Michael Hainsworth

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In the fall of 1997, I launched THEAMAZINGBUNNYCAM.COM, a live streaming video site logging more than 10M visits from the bunny curious in its lifetime.
The rabbits were never my idea: that credit goes to my then-girlfriend. I was allergic, and only agreed because they’re outdoor animals (and can withstand up to -20c so long as they’re out of the wind). When we parted ways, she couldn’t take them with her, so I kept my interest up in the pair by running the website. THEAMAZINGBUNNYCAM.COM attracted more than 25,000 visitors a day, and some would leave the video up for hours at a time.

More than 8 years after it went offline, HAINSWORTH.COM still gets hits for the site. I don’t want those bunny fans to leave empty handed, so this page is dedicated to what was once one of the more popular petcam sites on the Intertron.

About the Girls

Lily the Bunny

Olivia the Bunny

The bunnies were rescued from The Toronto Humane Society. After Autumn the Bunny died shortly after being spayed, we didn’t risk the same for her replacement, Lily. Because Olivia had The Big Snip, she was far more docile than her companion. But every once in a while, Lily would overstep her bounds and get a good whack in the face with a pair of powerful hind legs.

Olivia had a teething problem. Because her teeth didn’t meet, they wouldn’t grind themselves down naturally so they had to be clipped manually every few weeks. She was as affectionate as rabbits come. Lily was a total bitch.

The supremely crappy X10 Wireless Camera

About the Site

The AMAZINGBUNNYCAM.COM used inexpensive (read: crappy) X10.com cameras hooked up to a Mac with RCA-in AV jacks running WebSTAR web server software by StarNine. The cameras had such a poor Lux rating, I had to install florescent lighting in the hutch just to get an image. The light was on a timer so the poor buggers could have some peace. X10 home automation motion sensors would trigger the power for a nearby camera. There were three: one in the hutch, one outside, and a wide shot.

The site used Nuspectra's Sitecam for both live streaming and timelapse video.

The SiteCam software included a plug-in to stream the video. It was the late 90s, and the streaming wasn’t what you’re accustomed to today. The cable modem line was able to pump out about 10 frames per second. It was like Canada’s Home Shopping Channel in the ’80s.

The site managed to attract quite a collection of pet lovers. Some loved their bunnies a little too much — like the woman who sent me a scantily clad photo of herself on her bed. It’s not so sexy when you can clearly see rabbit poop on the bed, too.

What started it all

One night, the forecast called for -25 celcius. Knowing the manufacturer’s temperature threshold for the Fussy Lop rabbit model is -20, I feared they’d freeze to death so I made the massive mistake of bringing them indoors to the basement overnight (turns out they would have been fine, said the rabbit-owning neighbour who gave the girlfriend the idea in the first place). Olivia and Lily immediately began grooming-out their winter coats, forcing me to keep them indoors for the remainder of the winter. There was rabbit fur everywhere. Thank Gawd for the high-powered air purifier I had installed in the basement.

I had an old black and white Logitech QuickCam and decided to take advantage of a spare Mac. Stringing CAT5 Ethernet cable from the second floor to the basement, I set up the headless web server right there on the floor beside them.

Lily gets a close-up look at the indoor BunnyCam

In hindsight, putting the Amazing BunnyCam at floor level wasn’t the brightest idea.

Bunnies Chew Everything

The rabbits were immediately curious about the thing. Within the day, Lily had managed to climb up onto a box and chewed through the cable. The whole thing was caught on time lapse video.

Fortunately, the webmaster is a master geek, and quickly had the camera operational again after some emergency surgery. I shouldn’t be too hard on myself: after extensive bunny-proofing in the outside hutch for the replacement trio of cameras, one still managed to get chewed so badly I had to resolder the wiring directly to the circuit board.

The End

The ABC goes offline

THEAMAZINGBUNNYCAM.COM was put to rest shortly after moving to a new house in 2001. The maintenance was affecting my health, being allergic and all.

We posted an adoption notice on the site, but despite its popularity, we received only a single interested bunnycam visitor. And even she backed out — until we were willing to buy a whole new hutch for the two.

We did, however, receive a flood of email advising us to charge for them, out of fear some Creep Who Owns a Snake would swing by to pick up a couple of free meals.

And I did get a lot of “rabbit stew” jokes from friends and colleagues. I found myself pretending to be offended, when it would probably be the exact same thing I’d say to someone else.

But it was surprisingly difficult to leave them behind.

Six years later my daughter Olivia was born, and though I swear we didn’t name her after the Fussy Lop, Olivia the Bunny was my favourite of the two.