Adventures in Coexisting!

[Wabbitdad12]

I am glad every thing is better.

 

[Kitty88]

I think Kashi's favorite facial expression could be described as 'unimpressed'. XD

I've been noticing this more and more the longer I volunteer at the shelter...Kashi is one independent bun! As long as someone is there to let him out and give him his pellets, he's satisfied. He likes cuddles, but on HIS terms. His terms do not include allowing cuddles just because I throw myself down on the floor and beg him, in human AND bunny speak, to let me groom him. I'm starting to really believe he'd be happier with a partner. Maybe a nice NZW who will enjoy being coddled! LOL. Seriously, why do NZW have to be so darn friendly?! I've gotten kisses from every big white bunny I've met at the shelter. Kashi, on the other hand, ALLOWS me to pet him. You can see it in his face, I swear. He's so aloof.

I built a nice little addition onto his top floor. He now has five panels to play with up there, and he is just as pleased as punch with it. It's big enough to keep a toy or two up there, and a little hay area, which he very much enjoys. I think he likes being closer to eye level, too.

Bunspace's advertising is really making me want to order a couple of sheets of coroplast! Ah, corrufloor.....whatever they're calling it.

Also, something silly happened yesterday at the shelter. Jane had to leave early to go feed some parrots, and I decided to groom this nice little mini rex named Radcliff, who I then discovered had serious matting between his inner thighs and testicles. It must have been hurting him, because I could see his poor delicate skin stretching where the fur was pulling at him. So I teased a few lumps apart and got a crazy amount of fur off of him, put him back in his cage, and gave him an apple slice for being so good about being groomed.

Then I went to check on the two baby girls. They're literally babies, both tiny and covered in their first fur, very fluffy looking. We had them out in the pen, and they did dozens of binkies! One would pick up where the other left off. We gave them a water bowl because we weren't sure they knew how to use a water bottle, but one of the babies jumped into it. So I decided to remove the water bowl and give them another sheet of kraft paper to line their cage. I folded the sheet in half, went to lift their hidey box up a little to slide the paper underneath....and one of the girls leapt up and chomped down on the back of my hand with her sharp little baby teeth. She was literally hanging off of my hand for a second or two.
I'm ALWAYS careful in case a rabbit is cage protective. It didn't even occur to me that they were old enough to not like me reaching in their home. What a dope!

 

[kirbyultra]

Eeee...baby buns!!! Squee!

Are you going to the conference Sunday?

 

[Wabbitdad12]

Pictures of these baby buns?

How is the mini rex is he feeling better after you groomed him?

 

[Kitty88]

It's official.

I STINK at keeping up to date. >.<

Wabbitdad: Radcliffe the mini Rex was an excellently behaved boy when it came to being groomed, and I'm very sure he's feeling better now, because I actually got to be there when his adopter came to take him home! I've never actually gotten to meet an adopter before. Me and Jane tend to be bunny-first volunteers. :biggrin2:

Also, if you go on Petfinder and type in Manhattan, I'm pretty sure the babies are some of the first buns to show up! It's been taking forever to get individual shots of them, for some reason. There were five baby boys, and they've been kind broken up. There were three little white and orange/brown helicopter lop boys, and two little Agouti cuties! The two brown guys each are on their own now, and one of them totally lucked out on which cage he got, because his cage is right next to another cage with two BEAUTIFUL Jersey Wooly girls. He was cracking me and Jane up yesterday with his voyeuristic tendancies. At one point, one of the girls was kinda checking him out through the bars, and he jumped onto his hideout and put his front paws up on the bars of his cage to get as close as possible to her. LOL. (The cages were safely separated by about four inches, and the bars aren't spaced widely enough for anybun to get more than a teeny piece of nose out.)

I just so happen to have quite a few pictures of those beautiful girls. I HAD to hop in the pen with them, of course. :big wink:

Also, I posed Kashi for a Halloween picture and never posted it! *facepalm* He was pretty goodnatured about it, but then some trick or treaters started coming and we went back inside....but not before some guy pointed at my house and shouted "they're giving out BUNNIES at that house!" Ah, no, thank you, this guys all mine.

Unfortunately, I forgot yet again that I MUST shower between the shelter and play-time with Kashi. I collapsed into bed last night because I was exhausted, and let him out this morning without thinking of the danger. Then he climbed under my brothers dresser and I STUPIDLY stuck my arm under it to scoop him out, and he CHOMPED down on my wrist. :rollseyes so now my wrist kinda hurts whenever I turn it, which isn't that bad, I guess. Because, you know, humans don't reeeeaaaally need to use their wrists much. /)_-

I just went onto AC&C's website to upload the pictures of the Jersey girls, and realized Jane uploaded a pic of me with Hin-Sung! Hin-Sung is a pretty little Himmy girl, a real rebel. She's gotten a bit of a bad reputation among the volunteers because she is terrified of being picked up out of her cage, and will headbutt and rear up in an attempt to get away. Occasionally some volunteers have even given up on trying to get her out. Of course, Hin-Sung is the kind of challenge crazy people like me and Jane delight in, so Jane persisted with trying to pick her up per Mary Cotter's technique, and got her into the pen after about ten minutes of trying and backing off, and talking soothingly and lots of nose pets. Once she was in the pen, I got in with her and kept telling her what a pretty girl she was, and how nice her fur felt, and asking if I could just pet her a couple of times. I stroked her back any time she felt like getting near me, and just kept talking, and eventually she hopped up onto my lap twice! She settled herself into the litterbox next to me and let me keep stroking her, which was where I realized she was afraid of hands, not faces. So like the absolutely insane bunny-slave that I am, I leaned down and put my head right next to the aggressively fearful bunny and let her sniff me while I kept talking to her and avoided making eye contact, and she let me kiss her on the top of her head three times!

It makes me sad to think of all the bunnies who have gained a bad rap for being 'aggressive' when they're actually just scared out of their minds and need a nice person to show them that humans can be kind of nice to be around, after all.

And now, for the massive picture update!
The only Jersey Girls in the tri-state area I WANT to be in the same room with.
[

Kashi! In case you guys were starting to forget what he looks like.

I lick my foot.

Momma....you're kinda close....

So you're gonna keep going with the close-ups, huh?

Yeah, I'm glaring at you, Momma. You know what you did.

My fur is FABULOUS, I know

I'm so sleeeeeeepy.....

Why yes, I DO know how beautiful I am.

Much like Toby, I did not approve of or condone this picture.

I have some other Halloween cuties to share, too!

My cousins! Well, my three youngest cousins, at least.

Lizzy making a scary witch face!

A redheaded Minnie Mouse! Gia, with my mom in the background.

And Emmy, quite possibly the cutest Strawberry Shortcake ever!

 

[kirbyultra]

The tongue pic of Kashi licking his foot is *so* adorable!! AhhH!

 

[Kitty88]

So yesterday I woke up at the butt-crack of dawn in order to take a ride up to Tractor Supply. I get horribly car sick and hate long car rides, so the fifty minute ride was just barely within my limits. LOL.

I was interested to see if they had any nice hay, since they do carry bales for horses, but they only had Alfalfa. It was fun walking around the store though...although I'm fairly sure it was obvious that we were NOT from the area as we couldn't help pointing out things like fancy tractor seats and gun lockers to each other.

On a non-bunny note, I am in the market for a weather friendly warm dog house for Aiden. He sleeps indoors, but Aiden was bred to be a hunting hound and isn't really happy unless he gets to spend time outside, and it's already getting quite cold.
***(Aiden was in fact bred to be a real hound, but this breeding doesn't seem to have extended to actually being aggressive towards small animals. He plays with my neighbors chickens all the time and is very polite about greeting Kashi on the rare occasion they're face to face. I do not tempt fate when it comes to putting a beagle and rabbit together, however.)***

So yeah, looking for a dog house! I have lots of requirements, it has to be weather proof, have a good off center door that won't allow rain or wind inside, and be able to hold heat well. At this point, I think an Indigo dog house is my best bet. I found it on Hayneedle.com for a VERY nice price with reasonable shipping, so I think I'll be ordering it very soon-but the only pad for the floor that Hayneedle.com has is a foam pad covered in vinyl, and I personally detest vinyl. It's uncomfortable, won't keep him very warm,and the small convenience of being able to hose it off doesn't make it worth it. I found a nice fabric pad that looks really nice and comfy though, so I'm just going to order that pad separately.

Does anyone else have an Igloo dog house? Am I making a good choice?

Also, during my shopping adventure yesterday, I got Christmas picture outfits for the boys!!! I am seriously considering bringing them up to Petco to have their portraits taken so I can have Christmas cards done. I am also 100% insane. LOL. But seriously, the outfits are crazy cute. I got one of those scrunchie collar things for Aiden with bells all over it, a little hat with antlers on it that lights up, and a pair of pajamas with candy canes all over them for Kashi!!! I can't wait to see how their pictures come out.

I need to order hay again. I guess I'm going to stick to Sweet Meadow, but I would like to get Kashi to start eating some more fibrous hay and I know he won't go for 1st cut Timothy since he's been eating 2nd cutting for the past six months. Any suggestions?

 

[Wabbitdad12]

You found actual outfits for bunny's?

 

[Kitty88]

Not exactly. I found teeny doggie pajamas that are meant for chihuahua's or equally tiny dogs. I just have to get rid of the back leg holes....since I can't imagine any way Kashi would ever let me put them on without one or both of us ending up seriously injured. I'll probably chicken out and just put the reindeer antlers on Kashi and put the pajamas on poor Aiden. LOL.

 

[Wabbitdad12]

Very creative, I think I will have to be on the look out for those outfits. My mother in law is very good with sewing, she could make it rabbit friendly.

 

[Kitty88]

If I say so myself, the pajamas are ADORABLE. I wish I would have gotten two pairs and just dressed them in matching outfits. Five bucks at Target! Lol.

So, I just woke up on this fine Monday morning. I lay in bed a couple of minutes, thinking about how Monday is Bunday and I have to get greens for Kashi AND the shelter buns. I got out of bed and gave Kashi a good morning kiss and his bowl of pellets. Then I walk over to my fish tank to say good morning to my goldfish and give him some flakes.

And then I SCREAM like a little girl, and almost fall over backwards over Kashi's Mini Haven.

There, right in front of my gold fish's cute little tank, is my Betta's old....I don't even want to call it a tank because I feel like it's too small. His old cup? You've all seen those horrible tiny little things pet shops sell Betta fish in. My Betta, Federigo, moved into a five gallon tank of his own a long time ago. I don't know why I kept his old 1/2 gallon tank on hand. For emergencies? Well, apparently it came in handy, because in that tiny 1/2 gallon box, STARING at my poor gold fish with evil intent, was this thing.

I feel like horror movie music should have started playing in the background when I saw it. This thing is not small. It's at least five inches long. Where did it come from? Why did they decided it would be a good pet? Do they honestly think I'm going to clean that tiny tank out with the Crayfish from H-E-double hockey sticks sitting in the middle of it?

I don't know the first thing about Crayfish! I've never even heard of anyone keeping one as a pet. I've heard of delightful spicy Crayfish stew....but not a giant pet Crayfish!!! My Aunt has a beautiful fifty gallon tank filled with Angelfish, and she has a tiny lobster in her tank, and that lobster somehow managed to escape from her tank and walk halfway through her house.

If that Crayfish breaks lose, I might have to grab Kashi and evacuate my room indefinitely.

Seriously, does anyone know anything about these things? Jeez....what a way to wake up.

ETA: OH MY GOODNESS. I just did a quick google search.....crawdads have been found weighing up to eleven pounds?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

 

[kirbyultra]

At least it wasn't in your fish's tank. Where did it come from? Scary indeed... happy bunday Monday. And if you please it can also be bunday sunday!

 

[JadeIcing]

kirbyultra wrote:

At least it wasn't in your fish's tank. Where did it come from? Scary indeed... happy bunday Monday. And if you please it can also be bunday sunday!

Yea that. :shock:

 

[Kitty88]

I can only assume that my dad decided to get the thing for my brother, like when he got the gold fish for him and just dumped them into MY TANK. I don't know where he thought the crayfish was going to live, though. But apparently they eat goldfish, so.....I'm at a loss. Lmao.

I love calling Monday's Bundays. My shelter day is a critical part of my week now, I feel unbalanced when I can't go take care of them! Lol. I actually have to go buy the greens for their salads right now.

Did anyone hear about reusable shopping bags being contaminated with lead?!?! I'm a little freaked out about it. I think I'll leave mine at home today. :/

 

[Nela]

I think the Betta in tiny tanks stems from theidea that Betta fish are found in tiny puddles. It is said they jump from puddle to puddle. Of course, this is probably a misconception but that is something that a lot of people still believe unfortunately.

But omg LOL at that crayfish! Can I have it? I used to keep a shrimp in my tank

 

[Kitty88]

So I've given myself a crash course in Crawfish-husbandry, and the 'lobster' that my aunt has is most definitely a Crawfish. I know this, because apparently Crawfish are known for digging themselves little caves in tank's substrate, and because they are known for escaping from tanks. I am still terrified that I now have a little clawed escape artist living on my dresser.

Crawfish also are known for eating peaceful little fish........like my goldfish. That thing is NOT moving into my tank. Luckily, I brought this particular fact up to my father and he actually knew that, so I don't have to worry about someone dumping the thing into my tank.

In I-am-an-animal-freak news, the Crawfish has already won me over. :disgust: I spent a couple of minutes near the tanks, and the crawfish looked at me when I came over, waved a claw at me, and when I turned away for a second and turned back, it moved closer to the side of the 'tank' and was sitting with all of its left legs up on the side of the tank, so that it was looking at me tilted.

Yeah, that's all it takes, apparently.

So since I have this sickness where I must provide a suitable home for every animal I live with, I'm scrambling to figure something out for the Crawdad. I can't let him stay in 1/2 a gallon, and I can't keep him in something where I have to net him out every time I need to clean because he's still too creepy for me to be comfortable with that. Lmao.

Plus....I'd be lying if I said I didn't want a bigger, nicer fish tank. If I got the right set up, I think I WOULD be able to keep the goldfish and crayfish together. They just need enough space to avoid eachother. Then I could move Federigo out of his plastic five gallon into a filtered, heated, glass five gallon.....and then I could rebuild Kashi's cage to make enough space for two bunny-living spaces so I could bond him with another bunny, and totally relinquish my bedroom to the animals.

I can't help but feel like one day, my kids will share a room, but I'll still have another whole room devoted to all of the assorted pets I manage to collect.

 

[Kitty88]

AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I need help, from someone who speaks Chinese or Japanese or both, stat!

So when I chose the name Kashi, I picked it partly because in Sanskrit, its beautifully poetic meaning is 'Divine Inner Light'.

It has just come to my attention that it may also mean 'Good food' in Japanese, and 'Happy food' in Chinese.

This is not cool. I did not mean to unintentionally brand my bunny as 'yummy'. >.<

 

[kirbyultra]

I have no idea how Kashi would mean that. Do you have the characters for what you intended Kashi to mean?

 

[Kitty88]

I don't, actually. I'm starting to think my sources for 'good food' were not the best, because after a day of research, all I've found out is that Kashi is actually a region in China, and a restaurant chain in Japan. Also, there is something called kashi-pan which is a type of sweet bread, and are usually buns filled with sweet jam or chocolate cream. Alternatively, shiro kashi is the term for Japanese white oak, and it's used to make bokkens.

I'm ok with all of these translations. LOL. Telling people my bunny is named after a delightful Japanese treat sounds much better than saying it means 'happy food'. Of course, the sweet bread thing could explain the whole happy food thing, as well.

I'm actually thinking this could be a naming pattern! Maybe I could name all my buns after delightful treats. XD

 

[kirbyultra]

LOL nice. Kashi is a kind of oak tree in Japanese and the character means the same thing in Chinese.