Alfie Loves Lola

"This is the story of when Alfie (aka the Trons, the Tronnie, the Tronky Tronk, Little Grey Bear, Your little ****) met Lola (aka Lolly, Lollypop, Lilly Lol Lols, Little Black Beauty)...

In August 2010, when Alfie was 8 months old, fresh faced and toothless from having his incisors removed, I took him to the rescue to meet his future wife. Caroline had already decided that Alfie was to meet 5 month old Lola (formerly Cherish). A pampered house bun whose only company had been me for the past 5 months of his life, Alfie had no idea what Lola was or what he was supposed to do with her. Caroline reported that it was not love at first sight. Alfie was quite happy to accept all Lola's grooming but ignored all Lola's requests to be groomed in return. However, over the week, Alfie began to get the idea and by the end of week 1 Alfie was starting to show Lola a little love. They both came back to me, a bonded pair, a week after that. They settled in together very well with only the odd short lived scuffles in the first few months.

They are not the sort of bun pair you will find with one draped over the other but over the course of the last 4 years they really have always been the best of buds. Lola is the gentle, considered bun to Alfie's lunging, growling, biting, bonkersness. Despite Alfies love of extreme bunny sports - sitting in the middle of the room whilst I vacuum around him and appearing right by my feet when I least expect it - with his lop ears and poorer eyesight, Lola really is his eyes, ears and comfort. He will not let you stroke him, for example, without his face squooshed against some part of Lola's body for reassurance.

Together they sleep, eat and investigate. When one comes into the room, I know the other will follow behind shortly after. When I get up to feed them in the morning, I more often than not find them asleep together under their Hello Kitty chair.

I can't imagine Alfie without Lola and Lola without Alfie. I hope they get to grow old together."

Words and photo's by Anouska

Bunnies Without Borders

A little friend came to visit recently and we (Caroline and I) got talking to her mummy about how we organise our indoor space for our fluffy loved ones. We wanted to share their experiences on here, so she (mummy, not bunny) agreed to write this piece for us.

I am a pretty anxious bunny owner and completely and utterly love Alfie and Lola (formerly known as Cherish) - I would be devastated if anything happened to them but I think you can be too cautious (and not cautious enough). I was so cautious with Alfie I initially kept him like this:

I used to let him out for as long as I could each day, when I could supervise, thinking this was enough exercise for him.

I think the key thing for me was when I changed my thinking after speaking to Caroline, and realised that you don't need to cage a bunny to ensure that it is a safe bunny and that bunnies do not actually need to be stuck in cages at all. At first I was very nervous about the damage they would do to my flat and any dangers to them. I didn’t think my flat was unsupervised-bunny friendly at all. After some thought I realised I could reorganise a room for them, which was safe for them to be unsupervised.

Over time I have discovered that the less I bar them from, the less destructive they are and the more I get to know all their habits and behaviours. You just have to have the confidence. The first time I left Alfie alone in his room (before Lola joined him) I was worried about him all night. He was fine. Now, aside from chewing of furniture (I bought cheap Ikea furniture on purpose) and the odd patch of bunny wee, they are very well behaved in their room and corridor (and everywhere else, although I keep an eye on them in other rooms). I really think it's about ones attitude to rabbits and how they should be housed.

Now that they are never caged, I realise that they are in fact most active when I am asleep. When I leave my bedroom door open all night I really understand how busy they are. Last night Alfie spent most of the night using my bed as part of his assault course and Lola practiced her sprint turns on my bed for a large part of the night. Whilst I don’t recommend this (I do wake up a lot!), it would be awful for them to be caged when they really want to be very active.

Below are pictures of their room:

They don't necessarily need a whole room, which might not be possible anyway with 2 unbonded buns, for example, or if there isn’t a spare room going, but an extra fenced off area. Now that my attitude has changed, I would be very unhappy for Alfie and Lola to be caged at all. I'd also love for them to have some outside space but unfortunately this isn't possible at the moment.

Relaxing under their favourite table

All pictures by Anouska

Fluffy Four's Big Day

"Erm...Doggy wants to know if snacks

are served on this trip?" asks Orlando

Well, the day had finally come. After 14 weeks of living in my house it was time for the once tiny litter of cuddle bundles to return to the Rescue to be rehomed. They packed up all their things into the pet carriers, waved goodbye to Jemima with their little paws and off we set.

When we arrived at the rescue there was a dizzying array of new smells to experience and many new friends for them to meet. They were very excited and couldn't wait to get out to explore, but first things first - Marigold had a special cuddle for Caroline! ("Wow, haven't you gotten BIG?")

First into their new homes were Pingu and Orlando. A little uncertain of the strange terrain and not too sure about the enormous neighbours peering through the fence, but once they were sure they were safely contained they were off, racing up and down the grass and in and out of of the fun obstacles.

Pingu plays hide-and-seek

Next up Cherish and Marigold. After a couple of laps of their warren to discover the lay of the land it was time to meet their neighbours. Within minutes Cherish was seen winding Megan up into a jealous frenzy by flirting with Whisky through the fence, while Marigold was enjoying all the tasty new grass.

"Well hey there handsome fellow - fancy sharing a

plate of grated carrot later?"

So a big day for them, a big day for me, saying goodbye to my miniature house guests. And a very exciting one - some of today's visitors have already expressed interest in each of the girls and with the boys gorgeous blue eyes I have no doubt all four will each quickly find loving new homes.

"Chomp chomp munch chomp"

Over-Worked, Under-Played

With around a hundred bunnies in need of homes living at the Rescue, it is always a very busy place. There seems more to do here than the number of hours in the day permit. Not surprising then that Caroline has recently had to resort to asking people to take work home with them just to keep on top of everything. At various times over the last few weeks I've seen armfuls of paperwork being loaded into the other volunteers cars - Colin, Mandy, Sue, Debbie and others, all pitching in to clear a backlog of forms, mail-outs, planning submissions, work on the various websites and projects that we are involved with.

So it was only a matter of time before I was handed something to take away and sort out. Knowing it was bound to be some tough and probably tedious project that no-one else wanted, I diligently returned home, cleared the dining room table and emptied the contents of the box onto it ready to make a start. I stared at it wondering where to begin. The project stared back at me.

"Don't bother looking for the instructions -

we got a little hungry in the car"