Sooty was a black doe born in 2010. She came to us in October 2017 with her sister Sweep. Sooty had head tilt and could no longer cope well in her old home. Both of them had delightful temperaments. They were some of the nicest rabbits that I have ever met, very sweet natured and calm. Someone brought us a buck who had been in another rescue for a long time with repeated failed attempts at bonding him. We called him Mr Spice. They had adopted him to go with their rabbit but it just wouldn’t work and they didn’t want him going back where they got him and back into a small cage so they brought him here. We put him in with Sooty and Sweep and they managed to calm him down from being a panicky ball of fear aggression flinging himself about with mad abandon to a happy little loved up husbun in remarkably little time. When I first put him with them he charged about posturing and threatening them while they calmly ignored him. When he finally sat still Sweep stretched out her neck to him and gently licked his nose a couple of times and then went back to ignoring him. You could almost see the cogs turning in his head while he tried to put that completely unexpected behaviour into his world view. She had just told him that he needn’t worry, everything would be fine, there was no need to defend himself. By the next day the expression on his face had changed entirely and a couple of months on and he was just a happy little rabbit instead of the ball of nerves who arrived. That could have been very different if not for Sooty and Sweep.
Following the successful bonding with Mr Spice when Minerva lost Juniper I thought of Sooty and Sweep’s lovely natures and decided to try bonding her with them. It was a great success so when poor Blue was left alone and awkward little Phyllis too I added them to the group too and we had a group of six, all built around the two good natured sisters, until that is Blue developed a mean streak and Phyllis offended everybun else. Then they went back to being a foursome.
In spring 2019 Sweep’s foot took a turn for the worse so we moved them into one of the piggy sheds to keep it dry. Once it healed somewhat we were able to let them take turns with the Giants being loose in the garden, which they loved.
Sadly Sweep died at the end of July 2019, followed by Minerva ten days later in August 2019. So Sooty was left alone with Mr Spice who wasn’t very well either as he suffered from ear infections.
After Mr Spice passed away I decided to introduce Sooty to the giants so she could continue to have free run in the sanctuary. Clyde was very welcoming but Kiki wasn’t. However Sooty was careful to keep out of her way and Kiki’s heart condition meant that she didn’t have breath to spare for chasing. Over time they even became friends. Sooty spent a year with them. Towards the end her mobility started to deteriorate and she weakened. When the heatwave came it was simply too much for her but she had certainly made the most of her time with us.