Rabbits

Rabbits are among the animals through which the novel makes rescue a continuing practice rather than a single, completed act. Orphaned kits first bring Colton into hands-on care at a veterinary clinic; later, he brings home a rabbit other adopters have left behind, accepting the animal’s medical needs and the work of keeping her safe. Across these scenes, the rabbits matter as dependent animals with concrete needs, while their care also shows how Colton’s concern for strays takes shape in his daily life and in his future with Marcel.

Early encounters and clinic care

Rabbits enter Colton’s story in the setting of animal rescue. During an earlier visit to the veterinary clinic, a stranger helps him recover from an emotional moment and takes him to see baby bunnies. Colton later recounts the encounter to Marcel as an unexpectedly comforting experience: the clinic visit followed his tears, and seeing the young animals became part of how he remembers being helped by someone he had only just met. The episode links rabbits with a place where distress can give way to care, without reducing the animals themselves to mere scenery.

A later clinic scene makes that care more demanding and specific. Viktor shows Colton a box covered by a thick beach towel. Beneath it, in dry hay, is a litter of four small kits that seem far too young to be without their mother. Colton hesitates before lifting the towel, then asks whether they are orphaned. Viktor explains that someone found them and that the staff are taking turns feeding and holding them; he asks Colton to help. The scene presents rescue as collective, repeated labor—feeding and handling young animals who cannot fend for themselves—rather than a sentimental gesture alone.

From rescue work to a shared home

By the epilogue, Colton’s response to an animal left without a home has moved beyond the clinic. He returns to the apartment with a large cage covered by towels, while Mikey, the little dog at Marcel’s feet, greets him excitedly. Marcel quickly recognizes that Colton has brought home another animal. Colton pleads that no one wants the rabbit and that he could not leave her there; the animal’s circumstances are made more particular when he explains that her entire litter was adopted except for her.

The rabbit is not presented as an uncomplicated addition to the household. Marcel points out that rabbits chew through electrical wires, wood, fabric, furniture, and doors, a serious concern in a rented home. Colton responds with details that make his decision an act of informed responsibility rather than rescue by impulse alone: the rabbit has a small kidney problem, needs medication twice a day and frequent X-rays, and will be affordable because Colton receives a discount and Elliot will not charge for testing. The care plan comes with material commitments—medical treatment, expense, and the possibility of damage—as well as the promise that Colton will clean up after and groom the animal.

Care, character, and the closing joke

The household conversation keeps the rabbit’s welfare at its center even as it becomes playful. Marcel insists he will not fall in love with the rabbit, take her for walks, or feed her carrots. Colton corrects the last claim: carrots are mostly a myth as a rabbit’s staple, and a better diet consists of fresh vegetables, pellets, and hay. Marcel silences this lesson with a forceful kiss, claiming to dislike Colton; Colton answers that Marcel loves him and may even want to marry him someday. The animal remains a real responsibility inside a comic exchange, not a prop that disappears once the couple’s affection takes focus.

The sequence also completes a pattern in Colton’s relationship to animal care. Earlier, his concern for rescued dogs reflects how deeply he responds to animals who have been neglected; here, that instinct becomes a lasting domestic commitment to a rabbit with specific health needs. The ending does not suggest that affection makes care effortless: Marcel names the risks, while Colton offers a practical plan and accepts the chores. Rabbits therefore connect the work of rescue at the clinic to the home Colton shares with Marcel, giving his compassion a concrete, ongoing form.