Dandelions

Today (Tuesday) was great weather for the lawn. It rained over night, meaning the grass got a proper watering, the temperature stayed above the requisite 6 degrees centigrade required for growth and we even got our weekly hour of sunshine this afternoon! As if by magic (or because I didn't stop to notice the last few days when it was chucking it down with rain) the grass seemed to shoot up and dandelions appeared. Dandelions, though a weed to some, are a luscious treat for our furry friends.

I could see the eagerness in Jemima and Elvis' faces as they eyed them up from their run. Which was unfortunate, because Serena (with Sushi) had her playtime in the garden first and ran round systematically devouring the lot.

"Hmmm...nom.nom.nom.nom..."

Sorry J+E - next time you can go first, promise!

Hettie and Errol

Hettie and Errol went to a new home last week, to live as house rabbits. We were particularly pleased to see these two rehomed. Hettie came in with deformed bits, which required corrective surgery to stop her from urinating on herself. Errol was from one of the largest cases we have had to deal with and was likely father to many of the other bunnies from that case. Could look a bit grumpy at times, especially when dragging those enormous ears around in the wet, but also a constant favourite with visitors to spend time with as he is so big and soppy.

Their new family also includes a dog, so they needed a pair of rabbits that wouldn't scare easily in a new environment. Whereas some rabbits would be terrified being introduced to a larger animal, these two seemed to take it in their stride. Errol soon put the dog in it's place by battering it on the nose when it stuck it where it wasn't wanted.

Good luck in your new home guys!

No Sleep Til...

It's bank holiday Monday, which means it's time to be reminded of that little fact of bunny parenting that is rarely mentioned in the books - however much you want it, if you have house rabbits you are never again going to get a lie-in beyond their regularly scheduled breakfast time. Well, not unless you keep your door shut and wear earplugs to bed anyway. Which is particularly frustrating when you know what they've got planned for the rest of the day.

"Zzzzzz...mmm...carrots...zzzzzz"

All Message, No Bottle

Painting the Post Office

Jemima and Whisky have been leaving each other little messages in the lounge, a room that both have now access to at different times of the day. A bit of furniture chewed here, a poo there. It's a territory marking thing.

It started off quite subtle, contained to the area in and around the small hutch that houses Jemima and Elvis' indoor litter tray, but over the last few days the poo started to spread further out. Then last night Jemima decided to make a play for the rug. She claimed it. Completely. And it wasn't until I knelt down to sweep up the many MANY little messages she left for Whisky, I discovered it wasn't limited to poo.

In Jemima's defence, it also transpired that Whisky had been sneaking into the bedroom of the hutch to leave his own big wet messages. So having scrubbed the rug and hutch last night, the task for today was to repaint bits of the inside so that any future messages won't be quite so quick to seep into the wood. It didn't take too long but until the paint dries Whisky is shut out of the room, so NOW he's being moody about having his access to parts of the house cut off.

"Out of my way! I need to check my wee-mail!"

Sorry Whisky. I would let you in the lounge, but I don't think a magnolia nose would suit you.

Raining Blood and Bills

I think I am in danger of helping to perpetuate the bizarre notion some people have that a bunny is a kind of animated cuddly toy. Blame Whisky, cos he kind of looks like one most of the time, so very very cute and adorable. Most of the time. When I post pictures to Facebook I can almost hear the delighted child-like squees of many of my non-bunny-parent friends, as they fight back urges to head straight to the pet store to get one of their own.

This is not exactly a good thing. So many of the bunnies at the Rescue are here because someone thought they were buying a cheap low-maintenance novelty, often for their children, only to discover they have gotten themselves a complicated and expensive little animal that requires quite a bit of hard work. Every day, for the rest of its 12 year life. The feeding, the hours of cleaning, the vet visits. Eventually deciding it is not what they signed up for, these people wash their hands of this inconvenience they have created in their lives by dumping it (and their adorable rabbit) on us.

Of course, dear readers, most of you have your own little fluffy bank-account-emptying, stress-inducing free-time-hoggers of your own, so you are well aware of the responsibilities that come with parenting bunnies. For the rest of the world, I present here to you the side of Whisky's life, over the last year and a bit, that isn't in the cute pictures.

NOTE: There are pictures - they're just not very cute (you'll have to click the links in the text to see them - I've hidden them away so as not to disturb the casual visitor).

• First, there was the puss-filled eye infection that needed twice daily flushing for many weeks, which he hated.
• Then, cleaning soft poo from out of his bottom fur daily while we figured out what part of his diet didn't agree with him.
• Scrubbing wee out of the carpet when a strange smell (or bunny) caused the litter training to be temporarily thrown out the window.
• The (sometimes multiple) daily litter tray emptying, cleaning and refilling. And all the other cleaning - so much cleaning!
• Washing, grating and chopping vegetables every morning for his breakfast because he has no front teeth.
• The recurring fur mites, because he struggles to groom himself and has a poor immune system.
• The snapped ligament in the toe on his left foot that makes it stick out 90 degrees sideways, cause unknown.
• The abscesses he had operated on in his face and ear that needed 30 minutes of flushing twice a day for more than a week.
• The emergency vet visits when his nose closed up, his face was a mess of puss and snot, he struggled to breath and wouldn't eat. This went on for weeks and involved cultures being taken, tests and almost every type of anti-biotic indicated as possibly helpful being thrown at it.
• The day the vets told me the anti-biotics were starting to lose effectiveness to clear his nose and he would probably have to be put to sleep.
• The long drives to see a more specialised rabbit vet, who managed to find the cause of most of his more serious health problems (a corkscrewing tooth root growing through his nose and above the roof of his mouth). This included more tests, a scope up his nose and a series of X-rays.
• The discovery that part of his lower jaw is missing, wasted away through some bone disorder.
• The long and difficult surgery to remove the tooth root, which involved cutting away, lifting off and re-attaching part of his face.
• The months of recovery from the surgery.
• The damage to his ears and tummy, because he has limited bunny social skills and fights any rabbit we try and bond him with.
• Having his perineum ripped open by another rabbit (another failed bond) and having to be stitched back together.
• The months of coccidiosis and associated digestive problems triggered by being around other rabbits at the Rescue (during the bonding attempts) combined with his poor immune system. This included a fair amount of rear-end leakage and some heavy-duty bottom and floor cleaning.
• The five days last month he spent sneezing blood when we thought something awful had happened around the site of his surgery, but turned out to be a needle-like piece of a plant he'd inhaled that was stuck inside his nose.
• The many, many vets bills, totalling around 2000 quid in a little over a year.

So that's a peek behind the curtain of being a bunny parent. Cute, huh?!

Un-Bromantic

Pye Bunny

One of the reasons we disapprove of baby rabbits being sold in pet shops is that they are sold too young to be vaccinated, neutered or even sexed properly. One of the UK's largest pet chains did try to address this issue recently but, still wanting to sell them while they are still tiny and irresistable, their proposed solution only raised more criticism from the rabbit community. But that's another story.

Recently we had someone bring their single female to us, adopted from an animal shelter, looking for a new friend. On attempting to bond her with the owner's first choice of buck, the pair were aggressive towards each other from the off and it clearly wasn't going to work. The next buck we tried was Pye, a friendly blue lop who has been with us only a few months. It seemed to go well, they accepted each other, snuggling grooming etc., so after almost a week together they were taken for their pre-homing health check with our vets. This is mostly for our rabbit, to ensure they are in good health before being delivered to their new home, but the owners rabbit also gets a quick check too.

Everything checked out OK except for one thing - Pye's new partner was a boy.

A little bit embarrassing for us that we didn't spot it, but on this occasion it simply hadn't occurred to us that the owner wouldn't know - after all, the rabbit had come via a shelter, not as a tiny baby from a pet shop.

Now we've had boy pairs come through the Rescue before, mostly neutered litter mates, but we would not usually attempt to pair two strange bucks together because the risk of arguments turning to violence is much higher. Male-female bonded pairs are the norm. However, since they did appear to be getting on very well, we decided to take a chance - but alas within two days Pye was back at the Rescue and his short-term partner was back on our bonding waiting list for a new girlfriend.

To me, the shocking part of this story happened when Caroline went to pick Pye up. On checking the notes from the shelter, it appears that the "doe" had even been in for a spay operation at their vets. When they opened "her" up and found none of the bits they were expecting to find, they simply assumed "she" had been done already and sewed "her" back up, presumably without checking! Yikes!

Chipper Bunny

When bunnies are properly bonded, they will snuggle up to each other to take a nap. Baby giant bunny Chipper here is bonded with Rosetta. And, er, Caroline.

He might need to be homed as a house bunny - I'm not sure anyone's going to find a hutch, shed or run big enough for all three of them to stretch out and play in.