Mid-week bunny fix

Today is a much-awaited day on the bunny calendar, more popular even, than Easter. It's Hay Day; the day when a fresh shipment of hay arrives via Sweet Meadow Farms all the way in Massachusetts. Peeper's a happy bunny!

Mid-week bunny fix

Bunnies make good pillows!

Mid-week bunny fix

“The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.

"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"

"Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."

"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.

"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."

"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"

"It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

"I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled.

"The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always.”
― The Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams

- - - - - - - - - - -

At something over 7 years old, Peeper is slowly becoming Real. Much of the hair around one eye has been loved off (thanks to chronic lop-eared wetness there) and she's looking a little shabby all over. She has a ways to go, still, of course. She can run and dance like a youngster when given the chance.

Do well, be cute, get adopted!

What summer snow is he made of, this pearl among rabbits?

- E.V. Rieu

I'm missing my little white foster bunny, Lucas. I sent him on his way this evening to find his forever home...

I'll miss the shell-pink of his ears and the nosebonks to my ankle that he greeted me with. Oh and his hijinks at salad time! He is a dancer, this bunny.

My heart goes with you, Looney Tunes! Do well, be cute, get adopted!

Lucas is available for adoption through the GA House Rabbit Society.

A bunny, on loan

Maybe some of you that are bunny people heard this story about a nearby bunny hoarder. It ended up that many of the rabbits "rescued" from the hoarder were turned loose in an RV park so campers could "feed and enjoy them" as the above article says.

The local chapter of the House Rabbit Society, thankfully, stepped in to re-rescue as many of the bunnies as possible from the terrible fate that awaited them in the "wild" of the RV park.

The GA House Rabbit Society has put out a desperate call for help with the surviving bunnies... they need donations for the care of the sick and malnourished bunnies they rescued and they're looking for foster homes.

This is where Lucas (pictured) and I enter the story. I decided to foster him for a while to make space at the shelter for these recently rescued bunnies. He's a cutie-pie. I can't let him stay very long or I'll fall in love.

: )

Self-portrait with two rabbits

Feeling a little silly tonight!

Mid-week bunny fix

The perfect bunny hideout!

One last kiss

Freckles 2001 - 11/18/2011

I had Freckles put to sleep this afternoon. I'd watched her fade and struggle for the last year or so... ten and a half years take their toll on a bunny even though she was always very healthy. She'd been unable to move around very much and in the last two weeks had begun to lose her balance and not be able to get herself upright once she tumbled over. She had a couple seizures, too, which was just too much for me to bear. A local vet suspected E. cuniculi based on her symptoms, so we treated her for that for a while, but there wasn't any improvement.

Anyway...

It's so hard to make that decision, but it was easy for her. She had an incredibly long life for a bunny and she knew nothing but love. She was the kissiest bunny I've ever known and was kissing me still this morning as we shared a couple last moments of love and comfort. This is my favorite photo of her from many moons ago.

 As pet owners, we are so fortunate, I think, to have the option of that final kindness for our pets.

Weekend bunny fix

Peeper has a cat.

(Two, actually.)

Both are mostly afraid of her.

(But they are not above drinking the water in her cage!)

Mid-week bunny fix

Freckles on a summer day...

(she's 10 this year!)

Mid-week bunny fix

Suddenly, baby cottontails seem to be everywhere, as do ticks.

Rabbit intelligence

If a rabbit defined intelligence the way man does, then the most intelligent animal would be a rabbit, followed by the animal most willing to obey the commands of a rabbit. ~Robert Brault

*%^$# rabbit!!

One of Freckles'greatest joys in life is digging through her litterbox and spreading the contents far and wide.

Ickk!

Somehow, I'd imagined that at 10 years old, she might've outgrown this miserable habit, finally.

Wrong!

Do your bunnies love to dig, too? How do you keep it from driving you absolutely f-ing nuts?

Help?!?

Year of the Rabbit!

Look out bunnies... now I have the perfect excuse for dressing you up in silly outfits!

; )

Haiku with bunnies*

Year's end,

all corners

of this floating world, swept.

- Matsuo Basho

(there's still dustbunnies in the corners, tho!)

*a new occasional series

Mid-week bunny fix

Fair Bunnies!

Lionhead Bunny

Currently quite the rage among bunny breeders, but I sneeze just looking at them.

English Lop Bunny

Those floppy ears can be as much as 22 inches long... kinda silly, I think, but breeders entertain themselves this way.

(snark)

Friendly 4-H People

Imagine that! I have to commend this group, unlike those at my local county fair, for actually engaging the public and letting us pet and enjoy the bunnies there on display. Usually the bunnies are left to pant for days in the heat, poked at by passerby, for the sake of a blue show ribbon. Getting the bunnies out of their cages where interested folks could touch them lovingly makes so much more sense, don't you think?

Google search

The most popular search term that directs readers to this blog relates to bunny poop.

This, as you might imagine, is pretty humbling to me.

;-)

(Hope your Easter's happy!)

Firsts

*Somebunny's* first Christmas near a tree...

Am I in for it, or what?

:-)

Can I see yours, please?

A Boomer and Cricket favorite

"No, we're not interested in a subscription to Cat Fancy magazine. Now get off our porch."

;-)

Boomer and Cricket snuggling sometime in 2006. I'm looking through favorite photos... remembering bunnies from the past... planning to share for the next couple days.

Shades of brown

Couch with bunny to match
;-)