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!

Back With The Boys

My four recent foster boys are still at the Rescue. It is a strange feeling seeing them every week on the one or two days I am on site, a mixture of joy and sadness, seeing and hanging out with my little friends again but knowing that they are still without proper homes.

Boz and BC have at least found partners. BC you will remember is bonded with Montana, another super-floofy bunny like himself. And he is now SO floofy in his massive winter coat! Just so adorable, it is such a struggle to stop myself from begging Caroline to let me take them home with me, I just have to keep reminding myself that Whisky would quickly veto that plan!

Boz's ear eventually healed so well you would barely notice he once had such a chunk of it ripped and wrecked by his brother. Being a red-eyed-white rabbit, a breed regularly ignored by people looking for partners for their bereaved and singly bought buns, Boz was bonded with another unpopular red-eyed-white bunny called Polar. While easy-going BC and Montana are in snuggly happy-land, Boz and Polar have a more moody, tempestuous affair going on, though when they are away from other bunnies and competition for the best snacks they are getting on well enough.

JJ's hyperactivity and super-violent never-back-down attitude have kept him single, despite several visitors taking a shine to him and us trying him out with their buns. I'm starting to think he might be on commission with our local vets, so quick is he to try and send them there. As for people, (not including me) he's only bitten one volunteer that I am aware of, but then she did make the mistake of putting her hand in his cage without asking first! This week he has been out in a bigger space so he can burn off some of that energy. We all love him to bits, he has so much character and fun in him. I'm blaming the hyperactivity for why I STILL haven't managed to take a decent photo of him since he went back.

Silvio's loneliness, not having been chosen yet, is possibly also a red-eyed-white thing. But he is such a softy (with people anyway) I think anyone who spends any time getting to know him will want to take him home, so hopefully he will find a family soon. Following a few weeks of difficult bonds, Caroline does have somewhat of a backlog of bondings to get through over the coming weeks so who knows.

Anyway, there you go, my fab four former foster boys, all happy (in their own way), all conning me out of parsley whenever they see me walk by!

Hidey Hide-Away

Excuse the terrible picture, but this is Whisky in the lounge on Tuesday night. He had just barged his way in there to have a nosey, only for foster bunny JJ to threaten to tear Whisky's ears off through the bars of his cage. In complete contrast to his usual behaviour in such situations, instead of blasting JJ with jets of wee and trying to punch him in the head through the bars, Whisky went and sat in the lounge hutch and refused to come out.

Well good news for Whisky, the foster boys are all moving out this morning. I will be sad to see them go, though perhaps relieved that some order and sanity might return to our house! I will miss JJ's utter craziness, Boz's strange blend of sweetness and (recently) teenage violence, Silvio's curious shyness and absolutely everything about little floofy BC. Another chapter ends. See you back at the Rescue, guys!

Before the violence: The last picture I took of the boys together, 10th August.

Love At First Glance

I do like this photo, which I took a little over a week ago, it really makes me smile. I like it because on first glance you sort of go "Awww, sweet love!", but a second later you realise that's not what it's about at all.

It's brothers Silvio and Boz, one of whom is trying to eat a tasty snack out of the others mouth before he can swallow it.

A second later still you notice JJ in the top right, quietly scoffing the pile of snacks the other two haven't spotted.

And lastly, you notice that Browncloud is basically photobombing the shot with his fluffy butt right in the middle.

So really, what's NOT to like about this picture??!!

The Dishes At NASA

Meanwhile, at a secret NASA research station, scientists deploy the new detector array aimed at finding life on other planets. The trial is not without success, however the scientists soon come to realise that the equipment can only be calibrated to detect plant life.

"Spring greens. That definitely sounds like spring greens."

Fly Me To The Gloom

I hate this time of year - not only is it way too hot for bunnies but there are flies everywhere. Flies, as you will know, are the enemy of the pet rabbit. They will lay eggs on your bunny that will promptly sprout larvae which in turn will burrow into the skin, feeding on the rabbits flesh and quite literally eating the rabbit from the inside out. Not fun and often lethal.

So I am paranoid when I have bunnies with uneaten caecals which might attract flies, or sick rabbits who can't clean themselves properly, or rabbits with injuries (bloody wounds as well as pooey bits are favourite egg-laying spots for the flies). Which of course means I am always paranoid about Whisky, though being inside my house-of-many-spiders with the windows closed reduces the risk.

Whisky has actually been pretty good and clean this last few weeks, but wouldn't you just know it, I came home today to find a great long pooey bit in his bottom fur, which just goes to show you can never let your guard down. And this wasn't the beginning of my stress - last night I found a similar amount of poo stuck in the long fur round Little Ms Lionhead's bottom. Then to top it all off, I found a wound in JJ's back from what I guess must have been a fight with his siblings in the last couple of days. (Note: JJ is not his real name, just his current nickname, shortened from his previous nickname of JJB, which was shortened from his previous nickname of Jar-Jar-Binkies, because he has a long face and long ears and kind of reminded me of the Star Wars character. Anyway...)

So yes, lots of stress this weekend and since you probably want to see a non-icky-poo-and-wound-free pic, here's JJ "enjoying" getting his wound checked out.

"Checking my wound? Really? Cos it kind of seems like you're just checking out my cute fluffy tail."

Back in the RRR

After speaking to Caroline yesterday we decided that it is probably safest to return Salsa to the Rescue - one of her boys appears to be physically maturing ahead of schedule and we don't want him to be brother to his own children (or indeed have any children of his own, there being enough bunnies in Rescues as it is).

So one last picture of her before she goes back later today. This was yesterday after I'd health-checked them all (making them grumpy) and fed them (making them less grumpy) then left them to chill out in the hot summer evening (making them all sleepy and snugly, apparently). I should also point out that this is not their area, this is the hay storage part of the shed, but it was nearer their dinner bowls and when you've gotta flop, you've gotta flop.

"Darn straight. Maximum floppage in 3...2..."

Kids in the Shed

One of the things we did during my busy Wednesday was swap the foster bunnies around. Goodbye to Linenose, Spearnose, Tiny, Allbrown and Whitemouth (not their real names) who all went back to the Rescue, hello to Salsa and her six kids.

Most of the group were a bit nervous at first, perhaps the ride over sharing the back seat of Caroline's car with 12 wild rabbits didn't help, so I've given them a couple of days to settle in before taking any pictures. Even now, mum and a couple of the others still panic at new things like having cameras waved at them so I only have a couple of pics, but here they are. More squeeful cuteness to come no doubt!

"[chomp-chomp-chomp]"

"So...how does this work? Do you just watch us eat or are you going to join us at some point?"