The adventures of an English Lop (and his family and friends)

[thelaurelcrowned]

Ever since I was little, I've dabbled in storytelling. It's a little ironic that, as hard as I tried to get away from those roots, I ended up becoming a graphic designer. And as any good designer would tell you, design is all about telling a story, only instead of with words, you do it with visuals and design principles.

Thanks to this new understanding of what makes me feel most like me, I've decided to begin to take up blogging and vlogging once again! This will be a little bunny/animal blog chronicling my foray back into bunnies, and into creating a life I can truly love and enjoy again...I'm also planning on restarting a blog chronicling my horse adventures, and I will also be vlogging my life as an avid animal lover, tiny house owner, eco-conscious consumer (aka my foray into zero-waste), freelance illustrator and graphic designer, as well as navigating a brand new marriage and chapter of my life. I hope y'all stick around, but even if you don't, I'm excited to have this space so I can one day look back at it and show my kids what I was like at 23+ years old!

Tomorrow morning my mom, 10 year old sister, and 5 year old brother are heading up to Oregon to pick up my brand new English Lop! We're still attempting to decide upon a name (so far I'm leaning towards Neville, Orion, Odin, Arlo, Theodore, Preston, or Henry...), but he's a little 12 week old tri-color lop, who will be a house rabbit with his own loft that he will co-share with me as an office! I just set up his pen yesterday, and am working on 'cozifying' and organizing the rest of the little loft area that he gets to hang out in when I'm up there working on client work, or school work! I'll try to get on here and post some pictures of both him and the space when I'm done

Also, before I forget, here is my instagram and youtube channel (which I plan on being much more active on over the coming months!) -

Instagram -- @laurelcrowns_
Youtube -- Lauren Taylor

 

[thelaurelcrowned]

We picked him up today!!! I’m still stuck on a name (I’m thinking Henry or Neville right now? Possibly Arlo??), so let me know what y’all think I should call him!

 

[Augustus&HazelGrace]

ARLO !!! I love that name!!!

 

[thelaurelcrowned]

It's been almost a week since we brought the bun home -- and it wasn't until a few days ago that I had finally decided upon a name! We ended up going with a name that hadn't even crossed my mind (since that is how most of the animal naming has gone in my house) and have settled upon the name Edmund Neville Trevaskis. He's a lot different from my hollands and dutch bunnies growing up! He doesn't tend to want to run around or be all that crazy, and until yesterday, he wasn't all that interested in people. I'm hoping that he'll continue to open up more and get a bit more energetic and ask for pets periodically soon, but if he doesn't, that's also fine (we'll just have to get him a bonded friend who IS more energetic and affectionate!). My father-in-law absolutely adores him (and he honestly hates most animals), and when we went over for taco tuesday last night and had our dogs in tow, he asked why we hadn't left the dogs at home and instead brought Edmund.

He's an absolute doll baby, but he is most definitely a chewer...I'm not sure if he'll ever be the type that I fully trust to free roam unless the chewing calms down greatly after his neuter. I bought him the exact same type of rug that I'd had for my holland under her litter box years ago, and not once did she or her buddy touch it. This guy, though? Basically tried to devour it the second it hit the floor of his cage, haha! He'll try and chew on my computer and iPad while I'm hanging out doing school with him, and those wicker balls? Utterly and completely destroys them within an hour or two I also think he'll be a good candidate for using a harness -- I put it on him for a few minutes the other day and he absolutely did not care...I remember the first time I put one on my holland lop she acted like I had strapped Satan himself to her back. Hence why she never wore one again! All in all, he's settling in well, and this weekend we're putting shelving and closet space up in the tiny house so I can finally get the 'rabbit attic' bunny proofed so he can have access to more of the loft area he's in!

 

[thelaurelcrowned]

ARLO !!! I love that name!!!

I rather loved it as well -- but it just didn't fit him, you know?

 

[thelaurelcrowned]

It's been a minute since I've posted here! The last few months have been crazy busy, but Edmund has been doing fantastic! He definitely hit the jackpot by moving here, although Kyle and I still have a lot to do in order to get his run finished. Hopefully we'll be able to get it all finished and ready for him by the end of the month -- since at the end of July he has a little girlfriend who will be moving in with us!

His pen is currently vERY temporary -- he has 2'x10' of space to roam around in all day (he did have another 6'x8' space but since we don't have the permanent cage built there is the possibility he could leap down from there onto the bottom floor by pushing the x-pen we have set up...and that's not a risk I'm willing to take with him!), but we want to put another level or two into it, make it more secure/not use an x-pen with trim nailed down to hold it in place, as well as finish building out the other side of the loft in order to make it safe for him to roam around over there as well. Once we get both of those things done, we'll split the enclosure until they're both neutered, spayed, and bonded! However, even if they don't bond once they're fixed and litter trained they'll both have plenty of area to hang out in (and I'm considering building her a pen, if they don't bond, on the lower floor in our closet, and then letting her have free range of the bottom floor when we're home)!

 

[thelaurelcrowned]

...also, let me just say how dangerous it is that I'm marrying a man who is 100% ok with me bringing home all of the abandoned animals. In the last month we've ended up adopting another bunny (who will be here in about 6 weeks), we've almost ended up fostering 3 day old kittens (that someone I know found and the shelter almost didn't take), we almost came home with another rescue bunny that was at the shelter and just an absolute doll, and I almost came home with two new dogs (who were rescue dogs from a pound that is known for vERY short time frames before they get put down...I may go and pick one of them up if he's not adopted before that date and just try and hold on to him until I can rehome him)...if we were on our 40 acres already and had the nice 5 acre yard fenced in as well as a nice little bun run for temperate days, the dogs at least, would have all happened! One of the perks of living in a tiny house is that you can't just bring home animals whenever you feel like it...I don't even want to kNOW what would happen if I had a house with a spare bedroom and decent sized yard!

 

[Butterscotch]

...also, let me just say how dangerous it is that I'm marrying a man who is 100% ok with me bringing home all of the abandoned animals. In the last month we've ended up adopting another bunny (who will be here in about 6 weeks), we've almost ended up fostering 3 day old kittens (that someone I know found and the shelter almost didn't take), we almost came home with another rescue bunny that was at the shelter and just an absolute doll, and I almost came home with two new dogs (who were rescue dogs from a pound that is known for vERY short time frames before they get put down...I may go and pick one of them up if he's not adopted before that date and just try and hold on to him until I can rehome him)...if we were on our 40 acres already and had the nice 5 acre yard fenced in as well as a nice little bun run for temperate days, the dogs at least, would have all happened! One of the perks of living in a tiny house is that you can't just bring home animals whenever you feel like it...I don't even want to kNOW what would happen if I had a house with a spare bedroom and decent sized yard!

I hear you about the tiny house!! My condo is only 630 square feet and I have two very large parrot cages, a treadmill, and now bunny cages and play pens taking up my entire living room. If bonding and free roaming don't work out, I'm in a bit of a pickle. But we always figure it out, don't we? I'm enjoying your blog, thank you for sharing your stories!!