Whisky And Tim

I came home from the Rescue today, I opened Whisky's gate and wandered into the bathroom to wash my hands before handling his food. When I came back to give him his dinner he had disappeared. I put the pellets on his plate, I fed, Anouska and Bobbit, but still no sign of my little boy. I found him downstairs on the sofa in front of the TV. So that's another bad habit I've (accidentally) taught him.

Addiction to comedy-drama aside, he is a regular rabbit, honest! Look! Here he is eating Timothy hay!

[...chomp...chomp...chomp...]

A Barrowing Tail

"Look guys, I'm just saying maybe we don't ALL need to keep a look out for the breakfast barrow at the same time..."

Tibby Out-Stares The Internet

Hand-Nosh Only

One of the most enjoyable activities at the Rescue for me is hanging out with the 'wild' and wild-cross rabbits. Rabbits so naturally flighty, when you can sit on the ground and they trust you enough to come up and take snacks right out of your hand, it can only put a massive smile on your face.

"Really? Mine too!"

Teal-Spin

Rabbits constantly amaze me. For example, how does Teal spin his head so fast without his brain flying right out of his ears (or at least falling over after)?!

Wisdom of the Ancients

"A wise old bun once said, 'Breakfast is more than just the food you see before you'. And don't bother looking it up, it was ME that said it, just now. So get with the 'more' already..."

Bonus Tatiana Mouf

Tatiana could be going to a new home soon, after meeting single boy Gino over the weekend. I had the pleasure of supervising their first interactions without bars in one of the open areas of the Rescue, which they both seemed to enjoy. It was during this session that I managed to capture this great moment of grass chompage!

[...nom.nom.nom...]

Good luck Tatiana, I hope he's the one for you (and that the grass was as tasty as it looked)!

Snack Chute

BHW 4 BHV + W

There's something about bank holiday weekends that just put Whisky and me in relaximax-lazy mode, so we spent some quality time today on the sofa watching DVDs. There were no arguments over what to watch or who should control the remote, but there was a minor altercation over what constituted a reasonable interval between snacks.

"It's not complicated - the rule is: If there's no snack poking out of my mouf then it's time to stick another one in!"

Halt!

"Halt! Who goes there? Seriously, I can't see you thru my floof, who is it and did you happen to bring a good brush?"

The Rabbit Always Watches

Got It, Flaunt It

"It's so nice not being confined to a hutch. I can just stretch out for a snooze..."

"...or chomp some tasty grass...(Is she still watching?)"

You are a real meanie, Boadicea, a real meanie.

In A Tiny Hamlet...

"What a piece of work these humans - how noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving, how express and admirable! In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!"

"And by the way, I looked up the word 'paragon' and it's something about 99 carrots. So bring 'em."

Tuesday Tail #25

For some reason, bunnies like to roll in dirt. Then, sometimes, they like to take a short nap in that dirt. This is the way of the bunny and thou shalt not question it. For todays tail, I take you back to the year 2010 and the queen of the dirt-roll, Ms Megan Bunny, dear departed partner of our very own Whisky.

Are you comfy there my little angel?

Mouf-Focus Fail

BHV: Oi! Bunneh in the front! Put your ear down before it confuses the auto-focus on my camera and I miss the cute yawn in the back there!

Bunneh-in-front: [Rotating ear forwards to listen] Huh? What did you say?

Camera: [..buzzzz...cleeeek..]

BHV: D'oh!

Trouble in Whiskyland

Uh oh, I think I might be in trouble. Somebun may have just figured out that I brought the fosters into his house for their health checks...

[..sniff..sniff..]

"A-hem. A word if you please..."

Starburst

Very sadly, on Monday we had to say goodbye to extra-special resident and star of our logo Starburst.

Starburst was a big orange French lop who came to the Rescue late in 2009. We all immediately fell in love with her because she was so bold, fearless and friendly. In fact my first memory of her was the day I met her - I needed to pick her up to move her and found myself being completely taken aback at how unfazed she was at being handled. Most bunnies freeze or wriggle with fear when picked up, but not Starburst, she didn't bat an eyelid, despite me being a complete stranger to her. As far as she was concerned, as long as she was getting some attention she was happy wherever she was.

We can't keep them all though, so she was bonded with another super-friendly bunny called Austin and made available for adoption. Both bunnies being so completely humanised, together they would have made perfect house rabbits and sure enough they were picked by a lucky visitor early on. But it wasn't to be - on their outbound check the vet found a growth inside Austin that could not be removed, so deeply connected to his stomach it was. With concerns that something would soon rupture, the vet gave him only a few months to live, so it was decided to find them a comfortable place for Austin to live out his days. Volunteers Nicola and Gareth were experienced in fostering terminally sick and elderly buns, at that time using the second bedroom in their house as a retirement space, so it was decided that there Starburst and Austin would go to be pampered for whatever time he had left. They lasted a week.

It turned out that Austin didn't consider himself fragile at all. Far from lounging with his feets up watching daytime soaps with an iced-carrot-tea, Austin saw himself more the Indiana Jones type. He would miraculously escape the confines of their room (out the pen, over/through the stair gate...) and be found roaming the house - an activity NOT approved of by the other fluffy-tailed residents. Starburst too liked to venture out, but rather than trying to pick fights with the others she preferred to surprise her human hosts by suddenly appearing beside them on their bed for some quality snuggles and TV time. But however much Nicola and Gareth fell for them, Starburst and Austin caused such unrelenting and uncontainable chaos in their house that they really couldn't stay and unfortunately had to be sent back to the Rescue.

Months passed turning into years and though Austin's lump slowly grew, he hardly seemed to care and kept going unabated. Where we had started off keeping them in a smaller, controlled space to monitor him, he clearly didn't want or need that. Eventually Caroline started just letting them out to roam the Rescue at will, much as Archimedes and Boadicea do now. So Starburst and her soulmate had many happy days of great freedom, going where they pleased, being fussed by the volunteers and visitors, lounging around and really enjoying themselves.

They were always so good together, completely loved-up snuggle-buns, the absolute perfect example of why we rehome in pairs. One day I caught Austin wearing Starburst as a hat and as luck would have it had my camera to hand - as a result, that image of their snuggliness was destined to become the Rescue's logo.

By early 2013, Austin's growth was big enough that you could clearly see it just looking at him and it was starting to affect his movement, so the pair moved to Caroline's house to live indoors. Eventually the growth became too much for him and a year ago today we had to say goodbye to our dear sweet Austin. Starburst soldiered on without him but she repeatedly turned down new suitors, including a recent attempt with special needs bun Marlon.

Although Starburst had always been fairly healthy throughout her life, she did have the odd weight fluctuation and recently had issues and swelling in her mouth. Despite expensive surgery to remove a problem tooth, her condition continued to deteriorate last week and she was clearly suffering, so Caroline was forced to take the difficult decision to let her go.

We will all miss you Starburst, our big loppy orange softy. We hope you enjoyed your time with us and that the love we showed you every day brightened your life as much as you did ours.

The Snuggle Brothers

Up, Up and Away

"Wiggins, where are you? It doesn't take this long to clean the gutters! Did you fall asleep on the roof again?"

Bunny Stress

We had an evening of bunny stress at home last night leaving no time to sort out pictures from the Rescue. As most of the stress was caused by Bobbit seemingly being unwell, I will leave him to entertain you until (hopefully) normality returns tomorrow...

"Are you blaming me? The nerve! Well I suddenly feel less guilty about that damp patch on the rug I may or may not have had something to do with..."

Tuesday Tail #24

Anouska had been trying a variety ways to keep cool this summer during the heat, preferring not to rely on just the ice pods and frozen water bottles I give them.

It took me a while to realise why the water bowl had so much fur in it every day when I changed it, until finally I found her one morning sleeping with her ear in it. Understandable, the bowl is nice and cool after it has been rinsed and refilled, and of course it's not always the head end that needs cooling down...

Tossed Salad

Flin has ongoing dental problems. You wouldn't guess it from the speed he puts away snacks, but you can certainly see something is odd from the way he eats his parsley, bless him.

Meet the Fosters 2

As it is a busy holiday boarding season at the Rescue, we are taking in another foster pair at home for the rest of August. I asked Caroline to choose which bunnies might be most suitable for a three week holiday and she decided on these guys, who arrived yesterday to take up residence in the garden.

They are a little bit nervous, but not excessively so, and have pretty much settled right in. However, we have a slight issue to overcome in that David has had a grudge against me ever since one day at the Rescue when I had to pick him up to check a lump on his nose. There was some staring and poking (me), some stomping and grumbling (him), basically he was entirely unimpressed with the whole incident. He has gone out of his way to avoid me ever since so we have some trust-building to work on.

Well anyway, meet Eta (pronounced Etta) and David (!).

"Loving the run! But can you maybe turn down the sky sprinklers a couple of notches?"

"As you can see, my nose is perfectly fine now, so make yourself scarce until it's time to make with the dinner snacks."

My Boy Santa

I was technically on holiday this last week, which mostly involved finishing off lots of little jobs in the house and garden. It also involved a trip to Brighton, though due to the constant threat of the incoming storm I didn't see much of Brighton itself.

By a small coincidence, I suddenly realised I had been in Brighton exactly four years previously. So what had started out as a pleasant trip to visit friends became for a brief moment a time of sadness, a time to reflect on the little fluffy boy I lost on returning from a similar trip in 2010. My dearest Santa, who I came home to find unwell on 8th August that year and passed away two days later. He was my first fluffy boy and the first bunny I ever lost.

As always, I will think of him on this day, the anniversary of his passing, and as always I will miss him terribly.

Sunday Whisky Vet Review

Something a little different today - instead of the usual fresh-out-the-camera weekend Whisky pics I have some back-from-the-vets pics from Thursday to share with you!

The good news was that all seems to be going well, his eye has been weeping tears rather than white fluid, his nose has been fairly clear. But he had blood taken while he was there to test for EC (results in a few days), which meant he came home with a shaved ear (where they failed to get blood) and a bandage on his leg (where they succeeded). Back in his own house, he wasn't in the mood to hang around for photographs...

He didn't like the bandage on his leg, but luckily it was due to come off by the time we got home. He was VERY patient while I took it off...

But all-in-all he was pretty fed up with all the veterinary poking, and me for taking him, so he spent much of the rest of the afternoon sulking in his litter tray...

But then this is Whisky, so he cheered right up later on as normality arrived (in the shape of his dinner)!

Hide 'n' Snack

BHV: Hey Jinny, I've got a new game for you! When I say 'go', somewhere in your run I've hidden some sna...

"[sniff.sniff]"

"Found 'em! I win!"

BHV: Actually they were the ones I was carrying to play with the other bunnies...[sigh]....fine, OK, yes, you win...
[empties pocket pellet-stash into waiting mouth]

Slick Ruben

"Sure, I make lookin' good look easy, but then I bet you weren't up at 5am back-combing your ear fur."

The Grass And The Furriest

The aviaries at the Rescue are paved for safety (no digging out/in) and hygiene (easier to disinfect). Whilst it would be lovely to have all our residents living on grass, it is not practical in a rescue situation with so many bunnies and a reasonable turnover of re-homing and holiday boarding.

Along the front of the aviaries however, there is a line of grass we allow to grow long which can be picked and put in with breakfast. This is especially useful when we have sick bunnies who sometimes refuse to eat anything else, but they are not the only buns to benefit.

As I walk up and down the Rescue, filling up water bowls and so on, I frequently see aviary bunnies rushing forwards in the hope I'm there to give them some fresh green goodness. This is particularly true of Peppy, one of our jumbo buns, and how could I ever resist that gorgeous face? This is all fine, but the only problem is, when you open the aviary door he does tend to get a bit carried away before you can even give him anything...

"OMG SWEET GRASS, COME TO PEPPY!"

Fresher Than Fresh

A long while ago, Caroline planted lots of rabbit-friendly wild plants about the Rescue to benefit our bunnies. ALL of our bunnies, Blinky, not just you...

"Welcome to Blinky's Bunderful Plant Emporium. We have a special on milk thistle today, great price...what can I get you?"

Tuesday Tail #23

Oh no Whisky! I've just been through the last weeks photo's and I've got no new tails! What are we going to do for this weeks Tuesday tail?

"Don't worry, I've got you covered, just need to stretch out the old tail muscles first..."

"There you go, sorted. Now, in return for me saving your butt with mine, perhaps there's some treats deserved at the other end?"

Bunsome Prison Blues

"Ooooh, I'm stuck in Bunsome Prison and time is draaaaaaaggggin' onnnnnnnn!""

The Whisky Sunday Headspin

"..ehn..."

"What? Well how do you get bits of grated carrot out of YOUR ears then?"

The Garden Set

"Geez, I didn't say I didn't like it, I just asked when the matching table is arriving - we have visitors coming later and I'll look pretty stupid without it!"

One Big Chomper

OK, it was quite cute when it was tiny young bunnies who didn't know any better, but really Archimedes...

"Ah, legs! [..chomp..]"

Thanks Archimedes. Thanks a bunch.