K, not all our old bunny beliefs have been wrong: Rabbits do hop.
They eat their veggies. And they are - what shall we say? - fantastically fecund.
But it seems as if the rest is up for bunny debunking.
The latest thinking by a new breed of bunny activists is that these creatures belong indoors.
And that they don't necessarily make good pets for kids.
The fact is that they are sensitive creatures who require a lot more care than people realize. Of course, not everybody is in for all the new spin. But for groups dedicated to saving the thousands of unwanted pet rabbits who pour into shelters around the country (especially post-Easter), there is a terrible misunderstanding between people and the bunnies they buy.
The word from aficionados is that domesticated rabbits are as full of personality and as interactive as dogs and cats. They are curious, quiet, and gentle. An enthusiastic bunny will even greet you at the door when you get home at night, rearing up on its hind legs and putting front feet on your knees.
There are 45 breeds recognized in the United States, shown in 170 varieties, from 2-pound Netherlands dwarf to the Flemish giant who can weigh in at 20 pounds.
But bunnies, most everyone agrees, are fairly fragile. Veterinarian Greg Mertz, who runs the Odd Pet Vet clinic in Dedham (and who believes bunnies and kids do mix), can attest to this. His son Harry had a rescued and beloved bunny named Bunny who was literally frightened to death by a neighbor's dog.
The dog never got at the rabbit, but just the menace was enough to send the animal into a fatal panic. This is one of the major reasons rabbit experts feel pet rabbits should be indoors, not outside in a hutch. Outdoors, dogs, raccoons, coyotes, and owls can come after the trapped prey animals.
Do bunnies belong in the barnyard or the family room?
Karen Dunlop Couture, a national educator for the House Rabbit Society, says rabbits are treated as second-class pets. And unfairly so. Couture, who runs a business called the Bunny Nanny, a bunny-sitting service for about 120 clients, says these animals are loaded with personality.
Mostly, Couture says, ''rabbits are very quiet, very gentle, very smart'' (so much for the term dumb bunny). And there are lots of different bunny personalities. One very territorial bunny whom Couture cares for in Arlington growls and charges her when she comes into his house. She has to use a broom to protect her ankles.
Another bunny she knows, Hazel, loves people, but intimidates and dominates the two cats who live with him.
And Paula Raposa, of the House Rabbit Connection Inc., another nonprofit rescue group, says her bunny, Maggie, chases after the vacuum.
The fact is that bunnies may have as much charisma as more familiar pets, but require different caretaking. First, you have to bunny-proof the house. Mostly that means using tubing to protect electrical cords from bunny nibbling.
You also need to build a bunny secure zone, a cage at least six times the size of the bunny where the animal can get away from it all. Here, you will want to place a litter box. With a little training, the bunny will urinate in the box, though you will find a few fairly unobjectionable ''pills'' here and there.
Controlling rabbit reproduction is another important issue. Bunny ''bucks'' and ''does'' should be neutered or spayed right off the bat. Even if you have only one bunny, neutering stops a male's marking behavior, and spaying prevents uterine cancer, which plagues domesticated rabbits. Unspayed females have an 80 percent chance of developing this cancer by the time they are 3 years old, according to the House Rabbit Connection.
The ideal bunny owner, Couture says, is a 9-to-5 working adult who runs a quiet household and is willing to make a 10-year commitment to the pet. Rabbits are crepuscular, active at dawn and dusk. That means they are at their hoppingest when people are around.
But Mertz believes that kids and bunnies can be a great combination. Mertz says Bunny would often sit contentedly on Harry's lap as the boy watched TV. Even though Bunny is long gone, and many animals have entered the Mertz household, Harry regards Bunny as the best pet he ever had.
Mertz says, curiously, that rabbits remind him most of horses - in their view of the world, and in their fragile physiology. It's a wise assessment. In Roger Caras's insightful ''A Perfect Harmony: The Intertwining Lives of Animals and Humans Throughout History,'' he writes, ''The rabbits of the world belong to the order Lagomorpha and not to the rodents, as so many people seem to believe. They are, in fact, more closely related to the ungulates, hoofed animals, than they are to rats, mice, squirrels and their kin.''
Raposa says her group saves rabbits from shelters, fosters them, and finds new homes for them. But before they do any of that, they try to counsel current bunny owners so they won't give up the rabbit in the first place.
If you think you have the stuff to be a rabbit owner, the accompanying box offers a few contacts.
