0:00  
I've had gerbils hamsters. When I was a kid, then rats, they goose. I've had lots of pets, but I think my favorite pet has to be in the bunnies.

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That's Casper Denning. He's in his 40s and lives in downtown Toronto. He's always been an animal lover. Aside from a bad experience with a hamster,

0:19  
little spawns of Satan.

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But for Casper no pet has ever compared to his bunny son key

0:25  
son key was a brownish color. Most people refer to the breeders Velveteen Rabbit, very short, fluffy, almost flush for I've had many people say it felt like petting a cloud. I don't know how you pet a cloud. But that's me thinking in more literal terms, which is one of the symptoms of Asperger's.

0:52  
Kasper was diagnosed with autism as a teenager. No, we

0:56  
didn't really know much about it. And it wasn't as easy to research as it is now online. My full name is Beth Dunning, and I'm caspers mom. Well, it was fairly quiet. All that at times. He didn't like new things too. Well, that was just normal Kim and we just figured, you know all kids so different.

1:18  
That's Casper, his actual name Kim. He picked up the nickname Casper well, an air cadets and he stuck with it ever since. Before air cadets. I

1:25  
was extremely shy, didn't have many friends, if at all. And the friends I had were usually either a lot younger or a lot older. I'd much rather sooner hang out with the teachers and school and the kids my age

1:44  
used to kind of melt it literally just kind of melt down onto the floor. When he was having a problem. One of our favorite expressions was Kimmy careful. Because he didn't always look out for himself. Oh, well, he could line himself up to go through a door and bump into the door jamb. So we had to make sure that he was aware and look after himself.

2:11  
Casper got his bunny son key about eight years ago, and bonded pretty quickly with him. Having some key with him provided emotional support for Casper when he encountered a stressful situation.

2:22  
Son key was the most attuned funny to my emotions. sudden he had a tendency to sit rock solid still, but if he sensed that I was going into a meltdown or a panic attack, he hopped around, he checked things out, he would get very active and alert me to something that wasn't quite right.

2:48  
Soon after getting Sanki Kasper began doing research into service animals. He hoped he could get service animal distinction for Sanki

2:56  
and came across a very unique law in Ontario. Basically what it says is any animal can be a service animal as long as there's a letter from either a doctor psychiatrist or a registered nurse. I took that a step further and learned how to do training for an autistic service dog and modify that a little bit to fit some key and

3:26  
fit bunnies. Sankey became the first ever service bunny in the province of Ontario. Wherever Casper wind sank he could go to Casper even fitted a pet stroller with everything he and his bunny need when going out for the day.

3:39  
It is the most teched out stroller anywhere. For me. I've got my cell phone, my tablet right up on the handlebars, right where I can get at them. It's got camera equipment on it. He's got his Hey, he's got this toy stuffies mostly Star Wars. All Star Wars. Yeah,

4:05  
I've noticed a definite Star Wars theme going on here. Hey. Was that your ringtone?

4:14  
Star Wars.

4:15  
He's a big Star Wars fan. Best says that having the rabbit has given Casper more freedom and confidence going out in public. It

4:22  
allowed him access to a lot more places and to feel comfortable going. And his emotional support is there.

4:32  
Earlier this year. I have a very severe allergy to peanuts. And I had eaten something that might have contained peanuts. I wasn't entirely sure. And because we were in that was some keys first right and an ambulance.

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Like anybody going to the hospital is stressful enough for me. It's easy. You're in a strange environment, strange people. But he helped me because he was there. He was the constant. He was familiar to me. Some key, he would tolerate just about anything fine through some madam, like a new, a new adventure, he'd go along with it. He was a little fluffball. When I got him, he wasn't quite the character he became. But he had a lot of followers later on when we started his blog, which is how you found us

5:55  
surface and more specifically, an emotion, an emotional support animal. What that means is I help keep my daddy happy, so he doesn't harm himself for others.

6:13  
Casper started blogging as Sanki. Whenever they went out to events together or just had something exciting or important to share, he noticed the blog becoming more and more popular, and he soon became immersed in a worldwide community of bunny fans,

6:26  
Seung ki was infamous. In the bunny world. Suddenly, he had followers from as far away as Russia, Switzerland, New Zealand, you name it, he had a ban from that country, except for Antarctica. But given time, we probably would have invaded that spot to one of our favorite websites is sort of a cross between MySpace and Facebook. But all for bunnies. It's called bun, space, one space, they have their own profiles, their own buddies, their own friends.

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They even give each other carrots instead of likes.

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And the last I checked, there was close to 25,000 bunnies registered on one space. And that's all over the world, instead of the humans talking. The bunnies are the ones that do most of the talking. So it's usually the humans behind the keyboard transposing them, their buddies are doing and because we know their personalities, we will give them the voice, which is what I do in the blogs, son keys blog, for instance, I wrote it, but it was from sun keys perspective, it sort of have a connection, and I know what he's feeling. He knows what I'm feeling.

7:54  
I made a list of everything daddy does for me. What he keeps me safe. He feeds me, three, he takes me on adventures. For he keeps me healthy, even though it means going to the vet. He gives me treats. It's number five, six, he talks to me. Seven, he gives me a home to live in. And my top reason he loves me.

8:31  
When he started having health problems, those followers stepped up and started providing cash for and donations for his bank. So that he wouldn't go without I wouldn't lose him so quickly. Unfortunately, those that care and the health problems caught up. I was prepared for the inevitable. I just hoped that wouldn't come quite as soon as I was really, really, really close to 70. And to have to put him to sleep mean exceedingly hard. It took me almost an hour struggling with it. Just to give that word. And it was thanks to my parents that that decision finally came. And I was able to get birth hopper the same day as some games but it's late and I am really glad that is I don't think I could have lasted even a couple hours without having a second game with me.

10:08  
Casper now has his two bunnies Darth hopper and Chewbacca. He set up blogs for both of them but Darth hopper is the main bunny that goes out with him now. Son key was famous for his support of rabbit rescue and no kill rabbit shelter in southern Ontario, Casper and Sankey were asked to be the official bloggers of the group's annual bun Fest in Toronto, which draws hundreds of bunnies and bunny owners every year for the first year

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this year. Genki wasn't covering it, those hops did. Seung ki had a ton of followers. He had friends and Fun Fest. He was so famous that he got free stuff, they'd set aside an entire bag of hanging and willow branches and leaves just for him. This past month fast, there was a lot of sympathy, a lot of crying. Because some key parents, in fact, there was an announcement made during bun Fest, that son key and passed in a moment of silence. As one person put it, he was the ambassador of bunnies to the world. And I believed that he was the ambassador for bunny care and how much money can impact a human life

Transcribed by https://otter.ai