Big Ears, Tiny Tales

Hello 2012

2012-01-22T17:54:00.003Z

Last year was a busy one for the Rescue and 2012 is looking like being no less crazy. So here's a quick look at what's going on and what we have coming up.

Last year Vicki and Colin started the process of turning the Rescue into a fully blown registered charity. The last few months have involved lots of researching and form filling but it looks like their hard work has paid off and we have finally reached the application submission stage. If we are granted full charitable status it will be a big boost for the Rescue as it will open up opportunities to apply for grants, as well as receiving more money from donations through additional tax relief. All in all it should be a good thing for the Rescue, we just have the anxious stage waiting to hear if our application was successful.

Next on the agenda for 2012 is re-applying for our planning permission to be extended so we can remain on our current site. More hard work and form-filling for Colin! Our last application in 2010 was granted for two years and since then our relationship with the local neighbourhood has been mostly positive, so fingers crossed we will be granted at least another two years before we need to re-apply.

It has taken some time, but we are nearing the point where all our rabbit warrens have predator-proof enclosures so our residents can have lots of space to run around in even when there are no volunteers on site to keep an eye on them. This month we used some of the extra money we received in seasonal donations to purchase three more walk-in aviaries. A big thank you to all the generous friends of the Rescue that made this possible and to Paul and his team at Aviary World for all their hard work making and assembling them!

We still have a bit of work to do to make them "dig resistant", but it is all looking good. Our next phase is to re-start the work to move the other warren spaces over to the opposite side creating a path down the centre of the Rescue, thus making cleaning and bunny-viewing more practical. So if anyone out there is good at DIY and/or moving fences and would like to offer their time let us know!

We are always at capacity on site at the Rescue, so to cover emergencies we sometimes utilise space in the houses of the senior team. To put that another way, if you are an experienced rabbit person who volunteers at the rescue every week, there is a good chance that at some point Caroline will call you to ask if some extra bunnies could live in your spare room for a while. Since September we have had an unusually high number of pregnant does and unwanted litters handed in so many of these have gone to live off site until they are ready to be re-homed. As they become more mature, the young ones start to show aggressive or amorous behaviours and need to be separated. Practically this often means they are returned to the Rescue or switched with a younger litter, but this means they are taking up more space. The knock-on effect is that the waiting list for rabbits coming in is now moving slower. It also means more neutering costs which means the Rescue is under more pressure than ever - we are really going to appreciate that extra donation money when the charity status is confirmed!

New young bun Champ

Another positive change for the new year is that we have had a sudden surge of new volunteers. We now have a sizeable Saturday cleaning team of young and enthusiastic people, eager to be put to work. This is a big, big help, especially since us oldies are starting to creak when we have to bend down to clean those bunny bungalows! Thanks team! :-)

As for our existing residents, they are all doing well and I think enjoying the (so far) mild winter! As I wrote in my previous post, some of the elderly and vulnerable buns went to volunteers for the colder winter months to live as house rabbits, where they are all having fun causing all sorts of chaos. One of those pairs was Ragdoll and Timmy, who went to stay with Nicola and Gareth, as Timmy's health has been going downhill for some time. Very sadly, Timmy passed away on Thursday morning. He was another very precious bun and we will all miss him terribly.

I have no idea what has prompted it, but I swear our wilder residents are braver in 2012. Whereas previously some would exercise a degree of caution around me when at breakfast time, the quieter ones now take food out of my hand and the bolder ones will happily barge me out the way to help themselves from the food bucket before I have a chance to put anything in their bowls!

Pea. Or Pod. Or maybe Cosmos. Possibly Goofy

So here we go, another new year of exciting possibilities at the Rescue. I would just like to end this by saying thank you to everyone for your support in 2011 and we look forward to seeing you all in 2012!

Fluffularily Played?

2011-12-23T15:11:00.000Z

Did you ever have something happen to you where at the time it all seemed so reasonable, but thinking back on it you suddenly realised you totally got "played"?! So here's what happened to me this month, the story of which, I later found out, is similar to that of several of the regular volunteers.

There I am, working away scraping wee-soaked shavings from the corner of some shed or other when Caroline appears as-if-by-magic beside me.

"You know all these litters of oh-so-cute baby bunnies we suddenly have?" she says, all casually and what-not. "Well, I've been thinking how vulnerable they are in the cold outdoors of the Rescue and how they might benefit from being indoors for the winter months. I wonder if some of the volunteers might consider taking them in for a while..."

So later that afternoon, after some careful consideration of the logistics of having a group of tiny floofy joy-bundles somewhere in my house I say to Caroline "Well, I guess, if they're all small an' all, and are happy to live mostly in one of those big cages I have for emergencies, I guess, maybe I could squeeze them in somewhere in my house..."

"Great!" Caroline says, "We'll sort that out next week!".

But by next week, Caroline has been thinking again. "You know what?" she says. "You know who would really benefit from being indoors - some of our elderly bunnies! You wouldn't mind taking them instead would you...?"

So the next thing I know, instead of having a cage of cute little munchkins causing excitable (but contained) chaos in the corner of one room, I have:

Whisky giving me grief because I've given half his room to Sushi and Serena for the winter.
Grumpy glares from Jemima and Elvis because they are having to share garden time with yet another pair of bunnies.

Whisky getting his grump on over

sharing his newly partitioned room

Not that I can complain too much - of all the pairs at the Rescue, Sushi and Serena are one of the friendliest. And apart from all the extra sweeping, they are not exactly high maintenance (they do like to spread the hay from their litter trays all over the floor before they eat it).

So it seemed like I didn't come out too badly from the last-minute switch, but the story doesn't end there. Two weeks after they move in, I get a text message from Caroline.

"Can I borrow that cage you didn't use? Another unwanted litter of babies just handed in..."

But guess what? By the time Caroline arrived at my house the plan had changed once more. Instead of loading my cage into her car, we ended up loading the bunnies into my cage. In my spare room. [sigh]

So there you go. That's how I went from living with three quiet bunnies to having, after some subtle manipulation from Caroline, a houseful of chaos. It is also why once again I've found myself with no time to take photo's or write much about the Rescue this month.

Still, I may be constantly exhausted and spending all my time cleaning up after somebun or other, but when hard work looks like this it's hard to resent it!

The moment Sushi notices that Jemima

is watching him with disapproving interest

Serena remembering how annoying muddy feets

can be after two weeks indoors

"I am Meeko. And you are...?"

Shanti, Pikachu, Mr Magoo, Pooki and Meeko

A Whiter Shade of Floof

2011-12-04T21:11:00.001Z

Some floofy white babies came in this week, along with their mother and older siblings from the previous litter. If you are still reading these words now I'd be surprised cos if you're anything like me your eyes just keep being drawn back to those tiny bundles of squee...[sigh]

Foxy Lady

2011-11-24T12:25:00.001Z

There are three very important reasons why your rabbit run might need a roof. They are:

Jumping
Climbing
Flying

I'm not talking about the rabbits, even though they are quite capable of all three (or at least, I've met a number of bunnies who appeared to THINK they could fly). I'm talking about those creatures that would seek to do your bunnies harm.

To better illustrate this point to recent enquirers, one of my colleagues spent some time on YouTube searching for some helpful videos to demonstrate and found these:

Jumping:
I can't jump over the fence

Climbing:
Foxes can climb

Flying:
Rabbit Outsmarts Falcon
(Don't get too excited - this was the one video I found in this genre where the outcome was anything short of horrific.)

So there you go. Today we have learned why a run needs a roof, why it may not be safe to leave bunnies playing outside in the garden all day and that a fox is a cross between a cat and a dog. Who said this blog isn't educational?!

Double Paw-Fist Strike

2011-11-18T20:42:00.001Z

Purdy, Hopppy and Whisky share a quick snack
before getting back to the business of fighting.

Well, that didn't work. We tried to find Whisky a new friend (or friends), but all he did was learn new ways to express his lack of bunny social skills.

Being a bunny with no incisors (front teeth), he can be a little outmatched when meetings with other bunnies turn hostile. His new trick for balancing the odds is to pre-emptively pummel them on the nose with his front paws when they are least expecting it, leap on them while they are still surprised, kick them in the back of the head and run off. It started as a response to the unfriendliness of the first girl we tried him with, but once he got the hang of it, and possibly because the first one was such a moo, he decided to apply it to any future bunny he met that looked at him funny. Or thought of looking at him funny. Or had eyes.

Consequently the rest of the bonding attempts did not go well for Whisky, the last one so much so it ended at the vets having his perineum stitched back together. Ouch.

So poor little Whisky is very sad. He has to suffer pain while his injuries heal, the indignity of being force-fed medicines and the loneliness now he doesn't even have foster bunnies sharing his room to glare at. But at least he is home again and I get to cuddle him every day, even if it's only long enough to empty a syringe full of anti-biotics into his mouth.

Bun Swap UK

2011-11-05T20:26:00.000Z

Previously on Bun Swap UK...

Having failed to make a connection with Spangle, Porridge and Sprat, our precious little Whisky was introduced to a lady nearer his own age named Lara. But to say that didn't go well is somewhat of an understatement. It was, well, violent. The problem would seem to be that after 10 months of the single life in my house (thanks to the illnesses, the surgeries and the failed bondings) the boy has no bunny-social skills left and thinks he's the boss of all he surveys. He needed to be removed from his comfort zone in order for him to accept another bunny on his own level. It was time to take the bun by the ears (metaphorically, not literally) and some serious action.

So this week, Caroline and I have swapped bunnies.

"So what was Peter André REALLY like, Hoppy?"

Whisky has gone to live with Caroline, hanging out in her bedroom at night and the Rescue during the day, meeting new friends on neutral ground. While our old friends Tequila and Heathcliff have come to live with me for a few days and experience Whisky's routines.

"Room service? There are hairs in my salad.
Oh, wait, scratch that - it's just my foot!"

I wonder if I can convince them that Whisky normally makes me breakfast in bed on a Sunday morning...

Random Rabbit

2011-11-05T19:02:00.000Z

"Roar!"

As we've had a few non-bunny-picture posts recently, thought I'd throw in a picture of one of our recent arrivals to balance things out!

After a long period of having no Rex bunnies coming in, we suddenly find ourselves with about 20. And unusually, since most of our previous Rex residents have been the cautious types, they all seem very bold and friendly.

Several of them really stand out - so meet Aslan, above, one of my favourites. I don't think he will be with us very long though, he's such a handsome and amiable chap. I just hope he's with us just a little bit longer so I can catch some more great shots of him like this one! :-)

Building Site

2011-10-30T21:40:00.001Z

Caroline has been busy over the last few months. On top of the usual goings on at the Rescue, she's gone and built us a new website! Pop over to rabbitresidencerescue.weebly.com to have a look.

Our old site is all but shut down now and we will soon be moving our domain over to the new one, so in the mean time please do check the link above for the latest info.

Stop! Weight...

2011-10-24T13:45:00.002+01:00

Something we do regularly, both at home and at the Rescue, is to carry out a simple health check on all our bunnies. This helps us spot problems early and gives us a perfectly legitimate reason for cuddling everybun. :-)

I think I'll save the details of the sort of things we look for for a future post, but one thing we almost always check is their weight. A change in weight can often be the symptom of a real problem, or it can just be an indicator that we're feeding them too many treats! Either way it's a good idea to monitor it and take appropriate action when necessary.

But you're probably not going to want to shell out large amounts of money for a veterinary scale. The human scales are often not sensitive enough, the kitchen scales are often too small. So here's a handy tip: A good cheap solution is the "luggage scale". They are available very cheaply online, and with the addition of a ceiling hook/chain and an old shopping bag (NOT the plastic variety!) you've got yourself a perfectly affordable way to monitor your bunnies' weight!

Now all you have to do is persuade them to climb into the bag...

DISCLAIMER: We are not responsible for your carelessness. Think practically - DON'T hang your bunny 6 foot off the ground. Lifting a tubby bunny over your head could end badly for both of you! Add a sturdy chain so the bag hangs lower, put a chair under it so if something happens the bunny won't fall far, and test the strength of the whole thing by weighing something non-sentient first!

Tiara

2011-10-11T18:00:00.003+01:00

On Friday night we lost our beautiful little miracle bunny Tiara and I felt it was right that her passing should be noted here.

From soon after her arrival it was clear that Tiara would have been an easy bunny to re-home - a beautiful little lop with a sweet face and very friendly. However, Caroline had concerns over the way she moved and felt it best to keep her at the Rescue, at least until we could ascertain the extent of her mobility issues.

When it looked like she might need to be with us for some time, Caroline bonded her with Giggles, one of our shy and often overlooked single bucks. They seemed a bit of an odd couple, but they certainly got on well together.

When Tiara's back legs began to fail her, Caroline moved her to her office/hospital to keep a close eye on her and where it would be easier to keep up the regular cleaning of her tail end. It was here that the super-group started to form as Tiara and Giggles got to know Lacey and Grommit, and later on Rocket, Dakota and the two guinea pigs.

Tiara found new ways to frighten us pretty much every month. At one point she stopped using her back legs completely, but she was so spirited and happy despite this that many of our volunteers and friends of the Rescue pitched in to buy her a little wheelchair. However, Tiara had other ideas - defying the vets and our own expectations she suddenly became responsive to her steroids and it was enough to kick-start her rehabilitation. Some days you'd look at her rushing around and it would be hard to believe it was the same rabbit we'd seen struggling for so long.

Her mobility problems never completely went away and we always thought that at some point they would overtake her various treatments and we would have to say goodbye to her, helping her to rest. But it seems that in the end she decided on her own that she had reached the end of her time, going peacefully into the light, snuggled up next to Carolinet.

Goodnight sweet Tiara. Our lives were better to have known you.

Summer's Gone, but Sproing is Here

2011-09-25T16:36:00.001+01:00

One of the things I love about Spangle, Porridge and Sprat is that they are possibly the most sproingiest of bunnies I have ever met. They don't just perform your standard binky - it's binkies with extra flair, poise and performance. It really is like watching ballet.

If ever you wanted proof that A Hutch is Not Enough then these guys are it. Given a bit of space they'll show you exactly what those powerful back legs do best. In fact, despite their small stature, they are good examples of why those rubbish two foot high runs are not enough, such is the impressive height attained by their skilful leaps and spins.

Capturing their efforts has proved slightly tricky, as their binkying antics are very random and spontaneous. Plus, nothing makes them more suspicious of me, and therefore puts the dampeners on their enthusiasm, than pointing a camera at them!

But I had a go. Here for your pleasure (and mine!), my attempts to document the sproing of 2011.

Porridge...

"I'm just warming up..."

"Landing is the hardest part of course!"

"See ya!"

...Spangle...

"Weeeeeeee!"

...and champion sproinger, but the hardest to capture in a photo, Sprat...

"Next up - a triple somersault!"

"Floating on air, baby!"

Oh, and of course Whisky didn't want to be left out, but he can't really achieve the the same heights, bless him...

"Ehn!"

288

2011-09-24T17:03:00.000+01:00

Cora and Clarence

Two gross things happened to me at the Rescue today. And I figure, if there's something gross going on you want to hear about it right? No? Ok, well put down your dinner and read on anyway.

So the first gross thing that happened to me was that I was assisting and assessing a bonding between a rather large girl and one of our larger bucks. It wasn't going well, more like violent anarchy, so we decided to try her out with one of our innocent little as-yet-un-neutered rex boys. Well firstly, I have to say, he was a little confused, being still a little too young to know what to do with a lady. He was certainly willing to get to know his new friend but all she wanted to do was bite and dominate him. But she was no match for his youthful speed and agility and very soon the tables had turned - despite being four times his size, she was running away and hiding behind me trying to avoid him. He still wasn't quite sure what to do with her, so he kept chinning (rubbing his scent on) her as if she was something to own. But really the thing that turned the tables and switched the dominance from her to him was when he started spraying her with wee. Which would have been fine, and not uncommon behaviour for two bunnies getting to know each other, except that I was sat between them at the time.

So that was gross thing number one. The second, and easier to wash off, came from our little long-term snuffle-bun Clarence. His partner Cora is probably my most favourite little character at the Rescue (not including the bunnies who have at some point lived in my house of course). So to cheer myself up after the bonding incident, I went and sat with Cora and Clarence to relax and hand-feed them some crunchy treats. Which should have made me feel better about the day, but every time Clarence took one he would in doing so wipe his snotty snuffly nose all over my hand.

Thanks Clarence. I think I might go home and shower now.

Theyranwhentheysawus Rex

2011-09-01T19:26:00.000+01:00

Don't worry, I know EXACTLY why you are here reading the blog this week. But before I move on to that...

Saturday was completely hectic. Whilst in the middle of dishing out breakfast to everybun at the Rescue I received a text from Caroline telling me that she had been taken suddenly very ill. It was already late morning, but she was going ask Vicki to try and cancel all her appointments. If anyone DID turn up, please could I apologise, give them the tour and the talk and ask them to come back next week.

Oh dear.

I don't really do visitors, I'm more about the bunnies. Fortunately most of the visitors did receive the message, so I just had to deal with one pair of holiday boarding bunnies and the two sets of visitors that didn't pick up their messages in time.

Well, as always it's good to learn new things and this week I learned that if Caroline ever did put me in charge of the visitors we'd only ever have time to see 2 sets a week. It turns out that if you get me started talking about bunnies it's difficult to make me stop! I talked at people for most of the afternoon.

"Get on with it!" I hear you cry.

Yes, so anyway, the reason why you are here, the reason why none of the other volunteers did any work on Saturday and the reason I'm receiving emails from the rest of the Rescue committee enquiring if I have any new photo sets this week. Our new residents.

On Thursday last week we received 11 new bunnies. Yes, that's right, 11. In one day.

But don't worry, they don't take up much space. Yet. They are tiny little babies. (You at the back - stop squee-ing! Wait for the pictures!)

It turns out that, not only should you not trust your local pet chain-store to correctly sex your rabbits, or your neighbour who is unloading their former-children's-'toy' on you, but you also shouldn't trust a random stranger that offers to meet you in a car park to hand over their "female" rabbit to go with your existing two un-spayed girls. Yes, you read that right.

Well anyway, my purpose for telling you how busy I was Saturday was that I needed you to understand why I hadn't had time to take lots of good pictures of our new friends. So no ultra-cute or particularly well composed ones for you this week, but I did manage to snap a few quick pics just so you can have a peek. Much better than this, before I received Caroline's message I managed to record a short video of them eating breakfast, but if you want to see that one you'll need to head over to our Facebook page and have a look on our wall. (We haven't quite graduated to the leagues of having a YouTube channel yet.)

So here you go. Meet Frolic, Fancy, Frilly, Lassie, Frisky, Flipper, Fubit, Fitz, Columbo, Fletcher and Kagny!

"Breakfast" was adequate. Now what of this "dinner" of which I've heard speak?

What's My Name Again?

2011-08-06T18:25:00.000+01:00

Following the success of our last request, we have three new little boys who need names! As before, please submit your suggestions as responses either to this post or via our Facebook page. Thanks again!

Bunny Boy Number 1

Bunny Boy Number 2

Bunny Boy Number 3

2 For 1

2011-08-05T17:29:00.000+01:00

So it turns out bunneh-yawn photo's and buses are much the same. You wait for more than 3 years to catch one and then TWO COME ALONG AT ONCE!!!!

I'm sorry Elvis, are we boring you?!

Buntan Notion

2011-07-30T18:30:00.001+01:00

"Excuse me, do you mind?
You are kind of in my light."

"Ah, that's better."

"Now do be a darling and wake me
in about 30 minutes when it's time
to tan my front."

Wanted: Names

2011-07-18T22:49:00.000+01:00

Any suggestions for what we can call these two little floofy bundles of joy? One boy, one girl. Please add your ideas to the comments below, or via our Facebook page. Thank you! :-)

Anybody There?

2011-07-16T22:16:00.003+01:00

SCENE: A shed just outside Royston. It has been raining heavily all day, but there is a break in the clouds and sun is shining through the doorway. BHV is sitting on the floor flicking through a series of poorly taken pictures on the screen of a digital camera. Enter BBs.

BBs: Ah, there you are. We'd like a word.
BHV: Yes, what is it?
BBs: Well, it's just that there haven't been any posts on the blog for about a month. We wondered where you'd gone?
BHV: Hey, I've been busy! Whisky's had major surgery, I've been working late nights at my other job, I've hardly been here...
BBs: People don't want to hear your complaining! They just want to know what's going on at the Rescue. They want to see pictures of bunnies!
BHV: Well I can't think of anything to write.
BBs: People don't care what words you put in - they visit the blog for the cute pictures!
BHV: Oh, very well. And who shall I post pictures of? Who at the Rescue right now is so cute that no-one will even read the words I type?
BBs: Well US of course!
BHV: OK baby bunnies, you win. Here you go...

Happy now?

Whisky in the Sun

2011-06-26T22:26:00.033+01:00

Whisky and Porridge chillax

Temperatures are hitting 30 degrees centigrade here in the UK today, so the house buns and I have decided to abandon our plans and spend the day in the garden.

Whisky and Sprat investigate

Which means lots of lazy naps, intersperced with the occasional binky (them not me). Sadly they stopped their mad balletic leaps the moment they saw the camera, but I did manage to capture some of the more sedate moments.

Spangle gets up close and personal

Run Rabbit Run

2011-06-11T20:46:00.000+01:00

One of the biggest frustrations of running a rescue is trying to educate people about the minimum size of run that will provide a suitable exercise area for bunnies. We ask for a minimum run size of 6ft by 10ft. The RWAF currently say 8ft by 6ft. Pet shops generally say "any size that gets you to part with your cash before you leave the shop".

We also ask for a minimum of 3ft high to allow comfortable headroom for binkying, though we suggest higher ones are better to allow you to sit in the run and interact with the bunnies.

There's another reason why the taller ones are better...

The extra height might keep the local undesirables off your roof!

The Champs of 1958

2011-06-11T20:20:00.001+01:00

Da da da de de da da dum.
Da da da de da de dum.
Da da da de de da da dum.
Da da da de da de dum.
Da da da daaaaaaaaa dum.
Da da da daaaaaaaaa dum.
Da da da daaaaaaaaa dum.
Da da da da da da dum.

TEQUILA (Bunny)!

Bunnies Without Borders

2011-05-19T09:00:00.000+01:00

A little friend came to visit recently and we (Caroline and I) got talking to her mummy about how we organise our indoor space for our fluffy loved ones. We wanted to share their experiences on here, so she (mummy, not bunny) agreed to write this piece for us.

I am a pretty anxious bunny owner and completely and utterly love Alfie and Lola (formerly known as Cherish) - I would be devastated if anything happened to them but I think you can be too cautious (and not cautious enough). I was so cautious with Alfie I initially kept him like this:
I used to let him out for as long as I could each day, when I could supervise, thinking this was enough exercise for him.
I think the key thing for me was when I changed my thinking after speaking to Caroline, and realised that you don't need to cage a bunny to ensure that it is a safe bunny and that bunnies do not actually need to be stuck in cages at all. At first I was very nervous about the damage they would do to my flat and any dangers to them. I didn’t think my flat was unsupervised-bunny friendly at all. After some thought I realised I could reorganise a room for them, which was safe for them to be unsupervised.
Over time I have discovered that the less I bar them from, the less destructive they are and the more I get to know all their habits and behaviours. You just have to have the confidence. The first time I left Alfie alone in his room (before Lola joined him) I was worried about him all night. He was fine. Now, aside from chewing of furniture (I bought cheap Ikea furniture on purpose) and the odd patch of bunny wee, they are very well behaved in their room and corridor (and everywhere else, although I keep an eye on them in other rooms). I really think it's about ones attitude to rabbits and how they should be housed.
Now that they are never caged, I realise that they are in fact most active when I am asleep. When I leave my bedroom door open all night I really understand how busy they are. Last night Alfie spent most of the night using my bed as part of his assault course and Lola practiced her sprint turns on my bed for a large part of the night. Whilst I don’t recommend this (I do wake up a lot!), it would be awful for them to be caged when they really want to be very active.
Below are pictures of their room:
They don't necessarily need a whole room, which might not be possible anyway with 2 unbonded buns, for example, or if there isn’t a spare room going, but an extra fenced off area. Now that my attitude has changed, I would be very unhappy for Alfie and Lola to be caged at all. I'd also love for them to have some outside space but unfortunately this isn't possible at the moment.

Relaxing under their favourite table

All pictures by Anouska

Joseph

2011-05-11T21:54:00.000+01:00

Joseph (front) and his first partner

Athena (who very sadly died in 2010)

Caroline was away on a well deserved holiday over the weekend, which left me with the pleasure of flushing out Joseph's eye with sterile fluids and eyedrops. Lucky me!

"Be careful with him, he's getting a bit bitey" Caroline's notes warned. It went something like this:

"Come on Joseph, let's get you out of the cage. [chomp] [chomp] ... [chomp] Now, onto a towel [chomp]. Now, I'm just [chomp] going to use this syringe [chomp] [chomp] to flush all the gunk out [chomp]...here we go...[flush][flush][splurgh]*...now [chomp] for some eye drops.. [chomp] . [plop] . [chomp] ... and we're done! Now that wasn't so bad was it?!" [disapproving-glare] [CHOMP!]

* Splurgh, in case you wondered, is the sound that eye puss makes as it squelches over your lap. Just so you know.

Not Without My Floof

2011-04-22T21:51:00.002+01:00

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!

Brothers

2011-04-18T12:55:00.000+01:00

"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!

Pico's story

2011-03-22T16:18:00.012Z

In July 2010 my husband came back from a day helping at the Rabbit Residence Rescue with a spare indoor cage and a pet carrier, explaining that Caroline had been involved in a large rescue and needed us to foster some bunnies for a while. We were already fostering some of her permanent special needs bunnies in our spare bedroom so when I opened the pet carrier and saw three little bundles of fluff, I was really excited at the prospect of looking after some baby bunnies for a change. Then the husband told me to look closer, and hiding behind the three fluffy babies was the tiniest rabbit I had ever seen. Smaller than a fist, its eyes were only just open and its ears were still flat against its head. Caroline had found it in a nest, amongst its siblings who were already dead. Caroline thought it was around 2 weeks old and wasn’t sure whether it would survive.

We got the babies settled in to the indoor cage and the three larger babies tucked straight in to the food we offered them. Caroline had given us some Cimicat for the tiny one and so we had our first attempt at hand feeding a baby rabbit. Luckily the baby seemed to want the feed and sucked it out of the syringe without difficulty. We then let the babies have a run around the spare room. The three big babies went crazy, binkying like mad. The tiny one tried to follow them but didn’t quite have the strength to hop and could only manage a very wobbly walk. When it had a wee on the carpet we were ridiculously pleased to know it could go to the toilet by itself.

When the next morning came the little one was again very excited when we offered the Cimicat. Over the next two weeks Pico, as the baby had now been called, continued to grow. We fed her twice a day and feeding time was a real joy. She would sit on a cushion on our lap and as soon as we offered her the syringe she would latch on and suck really strongly. By the end of the second week she could drink a full 1ml syringe within seconds and would take up to 15ml in one feed. After feeding she liked to snuggle in our hands for a 5 minute snooze before chasing around the room after the others. When the other babies were eating, she would desperately try to join in but her teeth just weren’t big enough. However as her teeth began to grow we started to hold out a Science Selective Junior pellet for her and she would grate her teeth against it and make it into a point!

After 3 weeks of hand feeding with Cimicat Pico was finally able to eat pellets by herself. We were so glad that she had developed enough to be able to eat properly but also a little bit sad that we didn’t need to hand feed her any more. Over the next few months Pico continued to grow, along with the other babies who had now been named Jonny, Roberta and Albert. Albert and Roberta went back to the rescue first, followed by Jonny a few weeks later. All three of them have since found new homes.

Although we would have loved to keep Pico permanently we knew it wouldn’t be possible as we already had 4 rabbits of our own plus 2 cats and 2 foster bunnies. We therefore agreed that Pico would return to the rescue to find a new home once the winter was over. To keep her from getting lonely, she was bonded with Wellington, a single bun from the rescue who Caroline thought could benefit from a winter indoors.

Now that the weather has finally begun to warm up, Pico and Wellington have been returned to the rescue. Both are very lively and Wellington is always interested in anything that is going on whilst Pico is more wary unless food is involved! Hopefully it won’t be long before they find the perfect forever home that they deserve.

Left Out

2011-03-10T20:05:00.003Z

Whisky tests my predator-proofing of

Elvis and Jemima's run

I left Jemima and Elvis out in the garden unsupervised yesterday morning. I went into the house to get something and left them playing outside. I was only popping in for a second but got myself distracted.

When I realised, I felt really sick and rushed out to check on them.

I'd only been gone about two minutes. But I'm a worrier. Two minutes is all it takes.

A few weeks ago I was returning home and saw a whole group of wild bunnies playing on the grass near my house. They looked so cute and full of joy. But as I continued on I saw a fox. Silently closing in on them. I was in the car. I could have turned round, could have done something. But I knew it would be too late.

Foxes are cunning. Foxes are bold. I have foxes in my neighbourhood, seen them less than a minute from my house. On a busy Saturday afternoon, my friend's father caught one marching up the road with a neighbour's chicken hanging frightened, but thankfully still alive, from it's mouth. Foxes can dig under and climb over fences. I've seen photo's of them, staring down into gardens, sizing up their next meal.

Back to yesterday.

Jemima and Elvis were fine of course. But something wasn't right. A noise. A shape. Something.

I looked up and there it was. On top of the shed, a big black cat. It was sizing up Elvis, who was merrily munching on the grass directly below, totally oblivious.

Cat vs Jemima - no contest. She'd just sit on it. Cat vs Elvis - not sure, he tends to panic in the face of the anything resembling danger (or claw clippers). Cat vs me?

When I first moved bunnies into the garden it seemed like every day I was chasing cats away. Never seemed to make a difference. They'd still come back. Me mildly annoyed and waving my arms? I guess they could sense I was no real threat. So I changed tactic. Now I "hunt" the cats that dare to cross my boundary. I quietly creep, I stalk, I pounce... They always see me long before I reach them. Unaware that this is my intention, they rapidly make their exit and rarely come back. How do YOU like being hunted, Mr Moggy? The claw is on the other paw now, huh?

So no real danger this time. Cat fled, job done.

I love my bunnies. I can't begin to imagine the grief I'd feel, knowing they had been torn apart by a wild animal. Knowing that their lives had been cut short, that they'd lived their last few moments in unbelievable pain and utter terror. I don't know how I'd live with myself, knowing I failed them in my responsibilities of keeping them safe from harm.

It is exactly these cheery thoughts that sit at the back of my mind every time I go out to check for the second (or third) time that I really did lock them back in after playtime. Am I sure I shut all the doors? It's too important to get it wrong - if I'm not positive I'll check again. The possible gruesome consequence fuels my cautiousness. The time spent predator-proofing the run, hours spent digging up earth, burying slabs. It's too important to get this wrong.

Not everyone imagines this horror. In the last few weeks we have had four rabbits we've adopted out reported to have been killed by (suspected) foxes. Four rabbits who have been left to roam free all day in a garden or open run, with no roof to protect them, or left unsupervised to escape. Rabbits who we cared for, got to know as individuals with their own little personalities, found seemingly perfect homes for. Not everyone imagines the horror and guilt - there are three families in Cambridge now living it.

In the next few weeks, as always, someone is going to visit the Rescue and tell Caroline (or me, or Debbie, ...) that they've had rabbits for years, let them roam free in the garden all day and never had a problem. "Do we really need a run attached to their hutch?"

Forgive us if our answer is a little on the short side.

The Wind in the...tree of some sort...

2011-02-05T19:30:00.047Z

It was an odd day at the Rescue today. And not just because I managed to clean all three bunny bungalows without banging my head, swearing and declaring that I would never clean them again (an almost weekly ritual). It was odd because, as I was cleaning down the bottom end of the Rescue I barely saw a single rabbit.

It was not hard to guess why. This last week has seen the UK being battered by strong winds and today was no exception. Our residents were not too keen on being outside in the blustery weather.

And perhaps they had good reason. Earlier this week one of the trees bordering the Rescue was blown down over night, flattening two fences and barely missing Majestic and Glamour's shed. Because of the fences being down we had to move them over into Mindy's old shed so they would have a run to play in. They were clearly shaken, and rather than sitting at the front of their warren, waiting to mug passing visitors for broccoli, they spent much of the day huddled inside looking sorry for themselves. They weren't too happy later when we had to move them again either, but we were certainly glad we did. When the friendly local farmer pulled the remaining half of the tree down it missed Mindy's old shed by about a foot.

Let's hope next week is less exciting!

That which fell (bottom) and that

which was pushed (left)

After the trunks were cut up and removed,

the flattened fence that remained

Okunoshima Take-Over

2011-01-19T12:35:00.001Z

If you are a reader of the MyHouseRabbit blog you will already have seen the story about the island of Okunoshima that has been taken over by abandoned domestic rabbits.

To cheer myself up today I had a trawl around YouTube for some videos. Here are some of my favourites. Prepare to squee. Prepare to squee so hard your eyes pop right out of your head and your heart explodes. You have been warned!

Aoife and Blue

2011-01-10T13:18:00.000Z

Another success story!

After Bunjit my 7 year old faithful French lop died earlier this year, I decided that his partner, Aoife looked so lonely and she had become very agitated and grumpy without her mate. However, after a routine trip to the vets for her annual booster, the vet discovered a serious lump in her tummy. It was so severe that she had to be operated on to remove the cyst from her intestine and bladder. Poor Aoife, it was such a good job I always keep up the trips to the vets for boosters because the vet said she would probably have just died an awful painful death, had I not taken her to them. After several weeks of recovery and much expensive treatment, I was very reluctant to re-home Aoife, but she was not particularly friendly towards me, never biting but hated to be disturbed. But I decided she had to have a chance of happiness, so I purchased Blue, a 9 week old young buck with a very outgoing nature, who loved to be cuddled and fussed.

I had read all about bonding and decided to introduce them gradually and started off in the kitchen, which was fairly neutral to both of them. That failed, she was not having any of it. So up to the bathroom we went, that was a bit better but he was quite insistent and I had to keep squirting him with a water spray.

I left the get together sessions for some weeks, not wanting to admit failure, keeping them apart in different parts of the garden and different sleeping arrangements. It was quite a task to remember that one rabbit was in and the other was out. I then re-introduced them again in the large outside run and that was a disaster. She immediately bit him and he was squealing so I had to separate them very quickly.

That was it! I was very scared to attempt any more bonding sessions without some expert help. Aoife had been spayed almost a year ago and Blue was due to be neutered as soon as he was old enough.

Caroline Collings, at the Rabbit Residence in Gt Chishill, near Royston came to the rescue. She advised getting Blue neutered as soon as possible, then wait until the hormones settled again before trying to bond them. It was no use attempting bonding until after this as he was only being a naughty little buck and annoying her.

Another few weeks went past and eventually I asked Caroline if she could take the pair of rabbits to her rescue centre and try to get them bonded in neutral territory.

They spent a few days in her 6 x 4 shed, separated by wire so that they could sniff and be near each other without being able to physically get to one another. Gradually they got used to being around each other and the day came when Caroline let them have some time without the wire. It worked, the bunnies fell in love.

Within a few days they could be left unsupervised and became used to each other’s company.

After about 10 days, Aoife and Blue returned home and started their new found friendship back home where they belonged. It is so lovely to see them together, running, playing and getting up to mischief together. Now they are inseparable, and everywhere Aoife goes, Blue swiftly follows. I cannot tell you how relieved I am now that they are such a perfect pair, it makes me so happy to see them together.

Thank you Caroline for your devoted care and expertise.

Lisa Everett

Pictures by Lisa.

Shake and Snuffle

2011-01-06T12:15:00.032Z

I am currently reading Anne McBride's "Why Does My Rabbit...?", which I would recommend to all bunny-parents for two reasons:

It is packed with useful, well researched information about rabbit health and behaviour.
It is incredibly cheap.

Having been around bunnies for a few years now and picked up quite a bit of information from bunny people, websites, forums, other books, vets and of course the bunnies themselves, most of the stuff in it is not new to me. However, with its content arranged in a fairly concise and easy-to-read way, I can't help wishing I'd started with this one. OK, advert over.

The reason it has had an impact on my week and prompted this entry was my reading the section about ears. If you ever see a rabbit shaking its head, or looking kind of "quizzically" at you with their head at an angle, there's a good chance there's something wrong somewhere, either in the ears or the brain. The first thing I do in this case is to scoop them up for a cuddle and have a good look and a sniff in the ears. If they are anything other than squeaky clean and free from odour I would suspect some sort of infection or possibly mites and it's time for a visit to our friend the vet. (Note of course that if any symptoms persist and I would pack them off to the vets regardless of whether I could find the cause.)

Reading about all of this again prompted something in the back of my mind about Elvis shaking his head a few times recently and though it was brief and there were no signs of problems now, I thought I'd take him along to the vets anyway since I was taking Jemima to get some anti-biotics for her sneezing. And I'm glad I did - not only did the vet confirm the presence of a slight infection in his left ear but we also discovered he'd been quietly suffering from a respiratory infection as well. So it's anti-biotics all round, plus some drops for Elvis.

This whole incident highlighted two things we can easily forget in our busy lives:

If in any doubt about your rabbits health or behaviour it is always best to consult your vets, even if it is just a phone call to the surgery for advice.
However much you think you've experienced ultimate hatred and disapproval from your rabbit, you've seen NOTHING until you've tried administering ear drops.

Sorry Elvis!

NOTE: For your safety and that of my camera I have used a photo from my archives. Current levels of Elvis disapproval are likely to cause injury, even in picture form.

Shake, Rattle and Chomp

2010-12-02T21:51:00.000Z

This evening I decided to spend some quality time with Elvis and Jemima. In giving them space to make sure their relationship with each other is working OK I have been neglecting their relationship with me, so I thought it was about time I put that right.

I sat on the floor with my legs straight out in front of me. This is a completely passive position from which you can't easily lunge at or chase them, so they feel safe coming in closer to you. If I was trying to build a new relationship with two bunnies I might just ignore them at this point and let them come over and investigate me in their own time, but Jemima is well trained and Elvis trusts her now so I knew I could fast-track the proceedings. I rattled the snack jar and immediately Jemima trotted over and took a pellet from me. Elvis watched her with interest, then having established the protocol did the same. Wary at first, a few repetitions later and he started to relax.

Now to take them to the next step. I slowly leaned back against the wall and held out another pellet further away from them. Jemima leaned in and put her front paws on my leg and took it. Elvis circled round the back of her, put his front paws on my other leg and took another too. So far so good.

What happened next I did not expect. Jemima was watching Elvis chomping away at his share of the snacks when it seemed a thought occurred to her. Without warning she suddenly bolted. Believing that she had spotted some danger, Elvis panicked and in a split second he was off too, racing back into the safety of their bedroom. The MOMENT he was out of sight, Jemima turned round, trotted confidently back up to me and took the next snack as if nothing had happened.

I have no doubt that they have as strong a relationship as two bunnies can have and will always look out for each other. But it seems that for Jemima, looking out for ways to have more treats will always come first!

Saucerer

2010-11-28T18:23:00.005Z

Saucerer, one of the rescue’s long term residents, was helped to rainbow bridge on Friday 26 November.

Saucerer was one of the most placid, gentle bunnies that we have ever known. He never showed any sort of aggression and was happy to accept whatever came his way. On the day Caroline went to collect him, she found that the child at the house had just poured orange juice all over him, his teeth and claws were overgrown and he was stuck in a tiny hutch. With all of his problems, the vets didn’t hold out much hope for him but, when we first met him, he had already been with Caroline for several years.

In June 2009 we offered to help the rescue by letting a special needs pair live in our spare bedroom and so Saucerer and India became our first foster bunnies. By this time, Saucerer had virtually no teeth left and a hole in his jaw. His veg had to be grated, his pellets soaked in water and he had to have an antibiotic injection daily. In addition we periodically had to use tweezers to remove food and bits of bone from the hole in his jaw. During his time with us he had to undergo several anaesthetics to have his mouth cleaned out properly and each time the vet told us his jaw bone and teeth were rotting away. Yet he remained the same gentle, accepting bun as always, never complaining or causing trouble. As time went on, we had to start boiling his veg and making it into a mush so he could eat it and, as the hole in his jaw got larger, food would come out of the hole and his face and neck would end up very messy. Yet still he continued to be a happy, gentle bun who would sit very patiently whilst we gave him a wash and blow dry. Eventually an abscess formed on his cheek and another in the hole in the jaw and we knew it was time to say goodbye.

Saucerer was a real example of why the rescue exists and how it can change a bunny’s life for the better. Our favourite memories of him will be him binkying down the garden path every time he was let outside and the way he would stand up on his hind legs to reach for the plate as you went to put the food down in front of him. We are very grateful that he had a peaceful end without suffering and we feel very privileged to have known him. Our house will not be the same without him.

A Paw-ful for Truffles

2010-11-25T12:36:00.019Z

Time for another dip into our "post bag"! Here's a lovely story from a friend of the Rescue who recently took one of our single bunnies into her family.

When I first met Caroline I had a house rabbit, Honey. I thought that Honey was a happy rabbit - she would spend hours sitting in between my feet as I tapped away on the computer and would happily sit on my lap for a couple of hours each night as I stroked her. Caroline said that Honey should have another rabbit for company and suggested one at the sanctuary who had been a house rabbit. When Honey met Trevor (who I renamed Truffles) their friendship needed to be encouraged by putting pineapple juice on their foreheads, they licked each other heads and so started a friendship that lasted a couple of years.
Honey and Truffles were inseparable and always sat together.
Sometimes Honey’s over enthusiastic affection could leave Truffles
a little squashed but he didn’t seem to mind!

Sadly, Honey was not a well rabbit and Truffles was clearly very lonely when Honey died.
When I contacted Caroline to let her know that I was looking for a new mate for Truffles she suggested several rabbits. One of them was Ephra. When I first looked into Ephra's hutch I thought that it was empty - then I saw her huge black eyes peering out at me from the back corner. Ephra was a very nervous jumpy rabbit who was happy to hide from the world. And no wonder, before she came to the rescue she had been living in a shed with several other rabbits, the result of a pet shop selling a rabbit to an elderly lady and getting its sex wrong so the rabbits bred. The owner was soon over run with rabbits and on becoming ill her sister contacted Caroline for help. By then the problem was sizeable and Caroline bravely took on about 50 rabbits.
Unknown to Caroline Ephra was pregnant when she arrived at the rescue, her young age and the stress of being moved were probably what contributed to Ephra destroying her babies as they were born. She had had a tough start and no wonder she was nervous. Her huge black sorrowful eyes just made me want to give her a chance. She probably wasn’t the best match for Truffles but Caroline was happy to bond them. Ephra was intrigued by Truffles who rather rudely sat with his back to her. Eventually they started to get on. When Caroline brought the pair of them back to my home, Ephra hid in the corner of the kitchen under a chair. Truffles was pleased to be back home, had a quick sniff around and wanted his usual stroke and tickles from me. He then remembered Ephra and though he never usually sat under the chair before went and joined Ephra to keep her company and reassure her that all was well.
That was two months ago now and during that time Truffles has really helped Ephra (now called Moet) to gain her confidence. She is first to dash across the kitchen floor in the morning to greet me and stand by the fridge where she knows that her greens are kept. She knows the sound of the dried food tin lid being lifted and even dashes into the utility room to help herself to extra hay.
Moet and Truffles are great chums and much to Truffles relief he does not have to spend his time sitting under the chair in the corner to be with her. Truffles likes to do a bit of DIY and Moet is keen to help, they spend many a happy hour reshaping a cardboard box to get it just how they like it.
They have a big outdoor run where they enjoy eating grass and leaves from a cherry tree, and like an old married couple are back inside to sit side by side and join me watching Coronation Street! Although Truffles tends to fall asleep.
Without Caroline neither of these rabbits would have had the opportunity of a better life than they had had prior to coming into the rescue. Like so many other bunnies they have a great deal to thank Caroline for.

All pictures provided by Sue

The Merchant of Bunnehs

2010-11-10T12:16:00.018Z

What a crazy summer and autumn we have had here at the Rescue. Two of the emergency cases we dealt with have between them added over 40 rabbits to our intake, on top of the steady influx from our ever expanding waiting list.

It is only due to the dedication and quick action of our volunteer team (along their willingness to become foster parents at short notice!) that we have managed to deal with the chaos and high numbers. But even with so many bunnies living off-site, the costs of dealing with all the health problems they came in with, as well as all their standard vaccines, still lie with the Rescue. The result is that the Rescue now finds itself over six thousand pounds in debt, mostly from veterinary bills. Ouch.

Fortunately for the Rescue, which is run entirely on donations from the public, we have an enthusiastic team of fund-raisers on the case. This year they have pooled their creative talents to come up with some fun merchandise to help raise extra donations. Here are some of the things currently on offer:

If you are interested in one of these items, please contact us either through the usual channels or to by emailing our fund-raising team directly at

They look pretty great to me, but then I can't help feeling I've seen some of those amazing photo's somewhere before...

Special thanks to Nicola for doing almost all of the hard work on this!

Survey

2010-10-25T22:09:00.003+01:00

If Mohito can find 5 minutes out of a busy day of chomping, binkies and naps to fill out a short survey, so can you! Head over to the RSPCA site to take part in their bunny survey for your chance to win lots of goodies for your little ones.

Bambam

2010-10-22T13:40:00.001+01:00

"...hoooonnnnnnk...shooooooooooooo....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

Mini-Floof Face-Off

2010-10-21T17:43:00.000+01:00

"You got something to say, mister?"

Nestlé

2010-09-30T18:12:00.004+01:00

Nestlé was always the quiet one of the group. While Hoppy would, well, Hop around frantically and Perdy would demand food in a (sort of) bossy way, Nestlé was somehow much more serene. He’d look at you expectantly, with his big brown eyes, whether it was for a carrot or some kale, or for a tickle of his ears. Oh how he loved his ears to be tickled. If ever a rabbit went into a trance when he was stroked it was my little Nestlé and I adored him for it.

Sadly, after a difficult start to his life when he was mistreated and abandoned, along with Perdy, Hoppy and Spirit, he never found a new home, despite thoroughly deserving one. But he (and they) never held their treatment against people - it never ceases to amaze me how wonderful bunnies can be with people when all they’ve known from us previously is torment and neglect.

Nestlé, like Perdy and Hoppy, also had his moment of fame on (almost) prime time TV. OK it was only the Peter Andre show, but Nestlé was the star. Calmly surveying his surroundings, he outshone all his human hosts. What a performer!

This isn’t just about Nestlé though. It’s about him, Perdy and Hoppy as a family and how wonderful they were. I know I wasn’t the only one who regularly found ‘excuses’ to go and sit with them, play with them and have my lunch with them; even the more hardened bunny minders found excuses to do so. Caroline herself said she would have found it very hard to let them go, they were such a wonderful group.

I was lucky enough to see Nestlé one last time on the Sunday before he died. It was all too brief and we still didn't know how ill he was, but he still adopted his happy little ‘stroke me’ pose at the back of the bunch. And stroked he was.

He died on 3 September of a suspected brain tumour, but we will never really know why. I’ll miss him loads and miss the three of them being together. I hope he soft chewed his way into whatever counts as bunny heaven as that’s where he deserves to be.

Mindy's Babies

2010-08-28T17:10:00.001+01:00

Mindy's little babies are getting ready to face the world. Not brave enough to venture out of their shed to have their photo's taken, but it won't be long...

"Hey guys, check this out!"

"Hmmm...doesn't look like something we can eat..."

"Feel free to come back when you have some tasty snacks for us!"

Upside Down

2010-08-17T17:19:00.003+01:00

Caroline sent me this fantastic picture of the new babies feeding from mummy Mindy last night.

Check out those teeny tiny tummies! And the feets! :-)

My Kind of Office

2010-08-17T17:07:00.002+01:00

In need of a little light relief recently, I went looking for one of my favourite bunny-filled web videos only to discover that the company that commissioned it have taken it down. Fortunately it appears the director of this glorious piece has reposted it to YouTube so to anyone else out there that needs cheering up I urge you to revisit this little gem:

Puts a massive smile on my face every time.

Santa

2010-08-15T16:05:00.007+01:00

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will probably already know who Santa Bunny is. A sweet, loveable bunny like no other, my own little baby and companion. He came with Jemima to live with me in May 2008 and quickly became the very best thing in my life.

Always a very sensitive thing, Santa suffered a number of gastro-intestinal problems over the last two years. When he became ill again last Sunday it looked like he was in for another few days at the vets being nursed back to health, but this time was just one too many for his little system. Santa died around 11am on Tuesday 10th August 2010, just three and a half years old. My heart is still breaking.

Part of me didn't want to write this entry. It is very painful to remind myself that I have lost him. But as he was the original inspiration for starting this blog, it felt right to honour his life here somehow, so I have posted here two of my favourite pictures of him. They were both taken the same day in February and show two of Santa's best sides - the sweet, innocent, loveable boy who would sit patiently for you to take his picture and the crazy little monkey that you would find doing things you wouldn't expect. I hope this gives you a feeling of the dear little soul that I love and miss with all my heart.

Mixin it up on DJ Hero, Feb 2010

Fluffy Four's Big Day

2010-08-14T17:34:00.006+01:00

"Erm...Doggy wants to know if snacks

are served on this trip?" asks Orlando

Well, the day had finally come. After 14 weeks of living in my house it was time for the once tiny litter of cuddle bundles to return to the Rescue to be rehomed. They packed up all their things into the pet carriers, waved goodbye to Jemima with their little paws and off we set.

When we arrived at the rescue there was a dizzying array of new smells to experience and many new friends for them to meet. They were very excited and couldn't wait to get out to explore, but first things first - Marigold had a special cuddle for Caroline! ("Wow, haven't you gotten BIG?")

First into their new homes were Pingu and Orlando. A little uncertain of the strange terrain and not too sure about the enormous neighbours peering through the fence, but once they were sure they were safely contained they were off, racing up and down the grass and in and out of of the fun obstacles.

Pingu plays hide-and-seek

Next up Cherish and Marigold. After a couple of laps of their warren to discover the lay of the land it was time to meet their neighbours. Within minutes Cherish was seen winding Megan up into a jealous frenzy by flirting with Whisky through the fence, while Marigold was enjoying all the tasty new grass.

"Well hey there handsome fellow - fancy sharing a

plate of grated carrot later?"

So a big day for them, a big day for me, saying goodbye to my miniature house guests. And a very exciting one - some of today's visitors have already expressed interest in each of the girls and with the boys gorgeous blue eyes I have no doubt all four will each quickly find loving new homes.

"Chomp chomp munch chomp"

In The Bag

2010-07-03T18:03:00.007+01:00

One of the things that makes bunnies such good house pets is that they are very easy to litter train. Once they have settled in to a new home, they will generally settle on a particular corner and into that corner you put the litter tray and the job is done. They are clean and tidy creatures, so once the toilet area is established they will stick to it and your nice carpets (and sofa) will be safe.

Having established this, you can also move the litter tray. This is especially useful if the corner they picked wasn't the one that you wanted them to use (why do they always pick the one by the door?). If you do this gradually, the bunnies will return to the same spot each time, see (well, probably smell) the tray and use it. Any, er, misunderstandings can be moved into the tray and they will soon get the idea.

Moving the tray quickly to another corner is asking for trouble. The bunnies will return to the original corner, finding no tray will just assume you have cleaned up for them and start again (just like if you'd put a clean tray back). Not only that, but when they find the tray elsewhere they'll take that as you green-lighting an additional toilet area and now you have two. This very thing has happened to me when I have placed a soiled tray down somewhere while I replace it and turned my back for a moment only to find a bunny using it. Then the next day, guess what? New pile of poo in that spot. Be warned. Anyway..

There is something I would like to touch on here, another word of warning really. The religious using of the litter tray without accident can be quickly disrupted if you do anything to disturb their routine or incur their wrath. If, for example, you were to bring home some temporary foster bunnies and let them play in your (their) garden you will quickly discover that your bunnies will make you pay for this crime by giving to you the gift of an afternoon of picking their poo out of the grass. From across the whole lawn. The books will tell you this is a territorial thing as they try to claim back their space from the interlopers, but I tell you now, I've seen revenge in their eyes as they glare back at me... Moving on.

Now, the reason I mention all this today is that Santa and Jemima have recently altered their own morning routine. Rather than hopping back into their fresh litter trays for their big post-breakfast clearout, they've found a new spot.

"Hang on, I'll be done in just a minute."

Now if I can only train all the bunnies at the Rescue to do this (and not just at breakfast) the cleaning out will suddenly get a whole lot easier...

Megan Update

2010-06-25T23:31:00.003+01:00

I had the phone call I was dreading today. The vet found something on Megan's leg x-ray that they are not happy about. They can't tell for sure at this point what it is - they say it could be a fracture or something tumorous. I do feel slightly relieved that we are making some progress in finding out what is causing her pain, but the thought of what either of these diagnoses could mean for our little angel fills me with worry.

She is scheduled in for another x-ray next Friday so we should know more then. In the mean time I think she is about to be on the receiving end of many (very careful) cuddles.

There Are Good Days, And Then...

2010-06-24T17:23:00.013+01:00

June 2010 is turning out to be one tough month. I am struggling to remember one that has left me so constantly tired and emotionally drained.

Firstly, Megan has been dropping weight for weeks. She has been in for 3 dentals already this year where she is not eating properly and her constantly-growing bunny teeth are not being ground down evenly. It is frankly heartbreaking to see such a beautiful little soul who survived such a difficult start in life just waste away with no clear indication as to what is causing it.

A Bengal cat belonging to one of the neighbours seems to have taken a renewed interest in the Rescue and has been found prowling around looking for trouble on more than one occasion this month. It has now taken to attacking Jessica the Rescue cat, which is a worrying turn of events. We are already keeping the bunnies inside when there are not enough volunteers to keep watch over them, but we can't put poor Jessica in a shed and run. (Well, not if we want to keep our arms scratch-free anyway!)

So when Arnie decided to dig a secret little tunnel out into the neighbouring field and disappear for two days we were understandably concerned for his safety. He did return, but only after Caroline had cleared bushes and dug the hole bigger so he could easily find his way back to his home and his wife Satin. While we were wracked with worry, Arnie (judging by his eagerness to get straight back out there again) was having a buntastic time racing around in the open air. So the first thing we had to do on his return was move him into the Impenetrable Fortress known as "Bunny Bungalow 3". He is not amused.

Arnie, right, daydreams of open fields.

Just as we were starting to feel relieved about Arnie, I opened up one morning to discover Megan limping. She hopped from the front of her warren to the back without putting her back left foot down once. There was no obvious ailment, so two trips to the vet and an x-ray later, she was diagnosed as having a swollen knee (do bunnies have knees?). No idea how it happened of course. After two weeks of medicines she is still distressed and not using the leg. We have confined them to a comfortable smaller space, but now Whisky is getting unbearably grumpy. To top it off his eye has flared up again (probably all the stress) which will probably be another trip back to the vet's to have his tear-ducts flushed.

Megan with her poorly leg.

Hansel and Tiara were both recently diagnosed with ear abscesses and last week had surgery to have them removed. No sooner were they back at the rescue when a health check of Tibby and Jingles, ready to go to their new home, turned up a jawbone abscess in Jingles. So tomorrow, probably accompanied by Megan and Whisky, we are packing him off to the vets too for an operation to have it removed.

We have known it was coming for some time, but it hasn't softened the impact. For years, the owner of the neighbouring piece of land has allowed Caroline and her family to use it to access the Rescue from their house on the other side. A farmer rents the main part to grow crops, but the access route runs down the side. Sadly, the owner of the land died earlier this year and her family have decreed that no-one, including Caroline, is allowed to walk across it. This is despite the fact that the main access to their field is effectively through the Rescue the other side. It seems like a little thing (it's only an extra 5 minute walk through the village) but when Caroline is back and forth sometimes 20 times a day, that is a lot of lost time.

So then we come to Sunday of this week and the most depressing part of the month so far. Vicki, one of our newest volunteers opened the Rescue and found dutch/wild cross bunny Zeta had been badly attacked. Her skin was quite literally ripped to shreds. It is quite frightening to think that her brothers Tansley and Thistle could be responsible, but at least as likely is that she had picked a fight with a wild rat. Caroline rushed Zeta to the vets who did their best to save her, but despite coming around from anaesthetic and being stitched up, she died. We suspect the shock, pain and trauma was just too much for her. It was very sad and has deeply affected all of us.

I'll spare you the details of how I came to see the insides of a live rabbits leg this week, but that is basically June 2010 (so far) at the Rescue. Hopefully I will have some more positive stories for you in July. Thank you for listening.

USA GI

2010-06-24T00:02:00.010+01:00

Bunny-Manga "Apocalypse Meow" is getting a computer-generated make-over this summer. Episodes will be released through YouTube from 17th July, which gives you just enough time to brush up on your Japanese! Usagi desu!

[UPDATE: Not sure what's happening here since my Japanese skills are minimal, but the trailer has now been removed. :-(]

Floppy Hoppy Naptime Bunny

2010-06-12T23:21:00.002+01:00

"Zzzzzzzzzzzz"

Looks like Hoppy has had quite enough fame for one month. Time for him to disappear back into his shed for the rest of the day for a well deserved nap.

Cambridge Rose

2010-06-07T12:28:00.006+01:00

Friend of the Rescue and regular contributor to the RWAF's Rabbiting On magazine, Twigs Way is holding her annual Bunny Noses and Blooming Roses weekend in Cambridge UK later this month. Entrance to the event is free, but visitors are welcome to make a voluntary donation which will go to support rabbit charities and rescues in the UK.

For more information please see the poster above (click for larger view).

Fame at Last

2010-06-05T17:24:00.005+01:00

On Tuesday the Rescue was featured on the Channel 4 television programme The 5 O'Clock Show. Caroline and Annabel took Nestle, Perdy and Hoppy down to the studio, they all got to meet Peter Andre and the bunnies were cuddled on TV by Peter and his celebrity guests. It was only a brief piece, but it was good publicity for the Rescue and has led to an increase in queries and appointments. Our hope of course is that this will translate into more bunnies rehomed and maybe even some more donations.

Not surprisingly, all of today's visitors were keen to meet the famous bunnies and so Nestle, Perdy and Hoppy had even more attention than usual. But did their brush with celebrity and increased popularity go to their heads? Of course not - they are the same down-to-earth bunnies they always have been...

"Be a darling - put some carrots on ice and bring

me an Evian would you?"

"Yes of course you can stroke me. I'm sure

my agent can slot you into the calendar.

How does August work for you?"

Plus One

2010-05-19T13:32:00.022+01:00

We have just received this lovely email, from a couple that recently added a new member to their family who DOESN'T have a fluffy tail...

"When my husband and I found out that I was pregnant with our first child in August last year, we agreed on one thing straight away: our two house rabbits Schnitzel and Chewie would stay with us, no matter what. The two buns have been with us for almost two years now and they are certainly part of the family. I knew then, that it wouldn't always be easy and a few things had to be carefully considered, but I couldn't stand the thought of giving up part of my little family.
My husband is luckily very supportive of my bunny mania and loves the two buns as much as I do. We had discussed that he would support me with the cleaning of the indoor rabbit hutch (which is usually my job) once I got towards the end of the pregnancy and would be too big to be on all fours to clean them out. Luckily, it never actually got to that point, as my bump wasn't that massive and I could easily do all of the cleaning chores, till the day I went into hospital to give birth. Cleanliness is probably a big concern some people will have with a new born around the house. But both the rabbits are fully litter trained and I clean them on a daily basis anyway. I probably hoover a little bit more often now, to ensure I do not have too much fluff and dust bunnies flying around. And yes, I usually have to wait for my husband to hold/look after our four week old daughter, before I can clean out the hutch. But apart from that not much has changed in our daily cleaning routine.
Rabbits are certainly not cheap pets to keep and I usually spend 50 GBP per month to feed and bed (different hays, rabbit nuggets, treats, fresh veg and fruit, sawdust etc.) the two of them. This does not include the Vet costs or any holiday boarding that may be needed throughout the year. I certainly did not want to compromise on either their food or on their MYXO and VHD booster injections or any other treatment needed throughout the year. But on the other hand I knew that our household income would drop while I was on maternity leave. So while I was pregnant, I started to put a little bit of money aside each month, in order to save up enough to ensure that I would be able to keep the buns in the same way that I had been beforehand.
As mentioned earlier, our two buns live in the house and are both fully house trained and very clean. For us it was never a question of moving them out of their living conditions and into the garden. Firstly because I know that we have foxes in the area, which manage to get into our garden. And secondly we feel that we get so much more out of our buns, as they live indoors with us. It gives us a chance of observing them a lot more and we get to know their individual characters a lot better. However, throughout autumn we had some work done on our house. We extended into the loft, in order to make space for the little bun in my oven. Until then the bunnies hutch had stood in one corner of our living room and they always had the free run of the house. Unfortunately making the alterations to the house meant that we had to also build a wall through our living room, in order to ensure we complied with fire and building regulations. So by building a wall we in effect created a hallway and that meant that the hutch is now in the part that is the hall way. It was quiet confusing for the buns to start with, as they had been used to lying in or in front of their hutch in the evenings watching us sitting on the sofa. Now the wall is between us. But as the door is always open, the buns can still choose when to come into the living room to join us and when they want to have their peace and quiet they can go back to their hutch...so all in all the alterations have worked out quiet well actually.
At the start of the pregnancy it was really strange. It was almost as if Schnitzel our female bun could sense that something had changed with me. For a good 2-3 weeks she would hardly let me touch and stroke her. Schnitzel is the tamer of the two and especially very attached to my husband. We used to call her: "Daddies little girl". That really made me wonder, how she would take to the new family addition we where expecting. I feared that especially Schnitzel would be a bit jealous, but all in all the bunnies have taken the new addition to the family pretty well. Chewie doesn't seem too bothered by the baby and just gets on with his daily life. Schnitzel on the other hand seems sometimes a bit depressed, as she doesn't get as much cuddles and strokes as she did before hand. She certainly played up a bit in the days just before and after the Birth. We had one or two litter tray lapses, as she was trying to get more attention from us. It almost seems funny, as "playing up" is something you would expect an older human sibling to do, when a new baby brother or sister is brought home.
When we brought our baby daughter home from hospital the two rabbits came to investigate what we had brought with us. They came over and sniffed the car seat and it's contents. My husband also held our daughter and went down to the rabbits level, so they could take a look at her. But the baby's flailing arms where a bit too much for them and they decided to keep their distance. From time to time Schnitzel does jump up on the sofa in the evening, to come and check us all out as we lie there together, but she always keeps a respectful distance from our daughter.
So all in all living with rabbits and a baby isn't that tricky. We had to plan a little bit ahead and the bunnies had to fit around the babies routine i.e. waiting for their breakfast or dinner till the baby has been fed. But apart from that not much has changed for us. I do sometimes feel a little bit sad if I think I don't quiet have as much time to cuddle them like I used too. But I am sure once our daughter is a little bit bigger, I will find more time for them again. In the meantime, they just get most of their strokes and cuddles from my husband. We are looking forward to many more years with our rabbit's. And I am pleased that my daughter will have a chance to grow up with animals and I hope she will share our love for those amazing long eared fluff balls. I am sure there will be other hurdles in future, which will need to be overcome. For example we will need to teach our daughter to respect the rabbits' space, not to chase or grab them etc. But with a lot of patience and supervision, I am sure we can also over come that."

Photo's and words by Sandra and Justin.

Over-Worked, Under-Played

2010-05-14T22:49:00.002+01:00

With around a hundred bunnies in need of homes living at the Rescue, it is always a very busy place. There seems more to do here than the number of hours in the day permit. Not surprising then that Caroline has recently had to resort to asking people to take work home with them just to keep on top of everything. At various times over the last few weeks I've seen armfuls of paperwork being loaded into the other volunteers cars - Colin, Mandy, Sue, Debbie and others, all pitching in to clear a backlog of forms, mail-outs, planning submissions, work on the various websites and projects that we are involved with.

So it was only a matter of time before I was handed something to take away and sort out. Knowing it was bound to be some tough and probably tedious project that no-one else wanted, I diligently returned home, cleared the dining room table and emptied the contents of the box onto it ready to make a start. I stared at it wondering where to begin. The project stared back at me.

"Don't bother looking for the instructions -

we got a little hungry in the car"

Scarf Weather

2010-05-11T12:58:00.003+01:00

After many days of warm sunshine, the temperature has suddenly dropped in the UK - in some parts of the country to below zero. Time to check the outdoor bunnies have enough bedding to keep them snuggly I feel.

Jemima always seems particularly susceptible to changes in temperature. She's OK though. She's helped herself to the bandages in the Emergencies box and made herself a scarf...

Quest

2010-05-04T21:22:00.019+01:00

A short time ago, in a land not far from this place, a tale was told of a group of magical beings who possessed powers almost beyond human comprehension. These creatures, though said it was that they were diminutive in stature, could command great forces within man so as to render him weak and completely under their spell. Such were their powers that all manner of persons sought to trap them and make of them their own so they could harness this power, little knowing that for all that might try, the only fate that could lie ahead was slavery to the beasts.

And so our Tiny Tale begins, as our intrepid adventurer, the BHV, on hearing that these mighty magi had set up residence in a cave in a neighbouring land, decided to track them down and, quite frankly, see what all the fuss was about.

So the BHV packed up some provisions into a duffel bag, pulled on his best walking boots, grabbed his magic picture box and set off on his trek. After a time he came to the border. At the border was a gate through which the BHV knew he must pass. But he also knew that somewhere nearby lurked the guardian of this exit, a beast as black as night and as vicious as a snake with an elephant on its tail. The BHV stepped up to the gate and reached out a hand, but at that moment a huge dark shape slipped from the shadows causing him to recoil.

"Who approaches my gate?" the creature demanded.

"'Tis I, the BHV" the BHV replied.

"And why do you dare to approach my gate?" the creature asked.

"I seek the little ones whose powers, it is told, know no bounds. I have heard they have been spotted in the land on the other side."

"Ha! A fool's errand you follow! But no matter. If passage through my gate you seek, a challenge you must complete. If you succeed in this challenge, you may pass through. But be warned - if you fail, I shall eat you for my dinner!"

The BHV shuddered. He did not want to be eaten for anyone's dinner, let alone this nasty creature. But still, he couldn't quit now.

"What is your challenge, oh mighty and majestic being?" he asked, for flattery can often get you through the trickiest situation.

"If you wish to pass, you must take your right hand and with it stroke my head three times. If you can do so without showing a moments fear, I shall allow you to continue on your way unharmed. However, for every moment of fear I see in your eyes I shall strike you with my 'mighty and majestic' paw, and if my 'mighty and majestic' claws draw blood, you have lost my challenge and I shall eat you."

Yikes, thought the BHV. But he put on a brave face and exclaimed "I accept!"

At once the creature lowered its head. "Proceed" it said.

So the BHV put forth his hand and began to stroke the creature.

After the first stroke, the creature became completely still. After the second, to the surprise of the BHV, the creature began to purr. But as he stroked for the third time, the creature shot out a paw with a mighty swipe!

And you may, dear reader, have expected our tale to end there, but thankfully it was the turn of the creature to be surprised. For the BHV was expecting the devious attack and dodged it with some ease.

"You have impressed me with your speed and courage" said the beast. "This time, I will let you pass. However, if I should see you here abouts again, bring snacks. Or expect to be one."

The BHV passed through the gate, left the beast behind and made his way down the road that led to the land of Office. This road was to some a dangerous place, but in the land of Rescue the BHV had gained the rank of "Chief Volunteer" and as such earned the right to walk the path unchallenged.

When he arrived at the land of Office, the BHV found another gate. He passed through this gate without incident, but as he closed it behind him and turned to face the way ahead, he found it was blocked. For standing before the BHV was a huge orange giant, with huge orange ears and the most disapproving look he had ever seen.

"Who are you that dares to pass through my gate?" the giant roared.

"I am the BHV" replied the BHV and, pre-empting the inevitable follow up question, added "I have come seeking the Little Ones, those said to have great power over man".

"Fool!" cried the giant.

"But a fool up to a challenge!" replied the BHV quickly, for he could see where this was going.

"Challenge, eh?" retorted the giant. "Well a challenge I have for you. First, you must take your right hand and with it stroke my head three times."

"I see," replied the BHV confidently, "And if I show fear you will swipe me and eat me for your dinner?"

"No, silly human! THEN you shall stroke me three more times, maybe a few times behind the ears and THEN I shall nap and you can do what you jolly well please!"

The BHV was taken aback by this, but happily obliged and as the giant began to snore went on his way.

Almost immediately, the BHV came across a small cage. Knowing for sure he had found what he had set out to find, the BHV opened the door and peered inside.

And do you know, dear readers, what he saw in that cage? What manner of creature it was that could bend a persons will to do its bidding with just a look?

Tiny. Babeh. Bunnehs.

Let us just say that, having set eyes on those tiny little faces, it was a long time before the BHV was seen outside of the land of Office ...

Argh! Monster!

2010-04-26T22:43:00.003+01:00

I found this strange creature at the Rescue on Saturday. There's a sign on the hutch. It reads "Smurf - needs grooming".

Derby

2010-04-13T20:01:00.005+01:00

Photo's of Derby by Carly and Art

I have just heard that one of my favourite webstar bunnies, Derby, passed away last week. Derby was a handsome (and often disapproving) mini-rex who featured on CuteOverload a number of times and whose Flickr photostream brought me many moments of happiness.

My thoughts go out to Carly and Art during this sad time along with my heartfelt thanks for sharing his life with us.

Rocket Bun

2010-04-10T21:26:00.003+01:00

I couldn't leave you with just a picture of my hand for today's blog - you probably only came here cos there weren't enough cuddleh bunneh pics for you on CuteOverload today, right? So here's a quick picture story of what happened AFTER my encounter with Pat and Bob, but be warned - contact with Rocket Bunny should only be attempted by experienced rescue managers who have spent 14 years developing mad bunny skills.

"Stupid human! How dare you gaze upon me?

I am Rocket Bunny the most fearsome, untouchable

beast ever known to...wait, what's going on??!!"

"Hey! Put me down! I'm the most feared

bunny here, you know! I could chomp

your arms clean off, I could!"

"Well...OK...ONE cuddle. But you better

not tell anyone - I have a reputation to keep

you see. And if this turns up on your stupid

blog you'll be finding the remains of that

camera in my litter tray..."

Once Bitten, Twice Chomped

2010-04-10T19:44:00.005+01:00

This is my hand - can you guess what today's blog post is about?

I received 2 messages about the tasks for today from Caroline. The first was a list of bunnies she wanted me to move around before opening up. The second one was sent to all todays volunteers and was predominantly a list of where all the rabbits are located, included with it the warning:

"Please note we have a rabbit who is suffering from nervous aggression and is prone to biting. His name is Rocket and he presently lives in emergency hutch 11"

Oh dear! The first time I met Rocket properly was a few weeks back when I was trying to put him to bed with his dinner and he proved to be quite a character. Where all the other bunnies either jumped straight into their homes at the sound of me rattling the bucket of pellets or waited cautiously at a distance just until I was out of the way before retiring, this little terror came straight at me and raced round my feet like a little puppy. He growled at me to keep away from his house and REFUSED to go inside. When all the usual tricks failed, I eventually resorted to picking him up and putting him in, but even that wasn't the end of it - he latched onto my sleeve with his teeth like a little terrier and wouldn't let go! So that was my first proper Rocket experience and it seemed that since then he had similarly attacked four other volunteers and been moved to one of the emergency hutches until a suitable girlfriend can be found to help calm him down! Oh well, at least today I would be prepared for him...

So onto the first task of the day, I set about moving bunnies. Those awaiting partners moved into the bonding sheds, naughty bunnies moved to warrens where they would be easier to round up, healthy pairs who have been at the rescue a while moved to be more visible to todays visitors. No bunny is especially keen on change, but most here are used to life with the friendly people at the Rescue and willing to just go along with it. You have to be a bit careful with the new arrivals of course, but bunnies like Bob and Pat who have been at the rescue for some time know that being lifted out of a hutch usually means at worst a bit of a brush and a cuddle so they are perfectly fine. I said hello to them, stroked Pat's head, explained to her that she was going back out into a nice big warren and reached round to lift her out and into a carrier. In an instant she went from sweetness-and-light to a total grump-a-sauraus and buried her teeth in my hand! All that thinking about how I had to be wary of Rocket Bunny and I'd been totally caught off guard by one of the friendly ones!

So todays important lesson (re)learned - rabbits are territorial prey animals. If hands reach into their home to grab them, there is a good chance they will feel threatened and either panic with fear or fight back. The result is much ouchness.

Once the flow of blood had subsided and Bob and Pat had been moved to their more spacious warren, it was breakfast time for bunnies which gave me the perfect opportunity to restore the balance of power. So when I reached their warren, I sat myself down on the grass, looked them straight in the eyes and asked them, "Do naughty chompy bunnies get tasty broccoli snacks for breakfast?" Apparently they do - they gently planted their front paws on my legs, adopted their sweetest bunny faces and proceeded to eat their breakfast out of my hands. Awww...what was I mad at them for again?

Another Lesson Learned

2010-03-26T19:37:00.003Z

Having spent the week at the rescue learning new skills, I returned home to have my own bunnies teach me something too. Never EVER hold an open container of treats within striking distance of tiny paws.

I also learned that bunnies can clear up spilt snacks much faster than I can.

"Well, I've cleared up that mess for you - do you have

another you'd like me to eat...er...I mean clean??!!"

Holiday at the Rescue

2010-03-26T17:34:00.006Z

There are lots of ways to spend your annual holiday entitlement from work – lazy days on sundrenched beaches, skiing through the picturesque landscapes of Europe or even seeking out some of the more interesting local tourist attractions. None of this really appeals to me though, so when I was faced with finding something to occupy my week away from the drudgery of desk work I could think of nothing better than having a few days of training in bunny care at the Rescue. Hoping to some day be able to have her own holiday of the more traditional kind and know she was leaving the Rescue in capable hands, Caroline was more than happy to oblige.

The Rescue operates a small “hospital”, an area where bunnies needing daily medicines, or recently returned from the vets needing some recuperation time, can relax in relative warmth and be closely monitored. Where they are confined to a much smaller space than the healthy bunnies, they require more frequent cleaning so the first task of the week was a familiar one - cleaning out! Each bunny had to be removed from its cage and placed outside in an enclosed area on the grass so lesson number one from Caroline was how to pick up a bunny through a small door in the cage. This technique involved using a hand either side of the bunny and fingers slipped under the back feet with the bunny facing me. Next carry (cuddle) them to the outside enclosure, clean, bed, replace bunny.

Anda practises his ballet moves while

Sparkle waits for their cage to be cleaned

Once all the cages were clean and the bunnies happily returned to a fresh chompage of hay, next up was the special tasks. Each bunny has a list of medicines, cleaning and grooming requirements. Santa’s propensity to stasis has given me lots of general experience here but still I had lots to learn. Highlights of this section of the day included cleaning out the site where Marbles’ jaw abscess was removed from and the foul substances that are emitted from Anda’s ears (yuck!). As usual, the things we see Caroline do every day that look SO straight forward when she does them are suddenly revealed to be highly complex when we attempt them ourselves, even with Caroline’s direct guidance. Not helped by grumpy bunnies that aren’t happy about the extra time you are taking over it of course.

Lacey likes meeting new friends in the hospital.

And weeing where you've just cleaned. She likes that alot.

After the hospital it was on to the main site of the Rescue where the tasks are more familiar. The only extra bit here was administering eye drops. I had had some experience already as I had been trained to do Whisky’s, but whereas Whisky is pretty used to being picked up for this it is a different story for Lucy Liu, Snow White and Sneezy. But bunnies are full of surprises – Whisky started resenting me once I started his eye drops but Snow White and Sneezy became more friendly. They had always been cautious around me at the Rescue before, but now it seems I’ve proved to them that I can be trusted to pick them up and not to cause them harm.

So that was my week on holiday at the Rescue. I don’t know if Caroline has seen any difference in my handling of the bunnies, but I have certainly found it a useful experience. At the end of the week I even found that I was holding and carrying bunnies differently without having made any conscious changes, which I see as a good sign.

And for my next holiday? I guess I should go away somewhere. I hear there’s some quite good rescues in North America…

Chubby Bunnies

2010-03-03T13:03:00.015Z

"Wake me when the grass has grown back"

Rabbit Awareness Week is next month and it looks like this year they will be focusing on rabbit obesity. For much like us humans, a rabbit who is overweight is at much higher risk of all sorts of quite serious medical problems. And this is something we see not only in the rabbits that have been removed from bad situations and passed to us by the RSPCA, but even rabbits subsequently adopted from us into otherwise idyllic situations.

Part of the trouble is, when trying to make friends with an animal, or even just trying to get them to pay you attention on a daily basis, it is all too easy to fall into the trap of bribing them with snacks. With bunnies, it can be the choice between sitting patiently on the floor for what might be an hour before they decide to give you any attention, or rattling the snack jar and immediately having bunnies clambering all over you. But at the end of the day, we love our bunnies and their health has to be paramount - with just a little more patience we can soon be enjoying a much deeper friendship with our bunny friends that is not based on treats.

Which brings me to Jemima. Yes folks, I myself am the parent of a very porky bunny. I know I am to blame, since every bit of food going into her has been put out or given directly by me, but I'm seriously trying very hard and running out of practical ideas. She has a reasonable amount of space (6ft by 3ft house attached to 6ft by 10ft run), at least twice daily access to the garden, a healthy diet of veg and some "lite" pellets with unlimited hay and grass. Since I realized over a year ago that she was scoffing more than her fair share of the food, I have been separating her from Santa for mealtimes and despite being twice his size gets less food than him, especially pellets and carrots. And yet after all of this, she is still a fatty.

I think I know the main source of her problem though - much like me, she's incredibly lazy. All winter, if they were out for playtime you would find Santa grazing, exploring or tearing round the garden like he's on fire. Jemima's pastimes rarely extend beyond chomping and napping. Sometimes she even lies down to eat the grass in the garden.

At least Spring is just around the corner and I know that she is about to perk up. In just a few short weeks she will no doubt be chasing Santa all over the garden demanding his "romantic" attentions and his highly developed skills of evasion will hopefully help her burn some calories. And on top of that, I will be looking forward to all the exciting events that are taking place in Rabbit Awareness Week and looking out for some helpful tips!

Save The Rescue 2010

2010-02-24T13:24:00.003Z

As friends of the Rescue will be aware, we have been required annually to re-apply for planning permission to remain on our current site. This is largely due to our proximity to (and access through) a residential area.

Recently, in preparation for the current application, we contacted the local residents and asked them to let us know of any concerns they had so that we could address them. Most of the people we spoke to were very positive. The only concern we encountered was with the way in which waste was removed from the site and as a result we implemented a new system which eliminated all of the problems highlighted.

So having met the conditions of last years planning approval (limiting the vehicles on site in number and to volunteers only, visitors only on Saturday and only appointment etc) and addressing the only concerns expressed to us by the local residents, we were understandably surprised to hear that the Parish Council decided to recommend that the application this year be denied.

We have just a few days before the District Council make their final decision on our application, a decision that could mean the end of the Rescue. So please, if you support the work that we do, show your support by signing our online petition below. We have until 3rd March to convince them to let us continue to run the Rescue from our current site.

The petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/rabbit10/

If you have any comments or queries regarding our planning application we would be happy to hear from you. Please contact Caroline at the email address provided on our website.

Rabbit Reconciliation

2010-02-08T13:15:00.008Z

We love hearing from our rehomed bunnies and their families. Here is an email we received recently from a family that Caroline helped find a partner bun for (kindly rewritten for us to post here on the blog - thanks Andy!).

Rabbit Reconciliation - Bunnies fall out over ear-drops and VHD jab
Magic and Wendy
(Picture by Andy)
After the death of our beautiful little Lionhead, Pepper, at the age of 9, we asked Caroline to find a new partner for our 5 year-old Dutch-cross house-rabbit, Magic. We have had a number of rescue rabbits over the years, mostly from Caroline. We wanted a rabbit of similar age and temperament – Magic is quite timid – so Caroline's rabbit, Spirit, was suggested.
Unfortunately, after a long time on her own, Spirit turned out to be most boisterous than we initially expected, resulting in unsuccessful bonding and Magic getting a bitten ear. Against this backdrop of a slightly distressed rabbit, Caroline suggested one of her new arrivals, Wendy. Wendy is HUGE – well, Magic is little, and against him, Wendy looks enormous (3.5kg lop vs Magic's 2kg). After a couple of days with Wendy, Caroline noticed that Magic was just a bit wary of Wendy. Unusually, she proposed that we bond Wendy and Magic on Magic's 'home turf' – to try to boost Magic's reticence with a bit of 'home advantage'.
I went and picked up the pair and brought them home. In preparation, I had bought a new indoor cage for their bedding area. Together with the old cage, each rabbit had their own cage and small area at the back of our house, but separated by bars at the edge of the cage. I had also set up a web-cam to view the two cages. With support from Caroline, I proceeded with the bonding, initially waiting a couple of days to see them take interest in each other and be prepared to sit by each other, separated by the cage. This was followed by a couple of nights 'swapped around' in each other's cage to reinforce the familiarization of the other rabbit's smell. I then trialled the rabbits in the living room, to see how they reacted to each other with unrestricted access – there was wariness and a bit of chasing away, but nothing too serious. I followed this up by allowing the rabbits access to each other’s cages over night for a few days until they were happy to sit together in one cage. The second cage was kept as a bolt-hole, eventually being removed after a further 3 or 4 days. With the web-cam, I was able to observe them cleaning each other – bonding seemed to be complete...
However, trouble was ahead... Magic needed stitches removed from his ear following the earlier ear-biting incident with Spirit. Wendy needed her spay stitches checked, her waxy ears looked at and her VHD vaccination. Off we went to the vets... All went to plan and we were given some drops to help break down any remaining wax (Caroline having spent some time with a rather annoyed Wendy removing the wax from her ears with cotton-buds).
On return home, Wendy was a bit off-colour (naturally, after a vaccination). She also didn't like having the drops squirted in her ears – and the drops smelt funny too! But all was well... Except a day later, the rabbits were chasing each other around and trying to bite the other's backside. This was very depressing, having successfully (!) bonded the rabbits – my first attempt at this sort of thing. I spoke to Caroline, looking for advice. Obviously they needed to be separated. The bad reaction may have been a combination of Wendy being understandably grumpy and Magic not recognising her scent, masked as it was by the ear-drops.
So, the second cage returned... They went back to the bonding arrangement for a couple of days, separated, until I was willing to risk having them have access to each other. The main problem then, rather than aggression, was that the second Wendy got near Magic, he would run off. Still, no fighting... So they had separate, but accessible cages for a further 3 days. Eventually, they could be sat next to each other without one of them running off. Back to one cage... Not exactly 'in love' though... Anyway, 1 week later, they are cleaning each other and all is well again – it just needed a bit of time.
The moral of this story, if there one, is, don't try to force the rabbits together, give them time on their own without human interference. And, if things go wrong, all is not lost. The situation can be recovered with a bit of patience and care!

If you have adopted a bunny from us and have an amusing or interesting tale to tell, please contact Caroline via the email address on our website.

Bun to be Wild

2010-01-30T13:46:00.015Z

Pea, Pod, Cosmos and Goofy are wild (cross?) rabbits, hand-reared from a very young age. And they are great fun.

The wild streak can make the group quite manic at times, especially living in a group of four where there is always one doing something to set the others off into chaos.

Each of them sits on a different point on the scale of trust towards humans. When you go in to see them, outside of the usual feeding times, one will immediately bound up to you and place their paws on you to see what you are doing and one will move to the farthest corner and eye you suspiciously. The other two will lurk somewhere between, waiting to see what time it is - treat-time, cleaning-time or being-picked-up-for-health-checks-time! But all of them are ultimately friendly towards people and happy to be stroked once they have gotten to know you.

Today whilst cleaning them out, I repeatedly had to encourage them to move out of my way, to which they generally responded grumpily ("Hey, I was eating/relaxing-in that bit of hay!"), moved to somewhere I hadn't cleaned yet and glared at me. By the time this process had been repeated around the whole of their enclosure, we were left with four bunnies crammed into one small corner! ("Well, you've moved us from everywhere else!") It looked very cute and was one of the funniest moments I've experienced at the Rescue, though I don't think they really saw it that way. As with most of our cleaning-related stories, the incident ended with happy bunnies with their faces stuck into a pile of fresh Timothy Hay and dried grass, so I think they've forgiven me.

"Dude! Will you stop crowding me?
I'm trying to use the bathroom here!"

Caroline told me she fears these lovely little things will likely spend most or all of the rest of their lives stuck at the Rescue, which would be a great shame. It's probably true that they would be far too mischievous to be general house rabbits (you'd keep finding them under the sofa cushions and inside the VCR) and they are expert diggers/chewers, so you'd need a pretty well built enclosure to house them outside. But who wouldn't want to take in a cute little bunch of crazy bunnies that were almost guaranteed to make you laugh out loud every day?!

So now I need to save up to buy a house with a bigger garden. You have until then to get the adoption forms in before me... ;-)

Beware of the lunch thieves!

2010-01-23T10:21:00.013Z

It wasn't my fault. Honest. I was sitting quietly having my lunch when this white flash suddenly appeared from nowhere and attacked me. Well, actually she attacked my sandwich - peanut butter, yum yum, she obviously thought so as well. Well I reckoned that this would be an easy battle to win, after all she's small and so very cute; I'd be able to fight her off easily.

How wrong I was. She's a strong little thing, that Perdy, but just when I thought I would win, I realised that she must have called for reinforcements, as two little helpers came at me from different sides. The tactic of Hoppy and Nestle was clearly diversionary as they went straight for the plastic bag containing my apples, found their way in and started nibbling. With my hands full from battling with Perdy, what could I do?
I realised I was on a loser so I had to sacrifice something. The peanut butter sandwich was too precious to lose so I grabbed an apple and thrust it under Perdy's nose. My tactic worked. Distracted for a moment, she let go of the sandwich, which was now all mine, ha ha! Thrusting the remains into my mouth I revelled in my victory.

However, my glory was short lived as my apple was disappearing fast. I tried to save it but it was too late as the three monsters had gorged their way through it. I'll swear they never took a breath during their merciless attack. I did manage to retrieve one of my biscuits for a moment but alas, weakened by the struggle I had to give in.

Finally gasping for breath and traumatised by my experience I staggered up and away from my tormenters, cursing their names ........................................................ or something like that.

Already I'm looking forward to my next lunch in warren 10!

Bunface

2010-01-19T12:16:00.008Z

This week we started setting up a Facebook page for the Rescue. If you are a Facebook user, search for The Rabbit Residence Rescue and "Become a fan" to receive updates of all the latest happenings and events, plus (of course) lots of pictures of our adorable bunnies, past and present.

'S No Fun

2009-12-18T14:20:00.013Z

Well, not much activity on this blog for a few weeks. I mostly blame the weather. We have just lived through a month of rain, which has meant miserable bunnies staring out from underneath hutches and inside sheds not wanting to come out and play (well, the sensible ones anyway). But the rain has now passed, replaced with frost and snow. Oh joy.

And not just a little bit of snow. It kicked off with about 10cm in 6 hours. So this weekend I am, basically, snowed in. I cannot get to the Rescue (in fact Royston has been on the news as one of the worst hit towns in the region) so I have taken up residence on the sofa for a few days with the TV, my laptop and occasionally some very grumpy bunnies.

The snow appears to have brought great joy to many of my colleagues, neighbours and friends, who are spending their days away from work/school frolicking in cold wet sludge. Caroline tells me the bunnies at the Rescue are also enjoying themselves, running madly about and playing in the curious white blanket that covers the ground, the like of which many of them have never seen before.

My own opinion of snow is more like that of Alex P. Keaton. And, once again proving that Caroline does an excellent job matching bunnies to people, S+J are totally with me on this.

Santa has been grumpy for weeks as the temperature has been gradually dropping. One morning he failed to notice me come in with his breakfast as he was so busy re-arranging the hay in his bedroom to try and make himself warmer (also partly my fault – I may have over-compensated with the straw earlier in the week and they pretty much had to burrow their way back in to go to bed). He doesn’t like the cold. When he woke up to thick snow Friday morning, he peered at it suspiciously from the doorway before seeming to decide that he was “cold enough thank you very much” and disappeared back inside refusing to come out of the shed for the rest of the day.

Jemima also hates snow. With her short Rex fur already giving her little protection and consequently regular problems with sore feet, she can’t bear to walk on anything cold or wet. She came bounding out, but as soon as her feet hit the snow she panicked, flew across the garden at great speed and disappeared into the house. When it came time to put bunnies back in their house, I couldn’t persuade her to come out of mine.

We all became a little more accustomed to the weather over the course of the weekend. By Sunday, all three of us were willing to spend up to several minutes in the garden, though it was inevitably followed with some quality time indoors in front of the radiator. Once her nose was dry, Jemima went on to her daily task of making all the hay disappear, while Santa decided to work on his on-going project to find the highest lagomorphically-accessible point in the lounge. Via a pile of cushions, the back of the sofa and a bookshelf he managed to surpass his previous record by about a foot and seemed very proud of himself.

It doesn’t look like the weather is going to clear this side of Xmas, which probably means more days of disapproval from the little ones, but at least I am having more time to spend with them. Still, I can’t wait til the roads clear and I can get back to the Rescue – or maybe Santa (the other one) will bring me a new 4x4 car for Xmas? Here’s hoping.

Copper Bunny : Saved

2009-11-24T13:06:00.012Z

Thankfully, it looks like the Tacoma and Pierce County Humane Society have had second thoughts about ending the life of poor little Copper Bunny - they have now released Copper to a local rabbit sanctuary in Gig Harbor.

The Rabbit Haven Sanctuary is a larger operation than ours, having around twice the number of rabbits in their care (and I thought breakfast-time at our rescue was crazy!). So it looks like he is in good hands with expert bunny people who can give him the proper love and attention he needs.

For the latest updates on Copper's progress, check out the Rabbit Haven website, where you can also help Copper and other bunnies like him by making a donation to the sanctuary.

Many thanks to the Rabbit Haven Sanctuary for kindly giving us permission to use their photo of Copper on our blog!

Chomp!!!

2009-11-23T12:21:00.042Z

Yesterday I had the bitter-sweet pleasure of "Claw Day" with S+J, which to the casual observer is a cross between amateur manicure and professional wrestling. The plus for me is that during the procedure I get to cuddle my bunnies as if they were teddy bears. The down side is they hate it, hate it, hate it and are quite prepared to convey this point using all available forms of communication. Depending on their mood, this could include grunting, scratching, stamping or even biting. This month I got off fairly lightly. Beforehand, there was a moment where both bunnies simultaneously realised that the preparation of grooming tools and coiled body language could only mean one thing. A brief cartoon-style chase followed, involving some clambering behind the sofa by all parties. After the event, Jemima decided to explain to me that the post-clipping-reward-snack was of insufficient proportions, chomping down hard on my coat and trying to drag me across the room. It may have been a coincidence that this was in the direction of the tub of pellets from which she felt she should be further rewarded.

On Claw Day last month, Jemima decided much earlier in the proceedings that she was unimpressed with my efforts. Before I could even start on the first paw she came to the conclusion that her grunts of disapproval were being unfairly ignored and felt she needed to explain in terms I could not ignore. She promptly chomped my hand.

As a part-time bunny-wrangler for the Rescue, being gently (and not so gently) chomped by bunnies comes with the territory. I doubt there's a single long-serving volunteer here who hasn't been caught out by a nervous newly arrived individual, a bunny who has seen a hand coming into its home and mistaken breakfast delivery for an attack or territorial invasion. Even Caroline, after years of being able to predict when a bunny is grumpy and about to pounce, has been caught out a couple of times checking-in new arrivals. Then there are also the bunnies who, like Jemima and countless others, are not at all aggressive but use light chomping just to tell you something, usually that you are in their way or to stop ignoring them!

Flora, Jemima, Bigwig and Bruce. Friendly,
adorable, but very, very chompy.

My point is, as bunny people, being chomped is a common occurrence that is driven either by utter, desperate fear or to convey something to you that you just don't seem to be getting. Not surprising then that this story of a bunny at an American Humane Society centre that has been scheduled to be put down for biting one of the staff has been enraging the rabbit-loving community across the globe:

Link: Doomed Local Rabbit at Komo News

Mystery Bunny

2009-11-06T23:43:00.002Z

Mystery Bunny Gets Snuggly

It makes me very sad to have to report this, but we have heard that our beloved Mystery Bunny has died. Mystery Bunny went out to adoption with her husband Majestic and it seems that she was tragically killed by a fox.

For the whole time that Majestic (who Helen has taken to calling Moo because of his cow-like markings) and Mystery were at the rescue, Mystery was particularly friendly towards me and would always come and say hello as I walked past. If I went in to their run and sat down on the grass she would clamber over my legs, snuggle into me and demand to be stroked. The two of them were absolutely adorable and the news of Mystery's passing was particularly painful for me to hear.

To help everyone remember her as I do, as the very special bunny that she was, I am posting this my favourite picture of her(above). Mystery, you were a very special bunny and you will be sadly missed.

FYI, Ears : Found

2009-11-05T12:57:00.000Z

"Erm,thanks for finding my ears, but are

you sure you put them back on straight??!!"

Older, Wiser, Cuddlier

2009-10-31T13:06:00.019Z

Amigo Bunny (age 8)

Choosing a pair of bunnies to take into your home might be one of the hardest decisions you ever make. It is almost certainly the hardest decision you will make when you visit the rescue. You are essentially trying to pick new family members and they need to fit in with the ones you already have (or at least fit in with you and your own peculiar ways!).

Everyone who comes to us has their favourites - giants or dwarves, rexes or lion-heads, lops or "uppy eared" rabbits. Some people like rabbits that demonstrate a strong sense of fearless independence. Most are even more taken by the bunnies who already show a friendliness towards humans. And just as there are thousands of different rabbit types, so are there thousands of different people types to want them and love them.

Having narrowed it down to just a few pairs, it is often the case that people will pick the younger, cuter ones. So today I am going to offer some advice on why you should perhaps look closer and not rule out our more mature residents as your perfect match!

So, why might you pick a pair of older bunnies? Here are some things to consider:

An older bunny will tend to be more laid back. They are more likely to chill out on the rug with you for the evening than spend it trying to run up the curtains. Of course, they might also be less likely to eat the curtains.
They tend to be more appreciative of (or at least willing to tolerate) human attention.
Remember you are not just adopting a rabbit for your benefit, you are giving a good life to a creature who has been mistreated or abandoned. For an older rabbit this probably means either more years of mistreatment, or perhaps abandoned after years of loyalty. Doesn't this make them MORE deserving of your love?
Unlike a baby or adolescent bunny, the older ones have been through their experimental stage and have already truly found themselves. It is much easier to gage their personality from meeting them.
Because of their more sedentary nature, older bunnies will often make great house rabbits.

In the case of Amigo and his new partner Lucy-Liu there is an even better reason to want to take them home. They are just so very, very cuddly!

"Darling, stop eating the curtains - the

neighbours are staring at us again!"

Thieving Rascals

2009-10-10T15:07:00.006+01:00

"Honestly, when they asked me if I wanted to move to the Rabbit Residence Rescue I took one look at the brochure and said 'Sure, looks like a nice place to live - good location, lots of tasty grass to eat, space to run around.' But I guess I should have at least dropped by to check out the neighbours before putting my paw on the dotted line. It's not that they're not friendly, it's just that, well...let's just say you wouldn't want to leave your favourite carrot lying around unattended. Of course I learned this lesson the hard way. I took one little nap and when I woke up some mischievous little scamp had made off with both my ears! I tell ya, I am so mad I could...[yawn]...I could...zzzzzzzzz"

Don't worry new babeh bunneh, we'll find your ears for you while you take a gentle sunny snooze...

Slow Day

2009-09-26T22:08:00.002+01:00

Today was less productive than it could have been. Days like this are not unusual - heavy rain, wind and even warm sunshine are our enemies when working outside. Anyone who has tried throwing wood shavings evenly across a hutch floor in gale force conditions will know what I mean here. But there is one thing outside of the weather that is GUARANTEED to slow every single volunteer as we go about our daily chores. One thing that causes us to drag our feet every time we pass through the yard, to dawdle whenever we are within a few feet of the new arrivals barn. New. Baby. Bunnies.

I wonder how many I could fit in my pocket without Caroline noticing...

Insert Breakfast Here

2009-09-26T08:49:00.001+01:00

"Yes, yes, just place the food in the bowl, you don't even need to look you've done it a thousand times, just pour it in!" [opens mouth]

How clean is your bunny house?

2009-09-21T17:42:00.002+01:00

This week I was put in my place by Nestle, an adorable agouti Dutch bunny! As I entered his residence, I knew I was about to receive some serious schooling. “We decided to take a corner each, so there will be some SERIOUS wee-scraping required over, here, here and...here” he seemed to be saying as he darted around me. He took charge of the dustpan – using his paws and mouth to position it in the perfect place to scoop up all the bunny mess. I obviously just wasn’t getting it right. By dashing between the bag and dustpan he made sure that I wasn’t sloppy and all the mess went into the rubbish bag. So helpful! When all the cleaning was done he inspected the corners and nudged me appreciatively: “Not bad for a human, I guess”. After I had bedded up his house he checked that the hay was in the right place, adjusting it to his decorative fancy, then dived into the fresh readi-grass –“munch, munch, munch!!!” He seemed satisfied that I had done a pretty good job… or maybe that was just the readi-grass talking.

Bunnies Talk

2009-09-12T22:13:00.004+01:00

It would appear that some scheming has been going on in the New Arrivals Barn. You will recall that several weeks ago I was thwarted in my attempts to take a decent picture of Puzzle Bunny. Well it seems that he found it such a wheeze that he has been passing some advice around his comrades.

Hobnob Bunny

Josie Bunny

Could this be the start of all-out bunny revolution? Watch this space.

Suspects

2009-09-08T18:56:00.001+01:00

I own a house. This is pretty much a necessity for me. When a letting agent asks what your basic requirements are and you start with "Somewhere where it's easy to clean woodshavings and hay from all the floors and surfaces, and where tiny fluffy creatures are welcome to chew everything within two feet of an accessible surface..." it rarely goes well from that point. So I own a house. There are currently six of us living at the property, usually harmoniously. But today, while I was preparing breakfast, someone broke one of the most important of the house rules and I need to figure out who. So let's look at the suspects.

First up is one Mr Santa Bunny. A wiley character this. Take your eye off him for a second and when you turn back he'll be looking straight back at you, eye-level, from atop a bookshelf. (Look down and you will see a pile of anything you had inconsiderately left on the shelves that might have slowed his ascent.) A definite candidate for mischief this one. But now that I think of it, I know for a fact that at the time of the incident he was in the shed diligently throwing everything from inside out on to the lawn. So I guess it wasn't him.

Our next suspect is the huge black lump known as Jemima Bunny. She has a different party trick to Santa - turn your back on her for a second and she will make anything resembling food in a 10 metre radius disappear. Vegetables, leaves, electrical cable. Nothing that will fit in her mouth is safe. But again, now I think of it, at the time of the incident Jemima was in the garden rapidly digging her way to Australia, so I guess she's out too.

Ahhh, Megan Bunny! My little angel. Sweet, timid and gentle. When she wants something she will politely come and ask for it. Megan was definitely in the vicinity at the time of the incident. She certainly had the opportunity to commit this offence, but not the motive. She loves positive attention and treats and wouldn't risk jeapordizing either. Megan is my little angel and certainly not the rule breaking type. So I don't think it's her.

And so we come to Whisky, crazy, crazy Whisky. So crazy but also so very, very cuddly. Imagine if you attached an out-of-control rocket to a teddy bear and you will start to get an idea of what Whisky bunny is like. He hurtles around the place with his cute little ears bouncing and flapping all over as he goes. Then he stops for a bit and does the cutest little bunny stretch-and-yawn you ever did see!!! How could I possibly blame him for anything???!!

Well, if it wasn't me and it wasn't any of these four little rascals, I can only conclude that it must have been the lodger that decided to wee on the lounge floor. Ho hum. Maybe I'll just have to switch to lino and forget about it.

Photo Day

2009-08-29T17:13:00.006+01:00

I love photo day. I get to take a break from the usual tiring chaos of feeding and cleaning. I get to spend time bonding with the bunnies. And of course, for the new arrivals, there's the taking them out of their temporary hutches and carrying them to the photo table (ahhh, bonus cuddles!).

The bunnies seem to like the change in pace too, though I'm sure that has more to do with the extra treats than the chance to get their pictures onto the www.

Not all bunnies are keen though. This week I would especially like to thank Puzzle Bunny for making my Saturday afternoon task so challenging, what with the wriggling and the thinking his "best side" for a photo was the end with the tail. Then to top it all off, when I got home I discovered this was the only decent shot of him I'd managed to get:

Nice one Puzzle Bunny. Perhaps we'll have another go next week eh?

Warning To All Volunteers and Visitors

2009-08-16T18:26:00.002+01:00

Mystery Bunny

This is an urgent warning to all volunteers and visitors to the Rabbit Residence Rescue. Please be on the lookout for Mystery Bunny, pictured above. If spotted this bunny should be approached with absolute caution and if possible avoided completely.

When cornering a human, she is likely to attack with:

Paws placed delicately on the legs
Nose nudges
Friendly "cuddle me" eyes

Victims of her attacks report feeling a warm sense of joy and general cuteness, responding with head strokes and lots of attention. But it is at this point that Mystery will strike, becoming even more adorable, demand more attention and rendering her victims incapable of escape or carrying out even the simplest of tasks (such as cleaning out).

We regret that this advice comes too late for two of our volunteers this Saturday who ventured into Majestic and Mystery's run unawares and eventually had to be retrieved using long poles with hooks.

Message Ends.

Pick of the Bunch...

2009-07-31T11:59:00.007+01:00

In all honesty, I'd never even dreamed of owning a bunny.

My parents were not animal lovers so their idea of owning a pet extended to anything that was cheap and not a mammal. So I had little experience of caring for any creature, let alone such fascinating and intelligent creatures as rabbits, when I took home my first...

The whole idea of owning a bunny (if one can truly own these little tikes!) came from a pure, selfish enjoyment of watching wild rabbits bound around in our new cottage garden and an intense desire to cuddle one. Sick of listening to my yelps of "Look there's another...!" my long-suffering partner stated that he was going to buy me a bunny.

Sadly, I think most of us tend to purchase rabbits on impulse - usually for children and without ever really thinking or knowing the amount of responsibility involved. I was so excited that I decided to get my hands on every bit of information I could about caring for rabbits. I was amazed to learn how much was involved in caring for them. Stupidly, I imagined that a few handfuls of carrot and a hutch was all that was required.

How wrong could a person be!

We forget that domestic rabbits have been bred for so many decades now that they are not immune to the same types of disease as wild rabbits. All domestic bunnies must be vaccinated against myxomatosis and VHD every year, at least. They also require require regular check-ups at the vet. Yes, just like cats and dogs do!!! Not to mention a variety of hay and grasses to allow them to continually grind down their growing teeth and keep their delicate digestive systems healthy. A responsible rabbit owner should know the types of veggies and plants that our poisonous to our beloveds, be able provide them with a home indoors (imagine my amazement in discovering there were such things as 'House Rabbits'!) or outdoors with at least 6ft x 5ft of space for running and binkying about...the list of ownership requirements goes on.

However, none of this deterred me in my quest to own a bunny and so, on a sunny Saturday morning my partner drove me to a local rabbit breeder to buy a rabbit...

We arrived at a lovely farm house only to be led to a large dark shed where around 20 large hutches were filled with rabbits, far too many to be housed together comfortably. It was dirty and cobwebby, and knowing what I know now, could only be a sad existence for the bunnies living there.

Still, in my excitement to own a rabbit, I never really considered the prospect. The pleasant young lady assisting me brought out a wooden box which when opened, was filled with a variety of 8 week old bunnies. All beautiful and looking for a home.

I had read that any baby rabbit that is shy when you first attempt to stroke it is likely to remain so forever. Absolute rubbish! Imagine being 8 weeks old and having a massive hand looming over you - it would scare anyone! Still, being a newbie, I took heed of this advice and tried to find a bunny that seemed interested in me. Luckily for me, one of the last rabbits brought out was a 'buttterfly' patterned mini lop. Rather than shying away from me, this little nosey-bonk peroscoped up on his little hind legs and licked my hand.

Our fate was sealed. He was my pick of the bunch...

A Sad Loss

2009-07-24T13:00:00.007+01:00

It is with a very heavy heart that I have to report the sad loss of our darling Viola Bunny.

Born into conditions of neglect she was saved, along with her siblings, and delivered into our loving family at the rescue. From birth she suffered from “splay legs” affecting her mobility and it was a condition that was to worsen over the few short months of her life. But what a surprise it was to us that one so afflicted was to be such a spritely soul, always desperate to play with the other bunnies around her and racing round at surprising speed considering she only really had her front legs to get her moving. She also seemed to relish the attention of the two-legged members of the rescue family and was always happy to tolerate our cuddles and the silly baby noises that would pour out of us every time we visited her.

As a rescue dealing with hundreds of rabbits over the years, we are of course well aware of the need to take into account the quality of life of a disabled animal. However much you believe in going the extra mile to give all the care to an animal that you can, there is always a point where the suffering is too great and putting them to rest becomes the only option. But where is this point? A decision so deeply important, one of life or death, can only lie with those most informed to make it.

So when we are faced with a disabled bunny we have to listen closely to what they tell us. Are they in pain? Are they unhappy? Have they given up fighting? Animals have yet to learn our languages and so we are forced to do the best we can to learn theirs, and our vets and rescue volunteers have many hours of experience doing just that.

In Viola’s case the decision was thankfully easy, at first anyway. She loved her life and seemed to be completely oblivious that she was different to her brothers and sisters. All she really needed was some loving, thoughtful and experienced bunny-parents that understood her extra needs and were prepared to put in a little extra care. In the mean time, there was no trouble in finding volunteers enthusiastic to foster her while she waited for a more permanent home, knowing how much joy she would bring to them in return! It is also a sign of how loved Viola was that there were so many people willing to donate the time, effort and finances to get her the consultations with rabbit-specialist veterinary surgeons that she needed.

But sadly, this story does not have a happy ending. Early in the week, poor Viola developed a bad case of bloat. After the usual treatments at the rescue failed to alleviate the condition she was rushed to our regular vets for an X-Ray and diagnosis. This was their first experience of Viola and perhaps if they had met her before the bloat they would have been quicker to act. But seeing her this way they seemed reluctant to do anything other than end her suffering by putting her to sleep. Viola was taken home while second opinions were sought from our experts, but a day later her conditioned had worsened still. At this stage we were reluctantly left with little option.

On Thursday 23^rd July 2009, Caroline took Viola to the vets for her final journey.

Viola Bunny, you will be deeply missed by all of us here at the rescue.

Viola enjoying the grass and sunshine,
Saturday 18th July 2009

Too Hot for Bunnies

2009-07-03T13:08:00.004+01:00

Flopsy Bunny

I wanted to blog about some of the things going on at the rescue this week, but quite frankly it's too hot to think. So instead, I think I might just finish re-filling the water bowls then go follow Flopsy's lead and take a nice nap in the sun....zzzzzzzzzz....

Tufty and Vanilla Rehomed

2009-06-12T13:24:00.004+01:00

Tufty Bunny

This week we say goodbye to Vanilla and Tufty as they are delivered to their new home as house rabbits. We are always pleased to see our little ones move on to happy homes where they will be loved and cared for, but that doesn't stop us missing them. In this case, we will miss our regular Tufty cuddles, for however many times we told him "Bunnies are prey animals, so being picked up is scary for them" he would just shrug his little bunny shoulders and come for some snuggles. Good luck in your new home guys!

Vanilla Bunny

Lesson 1: Most Bunnies Don't Like Cuddles

2009-06-04T17:16:00.007+01:00

"Your feeble mind tricks won't work on me!!!"

We had some friends of friends over at the weekend. It was their first introduction to my bunnies and as such a chance to spread the word of the Way of Proper Bunny Care. For people who have only experienced hutched rabbits (just the thought of that makes me feel sad) these situations usually result in genuine surprise when they observe a remarkably different behaviour. "They're more like cats than rabbits!" they exclaim as the bunnies come up to investigate and tiny front paws are planted on human legs as the possibilty of treats is investigated.

On this occasion however, a scorching hot June afternoon, all the visitors could really learn was that sometimes bunnies just like to flop out in the shade and be left alone to nap.

One of this weeks visitors exclaimed "They're so cute! Can I pick them up??". I paused for a second and considered the deep scars on my arms from the last time Santa tried to explain to me that he really didn't NEED to be lifted off the ground to have medicine, be brushed or have his claws clipped. Was this a "learn by doing" situation I asked myself?

"Err...They don't really like that.." I replied almost apologetically. Santa and Jemima eyed us all suspiciously and went back to their nap.