About Us

Welcome to the Bad Bunny Ranch website where bunnies inspire art and most of the bunnies are good. We are located in Loveland Colorado, a small town about 35 miles north of Denver. All art work is done by me, Patti Wieland, digitally photographed by my husband, Chris and printed as blank greeting cards and prints.

I got my first bunny in the spring of 1984 because my dog needed a pet. A cat was out of the question because a cat would be destructive and get into my plants and want to go out when the dogs went out… A rabbit would be docile and use a litter box. Little did I know! We went to the Humane Society and adopted a big white female named Lilly, at least they thought she was a female, they didn’t know too much about rabbits they said. Lilly turned out to be a terror. She lunged and growled at us, ripped up the carpeting, ate a hole in the wall, jumped on the furniture and chewed my plants! We had to throw a laundry basket over her to catch her when she went out in the backyard. And then she began circling us, and humming, and spraying orange urine! Surely this must be male behavior we thought. So Lilly became Adolph after the dictator.

About a year later Adolph developed a severe ear infection with a head tilt. The local vets didn’t know much about rabbits, so we took her to “an expert” at the veterinary teaching hospital at Colorado State University. He prescribed oral amoxicillin. “But he’s not eating!” I complained. “Give him more amoxicillin!” the vet reassured. And despite all of our human ignorance (oral penicillin is deadly to rabbits) Adolph managed to survive. I stopped giving him the drug and we sat together on the floor and drank black tea together from an airline cup. And after that we became Best Buds.

And so many other bunnies came after Adolph, because of HER. She really was a female after all. I had so much to learn about rabbits. Who knew they ate hay and liked bananas? Who knew rabbits had to be introduced to each other in a neutral protected environment? We learned that the hard way, or rather our baby bunny Della did, when Hazel the lop ripped open the baby bunny’s back requiring 50 stitches at the emergency vets.

It wasn’t until the early nineties when I started volunteering at the Colorado House Rabbit Society that I started to learn how to properly care for and appreciate these odd creatures. I even found a good rabbit vet! Some bunnies I learned were as friendly as dogs and would sit with me out on the deck at sunset, or go for rides in the car with me. Others preferred the company of other rabbits and regarded me solely as a salad vending machine. But one thing for sure I’ve learned over the years is to never underestimate their intelligence. Believe me they know a lot more than they let on!