I was talking with a friend of mine that has parents that own a pair of lop-eared rabbits named Evie and Jake.

We happened to be talking about them because I was commenting on the sibling rivalry/love that Charley Waffle and Stella Vader have.

I got Stella when Charley was about a year and 1/2, and Stella was only 6 weeks old, if that. Therefore Charley has some of the upper hand being the older of the two. She gets insanely jealous of Stella at times and will cry out if Stella is getting more attention than she seems to be getting. They wrestle EVERY single morning and it’s usually because Stella instigates her by lying on Charley’s part of the bed. It’s an everyday ritual which makes me giggle because I think Stella is trying to mess with Charley in her secret little cat ways.

But the one thing I have noticed is Charley’s angst when Stella is not around.

There have been two times that Stella happened to get out and disappeared for a few hours and Charley seemed to be at a loss.

One time was when Stella got lost on an elevator when she was young, hence her name Stella Vader. (Elevator-Stella Vader….) She was gone for a whole evening when she was found in a neighbor’s house that happened to catch her on the elevator. The whole time Charley waited at the door, her eyes wide and her forehead crunched up until Stella returned home.

The second time is when Stella happened to get out of the window and fall three stories down into a bunch of bushes below. Thank goodness for those bushes. But, me being freaked out when I came home and couldn’t find her to Charley following me around the whole time whining equaled not a good time for either one of us. I’m sure Stella, who I found outside unscathed, hiding in the bushes, was pretty stressed out as well. I think she had to have been out there for a good few hours for I wasn’t home when it happened.

The window screen has been fixed now and I do not open it where she can poke her head out and fall down below again. I have a feeling she wouldn’t try it again anyway, but I’m not going to take a chance.

Back to Evie and Jake. They both are boys but at first Evie was thought to be a girl bunny so they just kept the name Evie for him.

They are both about 10 1/2 years, and are starting to show a little bit of old age. My friend told me that lately Evie hasn’t been able to walk as good for his back legs are starting to go out. One of their daily things is to be let outside in the back yard to play and hop around.

Evie is not able to do that anymore. She doesn’t even try to venture outside anymore.

Now neither does Jake, even though his legs work well.

They’ve come to the conclusion that Jake doesn’t want to go outside by himself and play if Evie doesn’t come out with him.

I asked if they ever had sibling rivalry and yes, they did. When they were babies their owners thought if they “trauma-bond” them they would become friends. They took them both for a ride with them sitting in the back seat of the car hoping they would bond together in trauma.

It didn’t work. Jake continued on biting at Evie and taking clumps of fur out of him.

But that was when they were little bunnies. Now they are inseparable. They sleep together, eat together, and up until now, play together outside.

I bet that even though it seems as if Charley and Stella are not getting along I can tell by the way Charley acts when Stella is not around that she is greatly missed. I can’t quite tell what Stella thinks because I find that she’s not as obvious about her feelings when Charley is not around. I just know she likes to take over the places where Charley likes to lie and relax when Charley is not looking.

Just like humans I believe that animals like to have somebody else around. If anything to provide company and some sort of companionship.

Evie and Jake prove that, just as Charley loves Stella and misses her when she’s gone. She just doesn’t always show it.