The Happy Bunny Family

[ZRabbits]

SnowyShiloh wrote:

Hi Susan! I'm glad he feels better, too

Last night poor Maximus got scared half to death. It was my birthday and I got a box that had plain brown packing paper in it. I put it in Max's cage for him to play with, but then we were watching a movie and he was rustling the paper so I took it out of his cage and put it on a shelf over the cage. During the movie, the paper fell off the shelf and floated down to his cage. HE. FLIPPED. OUT. Poor guy was ricocheting off the sides of the cage and trying to get under his litter box and hide in his (mostly chewed up) Mountain Dew box and thumping his foot. He was soooo scared! I went over to him and tried to talk quietly and calm him down, but it didn't work. I tried slowly putting my hand in the cage to pet him and that freaked him out, too. I felt so bad for him! I ended up giving him some treats and that helped him calm down a little but he was still thumping and running away. The original bout of terror lasted about 45 seconds (a long time with something like this!) and he didn't let me touch him for a good 10 minutes. Mabel's cage is right next to his and she freaked out along with him, but stopped panicking after about 5 seconds and got over it a lot faster. The other bunnies were all fine. Poor Max Max is so high strung! I checked him over for injuries after and he seemed fine, nerves aside.

Just wanted to share what happened to my poor baby It will be interesting to see if he's afraid of the packing paper later. Normally he likes to shred it and burrow in it, but now I'm a little worried about showing it to him in case he freaks out again!

Hopefully it was just the way it fell that scared him and not the packing paper itself. I'd hate to see him scared of something that he really loves to play with.

Poor baby. And poor you. It must have been so heartbreaking and scary to see him freak out like that and having it take so long for him to calm down.

BTW Happy Birthday. Other than poor Max being scared, hope you had a nice birthday.

K

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Karen, I'm happy to say that Max still likes his paper! He was happy when I gave it back Guess he doesn't associate the packing paper with the terrifying beast that tried to devour him the other night. I want to put a better night light in the living room by the cages because I imagine it would have been a lot worse if Max had gotten scared by something in the middle of the night when it was dark. I hate it when they get scared! Max's little performance was the worst one of my bunnies has had, but Kerensa's had two big frights. Her cage is elevated and right in front of a window. Once she saw Paul outside and completely lost it, she was flying around the cage and thumping. I was afraid to open the door in case she came flying out! Poor silly girl, afraid of Daddy! Incidentally, she calmed down when he came back inside and reassured her. She loves him so I'm not entirely sure what happened there! The other time, they were doing construction in the apartment next door and it was rather loud. I didn't see everything that happened because I was at school, but when I came home, she was racing around the cage all panicked and she was so scared that she forgot who I was Poor baby!

 

[ZRabbits]

So glad Max still likes his paper. The night light is a good idea. I know they are nocturnal, but a little light will let them know what's really there. I always leave a the stove light on which gives them light where they are. I started that when I came out during the night and startled them. Felt bad too, but after the lights came on and they saw who or what it was they calmed down.

K

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Karen, we used to always have a night light for them, but then it burned out and I bought a fancy new one for Paul that is also an emergency flashlight, but didn't realize the construction is weird so if you actually have it set to nightlight, it will stay on if the power goes out (unless you're there to turn it off) and drain the battery, completely negating the purpose of having an emergency flashlight. Just a cheapo night light does the trick to help keep bun buns from getting scared in the night

Paul and I miss our sweet Skyler. He was such a cute, sweet bunny. Every single time we see a picture of a Dutchie, we talk about our adorable boy and how wonderful he is. And how he was cuter than all the other Dutches Some day we will need to find ourselves another sweet little Dutch!!

Anyone remember Howard? The super cute chocolate Netherland Dwarf that lives next door? His owner says he's doing great Anyway, a classmate came into class the other day and put her mittens down on her desk. They were brown suede with fur lining around the wrists and very nice and soft looking. I immediately thought they looked JUST like Howard's fur! Pause a second while brain works... "Are your mittens made of rabbit fur?" "Yeah." Ack! Bunny mittens that look like Howard! I won't let Howard ever get made into mittens and anyway he's little and would only make 1 mitten. We do like to jokingly threaten to make our bunnies into mittens when they're naughty, but it was kind of... Sad? Weird feeling? to see real mittens made from rabbit fur. Also, side note: Most people in Alaska have a completely different view of fur than in other parts of the US. It's completely accepted here. You see people wearing fur hats, fur mittens, fur lined coats, fur earmuffs, even Christmas ornaments made of fur at the assorted holiday markets (like a seal shaped ornament made of seal pelt). The fur is collected (or harvested or whatever) from hunting rather than farms that raise the animals (though I doubt the Howard mittens came from a hunted wild hare).

 

[ZRabbits]

Isn't it always the way. Buy something expensive to find out the way to go is with a cheap nightlight. lol. Glad to hear your bunnies have some light again. My boys have the light from the kitchen stove that we leave on for them. Plus they have their radio to hear their favorite tunes too.

K

 

[SnowyShiloh]

If we get Nomi out of our bedroom (either because she's bonded with Max and Macie or has finally found a new home!), I'm thinking of trying to make Rory a cage free bedroom bunny. He is probably the least troublemaker-y of our crew. I would bunny proof the bedroom and block off under the bed, then set him up with a litter box and see how he does. Don't know if Paul will go for it or not but I would like having my Bobo up there

 

[SnowyShiloh]

My darling Rory turns 5 today! I can hardly believe it. He's such a wonderful bunny and we're giving him a great birthday Pictures of his royal highness later!

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Here's my little cutie! Forgot to take a picture of him with his presents, but he got some toys/chew things like apple branches, a reed mat, a little shaky ball and some wooden tiddly wink things. He had a good day with lots of pets and cuddles and out of cage time, and then a little mini fruit tart and a big salad. The other bunnies got salad and carrots and Paul and I shared the lemon cupcake in the first picture.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Argh! Kerensa, seriously?! I took her out of the cage and set her on the couch and within 2 seconds, she lifted her little tail and peed everywhere. I saw her tail go up and grabbed her to put her back in her cage, but all that did is spray pee everywhere. It seriously looked like she'd tried to write her name on the couch, and she managed to pee on Paul (who was sitting on the couch) and me when I picked her up. She's our #1 couch peeing offender. NONE of our others have ever peed on the couch (Tallulah did a couple times as a baby and Cinnabun peed on the couch a few times), just her. She does it every couple months. At least this time we hadn't just washed the cover! All of our other bunnies have last names and Kerensa didn't, until now. Her name is now Kerensa Tinklebunny!

 

[ZRabbits]

Well maybe she wanted you to decide on a last name for her and she took it into her own hands. lol

That's why none of my bunnies go on the furniture. Only been peed on twice by babies. I'd rather wash clothes than furniture. But that's just me.

I guess the Tinklebunny will be limited to the floor?

K

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Our other bunnies are good about not peeing on the couch. She usually doesn't do it. She sits on the couch just about every day. It's hard not to let her on the couch because she's such a cute little snuggly muffin! Our couch is actually a futon with a rubber sheet under the cover, so no harm done if she pees on it because we can just strip off the cover and wash it at the laundromat, and wipe off the rubber sheet and clean it with soapy water. STILL.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Our dear Nomi died http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=71474&forum_id=27

 

[JjGoesBounce]

I'm so so so sorry, I'm sending so many hugs your way.
I sincerely hope that you'll be okay.
The light shines on
Even though I can't see it
It must be real
Because the pain,
I can feel it
I may never see your face,
In this world again
But you are my friend

RIP Nomi...
Jj

 

[terrie]

your bunny blog is awesome and you did a great job doing in was looking at old ones i think, but want to keep looking and saw your cooking site too thats awesome too!

Terrie

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Terrie, I'm glad you like the blog. I need to post some more photos and stuff!

Jj, thanks for the sweet poem. I'm missing my Nomi terribly right now.

I'm also worried about Nedderbug because he's tiltier than normal tonight. He got over his head tilt months and months ago, but he still turns his head some when he's tired. He's doing it more than usual tonight. Tonight he and the other buns start on antibiotics so it will be interesting to see if the Baytril has any effect. Terrible of me to hope it doesn't? Simply because I'd rather him just be turning his head because he's sleepy rather than because he's getting ill again and if the head turn DOES go away I'd think it's because he's getting another ear infection and the antibiotic is working on it! I will keep my bunny blog updated.

 

[JjGoesBounce]

*sends a million hugs* I totally understand your pain. Stay strong sweetie.
Jj

 

[JadeIcing]

So sorry for your loss. *hug*

 

[SnowyShiloh]

I've had the great fortune of being slave to 10 wonderful bunnies over the years. Just realized that the gender is split right down the middle, 5 boys and 5 girls, with 2 of each gender in heaven and 3 of each gender still with me. Kind of weird. It kills me to think all of my babies will leave me at some point. I love them so much. Always have, but it seems like even more since sweet Nomi girl died. I'd said in the past that Tallulah's death put a damper on how much I've been able to love a bunny (other than Rory who was already with me when she died) but Nomi's seems to have removed that block. How strangely things work.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Poor sweet Maximus. My friend was over last night. She likes the bunnies and Maximus is her favorite, but I was very amused when she called him "sweet girlie" because apparently this whole time she thought he was a girl in spite of his name! She said he's just so beautiful and feminine looking with his pretty blue eyes and long eyelashes and white ears and she just assumed he was a girl

 

[JadeIcing]

Lol! People do that with Elvis.