Friday 22 April 2011

Not Without My Floof

Interesting fact: All rabbits are at least 70 percent floof. Well, maybe not. But a great deal of their apparent physical shape is defined by their fur. I bet if you shaved Glamour and Tansley they'd look exactly the same. Well, maybe not that either. But I can almost guarantee you wouldn't recognize Glamour.

Anyway, what with their fur being such a defining feature, a key part in what makes so many of them so adorably cute and therefore us so powerless in their presence, it always saddens me deeply to see them without it. It's like at the back of my mind something's saying "You poor baby, how are you going to sucker the humans for treats now?". (The answer of course is sympathy - bunnies aren't stupid, they know how to work the angles.) And without the fur they look so much closer to the pictures of rabbit skeletons you see in the books, which makes it particularly disturbing.

This week Whisky had two abscesses removed, one from his ear and one from his upper-jaw/face. (He also had to have a rogue tooth removed while he was under.) All day while I waited to hear how the operation went I was sick with worry. When I picked him up, my first thought was how happy I was that he'd made it through OK. But despite all my rabbit experience, my second thought was still this: "Oh my, doesn't your head look tiny??!!"

NOTE: For those of you not familiar with Glamour and Tansley, pop on over to our Facebook page and have a browse through the 2009 picture album. And yes, they HAVE been with us that long and no, we've got no idea why either!

Monday 18 April 2011

Brothers

"Quit it Thistle, these are my breakfast noms!"

"OK Tansley let's share the noms."

Long time residents Thistle (left) and Tansley (right) enjoying some tasty veg snacks together. An all too common story, they are the result of an un-spayed doe who escaped from her garden and "got it on" with the locals before returning with a surprise for her parents. Sadly not many people want rabbits with wild genes in their mix as they tend to be more cautious of humans. But after so long with us these guys are pretty bold, especially when you're holding the snack bucket!