It's All Floof

NOTE: Fluff and Puff are teeny extra-floofy babeh bunnehs who have only recently joined us. They will be available for adoption in spring/summer.

Mouf Trapped

So there you are, sat on the ground with bunnies clambering all over your legs trying to get at the tasty treats you've brought them. You are TOTALLY engrossed in the utter adorableness of the whole thing, completely oblivious to anything else going on around you. Reaching the limit of how much parsley you can safely stuff into a pair of bunnies without them popping, you turn to stand, but instead you freeze.

For stood on a hutch across the fence, head height just a few inches from your face, somebuns are patiently waiting...

"We're next, right?"

Tug

"Put the other end in your mouth - when I say go, we both start chomping and the winner is whoever bites your nose first."

Your Job Here Is Done

"I see the parsley. But why do I still see you...?"

Snow Go

The rains came last night and washed away the snow. This was a great relief as the snow was icky and cold and making everything hard work. The higher temperatures that came with the rain are great too because they mean no more frozen water! Yippee!

It's not just us humans that are thankful for the warmer weather. All the bunnies that hid themselves away yesterday were out with bounces in their steps this afternoon, including Goofy who we hadn't seen venture out of the deep warren in their run for over a week.

I have to admit there was just one thing I did like about the snow. I don't now why, but there's something all the more pleasing about seeing excited bunnies racing towards you when they are bounding thru the white scenery like Potato here (followed closely by Dasher)!

"OMG, OMG, OMG..."

"...don't go away we're-a-comin'..."

"...oooo, them is some tasty snacks!"

Bad Beyond the Floof

Friday 25th January 2013, around 4.45pm

Me: You were supposed to be playing with Jemima and me in the garden, NOT making big puddles behind the sofa. You've RUINED the floor. Now you can go to your room and think about what you've done while I decide on your punishment.

Some time later that evening...

"So...the WHOLE intehwebs has to see me like this??!"

Small Intentions

I still have no definite plans for Jemima's future love life, but I can say I have no intention of leaving her on her own. She can be a grumpy old thing with the bolder and amorous boy bunnies, but she is certainly not un-bondable.

The main issue at the moment is that she is a house bunny with a thin, indoor coat of fur and we have extremely low temperatures outdoors at the Rescue. So while I have some time to wait for the weather to improve, I am gradually letting her spend more and more time with Whisky to see if they can eventually work something out.

I am not exactly what you would call "hopeful" of a positive result here - Whisky acts like he is from another planet and doesn't speak "bunny". But there was a slight glimmer of hope on Wednesday night when the head-down deadlock was broken by Jemima licking Whisky's face. I mean, sure, Whisky looked confused about it all, presumably he has long forgotten what it was he was lowering his head around other rabbits for, but I am choosing to take it as a victory. Whereas, Jemima took it as a sign that wandering off to eat some more hay might be more fun than having your advances ignored.

"He bowed, I licked, he didn't call me back. Can we not talk about my love life anymore please?"

A Total Snap

Photo day at the Rescue and Helen is helping out. She starts with the young Dutch bunnies.

Helen: OK bunnies, we need to take your picture for the website so we can find you a new home. To give visitors an idea of what bunnies are like, you need to look highly intelligent, inquisitive but at the same time adorable and incredibly cute.

"How the heck are we supposed to do all that at the same time??!!"

Helen: Er...pretty much just like that.

The Green Gobbling

"Of course, Dutch rabbits actually originated from England. Let me show you what England looks like by first chomping this leaf of greens into its shape. Then I'll show you how big this Rescue is in comparison to the whole country..."

Whisky In White

"I saw your picture of Jemima yesterday, I suppose you want one of ME in the garden now? Well tough luck - I'm not going out there in the cold and wet! I'm not stupid! So think again, you've got NO chance of getting a picture of ME with snow in the background."

"Oh, hilarious. Seriously, you are hilarious. [sigh]"

J-Snow

Now Jemima's a house bunny, she's even less impressed by the cold white stuff. When she does decide to go outside, it lasts about 6 seconds before she gives up and heads back in to a comfy spot by the radiator.

"Is that the sound of the heating coming on? Right, I'm done here."

I Don't Work Sundays

"I'm sorry, I'm too busy to do something for your blog today. Have you asked my friend Mr Bun if he can help you?"

It's 4 Snacks

"Well OF COURSE I'll go and tell my siblings that breakfast is here! You don't think I'd eat 4 bunnies' snacks on my own do you??!! Now run along, I have this totally covered..."

Up The Dosage

"Did no-one tell you? In winter you can feed slightly more pellets. I think it's...erm...about a bowl full. Extra. Each. So get pouring."

Clean Day

"I love this bit about cleaning day - you always absent mindedly leave the snack tub on the floor where paws can get to it!"

"All those tasty, tasty pellets just waiting to be eaten. Erm, one quick thing..."

"...remind me how I get this lid off again?"

Looking Up

"He didn't go this way either. I thought he might be above us, but for some reason I don't seem to be able to lift my head to check..."

Scary Stories

Monday, 8.15pm

Me: So Whisky, it's cold, wet and snowy outside, you don't want to go out (despite hanging round the back door until I opened it pretending you did), what shall we do tonight instead?

Whisky: How about scary winter stories?

Me: OK, go on then.

"There once was a man who didn't give his bunny more snacks. He disappeared. Forever. The End. "

Whisky: Oh, and did I mention there's a hidden moral in the story...?

Me: Hmmm... is it something about... no sorry, no idea. Scrabble?

Snow Queen

"Just in case you were wondering, yes, I do look just as beautiful as usual in the cold white stuff. Now, if you'll excuse me my loyal subjects I'm going to go have a dig around in it and maybe chomp on some too."

Queen Boo of Tube City

Queen Boo would like to show you some of the fun of tubes.

"You can run through it like this."

"And you can peek out like this!" 

It's food - don't let go!

I find that some bunnies are perfectly happy to eat veg that I'm holding and don't mind that there's a human on the other end hoping to stroke them whilst they're distracted. Others seem to prefer not to eat anything that we've got hold of for fear we'll take it away again (or stroke them when they'd rather just eat in peace!).

Cora is somewhere in between. Sometimes happy to eat from my hand, but often pretty determined to get that food in her mouth asap and make sure it's all hers. She also has a tendency to mistake hands for food...

The other day I was putting in their food and as always she was eagerly waiting and nuzzling at my hand and went in for a bite of food - but instead got her teeth round the flesh between my thumb and index finger and proceeded to tug as if she was trying to drag away a juicy leaf of greens that I would not let go of. Ouch. Surprisingly painful. I'm afraid to say a few expletives escaped my lips whilst I tried to work out how to remove her cute little face from my hand with minimal damage to both of us. She soon let go when she realised her fuzzy friend, Clarence, had found the real food. At which point I immediately apologised aloud to her and any neighbours who might have overheard my profanities. Dear little Cora's cute little ears were not designed to hear such things.

Needless to say, I did not capture the incident on camera, but here's a couple of pics of them enjoying the grass.

Where'd That Logo Nose Go?

I discovered recently, in fact when Vicki posted that great picture on one of her blog posts, that somehow Starburst and Austin have hardly featured on this blog. I couldn't figure out how that happened at first - they are the super friendly bunnies in our logo for a start, surely they should be cropping up regularly in my photo's?

Then I realised. Whenever I'm around them, they usually have me too occupied to remember the camera.

"Have you come to rub my nose? You may now begin!"

All Through The Ears

"I can't look. Is he wearing that bright green waterproof outfit again? It hurts my eyes!!!"

Smoochies Interrupted

"Get a room? We have! And you're in it! So leave!"

Weight Night

"I neither see the point, nor do I approve, of this game."

"You said I was fat! I've LOST weight!!! So get me (a) down from here and (b) carrots!"

Mum in a Bucket

Spangle and Sprat's mum Camilla was returned to us a while back along with her partner Zeus. Unlike her offspring, who apparently inherited their badly aligned incisors from their father, Camilla has no trouble with eating. No trouble at all.

"If I can choose, I think I'll take this big plastic food bowl over my small ceramic one, thanks!"

Highs and Lows

How high the moon,
How bright the sun,
How big Jubilee's ears,
How small Bumper bun!

Snack Russell

"You have impressed me with how small you can cut these carrot pieces. Now drop that bucket and let me impress you with how many of them I can eat..."

Last Draft

"Now Xmas is over, could you maybe quit with the sprouts? If you had to share a hutch with Spangle after, I'm sure you'd understand."

Two Sneezy - Update

Just thought I'd give you a quick update on Whisky.

The vet trip did not go as I expected. While I was mostly worrying about the building congestion in his nose and what it might mean, his vet was more concerned about what she found in his ear around his abscess. I don't really want to describe it - I'm eating my lunch while I type this. Suffice to say that it was worse than it has ever been before, though with his many periods of anti-biotics for his other problems perhaps it's never stood a chance of expanding much before.

So no anaesthetics and probes yet, instead it is another round of pricey culture tests with a week of ear drops and anti-biotics while we wait for the results (with a touch of Bisolvon to help clear his nose). As I understand it, the short-term plan is to try and beat the ear abscess into submission (or at least back to some stability) with anti-biotics, then if that doesn't do the trick we might have to look at more surgery.

So the only drama for Whisky this week is the speed with which he races in the opposite direction when he sees the ear drops come out of the drawer...

Third Eye Blink

"Ever wonder what a rabbits third eyelid is for?"

"Well I don't know about everybun else, but mine are for keeping out the carrot juice!"

Two Sneezy

Well here we go, second day of January and we already have our first vet visit of the year.

Whisky was due for a check on his nose, ear and eye problems this month but I've had to get an earlier appointment for him because he started having longer sneezing fits after Christmas and now his nose is starting to sound congested like it's affecting his breathing. I am feeling sick with worry, but also my anxiety levels are rapidly rising because I suspect his vet is going to give me "options". One of these is likely to involve putting him under to have an exploratory poke up his nose with some scopes and probably some more x-rays. I hate the idea of putting him at further risk with yet another anaesthetic, although I guess it has been a few months now since his last one. I've lost count of how many he's had in the last two years and he was no stranger to them before he came to live with me.

Jemima has also been very sneezy over Christmas, though this is not exactly a surprise since she has had recurring low-to-medium level snuffles for as long as I can remember. That said, I am not sure I realised how persistent it was until she moved into the house meaning I have more opportunities to hear the sneezing and see her messy nose. I don't think there have been many days in the last week I haven't found bits of hay stuck to it - that may well be vet visit number two.

Why do I get the feeling 2013 isn't going to be a very cheap year?

"Hey, that's not ALL snot - you try sticking YOUR nose into this wet grass and see how clean it looks!"

"If the alternative is a long car journey followed by that strange lady squeezing and poking me again, can I not just put up with the sneezing a bit longer? No? Bother."

Hello 2013

Happy New Year everyone! Here is hoping that it brings only good things for you and your fluffsters!!

As you can see, Jemima is already terribly excited about 2013...

"[yaaaawwwwwwwn]"

Well, to be honest, I'm not surprised - if she can't eat it, sleep on it or chew it into pieces she's generally not that bothered about it.