Volume 5, Issue 3 - August 2005

Therapy Rabbits: Truly Making People's Lives Better
by Ellen James

Once a week when I arrive at a local area nursing home with my family’s two pet rabbits, Jonathan and Hiccup, the place is abuzz. “The rabbits are here, the rabbits are here,” I will hear in the hallways as the residents recognize me and the purple pet carrier.

I am a Registered Nurse and work for Hospice of Metro Denver. What started as therapy for boredom for a patient of mine, named Jerry, has become far more than just Jerry’s activity. There are now several residents who will literally chase me down the hallway with wheelchair or walker to the common area when they see me arrive with Jonathan and Hiccup. Jerry has become the proud papa of what he feels are his rabbits and is highly protective if someone isn’t holding them properly.

Jerry is developmentally disabled in addition to having his hospice diagnosis. He loves animals! He went to Sea World last fall and will tell everyone he meets about seeing the whales and dolphins. He has offered to show me his trip pictures with every visit. I thought that bringing Jonathan and Hiccup to the hospice would be a treat for Jerry and some distraction from boredom at the nursing home. Each time I visit, I teach him something new about the rabbits. His favorite thing is to hold Hiccup in his lap and watch her back twitch as he feeds her a slice of banana. Last week, on the night my daughter and I feed the foster rabbits at the Colorado HRS shelter, I brought Jerry along. Jerry became very attached to Rusty. I didn’t think I would be able to get Jerry to leave unless I promised him that Rusty could be his!

The staff at the nursing home will sometimes bring other residents to the common room when I’m there with Jonathan and Hiccup as they understand that petting a rabbit is wonderful therapy. There is one gentleman who had become virtually non-responsive following his stroke. He is wheelchair bound and sits with a lapboard in front of him so he doesn’t slide out. He is paralyzed on one side. His wife brought him by after lunch one day as Jerry had been bragging that I was bringing in his rabbits! I put Jonathan, a rex, right down by his functioning hand and brushed Jonathan’s back along his fingers. The gentleman’s face had been previously non-reactive to the rabbits’ presence. When he felt Jonathan’s wonderfully soft fur, the corner of his mouth turned up ever so slightly and his fingers began working softly along Jonathan’s back. What a treat to know that we’d broken through to a mind that isn’t working very well these days!

It has amazed me and warmed my heart more than you can know to see what a difference my time and two sweet rabbits have made for Jerry and the hospice residents. Jerry gives them love and attention. They give it back tenfold!

Editors Note: Jerry passed away on June 1, 2005.