In September 2012 me, my boyfriend and my 3 year old rabbit Risa moved to London. Risa is a real…read moreglobetrotting bunny, she was born in my home country, the Czech Republic, but already spent one year with me in France and three months in Germany. While I was living in Germany or France, I used to travel by car. However, I sold my car before I moved to London and as rabbits are not permitted to travel neither on aircraft nor on international buses or trains, it was obvious, that whenever I want to fly home, or just go for vacation, I will have to find a suitable bunny hotel for Risa.
That's how I found Bunny 'n' Squeak. It was mid-November when I finally sorted out my Christmas plans and booked my tickets to Prague. Unfortunately, most of the small pet boarding hotels near the area were I live were already fully booked. So I sent an email to this South London based facility.
Bunny 'n' Squeak is a small family business run by a friendly pet loving woman called Diane. In the summer period, they house rabbits, guinea pigs and other small sized pets mostly in outdoor hutches with protected coops for pets to have an opportunity to exercise. In winter, the animals are kept indoors, in a dedicated room equipped with 6 or 8 hutches, and a pretty spacious coop were the animals are put everyday for a few hours to exercise.
Diane arranged with me to drop off Risa the evening before my departure. Following the Google Map's route finder blindly, I didn't choose the most suitable way and ended up walking for almost half an hour from the Norwood Junction, only to find later that a really suitable train station Birkbeck is right next to Bunny 'n' Squeak.
Risa was the first arriving Christmas guest and was assigned one of the hutches. As she is mostly kept free in our apartment and only locked for night or when no one is at home, at first, I had a feeling the hutch is bit too small for her (she is 2.5 kilos, not really a tiny bunny). The hutch was fully equipped: small corner toilet (seemed bit too small for a rabbit of Risa's size), food bowl, drinker and a bunny house for the rabbit to hide filled with hay. Also her bowl was filled with rabbit food. As Risa's biggest hobby in the world is eating, she quickly discovered and appreciated the treats. I was a bit afraid of the amount of the food in the bowl as Risa is a compulsive eater and needs to have her consumption restricted.
I arranged with Diane to give her a call on the 29 December after my return to London and pick up Risa in the afternoon hours. I was struggling a bit with the Christmas reduced London public transport but I made it. Risa seemed fine, though I had a slight impression she might have put on some weight (but that's for sure better than the other way round...). I really appreciated that Diane was obviously a pet lover and really seemed to care about the animals.
The missing fifth star is partly because of the smaller hutches and partly because of the travelling distance, but I wouldn't hesitate to leave my rabbit at Bunny 'n' Squeak again.
