In middle school I happened across a sci-fi novel in my middle school library about an encounter between humans who are spacefaring and a species of rabbitmen who are also spacefaring. My last year of middle school was 1991-1992, so it must have been published prior to that. It may have been as old as the 1970s, however. I'm fairly certain it was a young adult novel, given how quickly I read it.

The plot and setting was very similar to the Man-Kzin Wars, which I also read at the time, but the aliens in this book were absolutely anthropomorphic rabbits and not feline and also not quite as dimwitted or blindly aggressive as the Kzinti.

The story begins with a rabbitman crashing on Earth (or a human colony) and his interactions with the humans there. Either these interactions spark the war between the races, or the story begins after they've started. I distinctly remember:

1. The rabbitman falls into a stream or pond of water and nearly drowns because he is not naturally buoyant the way humans are so he can't swim. A human rescues him.
2. The rabbitmen practice a form of hand-to-hand martial arts.
3. The humans and rabbitmen blame each other for starting the war.
4. The majority of the book, the two species cannot communicate with each other.
5. The main human character and the main rabbitman character play a central part in ending or resolving the conflict.
6. I want to say there was an interspecies romantic subplot, because of course

The book wasn't particularly good, I think, but I'd like to find it again. I think the copy I read was a mass market paperback, but it may have been a library bound edition.

Note: this is crossposted from /r/tipofmytongue/comments/guokkw/tomtvideo13_years_ago_girlfriend_buys_graphics/ Please let me know if that's not allowed and I'll remove this.