how long before you let your guard down?

i know this is a bit of a weird title, but it's something i think about often.

how long was it before you let your guard down with your buns and let them fully into your heart? i have just being looking at the rainbrow bridge section and so many have lost buns when they were 'x month' old. months!! i know you can never know what might happen with any animal but the thought of only having them for a certain number of months makes me

i remember when i first got bella and this was a big worry for me, it still is if im honest. it took me a good 6 months to feel comfortable that i wouldnt wake up and she would be gone

i always have a certain amount of 'guard' up, but with bella and jasper (well all my current animals really) i have slowly brought that down.

i know the saying 'better to have lost and loved, than never to have loved at all' but when you have been through the pain of losing someone close to you, it's hard not to want to protect yourself against that kind of pain again.

was just wondering if other people were like this or is it just me

I don't feel as though they have my heart, but all the sacrifices and all I do for them all show how important they are to me. I don't tend to feel any emotions unless it's an extreme emotion, so I don't feel love for them, as such, unless it's really powerful in that moment. But I do know by how terrifying it is when somebunny is ill how much love there must be in there somewhere, even if I don't feel it.

The second any bunny enters my home, be it mine, or someone elses, they get treated as one of mine and get given the very best I can give them.

I guess, by that estimation, it just takes them to arrive here.

Thinking further about it though, I don't do the day to day care of the rabbits at the Centre, but I am fiercely protective of them in all respects possible and feel about them the same way I do about mine, but I'm bound by the constraints of them not being in my care.

But then, going back to your original question, and I wonder if I ever let me guard down. :lol: Not a conscious choice, just a protection I've developed. maybe if I let my guard down I couldn't do what I do for them. So I've gone complete circle there and now I have no idea what my answer to your question is.

Too deep!

:thumb:

I didn't let my guard down with Dill for ages,not because I was worried he would die but he was my first bonded partner & it was always at the back of my mind that they would fight & he would have to go back to the rescue.

I think they gradually worm their way into your affections without you even realising it!

A few buns who I never thought of as favourites have really affected me when they've died or become poorly.

im quite an affectionate person and i think in alot of ways thats a bad thing for me (but good for the animal involved) where any animals are concerned cos i get emotionally attatched very quickly