Thursday 31 October 2013
Shadowy Bea(st)
Scratch that, it's only Little Bea.
Happy Halloween everyone. Hope you don't encounter anything scary today.
Wednesday 30 October 2013
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.
Erm....OK, keep the broom. I'll come get it when you've finished. Or maybe later when you're sleeping.
Tuesday 29 October 2013
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.
Monday 28 October 2013
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.
Sunday 27 October 2013
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...
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?
Friday 25 October 2013
Bun, Interrupted
Thursday 24 October 2013
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!
Wednesday 23 October 2013
Prehistoric Prevarication
Tuesday 22 October 2013
Monday 21 October 2013
Sunday 20 October 2013
Saturday 19 October 2013
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.)
Friday 18 October 2013
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.
Thursday 17 October 2013
Resorted To Sleep
Wednesday 16 October 2013
Talk To The Paw
Tuesday 15 October 2013
Sister Pact
Monday 14 October 2013
Sunday 13 October 2013
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.
Saturday 12 October 2013
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.
Friday 11 October 2013
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?
Thursday 10 October 2013
The Plot Slickens
Wednesday 9 October 2013
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":
Tuesday 8 October 2013
Vodka: Smart, Teeny
Monday 7 October 2013
Sunday 6 October 2013
Whisky and Friend
Whisky had a visitor today, a tiny little red-breasted friend that came to say 'hi'.
The little guy dropped onto the grass to play with Whisky...
...but when Whisky started to play the little guy changed his mind...
I don't know why though. Who wouldn't want to see this little fluffster come bounding towards them?!
Saturday 5 October 2013
Friday 4 October 2013
Two Drenched
Thursday 3 October 2013
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.
Wednesday 2 October 2013
The Quick and the Chomped
Tuesday 1 October 2013
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!