Bonsai
Heidi's Mom
I thoroughly love reading everyone's blogs and I decided I would keep a blog of my two buns! It may not be as exciting or interesting as others' blogs but I still wanted to share. 
My name is Nikki and I live in a little out of the way part of middle Tennessee. I am bunny mom to one and soon to be two! Totoro has not yet arrived home - he's due to get here in four weeks! So for now we get to focus on my sweet, quirky, and unafraid Heidi the lop x rex mix. She's about two years old (2 on August 20. They grow up so fast!!) and while she is an outside rabbit, she is much loved and adored.
My name is Nikki and I live in a little out of the way part of middle Tennessee. I am bunny mom to one and soon to be two! Totoro has not yet arrived home - he's due to get here in four weeks! So for now we get to focus on my sweet, quirky, and unafraid Heidi the lop x rex mix. She's about two years old (2 on August 20. They grow up so fast!!) and while she is an outside rabbit, she is much loved and adored.
(Heidi - left, Totoro - right)
Heidi was young in that picture, but it is one of my faves!
Since this is the beginning of the blog, I thought I would share the best pictures of her while I've had her! I made an album you can view rather than flog this post with them. I've got a picture further down that may make up for it, hehe... You may have already seen it as the page was loading but I hope not! It certainly made my day and gave me a good laugh, I hope it can do the same for someone else!
A little backstory on Heidi. I received her when she was 8 weeks old and I almost took one of her sisters, too, but I changed my mind at the last minute because I didn't know when I'd be able to get her altered and didn't want to have to deal with hormonal fights to the death. I was fine with that, though, because I love my little Heidi bun!
She's always been a little bit of a firecracker but she's also very affectionate. Every morning I go out to her, she makes sure to chin me. Can't have me being someone else's right? So she has to renew that marker! She also chins her water bottle, her bowl, and her litter box. They are her's, after all! It is rather funny because she nearly topples her litterbox over in doing this.
When she was a few months old, our indoor-outdoor cat, Warren, was following me around outside and he jumped on top of her cage. Completely ignoring her, he appealed to me for attention. Heidi was having none of this and, with a thump, she nipped at him through the cage. Startled, Warren got up and jumped off the cage. He looked over his shoulder at her in the cage and she charged! Even though she was contained, it was clearly enough to scare poor Warren and he took off like the very hounds of Hell were nipping at his feet. My other cat, Sadie, is terrified of Heidi as well. I suppose you could say Heidi is the werewolf of the cat world or something - all the cats are terrified of her. Probably for good reason...
Either way, Heidi is going to be fixed in a few months - trying to rotate her and the new addition in such a way that I will be able to keep each one inside for a month at a time to ensure recovery. My room is only so big, so I can only get one fixed at a time. I wish I could get them both done at the same time. Get it over with! I'm so nervous about the whole thing... I know rabbits and anesthesia don't mix well. I'm excited to start bonding them. For now, until both are fixed, their cages will be situated a few inches apart (can't have them breeding through the wire...) so they can see and smell eachother. I'm also going to put their food bowls next to one another through the fence so maybe they'll have a positive association with the other. Food is good, right? If anyone has tips for bonding, I'd love to hear it! I've read blogs and it sounds so intense...
Anywho, I wrote the majority of this yesterday but was too tired to finish last night. I guess I'll start with the pertinent happenings yesterday!
I started my day yesterday by undertaking the enormous task of cleaning out the chicken pen where Heidi's cage is. My grandpa recently got five chickens and they were making a mess of everything. We have a piece of plywood sitting on top of Heidi's cage with a rock in the middle to keep her cage from moving much (her cage is on an unfastened base for easier cleaning and moving when wanted but it takes a LOT of strength to move it) and the stupid chickens were roosting on it!! This was inconvenient for a few reasons. 1. The waste was soaking through (ew), 2. The dirty surface made it so I couldn't set her bowl/water bottle up there while I adjusted other things, 3. It STUNK!!, 4. They were pooping off the side and onto her water bottle. This made me pretty angry, especially since my grandpa told me he wasn't getting anymore chickens and told me I could put her in there to begin with. Thankfully, my grandpa got rid of his chickens when he realized he didn't feel well enough to care for them.
I feel really bad about complaining so much about them but there was nowhere else I could move my rabbit and no one was willing to help me make a better cage for her elsewhere and I couldn't just subject my girl to that sort of unsanitary conditions! In all honesty, though, my grandpa never really fooled with his chickens. He didn't eat the eggs, he didn't stay out there longer than he needed to to feed them and get the eggs, and one was getting very sick (she was breathing solely through her mouth, eyes were swelled, and she wouldn't scratch for food or get off her perch) and he wasn't willing to take her to a vet or get medicine for her. so while it is probably for the best, I still feel really, really bad.
He gave them to someone who loves chickens and will take great care of them so I feel they're in the best of hands now. If I can find somewhere else to put my rabbits (hopefully indoors...), I may get him a couple small hens to mess with but do the care for him. I need to learn how to care for chickens, though... I don't know enough about them right now to do so and I'm glad the ones he had are with someone who really knows what they're doing.
So anyways! I was cleaning the pen out and cleaning all Heidi's stuff off with a vinegar and water mixture. As I pulled out all the hay, Heidi started getting a little fiesty and was not contributing to the job at all. In an effort to keep her from going all OCD interior decorator as she does, I brought out the cat carrier and opened it up inside her cage. Usually, Heidi immediately goes into it without a second thought. I think she actually likes it in there, she usually huddles up and lays on her giant dewlap pillow and kinda just chills. This time, however, she circled the cage a couple times and, finally, she went straight up to the frozen 2 liter I had deposited into her cage a few minutes earlier and began to nip it and nose/push it. I was a little confused but she does this all the time, pushing them around 'til they're right where she wants them - I'm used to her reorganizing everything. So I'm waiting for her to get done decorating then go into the carrier, but she does something I have not, for the past 2 years, seen her do...
She mounted her 2 liter and proceeded to hump. I had not laughed so much in so long, I was brought to tears. She went on with this for several minutes and then finally, satisfied with her work, hopped cheerfully into the carrier. Still chuckling, I put her outside the pen in her carrier (taking care not to place the carrier in the chicken dirt, you see) and went to work breaking down her hutch and the base so as to clean it all. While doing this, I noticed Heidi seemed a little anxious. She's never anxious in the carrier so I tried food. Nothing doing, she wasn't interested in eating. I didn't expect to take long cleaning but I gave her her water bottle, hooking it to the front of her cage, anyways. She wasn't interested in that either. Perplexed, I knew the only thing left was her water bottle. So I took it from her cage and I put it in with her. Instantly, she calmed down. I swear, this water bottle is like her boyfriend or something! Totoro may have some heavy competition from this water bottle... Strangely enough, I always called the water bottle her boyfriend because she cuddles it and snuggles up to it everytime. However, its only a certain water bottle. The others, she will go so far as to push it away completely and lie, grumpily, at the other side.
I feel like I should name her water bottle and I'm taking suggestions. For now, I'm calling him "Twister" after the beverage that was once in it. After her passionate moment with "Twister" she hasn't done it again. I've been around her many a hour in the 2 years I've had her and she has NEVER done that before. The two NZW crosses I had did but never Heidi. I know its hormones but it is still so hilarious to me!
Cleaning commenced as usual and Heidi didn't do much else worth noting but I did see which corner she does her business in so litterbox training may go easier soon! I had to put some layers of cardboard under her cage to open her space up to her until I can get more hay in a couple days (I know, I know - I hate her being on the wire too, but it is only for a couple days when I can get her hay bale so please don't shoot me. :c) and she hasn't pooped or peed on it at all! I gotta switch it out again because it stormed today but it stopped when it was dark and I can't find my flashlight. Phooey!
I didn't get to spend much time with Heidi today, it was unbearably hot and she had a lot of shade where she was at so I didn't want to move her. The storm made the air so humid and hot, I wanted her to just stay cool in her cage. She didn't seem too keen on getting out, either, so it was okay. Hopefully I can get some pictures and such of her tomorrow to share. She seems to always turn or stop doing cute stuff once the camera's out...
Heidi news will be in PURPLE
Totoro news will be in BLUE
Hope you enjoyed my first blog entry! Sorry the post is so long, I tend to ramble on.
I made an album you can view rather than flog this post with them. I've got a picture further down that may make up for it, hehe... You may have already seen it as the page was loading but I hope not! It certainly made my day and gave me a good laugh, I hope it can do the same for someone else!A little backstory on Heidi. I received her when she was 8 weeks old and I almost took one of her sisters, too, but I changed my mind at the last minute because I didn't know when I'd be able to get her altered and didn't want to have to deal with hormonal fights to the death. I was fine with that, though, because I love my little Heidi bun!
She's always been a little bit of a firecracker but she's also very affectionate. Every morning I go out to her, she makes sure to chin me. Can't have me being someone else's right? So she has to renew that marker! She also chins her water bottle, her bowl, and her litter box. They are her's, after all! It is rather funny because she nearly topples her litterbox over in doing this.
When she was a few months old, our indoor-outdoor cat, Warren, was following me around outside and he jumped on top of her cage. Completely ignoring her, he appealed to me for attention. Heidi was having none of this and, with a thump, she nipped at him through the cage. Startled, Warren got up and jumped off the cage. He looked over his shoulder at her in the cage and she charged! Even though she was contained, it was clearly enough to scare poor Warren and he took off like the very hounds of Hell were nipping at his feet. My other cat, Sadie, is terrified of Heidi as well. I suppose you could say Heidi is the werewolf of the cat world or something - all the cats are terrified of her. Probably for good reason...
Either way, Heidi is going to be fixed in a few months - trying to rotate her and the new addition in such a way that I will be able to keep each one inside for a month at a time to ensure recovery. My room is only so big, so I can only get one fixed at a time. I wish I could get them both done at the same time.
Get it over with! I'm so nervous about the whole thing... I know rabbits and anesthesia don't mix well. I'm excited to start bonding them. For now, until both are fixed, their cages will be situated a few inches apart (can't have them breeding through the wire...) so they can see and smell eachother. I'm also going to put their food bowls next to one another through the fence so maybe they'll have a positive association with the other. Food is good, right? If anyone has tips for bonding, I'd love to hear it! I've read blogs and it sounds so intense...Anywho, I wrote the majority of this yesterday but was too tired to finish last night. I guess I'll start with the pertinent happenings yesterday!
I started my day yesterday by undertaking the enormous task of cleaning out the chicken pen where Heidi's cage is. My grandpa recently got five chickens and they were making a mess of everything. We have a piece of plywood sitting on top of Heidi's cage with a rock in the middle to keep her cage from moving much (her cage is on an unfastened base for easier cleaning and moving when wanted but it takes a LOT of strength to move it) and the stupid chickens were roosting on it!! This was inconvenient for a few reasons. 1. The waste was soaking through (ew), 2. The dirty surface made it so I couldn't set her bowl/water bottle up there while I adjusted other things, 3. It STUNK!!, 4. They were pooping off the side and onto her water bottle. This made me pretty angry, especially since my grandpa told me he wasn't getting anymore chickens and told me I could put her in there to begin with. Thankfully, my grandpa got rid of his chickens when he realized he didn't feel well enough to care for them.
I feel really bad about complaining so much about them but there was nowhere else I could move my rabbit and no one was willing to help me make a better cage for her elsewhere and I couldn't just subject my girl to that sort of unsanitary conditions! In all honesty, though, my grandpa never really fooled with his chickens. He didn't eat the eggs, he didn't stay out there longer than he needed to to feed them and get the eggs, and one was getting very sick (she was breathing solely through her mouth, eyes were swelled, and she wouldn't scratch for food or get off her perch) and he wasn't willing to take her to a vet or get medicine for her. so while it is probably for the best, I still feel really, really bad.
He gave them to someone who loves chickens and will take great care of them so I feel they're in the best of hands now.
If I can find somewhere else to put my rabbits (hopefully indoors...), I may get him a couple small hens to mess with but do the care for him. I need to learn how to care for chickens, though... I don't know enough about them right now to do so and I'm glad the ones he had are with someone who really knows what they're doing.So anyways! I was cleaning the pen out and cleaning all Heidi's stuff off with a vinegar and water mixture. As I pulled out all the hay, Heidi started getting a little fiesty and was not contributing to the job at all. In an effort to keep her from going all OCD interior decorator as she does, I brought out the cat carrier and opened it up inside her cage. Usually, Heidi immediately goes into it without a second thought. I think she actually likes it in there, she usually huddles up and lays on her giant dewlap pillow and kinda just chills. This time, however, she circled the cage a couple times and, finally, she went straight up to the frozen 2 liter I had deposited into her cage a few minutes earlier and began to nip it and nose/push it. I was a little confused but she does this all the time, pushing them around 'til they're right where she wants them - I'm used to her reorganizing everything. So I'm waiting for her to get done decorating then go into the carrier, but she does something I have not, for the past 2 years, seen her do...
She mounted her 2 liter and proceeded to hump. I had not laughed so much in so long, I was brought to tears. She went on with this for several minutes and then finally, satisfied with her work, hopped cheerfully into the carrier. Still chuckling, I put her outside the pen in her carrier (taking care not to place the carrier in the chicken dirt, you see) and went to work breaking down her hutch and the base so as to clean it all. While doing this, I noticed Heidi seemed a little anxious. She's never anxious in the carrier so I tried food. Nothing doing, she wasn't interested in eating. I didn't expect to take long cleaning but I gave her her water bottle, hooking it to the front of her cage, anyways. She wasn't interested in that either. Perplexed, I knew the only thing left was her water bottle. So I took it from her cage and I put it in with her. Instantly, she calmed down. I swear, this water bottle is like her boyfriend or something! Totoro may have some heavy competition from this water bottle... Strangely enough, I always called the water bottle her boyfriend because she cuddles it and snuggles up to it everytime. However, its only a certain water bottle. The others, she will go so far as to push it away completely and lie, grumpily, at the other side.
I feel like I should name her water bottle and I'm taking suggestions. For now, I'm calling him "Twister" after the beverage that was once in it. After her passionate moment with "Twister" she hasn't done it again. I've been around her many a hour in the 2 years I've had her and she has NEVER done that before. The two NZW crosses I had did but never Heidi. I know its hormones but it is still so hilarious to me!
Cleaning commenced as usual and Heidi didn't do much else worth noting but I did see which corner she does her business in so litterbox training may go easier soon! I had to put some layers of cardboard under her cage to open her space up to her until I can get more hay in a couple days (I know, I know - I hate her being on the wire too, but it is only for a couple days when I can get her hay bale so please don't shoot me. :c) and she hasn't pooped or peed on it at all! I gotta switch it out again because it stormed today but it stopped when it was dark and I can't find my flashlight. Phooey!
I didn't get to spend much time with Heidi today, it was unbearably hot and she had a lot of shade where she was at so I didn't want to move her. The storm made the air so humid and hot, I wanted her to just stay cool in her cage.
She didn't seem too keen on getting out, either, so it was okay. Hopefully I can get some pictures and such of her tomorrow to share. She seems to always turn or stop doing cute stuff once the camera's out... FOR FUTURE REFERENCE
Heidi news will be in PURPLE
Totoro news will be in BLUE
Here's the album of their pictures:
Hope you enjoyed my first blog entry! Sorry the post is so long, I tend to ramble on.
