LEWISTON – There’s no Flopsy, Mopsy or Cottontail, but there is a Java, Twitch and Big Poppi.

A Houdini. Lilly. Gaia. Geisha.

A Fluffy Bunz.

Eight in all, a bunny boom for the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society.

“The child loses interest or they bred so many they can’t take care of them,” said Allyson Collins, senior animal technician. “A lot of people don’t realize they’re long-term pets.”

The animal shelter normally has three or four rabbits at a time. At one point recently workers found themselves with more than a dozen, many from a single lionhead rabbit who had been dropped off at the shelter with a litter of babies when she was already pregnant with a second litter.

All of those lionhead rabbits have since been adopted and the shelter is now down to eight other rabbits. But that’s still twice its average, and the humane society hopes a February promotion will help find the bunnies new homes.

Adopt one rabbit, get it a rabbit friend for free.

Among those at the shelter now: Lilly, an 8-month old lop; Geisha, a Siamese-colored rabbit who was found abandoned in an apartment; Big Poppi, a huge brown rabbit with a white nose; Java, a friendly calico who likes to have her back scratched and often stands on her hind legs to touch noses over the cage divider with Twitch, a black and white rabbit with one ear up and one ear down.

Shelter workers don’t recommend rabbits as first time pets for children, but say they’re great for everyone else. They’re smart pets. Friendly. Entertaining.

“We don’t get many returns with the bunnies,” Collins said.

Rabbits are social animals that should live inside with the family. They can get along with cats, dogs, guinea pigs and other animals, and they can bond for life with another rabbit. Like cats, rabbits can be trained to use a litter box. And like cats and dogs, rabbits live to around 13.

Although rabbits should get liberal roaming time, they need to be constantly supervised.

“They nibble on everything,” Executive Director Steve Dostie said. “They’re really attracted to wires.”

Rabbits require special medical care. The shelter offers advice on care, feeding and training to prospective adoptive families.

The humane society’s rabbit adoption fee is $25.

For at least the rest of the month, two rabbits can be adopted for that single fee. All rabbits are spayed or neutered.

The shelter hopes the promotion will help its rabbits find homes – long before Easter turns them into another novelty.

“Then we ask people to keep it to chocolate bunnies,” Collins said.