves at Mount Charleston, in local washes and even at urban parks.
      Chanda Lawrence, who worked in 1995 at a park office at Sunset Park, remembers the bunnies -- both dead and alive -- that were brought to the office by visitors and park rangers in the weeks following Easter.
      "People would bring them in boxes and say, `I found them' " on park property, she recalls.
      "Cats will try to get baby bunnies -- and do," Orgill cautions regarding rabbits left to fend for themselves.
      Nongame biologist Cris Tomlinson, who works for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, says two types of wild rabbits are indigenous to Southern Nevada: the desert cottontail rabbit and the blacktail jackrabbit, which has a larger body and longer ears.
      The two kinds of native bunnies often stay within the desert wash system because it provides more moisture, shade and edible vegetation than the open desert. Abandoned domestic rabbits compete with their wild counterparts for food and water, Tomlinson says.
      Judy Palmieri owns the pet stores in the Meadows, Boulevard and Galleria shopping malls. Rabbit sales occur year-round because they make good family pets, she says. "They don't bite. They don't have diseases" that can be passed to humans.
      As with any animal sold by a pet store, some rabbits do get returned because their buyers don't find them compatible, Palmieri says. "We do take them back, but there is no refund. We don't believe we're `Rent-a-pet' or `Rent-a-bunny.' "