It's Always Like This Sundays

"Hang on - it's Sunday but it's not dinner time. Remind me why I'm awake again?"

It's Obvious When You Think About It

"HELLO GOOD MORNING!!!!"

BHV: Wow Cindy, why do you always look so happy?!

"Er...because I always see you at breakfast and you're always carrying carrots?"

BHV: Oh, right. [Hands over carrot.] Carry on then.

Bed And Breakfast

"Say... instead of putting hay in here, perhaps you could fill it with something more... green?"

Lend Me Your Ears

"So... I heard you know someone who has a spare pair of ears going? I seem to have mislaid one of mine."

Bunnio Absentia!

Just look at this sweet bun buns, sitting there eating his fresh hay and acting all innocent. This is Hercules, husbun of three-legged Velveteen. You'd think his name should be Mr Magoo by the magic he managed to pull on me last week, turning invisible inside his house until after I'd had a mini-heart attack looking for him everywhere and then poof, the magician reappears looking like he'd never left at all...

The rotter.

The Spanish Lady

Recently a woman in Alicante came across a sorry sight- among other unfortunates, she found emaciated dogs chained to poles and, in one bare metal cage void of flooring, bedding and food, a rabbit that was probably destined for the meat market. That Spanish bun buns is a very lucky lady, as the woman rescued her, vaccinated her and flew her via pet taxi all the way to our rescue.

Introducing: Bonita.

She's quite a big girl and certainly has a strong attitude. Although her rescuer told us that she's now spayed, Caroline and I suspect from her behaviour that perhaps, if this is the case, the operation was not done properly. Her submissiveness once caught made photographing her positively somewhat difficult, but I hope once her hormones settle and her trust increases there will be better opportunities to show her off in full glory.

She certainly announced her arrival with a bang- originally she had been contained in a plastic quarantine cage in the Reception Barn. Since she was being very energetic, Caroline consented to construct a panel enclosure around the cage for some temporary run time. This turned out to be very temporary indeed, as Bonita decided upwards was better and went mountaineering across our shelving units.

Upon opening up the morning after her intake, Caroline then found that Bonita had broken out of her cage and spent the night terrorising poor Jessica the Cat!

Now Naughty McBunbuns has moved into a wooden hutch where she is continuing to show us her true character. I get the feeling she is going to appear on the blog quite a lot in future!

An Ode To Parsley

A lone bun sits up on high,

Nose to the wind to smell,

Long has the moon gone to die,

Back to forgotten times to dwell.

In warming rays across the land,

A sight soon to behold,

Of ragged leaves clutched in hand,

Legendary taste that was foretold.

Ears poised and moving fast,

For the signs of the approaching meal,

Joyful hunger for noms unsurpassed,

The constant squeak of barrow wheel.

She shall wait upon her perch,

For time shall come to all,

A fruitful end will be to her search,

A hooman comes, standing tall.

Is it here? Can it be?

She stretches to her height,

Her eyes gaze in hope to see,

The best of all the sights.

The stranger comes, the bun sighs,

It’s time for breakfast at 10!

Oh no, I tell a lie,

It’s that smelly woman again.

It's What Sundays Are For

"...zzzzzzzzz..."

"...zzzzzzzzz..."

"...zzzzzzzzz..."

Bunnies' Choice

"We'll both have a small piece of that broccoli there, a medium sized leaf of those greens and...a handful of parsley?"

"No carrots for us though, we've healthy New Years Resolutions to keep!"

"Psst! Make mine a double carrot - but wrap it in the greens so she doesn't see! I'm not missing out on MY treats just because SOMEbun is worried about fitting into her spring wardrobe!"

Don Skyla

I don't know why... but even though she's a real sweetie, the looks I manage to get on Skyla's face sometimes just always seem to remind me...

"You just get me the parsley, capiche?"

Regen-ear-ation

I've heard jokes of earless bunnies and we've even had a few at the Rescue actually lose an ear or two, but I've never before heard of a healthy rabbit start regrowing two entirely new ones.

Snack Or Snap?

"Do I smell... parsley?"

No, sorry Jellybean, it's just a camera, but maybe there will be parsley to follow.

The Big Number 9

It's our dear Gavin's 9th birthday next month. I know what he'd really like as a present, especially after being here for many years, is a new home- in his old age he's getting quite soppy and enjoys head rubs and fuss from any passing volunteer, especially one on a Monday that he has wrapped around his paw. Unfortunately what he's probably going to be getting is a lot more head rubs. We'll have to think of something special, eh?

A Nose For The Camera

Anti-Avian Antics

I decided to make this weekend about teaching Anouska and Bobbit that they are allowed to roam the whole house. For some reason, they consider from the lounge, through the hall to halfway up the stairs a no-go zone. My only guess so far is that Whisky made such a good job of scenting it for his own that it is going to need extra scrubbing before they are not afraid they are roaming in another bun's 'hood.

If I can get them to go all the way downstairs of their own accord they can start telling me when they want to go outside, rather than the current setup: guessing they do, carrying them downstairs, finding (often) that they don't.

Well it's still a work in progress. For example, although he liked to joke around with them, Whisky got on perfectly well with the birds that visited the garden. Bobbit however has a long way to go to build any trust between himself and the local wildlife...

"I'm not going out there 'til that bird naffs off..."

"I'm not going down there 'til that fella stops staring at me, flops his ears over and starts bounding around in big circles like a normal bunny."

I'm starting to think this might take a while...

The Dog House

"No, you may not speak to Cheeko, he forgot our anniversary so he is not allowed visitors. When was it? I have no idea. But I've not had so much as a carrot off him since 2014 so he must have..."

An Honourable Nap

Ever get to a doorway and then forget what you were doing? Just sleep on it.

Coming On Leaps And Bounds

One of our special needs rabbits is Marlon, a big boy with degenerative joint disease. At one point amputation was discussed to give him relief from the pain in his right shoulder. I think we can probably assume that his medication is working, however, because he seems to have forgotten all about it.

Yes, that is his enclosure behind him...

Time for some better rabbit proofing I guess...

A Little Behind

I've taken so many photographs of our wild trio but they have a tendency to sit nicely at a distance too far for my poor little phone to pick up very well or to blur a lot, so I haven't been able to feature them as much as I'd like to! I did, however, manage to sneak up on a little bun I suspect to be one of the girls.

Not the best view mind you... and it did give me flash-backs to B-HV's Last Tuesday Tail...

"Let me get this straight... You FINALLY managed to take a photograph in focus and you took a picture of my BOTTOM?!"

Shay's Lazy Days

What's On The Box?

Ever get the feeling that someone is dropping a big hint that you just aren't getting?

Harper's Bizarre

He just keeps staring...

Fine, you win, I'll go get the carrots.

It's A Psychobunny Freakout!

You know what that look is for...

Incoming parsley, freakout in 3...2...1...

It's A Hard Life - Part 3

"I told him five times to start doing the chores. He just kept saying 'in a minute'. If he starts snoring, I'm off."

Little Bowl of Fluff

This darling little baby fuzzball came to us after being rescued as "a cage with free rabbit" following the owner's daughter becoming allergic. She hasn't been here long but she's already started to realise just how to get what she wants.

"I fink you'll find my wittle bowl is empty. Fill it."

It's A Hard Life - Part 2

Clearly the important job of Chief Newspaper Shredder was just too much for poor old Jinny. Maybe you should ask Twizzel for help next time?

"ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

Her Royal Fancy

After the success of little boy Gadget, his three brothers have been tried with our difficult ladies to test a new theory of Caroline's. Shirley came to the rescue specifically to be bonded but failed to appreciate any of our nice bachelors, eventually leading to the unfortunate loss of poor Neon's ear. This time, however, she seems to have met her match, quite literally.

"I suppose you want to know how I did it. Really. Just look at me. As my name suggests, I really am quite magnificent."

It's A Hard Life - Part 1

Being a bunny is an incredibly difficult occupation. There's all that eating to be done, not to mention pooping, digging, sleeping and being irresistibly cute. It's not surprising that after a hard day's work some of our little friends are utterly exhausted.

So What Happens Now?

Life after Whisky has been about as difficult as you can imagine. So much of my everything was built around him, from the daily routines between getting up and out the house in the morning to the arrangement of any free time I had to make sure I was back home for medicines or whatever. Every day brings with it "first time without..." moments - first time coming home to a house without him in it, first lazy Sunday without him laid out in the sunny patch by the window snoozing, first Dr Who without him sat there next to me (or upstairs grumping about something). There are less of them each day, but the levels of sadness have been boosted as the last of his test results came in and finally when I went to collect his ashes.

I don't want to go on about the sad parts too much, this isn't the place. Here we should be looking back at his life and feeling happy that he brought us so much joy, what an amazing little boy he was.

But still, for me there's the "What next?" to consider. My heart and my bank balance need some time to recover, I don't plan on adopting any more rabbits any time soon. I figure though that if foster bunnies Bobbit and Anouska are going to continue living in my house for the foreseeable future it is only fair that they move into Whisky's old room, it being twice the size of theirs.

So on New Years Day, that's what we did. With a mixture of their furniture and what was already in there, they moved in and now have around 120 square foot of bedroom as their own space. Being the only bunnies in the house now, they also gained proper free-roaming privileges when I am around to supervise, or at least to listen out for mischief. So far they are confining themselves to the upstairs of the house, when that changes I am sure chaos will reign. (Anouska does venture half way down the stairs on occasion but for reasons I am unsure of she won't yet go to the bottom.)

They definitely seem happy with their new room. Anouska has more things to shred and dig in, Bobbit has lots more places to hide. But of course the final approval wasn't given until they'd established that it came with the same menu and level of service.

"Space good, toys good, food good...now if we could just lose the paparazzi...?"

The Face of Disappointment

One morning, I arrived at the Rescue early to get some more work done. The downside of doing this is that every bunny thinks that breakfast time has arrived and they put on their sweetest behaviour.

"Well hello, I'll have the carrots with a side order of broccoli served on a plate made of your finest cabbage. And have I ever told you how much I love you?"

In the case of little darling Mr Burny Whiskers, I caught the moment he finally realised I had a broom and not the coveted snack barrow.

Shout About Sprouts

"Sprouts? Bleurgh!"

"You can do better than that! If you don't bring the parsley out right now, well... let's just say you should probably take a look in your boots before you next put them on."