Neroli Elusive

"Do you mind? It's naptime, so you need to leave me alone. And for future reference, unless you're carrying food, always assume it's naptime."

BYO Pillow

Google Buck

This is Google, a sweet and friendly resident at our Rescue. Although his name is Google, Caroline sometimes calls him "Google-buck" and I sometimes call him "Google-too" - this is because of Mindy's girl Google that came before him (we wouldn't normally re-use a name).

The reason we came to have two Googles is because he wasn't ours. Having re-homed our own Google, this was an owners rabbit who came in to be bonded with one our girls. In fact, just as I was considering taking then-single-bunny Liberty home to meet Whisky, Google swept in and chose her for his very own. The owner's situation at the time was such that they wanted the new couple to stay with us on a little holiday for several months after bonding, but when the time came for Google to return home the owner's situation had changed and they couldn't take him (and his wife) back. By this time we had all become used to calling him Google, so that was that.

This was all some time ago now, and the odd minor health issue aside, Google and Liberty have been living together very happily at the Rescue ever since.

Sadly though, there is more to Google's story. Last week during a routine health check Caroline found a lump in Google's jaw. Our vet has told us this one appears to be a very serious problem and has referred Google to a specialist for a CT scan and probably difficult surgery. The first appointment with the specialist will be next week.

We have had the first bad news already - the scan and treatment are likely to cost between £400 and £1000. Yikes! This is more like what the Rescue would usually spend on a months worth of vet bills, all in one go for one rabbit's treatment. However, we really believe it will be worth it if it gives him a good chance of a long and happy life.

So today I ask you to send prayers, healing vibes and good wishes to our little boy Google. (Donations are also gratefully received of course!) We should have more news by the middle of next week.

Thank you.

Floof Facing

Sometimes with super-floofs, all you can do to find out which way they are facing is put to the food down and see which side of the floofy mound it disappears into...

"[…chomp.chomp.chomp…]"

Winning Stroke

"Hello up there! Could I get a nose-stroke down here?"

Clogs

I've not posted any "helpful advice for new bunny parents" for a while so here's a handy tip from me. If you are planning on introducing rabbits to your house, there is a good chance you are going to need one of these:

Can you guess what it's for?

Available from DIY stores and larger supermarkets, this device can be useful for extracting from this:

the big clumps of clogged up mess (fur, shavings, hay) produced by this:

"What can I say? Living with bunnies is expensive! If you didn't want to replace your vacuum cleaner, carpet shampooer, washing machine and floors every two years you should have adopted some fish!"

Sounds of Sunday

Whisky is in a bit of a mood today. Not only did I give Neroli the run of the landing for much of the evening instead of him last night but I ruined his naptime repeatedly today with the vacuum cleaner. There has been some serious glaring. And that was just cleaning the rest of the house, I haven't even started on his and Neroli's rooms yet…

"Well wouldn't you look at that? Somebun, possibly crazed from lack of sleep, has been in and thrown hay all over the floor! That'll take someone AGES to pick up..."

Feet Up For Fifty

Another tiring day at the Rescue today. It was just the right amount of cold and wet to REALLY make my fingers hurt(dropping wet slippery run roofs onto them didn't help). Glad to be home in the warm. Think tonight I'll just pour myself a hot cup of coffee and watch the Dr Who fiftieth anniversary thing on TV with my feet up. I wonder if Whisky will watch it with me or just hide behind the sofa?

"Why watch it when you can be in it? Tonight I'm going to play the Doctor's lesser-known floppy-eared companion, Lago Morphia. He always saves the day with a thump and a disapproving glare!"

Hmmm…now I'm not sure which of those is going to be more entertaining to watch...

Floofy-Snuggle Friday

Merc Face

"If I were a car I'd be a drop-top Benz!"

Sorry Roberto, but your badge is upside down!

Breakfast Bandito

"…zzzzzzz..."

"Shhhh!!! Do you mind? He's sleeping. You just leave the breakfast, I'll eat my...err...half... and Bandit will eat his when he wakes up..."

Access Denial

As you can see below, having added a chomp-shield to the breakfast barrow, the snacks are now completely safe from a certain pair of piggy bunnies who think it's a self service buffet.

"Huh? What's this about? Oh well..."

I mean, you know, mostly.

"[…chomp.chomp.chomp…]"

Not For Two

"Call a builder, one that does doors. What to tell him? Try 'wider'!"

The Floofy Neighbour

"Shall I tell you what happened to me yesterday? Are you sitting comfortably?"

As he stepped from the back of the building, Whisky spotted the box and knew immediately what it was. A bunny taxi – those things you walk in the front of, a metal door shuts behind you and you find yourself whisked away across great distances (often to places you don’t want to be, like an audience with “The Vet”). The only question was:- where was its passenger?

Moving around to the front of the taxi, Whisky found the door closed and no-bun inside. Empty. Empty, but for the lingering scent of somebun not unfamiliar. That grumpy little fluffball that recently moved in to the next apartment in his building. Something was afoot and Whisky didn’t like it. Had she tailed him here? What was she up to? As he was trying to figure out his next move he spotted a familiar face staring off into the distance just a few feet away. An unsavoury character he referred to merely as “The Human”. A mine of information, here was someone who certainly would have the scoop on his mysterious neighbour. Time to get some answers…

 

Neroli watched the little grey lop rubbing his chin all over the outside of her taxi then scamper across to where the overweight human sat on the step. She could barely hear their words from her hiding place in the shadows of the wall, but even so she could guess what the subject of their conversation was. The time for watching was over. Time to take action.

 

Whisky saw a brown ball of floofy fur come floating across the paved ground and stop a few inches in front of him. She didn’t come at him with the same lightning speed that she had that night he’d accidentally wandered into her apartment, but still he felt caught slightly off guard. Was she merely making a dramatic entrance, here to talk? Or did she have a more violent method of communication planned? Not sure how to play it, Whisky stood his ground and waited, tail in the air ready to react.

The next few seconds were a blur. Fur, teeth and someone shouting at the two of them in a panicked voice. Then she was simply gone, as if she had been lifted off the ground and flown away. When Whisky caught his breath, he noticed her taxi was gone too.

 

Back in his apartment later, Whisky flopped on his blanket with the mornings post. Between the junk mail and overdue bills for bulk carrot orders, there was a parcel from Auntie Jane - a nice scarf for the winter. At least that was one thing to cheer him up. Whisky put it to one side and made a note to ask the human to take a picture of him wearing it later in the week.

What was today's drama about? And what happened to the mysterious and floofy neighbour? Despite a complete lack of clues, Whisky had a feeling the incident might just turn out to be the first chapter in a much longer story...

Saturday Strop Chops

OMG Twizzel, stop looking so moody, it's Saturday!

"[harumph]"

Headspin

Water

"No, no, no, this isn't what I asked for at all! Do you even know what 'tepid' means?!"

Pipe

"That's great thanks - now bring me my slippers!"

Enhanced Rabbits

OK, so I was sorting out a few posts for this week and wondered (again) why the pictures looked so ropey on the blog compared to how they looked on my computer. After poking around in the help forum I discovered that Google's recent Google+ integration was running all my picture uploads through "auto-enhance", which was trying to lighten the blacks and blacken the lights. This explains why I had some oddly coloured and textured bunnies of late. Well anyway, all sorted now. When you see Hawaii tomorrow, be sure to tell her how pleased you are she no longer looks so blue!

In other news, I have been fostering super-floofy Neroli over the past week. She was all grumpy this evening after a visit to the vets to check on some dental problems, so to perk her up I let her have the run of the landing for a couple of hours. THE landing. Whisky's landing. Where (one of) his blanket(s) is. Which is now covered in Neroli poo (and judging by the smell, possibly a bit of wee). Which he watched her do. So anyway, it will soon be time to put her to bed and let him out again. Now that the whole area is covered in her scent, what could possibly go wrong there?!

"Fine, give him the landing back, it's sleepy-time soon anyway."

"Open this gate! There's only so long I can cross my legs to hold back my response you know..."

...And It Never Goes Out

"Oh shoot, did I leave the bedroom light on again?"

Bucket Bliss

"[..crunch.crunch..] Uh-oh. I was just erm...I found this bucket and I was checking the contents to see who the rightful owner was."

"Now you have your bucket you'll probably want to be off somewhere. Meanwhile, I'll just hang out here, on this totally innocent pile of...hay. Yes, just hay."

Floor Plan

"Are you cleaning my room today? Only I was planning to throw some more hay about the place, but if you're about to tidy up I'll wait 'til after."

Inventory

Before I head off to the shops, let's check out the breakfast barrow and see what we already have. Hmmm, let's see, there's plenty of carrots, a few greens and what's this big fat furry vegetable making munching sounds?

Told

"No, YOU go out in the cold dark garden and play, I'LL stay in the nice warm house and lounge on the sofa, let ME know when YOU get bored and want to come back in."

Chins, Awww, No

"Hey - were you just counting my chins??!! You are SO rude."

Fire Works - But Not For Me...

I really wasn't sure how last night was going to go. Although we've had small-scale fireworks going off for several days, the 5th is always a bit nuts around my way. Some years it seems like every one of the neighbours has their own personal fireworks extravaganza, one after the other.

Although I don't have outdoor bunnies to worry about, Whisky can be a bit unpredictable with these things and when they sound as if they are going off right outside his window I can't be complacent. So a close eye was kept on the little guy.

I mostly just try to be around and calm so he knows there is nothing to worry about, keep the lights on so the flashes aren't as significant, have the TV/radio on making noises that he is used to. He was mostly OK, though he did have the odd moment of surprise. Of course he'd ACT like it hadn't bothered him...

"OMG! Did you hear that? Did the shed just explode?"

"What? Oh, I don't really care - your stupid video games are louder than that."

Hope all your bunnies are keeping safe in this week of scary noises. Peace and best wishes from Whisky and me.

The Reason Escapes Me

Am I getting old and starting to lose my mental function? Or is somebun playing magic tricks with my brain? Can senility begin at 40? Or was I hypnotised? I don't know how it happened, there's nothing in my memories to explain it, but when I got home I discovered that a huge number of pictures on my camera were of the same bunny.

"You're feeling very sleepy...or was that me? No wait, I remember - I'm feeling hungry, you're feeling guilty and neither of us have any carrots."

Dumbo

It is with great sadness that I report to you that we lost dear Dumbo over the weekend. Saturday morning I opened their shed to find he had died suddenly in the night.

Dumbo was an incredibly friendly guy who had been with us from a baby. One of the hardest parts of losing him now is that he died so young, not even two years old. He featured on this blog a few times and although his size doesn't really show in the pictures, he grew from a small fluffball with over-sized ears into a big cuddly French lop.

By the time he was old enough to get a friend, he had already bonded very closely with Caroline. Perhaps influenced by this bond, Caroline decided he should stay at the Rescue, making the perfect companion for our special needs bun Patty. Though his time with us was far too brief, throughout it Dumbo was never short of love and attention.

Dear sweet Dumbo. Binky free in peace.

Just Another Sunday

"Ah ha! Having bought you in the local pet-human shop, I shall now stick you in this tiny cage with no room to exercise, to be bored all day staring out at all the tasty grass in the garden you can't reach! See how YOU like it!"

Me: Yes Whisky, very funny, but you know I'm not one of those kind of humans. Now can we go indoors? It's getting cold out here. I'll pick some grass for you to eat inside in the warm.

[5 minutes later]

"When you said 'eat' I've chosen to assume you really meant 'spread evenly across the lounge'. Now, about my REAL dinner..."

Right Guard

Boadicea has become ever more cunning with her raids on the breakfast barrow. Well aware that I disapprove of her helping herself to whatever she fancies, I no longer find her with her face in the food. Rather, whenever I return to refill the snack bucket, I find her at a suspiciously reasonable distance from the barrow looking very nonchalant.

"Oh, I'm just over here taking in the bright autumn morning, minding my own and all!"

Yes, Boadicea, of course you are. But this reasonable distance is probably about the same distance a tubby bunny could get in the time it takes between hearing my approach and my rounding the corner, leaving just enough time to adopt a casual pose.

So I think I might need to enlist a volunteer just to guard the vegetables.

"Can I volunteer for that? It sounds like something I'd be good at!"

Errr......no, Boadicea, I think I need someone...taller.

Meet Ferguson

Between the weather and the need to crack on with the cleaning (rather than sitting around taking pictures), I have been a bit short on new photo's of hilarious bunny antics recently. But with so many bunnies in our care, one thing I am never short of is bunnies to introduce to you!

So today I want you to meet one of my current favourites, Ferguson. Until recently I had not really taken any special notice of him, but when I was trying to get his picture for the website I discovered he is quite the character. Playful, friendly and highly amusing, I think I may have found a new friend to spend my lunch breaks with!

"Oh, hello blog readers, nice to meet you! Now if you'll excuse me, we're having a tug-of-snacks competition with the bunnies across the way later and we need to practise."

"OK Mira...and...go!"