Shadowy Bea(st)

Watch out Clarence - there appears to be some kind of scary beast at your front door!!

Scratch that, it's only Little Bea.

Happy Halloween everyone. Hope you don't encounter anything scary today.

The New Craze

He's been described as "the new Rocket", volunteers have been warned to be careful around him, but so far I've only found him to be delightful. OK, delightful and maybe a bit nuts. Well OK, completely nuts. Maybe even turbo-charged bouncing-off-the-walls nuts. But crucially, unlike Rocket, he hasn't tried to chomp me a lot.

Well anyway, he's been with us a couple of months now, so probably about time you got to meet him. Here's Ruben.

"Is this water???!!! Water is AWESOME!!!! Can I play with it?!"

"Oh wow, is this hay???!!!! I LOVE hay!!! I'm totally gonna stick my face right in it now!!!!!"

"Is that a broom? OMG IT'S A BROOM!!!! Can I have a go? Can I? Huh? OMG, I TOTALLY WANT TO SWEEP EVERYTHING UP!!!!!!"

Erm....OK, keep the broom. I'll come get it when you've finished. Or maybe later when you're sleeping.

Double Barrelled Flop-Fun

Oh well, at least when they snooze together on the floor they are easier to spot and not trip over. Even if they do insist on sleeping in the doorway.

"[zzzzzzzz][zzzzzzzz]"

A Storm Came

I didn't want to post anything today until I'd heard from Caroline that all is well at the Rescue. It sounds like we were lucky - despite the wind and rain the worst thing to hit the Rescue was a heavy shower of leaves. All the buns are fine and happy.

Similarly at home, no fallen trees or fences, the bunny shed and run is intact and, indoors, Whisky barely noticed any of it.

"It passed already? What happened to my carrots-by-torchlight?! I still get the carrots, right?"

A Storm Coming

I remember the great storm of '87. We were hit with such strong winds, the country woke up to find trees, roofs and vehicles were not where we left them, nor where they in the same number of pieces. It will stick in my mind because at the time I worked for a local shop and the next morning was out cycling through the devastation delivering newspapers.

The Met Office has issued an amber warning to our region as many hours of hurricane force winds and heavy rain are forecast to hit us between 9pm tonight and 9am tomorrow. It is predicted to be the worst storm since that dreadful destruction of '87. To say I am anxious about what will happen to the Rescue, an outdoor arrangement of sheds surrounded by old trees, is an understatement. We have had hutches blown over in previous storms, we even had a tree come down and narrowly miss rabbit accommodation one year, but this one is set to be much, much worse. I feel bad that I couldn't get to the Rescue to help secure everything today and quite frankly, I think I am going to feel sick with worry until I hear from Caroline tomorrow.

At home, I am at least thankful that I currently have no outdoor bunnies to worry about. That said, I did need to spend some time this afternoon removing the tarpaulin from the run and securing anything else that looked like it might catch the wind to minimise the risk of damage. Then, just when I thought I was done and could head indoors...

"There's a storm coming?"

"OK, I'm ready. Now you'd better get yourself down the shops and stock up on carrots, pronto."

OK Whisky, I'll get my coat...[sigh].

Missing Day

OK, OK, I was really busy and didn't post yesterday, no need to look so shocked, Boz. Now, can we just move on?

Bun, Interrupted

"Did you want something? Only I'm quite busy. This hay won't throw itself out of my hutch onto the newly swept floor you know."

Elfy Bunnies

One of the benefits of cleaning out bunnies at the Rescue is that you find yourself spending more time with those in the less people-friendly enclosures than you otherwise would.

Take these two characters, who live in a low (for people) enclosure we made from several old runs screwed together. Apart from the odd health check, my main experience of them most weeks is their scrabble and grump with each other over food. It would be easy to think, based just on these encounters, that they were neither friendly nor particularly well bonded. But having hung out in their enclosure while cleaning it out last week I saw a completely different side to them. After they had a few minutes of stand-offish caution at my intrusion, we went nose-to-nose to say hello, the guard came down and in a very short time I got to give them lots of head-strokes. Without the food to compete over, or the strange human suddenly leaning into their space with it, they were delightfully friendly all round!

So in celebration of the bunnies who don't usually catch people's attention, I think they deserve a day on the blog!

"Hey, you'd be grumpy over breakfast if you lived with Solitaire - she always tries to scoff all my fave snacks!"

"Hmmm...I think you might have that backwards, oh husbun of mine..."

Prehistoric Prevarication

"Hey, did I hear someone say those little floofy brothers look like Woolly Mammoths? Pah. If they think that's a good likeness, they've obviously not seen the bantha impressions I used to do with my sister before her last fur-cut."

Hay, Shed!

"Finders keepers."

The Prince's Pride

"Hello. My name is Inigo Buntoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."

Some Sun Day

"Oh well, five minutes of sunshine is better than nothing. Better make the most of it..."

It's Bonkers (And Jenga)

It's been a crazy, tiring week. I had a four day stretch where I spent three of them at the Rescue. That was one regular volunteering day and two standing in for Caroline while she was off training veterinary professionals and attending a rabbit forum event. Not only that, but on all three of those days I did some...well...what can I say? Cleaning. Me. Actual cleaning at the Rescue! Old school (did I just say that?) volunteering. It was highly therapeutic. And, I have to say, it has nearly finished me off, regular Mr Lazy that I usually am.

Oh well, it was great spending so much time with our residents (except maybe the rainy day, when they just watched me with amusement from their shelters) but now, I think I must sleep. For a couple of days maybe.

While you await my return to consciousness, here's some floofy brothers day-dreaming. (Or napping. It's hard to tell under the floof.)

Bath Night

Since I took exactly zero photo's in Wednesday's constant downpour at the Rescue (and currently have no foster bunnies causing havoc, mayhem and hilarity), I am afraid that means more Whisky this week. I hope you don't mind, and if you do please don't tell him because I'll never hear the end of it. Anyway...

With Whisky's blocked tear-duct, a regular part of our lives is face-bath-night. Neither of us are very keen, but bless his little fluffy feet, Whisky is used to it and very well behaved throughout.

That said, his compliance does come with a fee attached.

"Right. Half of that went on my ear. I believe that's 3 extra pellets and my choice of vegetable from the fridge you owe me."

Resorted To Sleep

"Want to hear something funny? After volunteering in the wind and rain yesterday, my human was so tired he crashed out on his bed for the whole evening. That's not the funny part. The funny part was when he woke up and found out I'd been re-arranging his DVDs while he was asleep..."

Talk To The Paw

"I'm talkin' to my paw 'cos your face ain't lis... erm...no, wait, that's not... Can we start again? I want to insult you properly."

Sister Pact

"Sure, I'm willing to tell Amarillo you stayed in and hung out with me last night, but to be honest I don't think he'll buy it - for a start I can still smell carrotini on your breath!"

Sub-Nay

"Good morning! I'd like a jumbo veg-breakfast sub please, extra carrots, hold the bread?"

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Unfortunately, my plans for todays post required less rain and gloom than we are getting, so instead here are a couple more pics from yesterday's playtime in the garden. As is now common, our friend was out for playtime too, though I think Whisky's getting a bit fed up with him now.

"I'm pretty sure it's YOUR turn to chase him out of my garden."

"What? Were you planning on keeping all those worms for yourself?"

Extra Time

Oops, forgot to add the caption to this mornings post and actually post it! Ho hum.

Oh well, while I sort that out for another day, here's a random extra Weekend Whisky pic, taken in the garden this afternoon while he was bossing me about clearing the leaves off his tasty grass.

"Rake faster, human slave! If you do a good job, your reward shall be to give me dinner early. Or possibly twice."

Pod or Pob?

Is it just me or does anyone else look at this picture and instinctively feel their computer monitor is about to get spat on?

The Plot Slickens

"No, YOU distract the human, I'LL nab the snacks and share them later!"

"Could you maybe come back in 5 minutes? Aztec and I are having an...ermmm...discussion."

The Parsley Dance

Quite some time ago I went through a phase of using parsley to short-cut the process of getting bunnies to look bright and keen for photographs. Then I decided that too high a percentage of my pics looked the same and certainly too many of them were of bunnies with foliage trailing out of their mouths, so I switched to the hard way:- "being patient". Well anyway, with the pressures of getting lots of pictures in a short space of time for various projects, this blog, websites etc, recently I fell off the "patient" wagon and got back on the parsley.

Lively and photogenic though the subjects are, it can still be tricky. Let's say you are sat on the floor (with bunnies about, why would you not be?) and you have about your person a bag of green deliciousness. At some point, your dear little fluffy model will cotton on that there is a better path to tasty treats than waiting for each one to be individually handed over. A second later you'll have a soon-to-be-empty bag with a rabbit's head in it (rest of the rabbit still attached of course, soon-to-be-full).

So the next thing you learn is to put the parsley out of reach, usually on top of a nearby hutch or run. This buys you a little time, but mounted on the front of that adorable little face is a finely tuned super-sniffer and very soon it will home in on where the pleasing aroma is wafting in from. Before you know it, there you are again with lots of pictures of the same thing. This thing that Gretta is doing in fact - I call it the "parsley dance":

"Get over here Desmond - I need to stand on you for a second..."

Vodka: Smart, Teeny

"..8..9..10!"

"COMING READY OR...oh. OK, let me explain this to you again. I close my eyes and count to 10. You drop that bag of carrots and go hide until I find you. Got it? Ok..."

"1..2..3.. WHY DON'T I HEAR CARROTS DROPPING?!"

Bun-Fringed

I think 2013 will be remembered as the Year of the Spectacular Fringe.

"Who said that?"

Whisky and Friend

Whisky had a visitor today, a tiny little red-breasted friend that came to say 'hi'.

"Hello!"

The little guy dropped onto the grass to play with Whisky...

"What shall we play? Horsies? I'll jump on your back!"

...but when Whisky started to play the little guy changed his mind...

"Uh-oh. I think I might be off now."

I don't know why though. Who wouldn't want to see this little fluffster come bounding towards them?!

Lean On Me

Whether you're sad, weary or just eating breakfast, it's always good to have somebunny to lean on.

Two Drenched

"I think I speak for everybunny here when I say that's enough of the rain for this year, thank you very much. I'll be lucky if my ears dry out before Xmas."

Goodbye Girls

My beautiful and adorable foster buns move out today.

Noelle, my pretty little harlequin, such a timid girl who has come very close now to properly trusting me. I think she still has a little way to go before she will readily let humans be a fuller part of her life but once she does you can tell she will make a great addition to anyone's family. I suspect though that Noelle's natural rabbity caution means she will bond quickly with the right buck and then I'm sure he will quickly teach her how to work their humans to do their bidding!

Picante has been a joy to have in the house. She started off so shy and untrusting, quite scared of human hands, now she barely bats an eyelid when I have to pick her up. Picante is much like her mother Salsa in size and colouring. She has such pretty and individual markings too, with her one harlequin foot and one harlequin ear! If we make her available for some lucky buck looking for a wife, I'll bet she'll be first choice for every family who meet her!

I will certainly miss them both and be sad to see them go, but as always happy knowing they are one step closer to their permanent homes.

The Quick and the Chomped

"Want it? If your fingers want to race my teeth to it, be my guest. But know this - my speed is far greater than my accuracy."

Four!

It's been great having so many workers and volunteers around at weekends recently getting things done, but the downside is that you tend to see less of the more nervous rabbits. This is particularly true of those with wild parentage, who disappear at the first strange human sight or sound.

Having mostly volunteered busy weekends for the last month, this (below) was probably the highlight of my rabbity Saturday - before the other humans arrived and for the first time in weeks, all four of my favourite little quad came out to meet me for breakfast!

"Yeah, well, we're not avoiding YOU Mr Snackman. As we say in these parts, 'Don't hate us, just grate us. Some more carrots'."