Feeding breakfast and dinner is a big responsibility at the Rescue. It's not just about stuffing tiny faces full of snacks, it is also about looking out for potential illnesses and injuries. Whereas families (hopefully) have time to spend with all of their bunnies every day, we have too many residents to achieve that so feeding time at the Rescue is the only time we can guarantee to interact closely with each and every one of ours. I don't have figures for it, but I would guess more than half of any health problems we find are picked up at mealtimes.
Another responsibility when doing breakfast is to let the next days volunteers know how much food is left in case they have to pick more up on the way in. The breakfast veg is delivered to the bunnies using this wheelbarrow:
...so sometimes it is easier to just take a photo of what is in it at the end of the day...
...and the next days volunteer can judge how much veg they need to buy from that...
It's Spring Bank Holiday Monday in the UK, so everyone and everybun is happy not to have work today, even those who don't have jobs..
Bank holiday weekend has not been outdoors as much as I'd hoped due to the rain.
Not that anyone could hold me responsible for the weather of course...
Er...OK. So I guess my activities for the rest of Sunday are set - de-pooing somebuns fur. Ho hum.
A bonus Friday post just for regular reader Shadowydreamer...
This is Archimedes having a nap on the path today.
I've taken to calling him "Speedbump" because he lies across the path and doesn't move when you approach. Anyway, as you can see, without the grass we see more floptitude than that pic this morning - notice the position of his head and feets! Shadowydreamer suggested he was just napping in this morning's pic, but I reckon he was sleepily nomming away at the grass! This mornings pic was actually taken a couple of weeks ago, so I can't actually remember. Oh well. Either way he's a big cuddly grumpbag of fluff and we love him!
I noticed this morning that the dandelions have sprung up in number in the garden, so I took the camera out to try and get some pictures. I'm not really good at flowers so you'll have to excuse the poor photo's but here we go..
As you can see, they've sprung up all over the lawn.
In fact there's a whole load of them over...
Oh. I could have sworn...
Yes, this is Whisky sticking his tongue out at me from underneath a chair, where he is less than keen to come out from after a trip to the vets yesterday. Because this can only mean one thing: A new medicine regime. Off ventolin (for now), back on eye drops (not had them for months), on piriton to address possible allergy issues (first time, should be interesting), still nebulising (he's still hating it), Sudocrem for his hocks and lastly Metacam for pain relief as and when it is needed. The next few days are no doubt going to be confusing and difficult while I get used to the new routine and Whisky resists it, but that's life really.
On the plus side...
Hurrah! Under a ton! (Only just.)
Things have been moving around at the Rescue recently, mostly to create a few more grass areas for the bunnies to play on when supervised. The new turf arrived for the patch outside Google and Liberty's house, but they were already out, so we had to wait for them to finish playing in the sand before we could lay it...
Very sadly, Fariyah was helped to the Rainbow Bridge today. She had been doing so well after the removal of a large tumour and one of her kidneys last year, but unfortunately the cancer came back. She went downhill very quickly and over the weekend developed laboured breathing, by this morning there was nothing left we could do for her so we had to let her go.
She was never a one for the camera, although not especially timid generally it was one imposition too far and she would run from it - the above pic which appeared on this blog earlier this year was the only decent photo of her I ever got. She was a lovely old girl though, in her relatively short time with us she had many hours of happy playtime in the sunshine and was loved by her lumbering giant of a partner Old Soldier. Although we are sad to see her go, we remember all the wonderful days she got to live with us in relative luxury compared to the small hutch she grew up in before we met her.
Binky free sweet Fariyah.
You may have seen sisters Oceana and Tethra on this blog before. Although they appeared together here, they were not actually a pair - around a week after that last photo they were partnered off with their brothers Pascal and Beachy. Happily they are not likely to be at the Rescue much longer as being young and healthy they are more likely to be picked by visitors, and in fact I believe at least one of the pairs was reserved over the weekend.
Their confidence and strong personalities also helps make them more appealing to visitors. When you open their houses to meet them you immediately discover that they are what you might call in-your-face bunnies!
And that especially applies to Beachy and Tethra...
It has not been a good week here at Whisky Mansions. Something is up with our fluffy overlord but I am struggling to figure out what. In the last few days we've had various phases of reduced appetite, confusion, messy poo everywhere, excessive drinking, no drinking, excessive hiding and all sorts out-of-character, not-part-of-the-routine behaviour. He'll be almost normal at one end of the day and by the other he'll be off again.
I have not ruled out diet - he has been eating more grass outside than is usual for him, it may well all stem from the sudden change upsetting his tummy. Several of the other symptoms could be explained by him wanting to lay low thinking that if I get near enough to him to spot something is up he might be packed off to the vets. Well as it happens, he is already booked in for an appointment, so he's out of luck there.
Today's random issue is that he only ate half his dinner. He is a little piglet, this is quite unusual, but sometimes when he is having sensitivity in the nerves in his face he struggles to pick pellets up and gives up. So to establish if it is his appetite, we have a sure fire test - poke a carrot stick in his mouth and see if it quickly disappears.
[6 carrot sticks later] Not the appetite then...
It's Rabbit Awareness Week this week, starting today. This year focuses on "Room For Rabbits" (#RoomForRabbits) and improving the environment for the nation’s pet bunnies. But I'll come back to that in a second.
Today I was at the Rescue talking to Jill and Peter, two of our regular volunteers, about group bonds. It reminded me of the time I tried to get the dentally challenged trio of Spangle, Porridge and Sprat to bond with Whisky. It was ultimately a failure, though in retrospect, it was probably the nearest we ever got to a successful bond with him. They would all play in the garden at the same time without fighting, but if Whisky tried to interact directly with Porridge she would chase him off. Spangle wasn't much keener on him either. Sprat on the other hand was perfectly fine hanging out with Whisky, but he wasn't the one Whisky was after attention from.
Anyway, all this talk of them got me thinking of Porridge again. After the failed bond with Whisky they returned as a trio to live at the Rescue, but she very sadly passed away in February 2012, a day or so after having her incisors out. It always hurts deeper losing such a young bunny, especially when you've gotten to know them so well. It was a busy day today, and not an entirely happy one (there are several of our long-term sick residents who are not doing too well at the moment, especially poor Fariah), but thoughts of Porridge still lingered in my mind as I returned home. So it was a nice surprise when I fired up my computer to find that Best4Bunny have kicked off their celebration of RAW with this poster:
B4B are regular donors to RRR and in return this is one of our photo's that we gave them permission to use some time ago. It is nice to think that, just as I was remembering our dear Porridge, so much of the bunny community are sharing in the joy she brought as the poster is shared around social media.
Dear sweet Porridge. Although we miss you here, I have no doubt you and your sister are currently having a wonderful time tearing round the green grass by the Rainbow Bridge, showing all those other bunnies what a real binky should look like! Binky high, free and always you energetic little girl. x
