Bugsy and Sprat At The Weekend

Well it's the end of another stressful week at home. Bugsy's appetite wasn't improving as the temperatures became more reasonable so she had a dental on Thursday. Thankfully that did the trick, her appetite is back to normal and most of her medicines are due to stop this week which she will be happy about. Unfortunately she now has a snotty nose for me to worry about.

Sprat is mostly being Sprat, but he has a lumpy face again and is booked for another abscess surgery next week.

At least they are mostly enjoying themselves this weekend, not including yesterdays vet trip (yes, another one). New shenanigans include Bugsy raiding the herb garden, Sprat trying repeatedly (and very nearly successfully) to get his head stuck in the watering can and both of them adventuring around parts of the house they are not exactly supposed to be in (or so Anouska tells me). So pretty much a normal life with rabbits.

"Remind me why I'd want to go play in the garden when all the treats are in the house? All there is out there is grass! Who would want to eat that?!"

"[schlurrrrp]"

Tansley

Tansley was a wild-cross rabbit who lived at the Rescue for more than 6 years. His mother was a pet who escaped into the wild, only to return pregnant and her owners did not want the unplanned offspring. The wild rabbit part of Tansley made him practically un-homeable as it made him naturally cautious of people, which tends to put people off. So despite his handsome looks and trendy white nose stripe we knew from the moment he came in that he would most likely stay with us his whole life.

Despite the cautiousness, Tansley was more curious about people than his brother Thistle and would run to the front of his new-arrivals hutch to see what you were doing through the mesh. We couldn't keep them in those hutches too long though - apart from anything else, they channelled their wild energies into destroying the hutches in record time. We arrived at the Rescue one morning to discover one of them had chewed a semicircular hole around the catch that was holding the door closed. Not just mischievous but clever too!

So Tansley and his brother were kept together and moved to a much bigger space where they could burn off their energy. Over time they became more confident, certainly around the volunteers, and you would always see them come racing over for breakfast, though sometimes the racing would be followed by a quick chase and squabble!

All was good with the boys until poor Thistle became sick and suffered recurring head-tilt and other issues. Seeing the constant handling of his brother for medicines made Tansley more wary of people again, though you could generally just about bribe him out with a little parsley!

After Thistle passed away earlier this year it became more difficult to tempt Tansley out, but he did love playing on and eating the grass in their area and it was always a pleasure when you did see him out. Sadly though, very recently his health began to deteriorate and on Thursday we had to say goodbye to him as he left to join his brother at Rainbow Bridge.

You were a very special and individual boy, Tansley, and we loved you for it. Binky free.

Carpentry In Motion

"Wait... so let me get this straight... Those people who came to see us are interested in adopting us... and those people who came to see us before are interested in adopting us... and that other strange person... but they all need to make a good house for us first? I can't wait!"

"Let me speed things up by dismantling this one first!"

The Uninvited Guest

When at the rescue one of the morning tasks is to walk around the rescue to survey that all is well and that each enclosure contains the same number of rabbits as usual, preferably the same rabbits that were there the previous evening. Occasionally we get the odd wren or robin that manages to make its way through a small gap into an aviary but this must be the first time I've given this big of a double take to an unexpected visitor.

Anyone want a close up of this??

Not only was I left with the impression I'd missed a night of heavy partying in Wondar and Marcel's house but bafflingly this chap must have slipped his way through a gap in the top of the old run, through a doorway, all the way through the shed, down the plastic tunnel and then went to sleep in his own little nook in the hutch attached outside.

Honestly, the things they get up to when your back is turned...

(PS some eagle-eyed readers might notice that this was a racing pigeon... His owner did send an expensive courier to come and pick him up after he'd been mooching off us at the rescue for a few days. Turned out he was pretty far off course!)

King Size

Fans of the mighty Archimedes will be pleased to hear that he is still making progress. His wounds have taken longer to heal than everyone would have liked and he has now had two skin grafts to deal with the issue. The good news is that he has now been able to move out of his restrictive plastic cage and into one of our 6x4ft hutches and furthermore now has a kindly donated little bed for enrichment. This turned out to be a good choice as he can often be found making full and appropriate use of it.

"Yes, I know you've been trying to get photos of me while I've been flat out asleep... don't you think that's a bit... creepy?"

Archi, you should see yourself, it's adorable. No doubt if I ever did get a decent photograph, you'd want paying for it...

Ru-jected

Rabbits react to the presence of my camera in different ways. Getting a photograph of probable-deafblind Angel wasn't complicated as she was asleep and likely didn't even know I was there, but her grumpy husbun Ruben didn't seem so keen...

"I'll just close my eyes... and she'll go away in three... two... one..."

Tanned

Last week began a short spell of British Summer, during which we had many upside down rabbits and I strutted around slightly red-cheeked and covered in a wet towel.

As you can imagine, not many of the residents were too impressed by the change.

"Can you turn that thing down? My wife has turned even darker than usual!"