Natasha Rabbitova's first blog

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myheart wrote:
Does Natasha have to go back for a follow-up appointment, or is she good to go with dissolving stitches?
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She's got dissolving stitches, so (knock wood) she won't be getting any scary car rides for a long time.
 
Way to go Natasha!!!
 
I think after her spay, Natasha's a lot less hormonally-driven. She's still affectionate, and wants to be near me, but she's also much more willing to go off and explore and just lie down in the same room rather than having to be in my arms all the time. She'll still jump in my lap and kiss my face, but only once or twice an evening, not every few minutes. In many ways she's acting much more like Scone did.

Last night I decided to try leaving her out of the cage again. She was great - came into bed to say goodnight, then played with her toys or just lay down on her blankie after I turned out the light. I got up around 3:00 to go to the bathroom, and Natasha was in bed with me, sleeping quietly leaning on my leg.

I think Natasha's nights locked in her cage are over.
 
Monday, I was bending down to pick up a book Natasha had been nibbling on, and I felt something "snap" in my lower back. I wound up lying on the floor, unable to sit up for a while.

Natasha came over, jumped on my chest, and kissed my face. When I didn't get up right away, she ran off into my bedroom and started thumping. It was probably five minutes before I could hitch myself up on my arms and slide into my bedroom and on the bed. Until I told Natasha everything was OK, she kept on thumping, and stopped as soon as I was in the room with her and talking to her. She obviously knew something was wrong with Dad, and she wasn't happy about it. Bunnies can be remarkably intuitive...

I'm doing better today - the doctor prescribed some pills that knocked me right out, so I spent yesterday - my fifty-ninth birthday - on my back on the sofa, alternately sleeping and entertaining bunny visits. Happy Birthday to me... not. Oh, well, there's always next year...


 
Awe... poor you... and poor Natasha being upset for you. She is remarkably bonded to you, isn't she?

Did the doctor say exactly what gave out in you back? I suppose the only thing you are able to do is keep your feet up and rest. Now it sounds like Natasha gets to nurse you back to health with lots of cuddles and kisses. ;) Sounds like the best sort of medicine out there. :D
 
I haven't locked Natasha in her cage at night for over a week now, and she's doing great. After finishing her bedtime snack, she comes into my bedroom. She'll jump up on the bed for petting, then go explore or play with her toys until I go to sleep. She seems to spend much of the night sleeping on the end of my bed, but she doesn't bother me if I'm asleep. I've wanted that for a long time, and it's good.

Natasha is still adjusting to her spay, I think. She's much less insistent on spending every moment in my lap, and does much more exploring around the room. She does seem a bit more skittish than she was before, although she's just as willing to be petted if I get down on her level. Last night, for the first time since just after her spay, she jumped up on my chest and kissed my face again. That's progress!

On the topic of "be careful what you wish for", though, after encouraging Natasha to explore for months, now she's doing it - and chewing on everything she finds.

"Would you mind if I sampled this?"
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"Look, Dad - there's paper on the wall! What a concept - yummy walls!"
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"What did I do?"
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"Forgive me, Dad?"
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"I'll just have some hay, then..."
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A relaxed bunny - ears back, eyes bright...
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"What's up here?"
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Exploring...
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"This magazine tip-in card is good, Dad. Can we get a subscription?"
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What nice pics of Natasha!! She is so photogenic, and seems like a tolerant subject for your picture-taking whims.

I think I would feel a little sad if I didn't get the same amount of attention after surgery as before. I know when I adopted Luna, Patrick only had eyes for her. I felt so bad since I was his first love. It must be nice to know that you are still her one and only.... ;)

Ummm.... that's some reach/stretch on that little girl of yours.... :shock: (teehee... look at her little tush... :))

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This week's Natasha update:

Her personality has continued to evolve, as I guess it will for a while. She's found new spots to lounge, and seems to like soft spots like the ottoman and my bed, rather than the hard floor. She still grooms Butter (the yellow stuffed bunny) and likes to lie down next to her where she can watch what I'm doing. On the other hand, she doesn't seem to want to spend as much time next to me on the sofa (which she makes up for by grooming my fur at night in bed). Morning is time for high velocity laps around the house and under my bed, with binkies around the room when I finally get up to feed her breakfast.

Natasha has a very strong sense of order and a feel for interior decoration. Her plastic keys belong in her food dish. The throw pillows with the rabbits on them belong on the floor, not on the ottoman (but the red throw pillows are OK there). The skirting on the sofa doesn't meet her standards, and she's engaged in a determined campaign to shred it into more artistic fringe.

*sigh* "Good bunny..."
 
The weather here has been wet and windy for weeks, and that wasn't very kind to the apple trees. Finally, this weekend, there were some flowers on the apple trees on my front lawn, and I was able to cut a few branches. Scone used to love apple blossoms and twigs, so I was interested in seeing what Natasha would make of them.

She was tentative at first:
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But a second taste convinced her...
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"Hi, Butter! You look happy to see me!"
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"I'm happy to see you, too!"
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The woodstove's been retired for the season, so the fence came down to allow Natasha to enjoy the cool brick cave underneath and behind.

First, though, she had to inspect.

"Some ashes in here you could empty, Dad..."
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"Can I get some dusting here, too?"
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Finally, Natasha came up on the sofa to visit with Dad, but it's afternoon, and time for a nap. Bunny's eyes start to close...
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...and it's off to sleep for a nice long nap...
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... which Dad shared. Good night bunny...
 
Well, I'm back from Ireland after two weeks. Natasha seemed to do OK with her bunny sitter, and didn't give me much attitude when I came home. Scone used to give me the butt and a foot flick or two and hide for a day after I'd been away for more than a few days, but Natasha just looked at me - "Oh, you're back? Where's dinner?"

She's going through what I can only call an explosive molt right now. This is the first time I've experienced her winter-to-summer-coat shedding, so I don't know if it's typical or just a reaction to the really hot weather we had last week. Whatever it is, she looks like a poodle, with her usual Rex fur front and rear and a short belt around her middle, and I could build two bunnies from the fur I pluck out every time I pet her. She doesn't like being plucked any more than Scone did, but at least she'll tolerate brushing, which is more than Scone ever would. Hopefully, at the rate she's shedding she'll get it over with soon, before the hair drifts get too high around the house.

I've got to get started editing the 1700 pictures I took...
 
Here are some pictures of Natasha I took this afternoon - look at that shedding...

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When I was editing the last pictures I noticed a few stray poops in the images. PhotoShop did a good job cleaning them up in a virtual sense, but when I went to clean up the actual, physical items I discovered why Natasha never seemed to use her litter box in the computer room, even though she spends lots of time there with me. The corner was absolutely full of bunny poo - I'd been stowing rags there for years, to use when I was working on equipment on the workbench, and it looks like Natasha had decided that made a really nice padded litter box for her. From the looks of it, I couldn't say that Scone hadn't had the same idea years back. Yecch. It filled my Dyson vacuum's bin, twice over.

Living with a bunny is a constant voyage of discovery...
 
Cute pictures!
I hope you enjoyed your trip to Ireland. Did you take many pictures? :)
 
irishbunny wrote:
Cute pictures!
I hope you enjoyed your trip to Ireland. Did you take many pictures? :)
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I did enjoy it, even with the rain nearly every day (in fairness, there was also at least a few minutes of sun nearly every day - take your pick). There was only one day, when I was on Arranmore, when it was just too foggy, windy and rainy to want to do anything more than go back to the B&B and take a nap.

I took about 1700 pictures. It'll take a while to edit them. I've done the first day's pictures so far, and I can see it'll take a couple of days to edit each day's photos.

I'll post the best of them to my Ireland website when I'm done, and I'll put a link on the Camera Corner at that point.
 
Dill's molts were all over the map, some were big patches of fur missing, some he totally blew his whole coat at once, some were minor sheds, but they were all gnarly. That mini-rex fur gets everywhere. It was even stuck to the ceiling! (And she probably did miss you and wanted to give you attitude, but was just feeling too ... hairy.

Welcome back and looking forward to the Ireland pics!


sas :bunnydance:
 
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