Would You Trust This Face?

Minty Outing Hop

Minty has been a bit of a concern lately. Her wild blood makes her very nervous around people, you'd rarely see her out in their aviary let alone at meal times, so having discovered she has dropped some weight it has been very difficult to observe her.

Since having an outdoor grass area to play on occasionally has done wonders for wild-cross head-tilt bunny Thistle, Caroline decided to move Minty and Eccels into a SNU (Special Needs Unit) bordering a grass patch for them to play on. The next problem was - how do you persuade her to come out? We wouldn't let them out unsupervised in case of passing predators, but with people around there was no chance she'd appear. Or so we thought...!

A few days ago I was at the Rescue dishing out breakfast and decided to give them a go. No other volunteers had turned up (everyone is on holiday this week), Caroline was at the top of the Rescue seeing to a new arrival, so it seemed the perfect time. I fed all the bunnies in that section and left their door open. A few minutes later after I had chopped some more veg, I peered over the hutches bordering the grass and there she was - hopping about, sniffing, investigating, digging, basically acting just like any other bunny making the most of her playtime! Occasionally she'd return to their SNU for a few moments, as any bunny would tend to do, checking they can rush home without any obstacles in case of emergency. But yes, result, happy bunny!

And oh, so beautiful! I've only ever seen her crouched under hutches or in hay with her ears flat trying to look small, seeing her at full stretch with her ears up was a real sight to see! Of course I tried to get some photographs, but that was a bit much for her. This one I thought was going to be good...

...but (a) she clearly spotted me and wasn't looking so relaxed and (b) in my hurry to get it before she ran off the autofocus locked onto the door frame and she went out of focus. Ho hum. Well seeing her out made my day and hopefully if we have some more Minty playtimes I will eventually get a good photo!

Have a good Thursday everyone and everybun!

The Salsa Family Holiday

Two summers ago this month I had one of my favourite family of fosters staying at home with me - Salsa and her litter of 6 kids Picante, Noelle, JJ, Browncloud, Boz and Silvio. Salsa was a beautiful rabbit and her kids were all wonderful characters, they were a joy to look after. Each of them looked very different from one another, only Picante bearing something of a resemblance to her mum, and each had very distinct personalities. One of the boys, JJ, soon established himself as one of my favourite fosters ever - massive personality, lots of energy, very confident, wouldn't take any nonsense.

After a scuffle with one of his brothers I had the job of giving him daily antibiotics and cleaning a small wound - JJ wasn't impressed and made it into an extreme sport, dealing out enthusiastic warning nips to any hands that came near, snatching the syringe and throwing it across the room. Don't get me wrong, he wasn't aggressive, but as far as he was concerned he'd told me he didn't want to play the medicine game and was just annoyed that I didn't care. Handling him was very challenging but outside of those moments he was very humanised, liked the attention and company and was always getting into everything. I think that's part of why I loved him so much - you were never bored or took him for granted and he always rewarded your efforts by being friendly and highly entertaining. I don't think I've ever had a foster rabbit I've wanted to keep more, but unfortunately Whisky took a particular dislike to him and, around here, what Whisky says goes.

Well anyway, Salsa found love and went to live with one of our volunteers. Several of the others became partners of other RRR residents. Noelle and Picante were re-homed as partners to owners rabbits. JJ was for a while a complete pain when meeting other rabbits, like with us humans he had zero tolerance of their nonsense, but eventually went home with Noelle's new owner as partner to one of her own does. So that was that, and I thought I'd probably never see him again...

But look who came back to find a new friend?!

"What, I don't get a hug?!"

"Ha ha, only joking, I'll let you keep all your fingers intact (for now)!"

And if that wasn't exciting enough, look who his new partner is!

"Hey, let's translate that excitement into some treats, eh?"

With JJ and Noelle having both lost their partners recently, they came in a few weeks back to try each other out on neutral territory and soon became good friends.

"Hey sis, shall we go have some more fun winding Archimedes up, or should we just strike some dramatic and coordinated poses to show we're bonded now and head home?"

"Poses it is.."

"Now, which way was it back to our human's house again?"

But that's not all - as they were wandering around the Rescue getting to know each other again (and no doubt catching up on all the gossip with their brother, permanent resident snuffler Browncloud), looking over their bond was a very special boarder on holiday with her partner:

"I'm here to make sure they behave. And for a holiday of course! Can you point me in the direction of the poolside bar?"

"Oh, and while you're at it, bring me a few more of these appetisers - I'm going to need something to soak up the carrotinis..."

This month has been tougher than usual as on top of my regular duties I've been helping cover DIY while super-volunteer Ian was on holiday. But despite all the hard work it has been a genuine pleasure being on site because I've been able to hang out with all my old friends! It's certainly been fun and I look forward to hearing about all their future adventures!

Sparklingly, Spratlickety Clean

"Do you need help cleaning the snack grater? To get all those fragments of carrot out of the hard to reach places? I'm available is all I'm saying..."

Reacting Dappily

What's on Dappy's mind? Is he merely asking that we 'insert snacks here' or is this a reaction to the human's pre-coffee Monday morning face?

Away The Soggy Flappies

My little fluffy boss gave me permission to take the day off today, so much like him I pretty much napped all day. I think Whisky's habits might be rubbing off on me!

"Your anti-avian patrol is cancelled due to bad weather keeping the birds away. I will however be putting you on double dinner duty since I intend working up a particular big appetite this afternoon dreaming of carrot cake."

Pay, Piggies, Pay

"Hey, is it raining? That cloud kind of looks like a big fluffy butt. Wait...WHAT THE...??!!"

"GET OFF OUR ROOF!!!"

"STOP EATING OUR CARROTS!!!"

Gone, Parsley, Gone

Barred from the Salad

"It's an 'all you can eat' salad bar, right?"

"I hope so 'cos I'm eating the lot...[...nomnomnom...]"

This Is Darius

As I was looking through recent posts I noticed that for some reason Honour's partner Darius has not been featured. So let's remedy that now with a quick bonus post - here is our sweet and handsome little Darius!

"Do bonus posts come with bonus snacks? No? Dang it. If I'd known I would have stayed in bed."

A Healthy Disappearance

"Health check day?! Being poked and prodded and having claws trimmed?? No thanks!! Fortunately rabbits are champion diggers, masters of concealment, so you're gonna have to find me first!!!"

"Is he gone yet?"

The Dis-Honourable Snack Deal

"Did you bring it? And my husbun didn't see you come in?"

"Oh yes, that's the stuff! Pure Cambridgeshire green!"

"I'll be in my hidey box, hold my calls, if Darius asks, tell him I'm at the gym..."

The Look of Ruben

Whisky Declares War

"Take this."

"Those pesky birds are making a play for the garden. We're going to show them they've messed with the wrong bun. This means war."

"While you lead the assault in the garden, I will be giving orders from right here in the command centre. Try not to get too pecked, but if it gets too hairy out there just remember this advice - you'll need to be back here at 6pm in one piece to make my dinner. Good luck human."

Nose Rays

Squee-Away A Breakfast

Human-Induced Rabbit Meditation

"Oh no, tell me I didn't just see you give the last piece of carrot to the piggies??!! Come on Dawn, think positive thoughts, I'm in my happy place..."

Moll-Accusion

Boss Level

Wow, it didn't take these munchkins long to figure out who's really in charge!

"Are you monkey people responsible for the refreshments around here? Only this appears to be water. WATER! I mean really, did no-one ever teach you how to juice a carrot?"

Anything For A Pair?

Sneak In The Grass

That's weird, one second Whisky was sat just across from me, then I heard sneezing but when I looked up he'd disappeared. I wonder where he went?

"If you see my human, don't tell him I'm out here will you? It's about time he learned that I can wipe my own nose thankyouverymuch!"

Getting Into Mischief

"Hey, these 'human' things you want me to be on the look out for, are they bigger or smaller than this silly monkey thing that's staring at us over here?"

Mixed Reception

And The Pig Jumped Under The Bun

"What am I doing scaring the guinea piggies climbing on their roof? Oh, well I was just seeing if they had any breakfast carrots...that...er...they weren't using?"

Gorge Clooney

"They call me The Mower! Watch as I make ALL THIS GRASS disappear!"

"I say 'watch', you are of course welcome to just come back in an hour or two and roll me back into my shed..."

Under A Barrow

Another day, another mysteriously empty snack barrow...

Snackclambermouf

Random thought:-

If I were in charge of naming months of the year, I think I'd call one of them Snackclambermouf. I don't know what made me think of that.

Anyway, here's Havana and Dreamy...

"BREAKFAST!!!!!!"