A friend for my elderbun

Question
A few months ago, I wrote about the advisability of having my 8-year-old mini-satin spayed.  I'm still trying to decide.  As far as I know, she's always been an "only bun" (we adopted her when she was 5), but now that she's getting older, and her eyesight's not good anymore and she has arthritis (Metacam helps a lot with that!), I'm wondering if she'd like a friend.  Or whether she's "bonded" to her humans and wouldn't want a "rival" for our attention.  Part of what makes this complicated is that a good friend of mine from highschool is very active in the St. Louis House Rabbit Society, which, as you may know, just rescued 51 rabbits in a huge raid just the other week (depending on how many females were pregnant, the numbers are likely to be much higher, but anyway....) and, obviously, has a desperate need for adopters/fosterers.  Do you have an opinion?

Answer
Dear Nancy,

Ohhh, yeah.  The Famous Fifty One!  Well, if you're considering adopting, this would be a good time.  Unfortunately, HRS Chapters are technically not supposed to adopt to homes with intact rabbits, so that could be a sticking point.  But you could ask your friend if they're waiving this requirement in light of the emergency.  (Just be sure you don't get an intact or recently neutered male, or you could have more to worry about than a spay!)

The only way to know how your bunny would take to a pal is to let her meet some.  Your HRS friend can likely help you with the "blind date" process, but you'll have some time to decide since most of those rescued bunnies are not yet spayed/neutered, and so not yet ready to meet other bunnies.

For tips on bonding, please see:

http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-a=00062824-sp00000000&sp-q=bonding&user=enter...

But since you know your bunny better than anyone, you'll be the best judge of whether or not she'd do well with a companion, or would just prefer the company of her favorite humans.

Hope all goes well!

Dana