That is where I realized that the solution to finding the ‘rabbit actors’ could become interesting..

Action! Coco and Mocha on the set of our film.

Having been involved in animal welfare for years, I was already familiar with rabbits and had two of my own. One is blind and the other had congenital gastrointestinal problems, so neither would be good candidates for ‘actors’. Plus, I needed a rabbit that could look like the Velveteen Rabbit with its velvety fur and posture. To see what kind of rabbit a living Velveteen Rabbit would have been, check out this earlier post!

I made a few phone calls and immediately was connected to a total of four rabbits. Two were sister rabbits that had recently been adopted out of the Small Animal Rescue of BC, and another brother/sister pair that had been born in the North Vancouver SPCA. Their guardians agreed to bring the rabbits to our closed outdoor set and we had ourselves a date!

Coco and Mocha take another rest between takes.

Having the rabbits 'act' was as simple as placing some tasty lettuce in a strategic location!

That day of filming was the most fun I had ever had on set. The rabbits only needed some food to motivate them and we had a lot of fun playing with them during breaks. The crew and even the owners of the house we were filming at came outside to see the rabbits. The two from the SPCA were only a few months old and were more than happy to fall asleep in our arms as we walked about. It was a day to remember and it felt so right to give these rabbits a chance at some exposure. Rabbits are abandoned at a disturbing rate, and with less education available to pet owners or rabbits than those with cats and dogs owners often are not familiar with what they should do. Sometimes rabbits are released to shelters, sometimes they are seized by authorities, and all too often they are released into the woods or a park where they are unlikely to make it past nightfall.

It is time for the media to become more responsible with their use and portrayal of rabbits, and one way to start is with responsibility on set. If animals actors are to be used they should come from reputable sources, always with an animal welfare representative as witness. And exposure for the animals and advocacy information should be made available whenever possible to offset the ‘exploitation’ of animals. Hopefully with some extra effort those rabbits and other animals which would end up unwanted or neglected get a better chance at becoming Real.

Mocha, Coco, and either twin sister Remi or Pike!

Both human and animal actors take a moment.

"He has no hind legs!"

• Minoru Park & Minoru running track
• Sports Pavillion
• Anderson Rd
• No. 3 Rd @ Steveston
• Cedarbridge Way North end AND South end
• Minoru Blvd
• Gilbert & Elmbridge
• Steveston Hwy
• Richmond Automall (an estimated 400 rabbits dwell here)
• Animal hospitals
• City Hall (on the municipalities own doorstep)

And many more green spaces, sheds and parking lots.

The blue markers represent known feral rabbit warrens.

A terrestrial view of Richmond. Note the greenspaces.

Interesting enough, the municipalities of Richmond is one of two (the other being New Westminster) that has banned the sale of rabbits from pet stores. So the issue is mainly one of education and advocacy. Bandaids for Bunnies is the first rabbit rescue in Richmond and they are also brand new. As we mentioned last week, proceeds from April sales of The Velveteen Rabbit items will go towards helping Bandaids for Bunnies in their mission to provide medical assistance and shelter to these abandoned bunnies.The abandoning of rabbits is a tricky business because they are NOT wildlife at heart, they are domesticated. Very few survive an abandonment, and what remain go on to breed extensively. Unfortunately the government deems domestic rabbits dumped by their owners to be ‘wildlife’ and pests after 30 days. The problem is that no one knows when a bunny is dumped so they are basically wildlife from that point forward and treated by a municipality in whatever method they see fit.

Here is an Excellent article by the CBC: “Feral rabbit problem growing at Richmond Auto Mall”.

“The provincial government says that as soon as a pet rabbit is let loose, it becomes wildlife and falls under provincial jurisdiction. The province encourages that feral rabbits be trapped and put down, rather than re-homing them.”

Richmond is not the only municipality to have this problem, I was disheartened to hear my in-laws in another municipality have recently seen an explosion of feral bunnies coming into their backyard. Thankfully, we see relief in the way of many individuals from different rescue groups are working hard with each other to eradicate this problem. But the issue of advocacy and education remains, and we need to continue to show the municipalities that we all care about the fate of these rabbits.

The donation box full of bunnies

In the spirit of “The Velveteen Rabbit”, every holiday season we participate in an act of giving here at the bunny basecamp. “The Velveteen Rabbit” tells a beautiful story of love and second chances to those who need it. Last December, we auctioned a Velveteen Rabbit Autographed Digibook with 100% of the proceeds delivered to Precious Life Animal Sanctuary in Sequim, Washington where 75 rescued feral rabbits from the University of Victoria campus were transferred. The wonderful folks at Precious Life were able to use the donation so that the rabbits would be able to benefit from a high quality of life sanctuary existenceinstead of being euthanized at the campus where they were running feral. Read about the 2010 donation here!

We enjoyed working with the bunnies in need last year but we decided this year, we would do something too help some kids in need. Every year, there are children who do not receive gifts during the holidays and in the Province of British Columbia where we live, the Province has the unfortunate designation of having the poorest child poverty rate of any other Province in Canada. 137,000 children (or 16.4% of our children) live in poverty. This year we donated 30 Plush Velveteen Rabbits to the Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau where toys end up in the hands of children that are most in need.

Kids in need can receive Velveteen Rabbits this year!

Nothing makes us happier than the thought that the Velveteen Rabbits can be loved and become REAL, and that a child gets a new buddy to enjoy!

THERE was once a velveteen rabbit, and in the beginning he was really
splendid. He was fat and bunchy, as a rabbit should be; his coat was
spotted brown and white, he had real thread whiskers, and his ears
were lined with pink sateen. On Christmas morning, when he sat wedged
in the top of the Boy’s stocking, with a sprig of holly between his
paws, the effect was charming.

There were other things in the stocking, nuts and oranges and a toy
engine, and chocolate almonds and a clockwork mouse, but the Rabbit
was quite the best of all. For at least two hours the Boy loved him,
and then Aunts and Uncles came to dinner, and there was a great
rustling of tissue paper and unwrapping of parcels, and in the
excitement of looking at all the new presents the Velveteen Rabbit was
forgotten.

Christmas Morning

For a long time he lived in the toy cupboard or on the nursery floor,
and no one thought very much about him. He was naturally shy, and
being only made of velveteen, some of the more expensive toys quite
snubbed him. The mechanical toys were very superior, and looked down
upon every one else; they were full of modern ideas, and pretended
they were real. The model boat, who had lived through two seasons and
lost most of his paint, caught the tone from them and never missed an
opportunity of referring to his rigging in technical terms. The Rabbit
could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn’t know that
real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust
like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out-of-date and
should never be mentioned in modern circles. Even Timothy, the jointed
wooden lion, who was made by the disabled soldiers, and should have
had broader views, put on airs and pretended he was connected with
Government. Between them all the poor little Rabbit was made to feel
himself very insignificant and commonplace, and the only person who
was kind to him at all was the Skin Horse.

The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others.
He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the
seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled
out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long
succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and
by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they
were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery
magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that
are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all
about it.

“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by
side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does
it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”

“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that
happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just
to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”

“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.

“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When
you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit
by bit?”

“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It
takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who
break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept.
Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved
off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very
shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are
Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”

“I suppose you are real?” said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had
not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the
Skin Horse only smiled.

The Skin Horse Tells His Story

“The Boy’s Uncle made me Real,” he said. “That was a great many years
ago; but once you are Real you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for
always.”

The Rabbit sighed. He thought it would be a long time before this
magic called Real happened to him. He longed to become Real, to know
what it felt like; and yet the idea of growing shabby and losing his
eyes and whiskers was rather sad. He wished that he could become it
without these uncomfortable things happening to him.

There was a person called Nana who ruled the nursery. Sometimes she
took no notice of the playthings lying about, and sometimes, for no
reason whatever, she went swooping about like a great wind and hustled
them away in cupboards. She called this “tidying up,” and the
playthings all hated it, especially the tin ones. The Rabbit didn’t
mind it so much, for wherever he was thrown he came down soft.

One evening, when the Boy was going to bed, he couldn’t find the china
dog that always slept with him. Nana was in a hurry, and it was too
much trouble to hunt for china dogs at bedtime, so she simply looked
about her, and seeing that the toy cupboard door stood open, she made
a swoop.

“Here,” she said, “take your old Bunny! He’ll do to sleep with you!”
And she dragged the Rabbit out by one ear, and put him into the Boy’s
arms.

That night, and for many nights after, the Velveteen Rabbit slept in
the Boy’s bed. At first he found it rather uncomfortable, for the Boy
hugged him very tight, and sometimes he rolled over on him, and
sometimes he pushed him so far under the pillow that the Rabbit could
scarcely breathe. And he missed, too, those long moonlight hours in
the nursery, when all the house was silent, and his talks with the
Skin Horse. But very soon he grew to like it, for the Boy used to talk
to him, and made nice tunnels for him under the bedclothes that he
said were like the burrows the real rabbits lived in. And they had
splendid games together, in whispers, when Nana had gone away to her
supper and left the night-light burning on the mantelpiece. And when
the Boy dropped off to sleep, the Rabbit would snuggle down close
under his little warm chin and dream, with the Boy’s hands clasped
close round him all night long.

And so time went on, and the little Rabbit was very happy-so happy
that he never noticed how his beautiful velveteen fur was getting
shabbier and shabbier, and his tail becoming unsewn, and all the pink
rubbed off his nose where the Boy had kissed him.

Spring came, and they had long days in the garden, for wherever the
Boy went the Rabbit went too. He had rides in the wheelbarrow, and
picnics on the grass, and lovely fairy huts built for him under the
raspberry canes behind the flower border. And once, when the Boy was
called away suddenly to go out to tea, the Rabbit was left out on the
lawn until long after dusk, and Nana had to come and look for him with
the candle because the Boy couldn’t go to sleep unless he was there.
He was wet through with the dew and quite earthy from diving into the
burrows the Boy had made for him in the flower bed, and Nana grumbled
as she rubbed him off with a corner of her apron.

Spring Time

“You must have your old Bunny!” she said. “Fancy all that fuss for a
toy!”

The Boy sat up in bed and stretched out his hands.

“Give me my Bunny!” he said. “You mustn’t say that. He isn’t a toy.
He’s REAL!”

When the little Rabbit heard that he was happy, for he knew that what
the Skin Horse had said was true at last. The nursery magic had
happened to him, and he was a toy no longer. He was Real. The Boy
himself had said it.

That night he was almost too happy to sleep, and so much love stirred
in his little sawdust heart that it almost burst. And into his
boot-button eyes, that had long ago lost their polish, there came a
look of wisdom and beauty, so that even Nana noticed it next morning
when she picked him up, and said, “I declare if that old Bunny hasn’t
got quite a knowing expression!”

That was a wonderful Summer!

Near the house where they lived there was a wood, and in the long June
evenings the Boy liked to go there after tea to play. He took the
Velveteen Rabbit with him, and before he wandered off to pick flowers,
or play at brigands among the trees, he always made the Rabbit a
little nest somewhere among the bracken, where he would be quite cosy,
for he was a kind-hearted little boy and he liked Bunny to be
comfortable. One evening, while the Rabbit was lying there alone,
watching the ants that ran to and fro between his velvet paws in the
grass, he saw two strange beings creep out of the tall bracken near
him.

They were rabbits like himself, but quite furry and brand-new. They
must have been very well made, for their seams didn’t show at all, and
they changed shape in a queer way when they moved; one minute they
were long and thin and the next minute fat and bunchy, instead of
always staying the same like he did. Their feet padded softly on the
ground, and they crept quite close to him, twitching their noses,
while the Rabbit stared hard to see which side the clockwork stuck
out, for he knew that people who jump generally have something to wind
them up. But he couldn’t see it. They were evidently a new kind of
rabbit altogether.

Summer Days

They stared at him, and the little Rabbit stared back. And all the
time their noses twitched.

“Why don’t you get up and play with us?” one of them asked.

“I don’t feel like it,” said the Rabbit, for he didn’t want to explain
that he had no clockwork.

“Ho!” said the furry rabbit. “It’s as easy as anything,” And he gave a
big hop sideways and stood on his hind legs.

“I don’t believe you can!” he said.

“I can!” said the little Rabbit. “I can jump higher than anything!” He
meant when the Boy threw him, but of course he didn’t want to say so.

“Can you hop on your hind legs?” asked the furry rabbit.

That was a dreadful question, for the Velveteen Rabbit had no hind
legs at all! The back of him was made all in one piece, like a
pincushion. He sat still in the bracken, and hoped that the other
rabbits wouldn’t notice.

“I don’t want to!” he said again.

But the wild rabbits have very sharp eyes. And this one stretched out
his neck and looked.

“He hasn’t got any hind legs!” he called out. “Fancy a rabbit without
any hind legs!” And he began to laugh.

“I have!” cried the little Rabbit. “I have got hind legs! I am sitting
on them!”

“Then stretch them out and show me, like this!” said the wild rabbit.
And he began to whirl round and dance, till the little Rabbit got
quite dizzy.

“I don’t like dancing,” he said. “I’d rather sit still!”

But all the while he was longing to dance, for a funny new tickly
feeling ran through him, and he felt he would give anything in the
world to be able to jump about like these rabbits did.

The strange rabbit stopped dancing, and came quite close. He came so
close this time that his long whiskers brushed the Velveteen Rabbit’s
ear, and then he wrinkled his nose suddenly and flattened his ears and
jumped backwards.

“He doesn’t smell right!” he exclaimed. “He isn’t a rabbit at all! He
isn’t real!”

“I am Real!” said the little Rabbit. “I am Real! The Boy said so!” And
he nearly began to cry.

Just then there was a sound of footsteps, and the Boy ran past near
them, and with a stamp of feet and a flash of white tails the two
strange rabbits disappeared.

“Come back and play with me!” called the little Rabbit. “Oh, do come
back! I know I am Real!”

But there was no answer, only the little ants ran to and fro, and the
bracken swayed gently where the two strangers had passed. The
Velveteen Rabbit was all alone.

“Oh, dear!” he thought. “Why did they run away like that? Why couldn’t
they stop and talk to me?”

For a long time he lay very still, watching the bracken, and hoping
that they would come back. But they never returned, and presently the
sun sank lower and the little white moths fluttered out, and the Boy
came and carried him home.

Weeks passed, and the little Rabbit grew very old and shabby, but the
Boy loved him just as much. He loved him so hard that he loved all his
whiskers off, and the pink lining to his ears turned grey, and his
brown spots faded. He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely
looked like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy. To him he was always
beautiful, and that was all that the little Rabbit cared about. He
didn’t mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic
had made him Real, and when you are Real shabbiness doesn’t matter.

And then, one day, the Boy was ill.

His face grew very flushed, and he talked in his sleep, and his little
body was so hot that it burned the Rabbit when he held him close.
Strange people came and went in the nursery, and a light burned all
night and through it all the little Velveteen Rabbit lay there, hidden
from sight under the bedclothes, and he never stirred, for he was
afraid that if they found him some one might take him away, and he
knew that the Boy needed him.

It was a long weary time, for the Boy was too ill to play, and the
little Rabbit found it rather dull with nothing to do all day long.
But he snuggled down patiently, and looked forward to the time when
the Boy should be well again, and they would go out in the garden
amongst the flowers and the butterflies and play splendid games in the
raspberry thicket like they used to. All sorts of delightful things he
planned, and while the Boy lay half asleep he crept up close to the
pillow and whispered them in his ear. And presently the fever turned,
and the Boy got better. He was able to sit up in bed and look at
picture-books, while the little Rabbit cuddled close at his side. And
one day, they let him get up and dress.

It was a bright, sunny morning, and the windows stood wide open. They
had carried the Boy out on to the balcony, wrapped in a shawl, and the
little Rabbit lay tangled up among the bedclothes, thinking.

The Boy was going to the seaside to-morrow. Everything was arranged,
and now it only remained to carry out the doctor’s orders. They talked
about it all, while the little Rabbit lay under the bedclothes, with
just his head peeping out, and listened. The room was to be
disinfected, and all the books and toys that the Boy had played with
in bed must be burnt.

“Hurrah!” thought the little Rabbit. “To-morrow we shall go to the
seaside!” For the boy had often talked of the seaside, and he wanted
very much to see the big waves coming in, and the tiny crabs, and the
sand castles.

Just then Nana caught sight of him.

“How about his old Bunny?” she asked.

“That?” said the doctor. “Why, it’s a mass of scarlet fever
germs!-Burn it at once. What? Nonsense! Get him a new one. He mustn’t
have that any more!”

Anxious Times

And so the little Rabbit was put into a sack with the old
picture-books and a lot of rubbish, and carried out to the end of the
garden behind the fowl-house. That was a fine place to make a bonfire,
only the gardener was too busy just then to attend to it. He had the
potatoes to dig and the green peas to gather, but next morning he
promised to come quite early and burn the whole lot.

That night the Boy slept in a different bedroom, and he had a new
bunny to sleep with him. It was a splendid bunny, all white plush with
real glass eyes, but the Boy was too excited to care very much about
it. For to-morrow he was going to the seaside, and that in itself was
such a wonderful thing that he could think of nothing else.

And while the Boy was asleep, dreaming of the seaside, the little
Rabbit lay among the old picture-books in the corner behind the
fowl-house, and he felt very lonely. The sack had been left untied,
and so by wriggling a bit he was able to get his head through the
opening and look out. He was shivering a little, for he had always
been used to sleeping in a proper bed, and by this time his coat had
worn so thin and threadbare from hugging that it was no longer any
protection to him. Near by he could see the thicket of raspberry
canes, growing tall and close like a tropical jungle, in whose shadow
he had played with the Boy on bygone mornings. He thought of those
long sunlit hours in the garden-how happy they were-and a great
sadness came over him. He seemed to see them all pass before him, each
more beautiful than the other, the fairy huts in the flower-bed, the
quiet evenings in the wood when he lay in the bracken and the little
ants ran over his paws; the wonderful day when he first knew that he
was Real. He thought of the Skin Horse, so wise and gentle, and all
that he had told him. Of what use was it to be loved and lose one’s
beauty and become Real if it all ended like this? And a tear, a real
tear, trickled down his little shabby velvet nose and fell to the
ground.

And then a strange thing happened. For where the tear had fallen a
flower grew out of the ground, a mysterious flower, not at all like
any that grew in the garden. It had slender green leaves the colour of
emeralds, and in the centre of the leaves a blossom like a golden cup.
It was so beautiful that the little Rabbit forgot to cry, and just lay
there watching it. And presently the blossom opened, and out of it
there stepped a fairy.

She was quite the loveliest fairy in the whole world. Her dress was of
pearl and dew-drops, and there were flowers round her neck and in her
hair, and her face was like the most perfect flower of all. And she
came close to the little Rabbit and gathered him up in her arms and
kissed him on his velveteen nose that was all damp from crying.

“Little Rabbit,” she said, “don’t you know who I am?”

The Rabbit looked up at her, and it seemed to him that he had seen her
face before, but he couldn’t think where.

“I am the nursery magic Fairy,” she said. “I take care of all the
playthings that the children have loved. When they are old and worn
out and the children don’t need them any more, then I come and take
them away with me and turn them into Real.”

“Wasn’t I Real before?” asked the little Rabbit.

“You were Real to the Boy,” the Fairy said, “because he loved you. Now
you shall be Real to every one.”

The Fairy Flower

And she held the little Rabbit close in her arms and flew with him
into the wood.

It was light now, for the moon had risen. All the forest was
beautiful, and the fronds of the bracken shone like frosted silver. In
the open glade between the tree-trunks the wild rabbits danced with
their shadows on the velvet grass, but when they saw the Fairy they
all stopped dancing and stood round in a ring to stare at her.

“I’ve brought you a new playfellow,” the Fairy said. “You must be very
kind to him and teach him all he needs to know in Rabbit-land, for he
is going to live with you for ever and ever!”

And she kissed the little Rabbit again and put him down on the grass.

“Run and play, little Rabbit!” she said.

But the little Rabbit sat quite still for a moment and never moved.
For when he saw all the wild rabbits dancing around him he suddenly
remembered about his hind legs, and he didn’t want them to see that he
was made all in one piece. He did not know that when the Fairy kissed
him that last time she had changed him altogether. And he might have
sat there a long time, too shy to move, if just then something hadn’t
tickled his nose, and before he thought what he was doing he lifted
his hind toe to scratch it.

And he found that he actually had hind legs! Instead of dingy
velveteen he had brown fur, soft and shiny, his ears twitched by
themselves, and his whiskers were so long that they brushed the grass.
He gave one leap and the joy of using those hind legs was so great
that he went springing about the turf on them, jumping sideways and
whirling round as the others did, and he grew so excited that when at
last he did stop to look for the Fairy she had gone.

He was a Real Rabbit at last, at home with the other rabbits.

At Last! At Last!

Autumn passed and Winter, and in the Spring, when the days grew warm
and sunny, the Boy went out to play in the wood behind the house. And
while he was playing, two rabbits crept out from the bracken and
peeped at him. One of them was brown all over, but the other had
strange markings under his fur, as though long ago he had been
spotted, and the spots still showed through. And about his little soft
nose and his round black eyes there was something familiar, so that
the Boy thought to himself:

“Why, he looks just like my old Bunny that was lost when I had scarlet
fever!”

But he never knew that it really was his own Bunny, come back to look
at the child who had first helped him to be Real.

Precious Life Animal Sanctuary, Sequim Washington

We quickly took a copy of our The Velveteen Rabbit Digibook (movie and storybook) and had it autographed by the movie’s director Denise Quesnel, the star of the film Connor Stanhope, voice of The Velveteen Rabbit actor Rennard Lusterio, and musician/photographer for the movie Jim Boraas. The Digibook auction was a hit and 100% of the proceeds went to Precious Life to help maintain their rabbit run. We were so pleased that the generosity from so many individuals resulted int his happy event taking place just in time for the holiday season!

The Velveteen Rabbit Autographed Digibook

The rabbits are now settled into their new home and enjoying a great quality of life. You can see the bunnies enjoying their new life in this video- ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wwpq5AyjwSM ) watch for them at the 7:25min mark where they make their appearance right after the piggies!

Thank you everyone!

The rabbit used in the movie was a Rex Rabbit, who was adopted to a loving family by the Vancouver Rabbit Rescue & Advocacy, a chapter of the House Rabbit Society

The Rex Rabbit breed is also known as the “Velveteen Rabbit” because its’ fur is very dense, plush, and often described as having a velvety texture.  This “velveteen” coat is caused by short guard hairs that stand perpendicular to the skin that are no longer than the rabbit’s undercoat.

Historically the rex rabbits were not the rabbit that inspired Margery Williams as the breed originated in France in 1919 and was first shown publicly at the Paris International Rabbit Show in 1924.  In 1922 Margery Williams was in the United States when she published the book, where no rex rabbits existed.  One breed of rabbit that could of inspired the rabbits in story is the English Spot.

The English Spot was present in both England and the United States during the 1920s and is known by its six different types of body markings: butterfly, cheek spots, eye circles, colored ears, herringbone, and chain of spots.

Do you have a Velveteen Rabbit?  Send photos of your rabbit to: info@thevelveteenrabbit.ca