Give me a minute while I hop into the shower..

IT might not be unusual to find the odd “hare” in the shower, but one guesthouse owner was left stunned when she found a pet rabbit blocking the plughole.

Patricia McDougall “almost had a heart attack” when she discovered the uninvited visitor over the weekend. She had entered the room of a family of Chinese tourists to water the flower boxes when she spotted a bunny – complete with hay, bedding and food – relaxing in a shower unit.

She said it was the strangest thing she had seen in 20 years of running the Armadillo near Fountainbridge, and called the SSPCA to come to deal with the animal, fearing it had been smuggled through reception in a suitcase.

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“The family – a mum, dad and daughter – checked in and about an hour later went out to visit the castle,” she said.

“I thought I’d better go and water the window boxes, but when I got to their door there was a ‘do not disturb’ notice on the handle.

“That was odd because they’d only been there a short time, so I got the jug of water, went into the bathroom and almost died when I saw this rabbit.

“I got such a fright the water went all over me.”

Seeing that the grey-coloured animal was shaking and uncomfortable, she called the SSPCA, who attended shortly afterwards.

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“They were pretty shocked as well,” she added. “My fear was that they’d travelled up from Leicester and there wasn’t any obvious sign of how they would have taken this rabbit.

“But when they returned they produced a small cage. The officer told them to take the rabbit to Gorgie City Farm, but they didn’t seem interested in that.”

She then asked the trio to leave the seven-room guest house, which they did with minimum fuss.

Ms McDougall does not have a ban on animals in the guest house, but admitted she would not have allowed a rabbit in had she known in advance.

“You’ve got to think of the other guests,” she said.

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“That poor thing had only been in the shower for an hour and the smell was already really bad. There was hay and droppings all over the place and I had to spend the rest of the day cleaning the room.

“You see some bizarre things running a guest house – I could probably write a best-seller, and this would be one of the chapters.

“I don’t know what to expect next, maybe a horse in the shower?”

Ms McDougall’s friend Cathy Bell came round to assist her with the clear-out.

She added: “I thought she was joking when she said it at first, but when I arrived I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

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