Title: Pets in the City: Rabbit Rabbit

[MUSIC]

Brian: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We continue our Pledge Drive Pet Series now, ending the show every day with talking about your pets, cats and dogs. We did those, we did reptiles, we did rats. Yes, people have rats as pets. Let's hear about another favorite pet, rabbits. Probably no one has done more to sing the praises of pet rabbits than my guest today, the one, the only, Amy Sedaris, the actress, comedian, author, producer, crafter, and rabbit enthusiast, who will be hosting the To the Rescue! gala, benefiting the group Humane World for Animals, coming up on November 7th. Maybe you caught her guest-starring with her real-life pal, Stephen Colbert, on the season premiere of the CBS show, Elsbeth. Hey, Amy Sedaris, welcome to The Brian Lehrer Show.

Amy Sedaris: Hi. Thank you so much for having a little animal segment on your show.

Brian: Different pet a day through the whole membership drive. What makes you a big advocate for rabbits as pets? Have you had them in your home a lot?

Amy Sedaris: I've had three rabbits, and my third rabbit just passed away a year ago. Right now, I don't have one, but I visit other people's rabbits because I go to people's houses and I educate them about rabbit care. When I need a rabbit fix, I'll just call up one of those people and say, "Can I come see your bunny?" I'm that person.

Brian: What makes them good companions?

Amy Sedaris: I like having a prey animal that can kick back and relax. You know what I mean? I love taking the fear from them, and I love sitting behind them, their backs facing me, because they always think they're going to be eaten. That's what I enjoy about them. I like their floor routines, the jumping and the skipping and the binking. It's so different than a cat or a dog. They're just the best companions. They're big chewers sometimes. Not all my rabbits have been big chewers, but it's just the right pet for me.

Brian: Is there a kind of person who makes a good companion for a rabbit?

Amy Sedaris: I think you need to be a little calm. They're not really great around children because children are quick, and rabbits, again, being a prey animal, are frightened by that. I just think you need a chilled-out vibe going when you're hanging out with rabbits. You can't be crazy and wired.

Brian: If they're a little skittish like that, do they like to be petted?

Amy Sedaris: Love it. They love a massage. They just have to trust you first. Once they trust you, they will bug you to get a massage. My rabbits all slept with me. I would wake up to them. I'd go to bed with them. They had free range of the apartment, which isn't the best thing, really, for a bunny because they can hurt themselves, but I was home a lot, so it worked for me.

Brian: What do they eat besides carrots, of course?

Amy Sedaris: They only eat a little bit of carrot because there's so much sugar, but vegetables. I would give them kale and dandelion greens and carrot tops and romaine. Then they have pellets and lots of hay, hay, hay, hay, hay. Their main source should be hay. I had a lot of hay in my apartment. It always smelled like I had a goat.

Brian: [chuckles] That's hilarious. I can just imagine all these New York City apartment owners stocking up on hay. The carrot thing, though, was that just from the Bugs Bunny cartoons? That's not so real for rabbits in real life?

Amy Sedaris: They love sugar. They love banana, they love carrot. You can give it as a treat, a tiny, tiny piece, but it's really bad for their gut. The thing about New York is there aren't a lot of great rabbit vets here anymore. They all moved. When it's an emergency with a rabbit, it's a true emergency, and you've got to get it to a vet fast. I just didn't want to go through that, having to worry about that, so I would only give it as a treat once in a while.

Brian: By the way, where do you find hay in New York City?

Amy Sedaris: I ordered it from Chewy's, but I have a guy, Farmer Dave, Farmer Al, that would send me boxes of hay, and I would get assortments of hay. I know a lot about hay, so I'd be pretty picky about it, but Chewy's has a great selection.

Brian: That's so funny. I see the Chewy boxes in my lobby all the time. I don't have a pet at the moment, but my neighbors do, some of them, and I see these Chewy boxes. It never occurred to me that it might be hay and not dog food.

Amy Sedaris: Oh, yes. Hay smells so good. It does smell really good, but you can have allergies towards it, so it's not for everybody.

Brian: Have your rabbits all had distinct personalities, your three rabbits? Did Looney Tunes get it right when they made Bugs Bunny so funny and able to outwit everybody?

Amy Sedaris: Oh, they're just the best. All three of my rabbits have been completely different from each other. I always think like, "What's my next rabbit going to be that can really make it different?" The one that my third rabbit made so different was it was a boy. I found out after having Tina for four years that Tina was a boy and not a girl, but I kept the name. I really enjoyed having a male rabbit because I've always gotten girl pets. I was like, "Oh, you're a boy?" I was like, "Oh my God, you're so fun." Just fun in a weird, different way. I can't even explain it. A charmer. He was very charming. He was my biggest rabbit. He was 7 pounds.

Brian: Oh, I have a big rabbit horror story. I hate to say it.

Amy Sedaris: Oh, everyone loves to tell me a bad rabbit story.

Brian: The only neighbor of mine down the hall from me in a previous building that I lived in, who I know ever had a rabbit, he got this cute little bunny for his kids. It grew into this massive rabbit who they would take for walks on a leash. The dad would roll his eyes to me about the rabbit. "Oh, the rabbit." Is that unusual?

Amy Sedaris: You're not supposed to put rabbits on a leash because, again, they're prey animals, and if they get frightened, they'll jerk it and they can snap their necks. That's called a Flemish giant rabbit, and I think if I get another rabbit, that's what I would like to get.

Brian: Really?

Amy Sedaris: A Flemish giant. Yes. A really big one, and I'd like to get two of them.

Brian: Because of their size?

Amy Sedaris: Yes, they're just love muffins. Also, it'd make it very different than my other rabbits. I've had a Rex rabbit. I've had, what are they called? A dwarf rabbit before. Tina's in the Flemish giant family, but on the small side. He was a beauty color, like color of a squirrel.

Brian: You joke about all the holes in your clothes and bedding. You said they like to chew, from your rabbit's habit. Is that the downside of pet rabbits, or is there a way to rabbit-proof your stuff?

Amy Sedaris: Yes. On my old apartment, I put two-by-fours on all my baseboards, so they were chewing the two-by-fours. When I moved, my baseboards weren't damaged. I just couldn't have really nice sheets because there'd be holes in them, but now I can, but it never bothered me. It's like, that's okay. Yes, you have to protect the cords. All my cords are protected. I have no dangling cords in my apartment. I still don't. You just have to make sure stuff's up off the floor. It's good because it makes you clean your apartment a lot.

Brian: [chuckles] The side benefit. The motivation. The story you were telling about the boy rabbit, who you had always assumed was a girl rabbit, are they hard to tell what sex they are?

Amy Sedaris: Very, very hard, yes. It happens a lot. It happens a lot.

Brian: You don't want to get too graphic here, but do they not have obvious things that other animals have?

Amy Sedaris: No, they have them. It's just hard to locate them. They're tiny. The reason they found out Tina was a boy was they had to insert a catheter. They were like, "Amy, this isn't a girl rabbit, it's a boy rabbit.' That's how we found out.

Brian: Last question, because I want to give you a chance to shout out what you're doing. Your work at Humane World for Animals, the group that you're hosting the gala for, do you want to talk about that?

Amy Sedaris: Yes. I don't know how many years I've been doing it now, but I love it because it's a big room full of everyone who loves animals. Everyone wants to talk about their animal and animals and saving animals and what you can do to improve animals' lives. It's just a really great group of people to get together. I just absolutely love it because it's all about the animals.

Brian: Humane World for Animals, the new name for the Humane Society, right?

Amy Sedaris: Yes.

Brian: The gala titled To the Rescue! coming up, including Amy Sedaris' work for them on November 7th. This was really interesting and fun. Amy Sedaris, thank you so much for joining us [crosstalk].

Amy Sedaris: Thanks for having me on your show.

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