The bunny pianists

Maestro Mabel

Pianos have (excuse the pun) played a significant role in female servant’s family life:

• She learnt to play on a piano bought to commemorate her birth (a gift from her father to her mother).
• When visiting her grandparents, she played the piano her grandmother was given as a schoolgirl, back in the 1920s.
• The piano female servant plays now (and on which each of the three mini servants learnt to play) was a wedding gift from her grandparents.

However, unlike the other pianos in the family, the piano in the Bunnymad household (and its stool) has, over the years, been a main attraction for several bunnies.

The first 4-legged pianist was Lupin.

Lupin loved a duet

Lupin spent her unsupervised hours in a hutch (before her servants knew better). The hutch was situated in the dining room next to the piano, and Lupin realised she could hop from a box behind the hutch up onto the hutch roof. She’d go there to rest, to get a better view of what was going on (especially if people were eating at the dining table), or to hop onto the piano keys. Every time the piano was played, she’d turn the piece into a duet, hopping onto the keys, then onto female servant’s lap.

 

The next Bunnymad rabbit, Charlie, was not a fan of playing the piano. 

The first leap to land him with a discordant crash on the piano keys gave him such a fright that he stood shaking for a couple of seconds before daring to investigate whether there was anything interesting on top of the piano, then hopping swiftly down to the ground, never to return to the keyboard.

Charlie prefered listening to playing

 

Neroli and Rosie never tried playing, but they both liked to rest beneath the piano stool (certainly not together, as they merely tolerated one another!).

Rosie found piano music extremely relaxing

Neroli enjoying a spot of sunshine by the piano

By the time Mabel and Dijon joined the household, there was no longer a hutch in the corner by the piano – instead, they had a puppy crate for shelter. At four months old, Mabel launched herself onto the piano stool then the piano, apparently oblivious to – or maybe enjoying? – the ‘music’ she was making.

Mabel had pianist paws

She was fascinated by the gallery of (mostly rabbit) photos atop the piano, and required close supervision to ensure she didn’t spring up for a better view. She discovered she could reach the hay storage basket, on top of the cage.

From then on, she frequently played a 7-octave ‘buncerto’, and enjoyed first pickings of hay straight from the source before handfuls were placed in their tray. Dijon always watched, slightly bemused, from the ground, but was never tempted to join her there.

In their first years, Mabel had no access to the piano overnight, as the bunnies spent night-time in their cage; but even when they were later given 24/7 access to the room, thankfully for everyone (especially the neighbours) she was never inspired to play a nocturne. However, the next-door-neighbour did mention they called her Rachbuninoff!

Mabel perfected her leap to the piano, barely touching the piano stool as she propelled herself to ‘tickle the ivories’ (as female servant’s grandmother would have said!). She never once slipped or fell, but she did topple a parlour palm plant – it sat overhanging the piano, and she couldn’t resist pulling a branch (see post 11 May 2015). 

The piano had never seen such disrespect

When Mabel developed a mandibular abscess, making it more difficult for her to eat, her frequent visits to the piano and top of the cage (inaccessible to Dijon) made it easy to give her the extra food she required to maintain her weight, and, as the condition progressed, her supply of soaked nuggets was placed there. When the piano tuner visited that year, there was some explaining to do… in all the decades of his career, he’d never found hay and rabbit food beneath piano keys.

A little surprise for the piano tuner: nugget crumbs and hay

Mabel’s piano playing is sadly missed – she had such a distinctive style. To date nobunny has played as frequently as she did.

 

Ebony tried playing on a couple of occasions, and, for a while, became rather obsessed with trying to reach the keys.

Ebony taking a bow before her performance

However, she wasn’t as agile as Mabel, and it seemed her goal was to reach the top of the piano; also, by then, the bunnies free-roamed the living room day and night.

Sight-reading practice

The piano stool was relocated, so that she didn’t have an accident – and to reduce her temptation to play music overnight.

Ebony soon lost interest and the stool was returned to be used at the piano. 

 

The adoption of Snoop heralded another aspiring musician. 

No need for sheet music – Snoop could play by ear

However, as you’ll see in the video below, Snoop's technique was rather heavy and somewhat reckless. 

Once again, the piano stool was relocated to make the piano keys less accessible. It was placed alongside the armchair. This armchair was relatively new – it had been bought to replace the armchair into which Mabel, and subsequently Ebony, had created a burrow (project completion date: March 2019).

So, of course it was asking for trouble to create a covered area right beside a new item of furniture. Within a short time, Snoop had started refashioning the skirt of the armchair cover. 

He also took to sleeping beneath the piano stool, often settling to nap at around human lunchtime. His sleep preparation routine included a nibbling on the skirt until someone told him to stop, or, if he didn’t respond, turned him around. Nowadays, he still sleeps beneath the stool, and if he starts chewing the fabric, his servants say, “Snoop, turn around and go to sleep”, … and he does (usually)!

Snoop's favourite nap spot, with the upholstery shaped to frame him

 

The piano stool has also become the snack station – the bunnies expect treats to be available when they arrive on the stool, and stare at us to demand food if the bowl is empty...  

Snoop and Ebony check the bowl for treats

...or toss the bowl onto the floor.

 

The video below is a compilation of some of the music performed by the Bunnymad buns over the years – be prepared for the finishing flourish! Could it top the charts? Let us know what you think!

It's been over a year since anybunny played the piano – and without a piano stool by the piano, it's rare these days for the bunnies' servants to play, as you will see by the dusty keys in the photo below. However, we suspect that there will be more bunny pianists to come... the call of music seems too strong for most bunnies to resist!

Goodnight, dear Clementine

A special hamster who deserves a tribute on a bunny blog

This week, we lost a dear family member – Clementine the hamster. She lived with the eldest of the bunnies’ ‘mini servants’ and his partner, 50 miles from here, and slept through all but a few minutes of our visits, but it didn’t stop us adoring her. 

We loved receiving photos and videos of Clem, who never failed to make us smile.
The footage of her, especially during her free-roam time, revealed a little soul as intelligent, determined, and mischievous as any rabbit. 

She inspired us to learn about hamsters and we started following other hamster accounts, soon realising Clem had the best life any hammie could hope for – pawrents passionate about her welfare, with shift work suiting her crepuscular nature, and a cage layout so magical we’d have gladly shrunk to Clem’s mere 180g to live in that playground of hides, sprays, tunnels, sand baths, and deep bedding. Once when we visited, Clementine had burrowed to one of her hides with a chamber visible through the Perspex cage side, and we saw her snuggled up asleep – blissful! 

We also realised the many similarities between hamsters and rabbits: they’re crepuscular; they’re prey creatures (Clem’s pawrents should feel honoured to have gained her trust); their teeth grow continuously (requiring a suitable diet to wear them down); and their environment needs space, enrichment, and opportunities to forage and burrow. Also, sadly, like rabbits, hamsters are small, furry mammals, attracting impulse purchasing by people who don’t understand their needs, so many live in neglect, or end up in rescue centres. 

We know our rabbits’ lives are relatively short, but hamsters live for just a couple of years. Clem and her pawrents made the most of every day together, and she lived to be an elderly lady, in hamster years. Unfortunately, just as we’ve encountered indifference when we’ve told people a rabbit has passed, most won’t understand the grief – we know that’s their loss, they haven't had the chance to get to know a hamster. 

We’re privileged to have had a glimpse of Clementine’s life, and what a life she had! Goodnight, Clementine – we will never forget the joy you brought us. 

 

Ebony and Mr. Snoop’s Decorating Project

Our living room hadn’t been decorated for 26yrs. There seemed little point – it’s where all our bunnies have lived, since Lupin joined us in 1998, and has been (and continues to be) bunnified by each of them.

All furniture and furnishings bear testament to the natural behaviours of the eight rabbits who have each claimed the room as their territory; over the years, we've tried covering attractive digging areas of carpet, patching up wallpaper nibbles with matching paint, and moving curtains out of reach. We gradually reduced our futile attempts, and accepted the fact that if we invited bunnies into our home, then they had as much right as we did to alter the decor.  

Aside from knowing that any efforts to make our room look fresh and presentable again would not last, also, we weren’t sure how we could decorate the room with the bunnies living in it. We thought about the possibility of moving them to another room, but that would reduce their space, and deny them access to their outdoor run, and we didn’t want to cause distress by a temporary relocation. 

As Dijon grew old, we knew the time would come when we needed to find another partner for Ebony; we thought perhaps we would take her to an adoption centre to be bonded to her new companion, and that we could redecorate while she was away. Instead, the bonding was undertaken in a spare room here, required our full attention, and was very quick, so we didn't have any opportunity to decorate.

Last June, however, we were left with little choice… in the end, it was Snoop who started the project! 

It took far longer than it should have done to redecorate our living-dining room – Mr Snoop started the work in June, but it was not finished until just before Christmas, thanks to the helpers.

We hope you our four part film of ‘Ebony and Mr. Snoop’s Decorating Project’, which can be found on the bunnies' Instagram account.

Part 1 

The first part shows how the project was started.

Part 2 

In Part 2, Ebony and Mr. Snoop become increasingly frustrated at being barred from the painting areas, and plot to break through. 

Part 3

Part 3 shows how Ebony and Mr. Snoop have a small win in their quest to break through, but realise they need to strengthen their offensive strategy to regain territory. 

Part 4 

Part 4 is the final part of Ebony and Mr. Snoop’s Decorating Project. Having started the project in June, they’ve successfully managed to delay the decorating – it’s nearly Christmas – and now Ebony and Mr. Snoop seek revenge for being barred from ‘Behind-Piano-Land’. The freshly painted walls provide the perfect inspiration... and they are the champion decorators.

 

 

 

 

 

Snow Buns

 

Dijon loved the snow. He loved digging the snow, eating the snow, scenting the snow, weeing in the snow… but, most of all, he loved showing everybun else how to have fun in the snow. 

He was the first Bunnymad bunny to have access to the snow, along with his half-sister Mabel – we carried them outside to a pen on our lawn, when they were energetic, 8-month-old buns. Dijon’s reaction? After showing Mabel it was safe to come out of the carrier, he lifted his tail high and sprayed across the fresh snow. 

By the time we had our next snowfall, a year later, the bunnies could access a run on the patio, via the patio doors, so, although it meant a cold living room for us, they could come and go as they pleased. As their snow on the patio thawed, we replenished it, shovelling supplies from the lawn! 

Nine years after his first fun in the snow, in 2021, Dijon introduced his new partner, Ebony, to the joy of snow. A year later, in 2022, he was still excited to go out in the snow, despite being a bit wobbly, but by 2023, nearing the grand age of 12, he was happier to stay inside and watch Ebony go outside. 

Since Snoop joined us, we’ve had only light dustings of snow. Much as it’s more comfortable in our living room for us without the patio door open to a snowscape, we do hope Snoop gets to enjoy some snow this year – we suspect he’ll love it as much as Dijon did. 

(Music © Bunnymad)

The Story of Neroli – a Christmas Eve Eve Overture

 

One Christmas Eve Eve, 23 years ago today, we made a 300 miles round trip to collect a little orange and white baby bunny. She was introduced to us by our friend (founder and former president of the British Houserabbit Association/RWAF), who knew we’d recently lost Charlie, our mini lop – particularly devastating, as we’d been preparing him for the arrival of our baby, introducing him to the paraphernalia. She asked whether we’d consider adopting a rabbit being fostered by her friend – manager of the RSPCA branch which had brought the baby yellow Dutch to safety, after finding her roaming a carpark on the outskirts of Manchester. Neroli, beautifully named by her foster carer (her ‘yellow’ fur was exquisitely orange!), was just a few weeks old and very underweight, but was extremely sociable (the first photo, showing Neroli with her foster carer, was the photo sent to introduce her to us).  

We wanted to introduce a new rabbit to our home before the baby arrived, so we arranged to collect Neroli when she was estimated to be around 10 weeks old: 23 December, 2001.

Neroli’s foster carer kindly drove part of the way from Macclesfield, to meet us in a Birmingham service station; my Dad, worried about me driving up from Kent when 7mths pregnant, offered to take us. It was a beautiful drive, that bright, frosty morning, with Christmas CDs playing in the car. Mobile phones were in early days, so we relied on a time, place, and a car description to meet. It wasn’t hard to miss her – there was only one car in the carpark with someone cuddling a little Dutch rabbit. 

Neroli settled into her home immediately and, that Christmas Day, she had a request (‘Christmas Thingy’), played on Classic FM! A couple of months later, the first mini hoomin arrived, and she saw 2 more come into the family over the next few years. She taught them to be kind to animals, and always respect even the smallest creature. She lived with us for just under 10yrs, and we still think of her, especially on Christmas Eve Eve.

 

 

Our glossary of rabbit behaviours

We've been rather quiet here on Bunnymad recently, because we've been working hard to update and add more care information. 

One of the largest parts of the project has been compiling a glossary of all the rabbit behaviours we could think of that are exhibited by rabbits. Have a look at our pages, and let us know if we've missed anything!

 

Click here to browse Bunnymad's glossary
of normal behaviours exhibited by rabbits

Our next aim is to add photos or videos of every behaviour, so keep visiting to see more!

Remembering Dijon's 12th Birthday

This time last year, we were celebrating Dijon’s 12th Birthday. 

 

Every birthday is a special milestone for a rabbit, but as Dijon headed towards his 12th, we realised every single day was special. By that time, he had an intermittent watery eye from a chronic blocked tear duct caused by a past eye infection, an arthritic knee from rupturing a ligament, and had suffered sporadically with periods of straining to pass droppings. 

An episode of straining caused Dijon to prolapse in Nov ’22, requiring urgent surgery. We knew the risks of anesthesia at his age – earlier that year, we’d opted not to undergo diagnostic tests which required sedation, as the risks outweighed the benefits. The prolapse left us with no choice. Miraculously, Dijon survived the operation, but the next day, he was in pain, unable to pass droppings. We were incredibly fortunate that an exotics specialist was able to see him immediately. He was horrified, spotting instantly that the stitches had been placed too tightly. Within seconds, he’d flipped Dijon over, snipped the stitches, given him a shot of opioids and whisked him away for surgery. We didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye. Dijon’s second sedation within 24 hours – surely, he didn’t stand a chance? 

Miraculously, Dijon pulled through to live another year, with no further episodes of straining until his last day. 

It’s not easy having a senior bun. Dijon didn’t always reach his litter tray, and when he did, his bottom was often over the edge (he responded well to our instruction of “Dijon, turn round!”, if we noticed in time!). We covered the carpet with old sheets and towels, which we changed and washed daily, cleaning soaked-through patches with a spot carpet cleaner, bought for the purpose. We timed outings around medicine times (7am Gabapentin; 10am Meloxicam, Emeprid, Lactulose; 3pm Gabapentin; 10.30pm Gabapentin, Meloxicam, Emeprid, Lactulose – times which are drilled into our subconscious, still, even today, drawing attention to the fact he’s no longer here with us). But it was worth it – each day, he greeted us with a little dance for breakfast, came running to lap his medicine from a spoon, ventured out of the living room to patrol his favourite new room, and never stopped loving his food and cuddles.

Oolong the “head performance” bunny

Snoop doing his best impression of Oolong

Oolong with his pancake (Credit: Hironori Akutagawa)

I wonder whether any of our Bunnymad visitors remember Oolong, or, as he became known, ‘Pancake Bunny’? When we started the Bunnymad blog, back in 2002, we listed Oolong’s website in our ‘Links’ page.

Bunnymad's Links Page as it looked in 2002

Oolong's website was a photo blog, created by his Japanese owner, Hironori Akutagawa. Oolong the Dutch rabbit became one of the first cult web stars, thanks to Hironori’s daily pictures of him sitting patiently with items balanced on his head. The first “head performance” photo was taken on May 24, 1999 – Oolong was pictured with a film canister on his head; from then on, throughout Oolong’s life, his owner, uploaded photos of him with an increasingly bizarre array of objects resting on his head. The photographer documented his rabbit’s journeys. 

A screenshot of Oolong's site,
courtesy of the Wayback Machine archive

Hironori’s blog was created simply for his acquaintances, and he didn’t promote it, so initially it attracted only a modest number of visitors. However, this changed when a blogger from Syberpunk (a blog focussing on quirky Japanese culture) stumbled across the website. He realised he’d found something special, and kept it to himself for a while, just tantalising his friends by showing the photos but not sharing the source. Then, accidentally, he shared the link and suddenly visitor numbers to Oolong’s site rocketed. In August 2001, Oolong went viral!

The picture of Oolong with a dorayaki (red-bean pancake) on his head was most popular – soon “Pancake Bunny” or “Bunny Wafflehead” became one of the most popular memes of the early 2000s, with the caption “I have no idea what you’re talking about, so here’s a bunny with a pancake on its head”. Internet users posted it on message boards in response to any foolish posts. It’s still used occasionally on today’s social media.

Oolong (Credit: Hironori Akutagawa)

The blogger from Syberpunk admitted to feeling guilty that Oolong had become so popular and that the photos were often an “object of mockery among the internet community” (you can read his account here).

Apparently, Hironori never made any money from the website, or from the book which was published, with his permission, in 2009, featuring every photo of Oolong. He loved receiving positive feedback – emails from people who respected Oolong, but wasn’t happy about the meme, or about the emails accusing him of cruelty. Hironori published his response online:

“Hello Everyone,

<<I am not good at English, this message got big help by my friend who lives in USA>>

Thanks for visiting my Japanese website. This is a site devoted to me and my rabbit, Oolong. I built this site mainly for Japanese rabbit lovers, but realize that I have a lot of international visitors who are curious about me and Oolong, judging from the thousands of hits I receive daily and many e-mails written in English from all over the world.

Oolong is 7 years old and was born in an outdoor rabbit group in a park in Hokkaido. Hokkaido is the northern-most island in Japan. He is a tough, healthy rabbit since he had a wildlike childhood. Recently, however, he has developed abscesses on his cheek, and has had to undergo two surgeries last spring. It doesn’t still fully recovered, but is getting well now.

I want to reassure everyone out there about the nature of my site. This is a site to demonstrate the natural days of Oolong and me. Period. To my surprise, I realize that this site has been spread around some American chat forums and/or passed around as office humour. I am really surprised at the number of visitors that come to my site, but I hope no one misunderstands the nature of my site. Some visitors have written me e-mails, accusing me of being cruel to my rabbit and that I am abusing my pet. This was never my intention when I included numerous links to photographs, showing Oolong’s unique ability to hold objects on his head. This is not a site to mock rabbits, or demonstrate animal abuse. I’m sure you understand it if you see whole my site.

Oolong is so calm and patient -- he never gets angry when I take pictures of him. When I put various objects on his head, he stays still for a minute. This is just a result of an intimate relationship between me and Oolong. The main theme of my site is not to show these ‘headperformance’ links, and it’s not my hope to propagandize nothing but the strangeness of his headperformance over the world. Oolong’s headperformance-- many foreigners seem to feel it ‘crazy’, but Japanese people feel it just cute and funny. It is the difference of international feeling.

I’m sorry I can’t make a special English edition of my website, but I don’t have enough time to translate everything on the site. However, if you roll over the photographs with your mouse, you can see pop-up captions in English. Please use Internet Explorer to view this.

Anyway, thank you for checking out my site and I’m so happy that so many
people all over the world have come to love Oolong.

Thank you and take care!

Oolong’s owner”

Oolong died in 2003, aged 8 – Hironori posted a photo of the grave, showing a snowy mound with a pair of carrots protruding, representing ears.

Our updated links page still lists Oolong’s blog – although the site no longer exists, you can still see the photos, thanks to the incredible ‘Wayback Machine’ archive.

Oolong's blog 

We think Oolong still deserves a place on our links page, because apart from being a pioneer in photo blogging, Oolong’s owner, Hironori Akutagawa, inadvertently triggered one of the earliest internet rabbit welfare discussions. When his photos of Oolong with items on his head attracted accusations of cruelty, there was a heated discussion online. Hironori’s response statement, expressing his sadness at the accusations and the mockery of Oolong and speaking of his “intimate relationship” with his rabbit, was seen by thousands. Whether we agree with Oolong’s ‘head performance’, there’s no doubting it attracted attention. That message, expressing Hironori’s good intentions and adoration for Oolong, and all the photos of Oolong, over the years, gave the world an opportunity to see a rabbit as more than a boring creature in a hutch.

It's easy to see why people would have thought it cruel to balance items on a rabbit’s head to photograph, and we know that most rabbits don’t enjoy being taken out of their territory for trips, but few people can claim to provide flawless welfare for their rabbits. The important thing is to learn from our mistakes, and to share our experience of living with rabbits. At the turn of the millennium, Oolong’s blog showed that rabbits can be cherished companions, and stimulated one of the first rabbit welfare discussions, which undoubtedly went a little way towards raising awareness and changing people’s perceptions of rabbits. 

 Disclaimer: Snoop would like everybun to know that he tolerated the hay 'pancake' on his head for a few seconds, in honour of Oolong, but has no intention of repeating a 'head performance' – if he ever goes viral, he'd prefer it to be for his incredible bunstructive creations. 

 

Garden delights

 

It's nearly 26 years since we bought our house and started work on the garden. The property had been empty for some time, and both gardens – front and back – were overgrown with nettles and tangled with bindweed. There were no plants to salvage – just a small laburnum and an ancient apple tree, so we worked around those, clearing everything else. We dug and raked until we had a suitable patch for a lawn, which we grew from seed, then we bought and planted a few shrubs for some structure, and started to gradually add more plants. 

Most plants added over the years have been grown from seeds or cuttings, or divided, from plants either in our garden or my parents' garden. It's now reached a point where most of the ground is covered by plants, so that very few weeds grow, and those that do can mostly be picked and fed to the bunnies. 

We're guilty of feeding the easy option – supermarket greens/veggies and herbs, but when Mabel and Dijon were given access, via the patio doors, to their enclosure on the patio, we started picking tasty treats from around the garden to scatter in their area. The bunnies soon realised that if we were also outside, they only needed to stare at us or stretch up the bars of the enclosure, and we'd rush to fetch a few leaves for them! Here's Dijon enjoying some apple prunings, back in September – apple tree pruning time was his favourite time of year, so we were so happy that we pruned the tree early last year, so he had a chance to enjoy some leaves.

 Dijon passed on the tip to Ebony, when she joined him in 2018, and now Ebony has taught Snoop to beg! 

 

Our lawn is raised, a few steps up from the patio, so it would be tricky to allow the bunnies to access it securely and independently, and the laburnum overhangs the lawn, so there would be risk of them eating the toxic fallen leaves or seeds. Instead, they have some large planters of grass in their enclosure, but it doesn't stop them begging for more! Below are some of their favourites.

Some of their favourites are technically ‘weeds’ (eg. dandelions, herb Robert, wild strawberry plants) – in the past, we would have pulled them up, but now we allow them to grow so we can pick leaves for the bunnies. Many of the plants have self-seeded – oregano, lemon balm, calendula, and of course forget-me-nots, which are everywhere in the spring. The bay just appeared, probably a cutting dropped over the fence from next-door’s pruning, and the rosemary bushes were cuttings of my parents' plant. Not only are most of these rabbit-friendly plants inexpensive, but they're also great for bees, are quite hardy, and require very little maintenance!
We don't feed Ebony and Snoop any fruit from the garden, only leaves and branches... although occasionally they enjoy a couple of tiny wild strawberries!
Although few of these leaves grow during winter, we've started to pick and dry some of the leaves in summer, so that we can continue to feed garden leaves throughout the year.

We do have another rabbit feature in our garden, although it is not edible for bunnies...