Christmas plans

Mabel has been admiring the Christmas decorations, gazing from a
distance... and, by the look in her eye, it seems that she might be
planning some bunnification, just the odd 'tweak' here and there, maybe
some rearrangement of tree lights cable?! Let's hope Father Christmas
brings some treats for her and Dijon, enough to distract from those
attractive decorations.

This week...

The bunnies have been sleeping... sleeping... sleeping... eating the final harvest of carrot tops... and plotting their next escape to explore the delights of Cable Corner.

Another Phone Cable in Cable Heaven

Yes, the naughty bunnies have been up to more mischief. This time it was
their little girl-slave who absent-mindedly let them out into forbidden
territory.

She was the first to go downstairs in the morning. She gave the bunnies
their breakfast, and let them out of their cage, which she often does on
weekdays. Unfortunately, nobody else was downstairs, and so when she
wandered back upstairs leaving the pen open behind her (this keeps them
safely on 'their' side of the living room), they were able to hop
unhindered into 'our' area.

It was some time later that they were discovered... when I was called in
to help with the emergency, Dijon was in one 'cable corner' right next
to a tablet, which was on charge with long thin cable running under his
nose to the plug - I grabbed it just in time. He had been under the
television table, were there are cables from television, and a multitude
of other devices (fortunately all turned off). Mabel was in other 'cable
corner' with a laptop charger on the floor next to her, and within reach
of plenty more cables, including the previously-nibbled sewing machine
pedal.

Fortunately they responded quickly and were soon back in their cage for
the most of the day. We have no idea how long they'd been out - we think
the large bowl of greens kept them busy for the first part.

Every cable was thoroughly checked for damage, and nothing was found...
this seemed too good to be true. Then the phone rang. Well, the upstairs
phone rang... the downstairs one was dead. Mabel had obviously hopped
past all the accessible cables, to go behind telephone table and eaten
through the phone cable.

Well, it could have been much worse - and indeed we may discover more as
days go by, but today I have taken the precaution of blocking off the
two Cable Corners. There are no cables in the bunnies' half of the room,
but that hasn't stopped them going in search of some elsewhere.

Now Mabel has only one thing on her mind: returning to that exciting
corner behind the telephone table. She has spent most of her waking
hours looking with steadfast determination towards the corner, and
rattling the puppy pen which separates her from that big adventure...

Cat's lick

It may appear from the photo that Dijon is giving himself a thorough
groom, but it's more of a cat's lick. Look at his dirty nose!

Vet Day

Mabel and Dijon are just back from a trip to the vet - annual
vaccinations and a thorough check-up. The vaccination is more important
than ever, as the vet reported that he has seen a recent increase in the
number of rabbits, domestic and wild, being diagnosed with myxomatosis.

It's always tricky to know when to get ready for a trip to the vet - too
soon and it's a stressful long wait for them, too late and we risk being
late from not being able to catch them. They saw the pet carrier box
coming this time - Dijon's usually stupid enough to walk straight in, so
I swiftly scooped up each in turn and put them in. Lots of thumping from
Dijon, who always sits rather protectively in front of Mabel.

The vet said they were both extremely healthy. Mabel has gained weight
but is still only 1.88kg, and Dijon miraculously has lost weight and is
now 2.1kg. Mabel's teeth are on the long side, so we will have to keep
an eye on that... surprising as she's the one with greater appetite for
hay, and enjoys stripping the bark from apple tree branches.

They are back safely, have groomed each other to remove all trace of the
horrid vet... and I'm very much in the dog house.

Pet Shop Boys

Notice any similarities? Such a hard life these bunnies have.

No respect

What a nice new hairstyle the bunnies have given Mr Prescott.

Busy bunny days

Here are some recent photos of recent bunny action - lots of scrounging,
and fighting nose-to-nose for that last piece of grass makes a bunny tired.

Smile!

Mabel poses for the camera, in between munching hay. This week she has
become obsessed with leaping onto the piano, so that she can climb
across to the big hay basket (playing the soundtrack to a horror movie
on the way), which is where we store the hay, on top of their cage.
Dijon can only sit below and watch - he is far too clumsy for such a
manoeuvre.

Rabbit Science

The amazing Dijon transformer... pellets are fed into the transformer in
cylindrical form, travel through, and seconds later emerge as spheres.

Autumnal Update

It's a beautiful sunny day, very warm for September, and the patio doors
have been open all day. However, instead of making the most of the last
good weather, the bunnies are indoors, fast asleep.

Mind you, they are still very quick to hear anyone coming into the
living room, and race to the edge of 'their' area to beg. Here are some
recent photos of Dijon being impertinent, sticking his tongue out, Mabel
being nosy, and both bunnies shamelessly scrounging.

Dijon does 'Jaws'

Well, his teeth are powerful and can certainly cause damage...

Melting bunnies

As temperatures soared last week, coming close to 30C here, the bunnies
spent most of their day flat out on the floor. Here are some photos of
Dijon as he melted on top of poor Mabel.

Peppermint Tea = Peppermint Wee

Just four days after the big carpet shampoo (see post for 2.7.14), Dijon
decided everything was looking and smelling much too clean, and that a
big wee on the carpet was required. Not any old wee though... no, he
waited until he'd eaten a large sprig of black peppermint...

We were relaxing on the sofa, and had just started watching our
favourite television programme, the one we'd been looking forward to all
day... 5 minutes in, we became aware of a pungent minty smell, wafting
up from our feet.

Sure enough, a large patch of wee beside our feet, just enough to soak
into the skirt of the freshly washed sofa cover. Favourite programme was
abandoned, bunnies put safely back in cage, and wee soaked up with
tissues then Oxycleaned.

Five days and two Oxycleans later, we can still smell peppermint
whenever somebody walks over that patch. We have decided to keep the
bunnies in 'their' side of the living room, the part they use all day,
rather than extending their area into 'our' area in the evening - maybe
it has been confusing Dijon, and he is marking territory each evening,
or maybe he is just too lazy to go back to his tray!

3 years today

It was three years today that Neroli passed away peacefully in my arms,
just short of 10yrs old. She had lost her mobility over the past 3
months - first back then front legs, due to spondylosis.

All bunnies leave a bunny-shaped hole in your heart when they go, but
there is often one very special one. Nelly had been found hopping around
a car park near Manchester, just a few weeks old, and rescued by the
RSPCA. We adopted her just before Christmas, and brought her home to
Kent. Just under 3 months later our first baby boy arrived. She saw our
2 other children come into the family, and each of them took their first
crawl and first steps towards her!

Looking back, we gained so much during those last difficult weeks with
Nelly: we met many caring, knowledgeable, bunny crazy friends
(especially at the RWAF, UKCR and Disabled Rabbits), learned so much
about rabbit medicine, and found a fantastic rabbit-savvy vet, so she
left quite a legacy.

And next month it looks like we will be enjoying a bumper crop of plums,
from the little tree we planted when we buried her.

Shampoo-poo

 

The late Spring cleaning spree continued this week - carpet shampoo with the carpet cleaner. We have a through living/dining room, and so as to cause minimum disruption to the bunnies, I decided to clean 'our' side first, so the bunnies could stay out for longer, before putting them in the cage to do 'their' side.

The cleaner is horribly noisy, it didn't seem to bother Mabel, who came close to inspect the work, but Dijon retreated to a corner near the piano and did a huge pile of poos (see photos). They were not impressed when I put them back in their cage to do their side of the carpet, especially as they had to wait for it to dry a bit before being allowed out again.

It had to be done though - we try to do it once a year, as 3 children and 2 rabbits take their toll on the carpet.

Anyway, Dijon decided last night that it was far too clean, and re-marked his territory by doing a total of 73 poos!!

And this morning, my younger son spilled his Ribena over the carpet.

Whobunnit #2

The picture says it all...

 

(The guilty rabbit has the same colour fur as the stain.)

Whobunnit

On our way to bed, we were stopped in our tracks by an example of wanton rabbit vandalism. This time, it wasn't perpetrated by a bunny; no, this was a defacement perpetrated by a young human.

Why did she draw it on the bureau rather than on paper?...

Mabel: Update

Poor Mabel, she's still not eating, though she is drinking a little.

When I came down this morning, there she was lying flat out in her cage. As soon as the door was opened, she sprang out, hopped to her 'safe place' by the arm chair, and sat with her sides held in. She does seem a little better - when stroked she gave a few happy grinds - but she refused to eat anything.

We've given her a little Infacol, but if she's not better by 9a.m. then it will be a trip to the vet. No doubt this alone will shock her system back into activity... We'll keep you posted.

Unwell Mabel, and a Recalcitrant Dijon

All day Mabel has been her usual daytime self, sleeping next to the arm chair, standing on her hind legs when demanding a treat, andut returning to her cage when beckoned. But this evening when it came to tea time, she was flat out in one of her litter trays.

We've been trying to coax her back, but she's been quavering and shuddering with pain. We think she must either have a blockage (she's been moulting recently) or trapped wind, though we can't think what she has eaten to cause this.

So, we've just given her a dose of Metacam. I would post a photo of her taking her medicine, only Dijon, annoyed that he wasn't the centre of attention, has just bitten my only micro USB cable into three, so there's no way for me to transfer the picture!

Edit: thank goodness for Bluetooth! Here's Mabel taking her Metacam:

Happy Birthday Mabel!

Today is Mabel's 3rd Birthday. Another round of 'Happy Birthday' on the piano before school, and a corner of toast. She says she's going to have a restful day, in preparation for extra mischief later on...

Here is a picture of Mabel as a baby, with one of her 3 brothers. She had a chocolate brown Dutch mother, and yellow Dutch father (same father as Dijon). She was the only black baby, but sometimes we can see some blond streaks in her fur.

This was taken before she met her monstrous half-brother, Dijon...!

Happy Birthday Dijon!

Dijon is 3 years old today. Boy 'servant' #2 played 'Happy Birthday' to him on the piano this morning, and he is feeling very important. I think that extra treats will be necessary later!

Here is a photo of him when he was just a few weeks old.

Spring clean

Yesterday, I continued my late Spring clean by washing the long curtains from the patio door, which hang right next to the bunnies' cage. Not that there's much left of them - the bunnies tend to prefer lacy edges on the curtains. To be fair, this is the work of several previous rabbits, not just Mabel and Dijon - we've had those curtains for over 15yrs (it seems pointless to buy new when they would be ruined within minutes).

Anyway, having washed and ironed the curtains, it seemed a shame to hang them back next to the dusty rabbit cage. So I cleaned the trays and inside the cage, then tempted the bunnies back into the cage - I didn't want them investigating behind it, and besides, I would be vacuuming.

With great difficulty, I moved the cage. Those cages are extremely heavy and awkward to move, especially with just under 5kg of curious rabbit inside!

Behind the cage I had to wash and vacuum - there was fur, dust, piles of hay, the odd dried up spray of wee... not a pleasant job. The bunnies were not impressed with me vacuuming, and I had to keep stopping so that they didn't create more mess by weeing on the floor of their cage.

Another struggle to move the cage back into it's place, a rather poor vacuum of carpet (due to completely blocked Hoover - tube, container and (filter), clean curtains were re-hung, and then Mabel and Dijon were able to come out again.

Just under 3 hours of work. And were they grateful?! Hmm...

Super Grass

It's 9:15 on a lovely summer's evening, the patio door is open, and the bunnies are looking out into the garden. They have just returned inside after having a feast of fresh, lush, green grass from a section of turf we recently a few weeks ago, and had been saving especially for Mabel and Dijon.

Dijon loved it, and munched his way to Nivarna. Mabel was less impressed and merely sniffed a few blades before hopping back inside, into her cage, and onto one of the litter trays.

Brief update

Oh, dear. Time has marched on again, and we've not been posting any news of the bunnies. Mabel and Dijon aren't doing much at the moment. They are so settled, and really not getting up to mischief. Even when we've been out for the day, and they've been confined to their cage, they've not shown any real annoyance.

There must be something wrong with them.

Anyway, here are a few photos that capture what they've been doing.

Enjoying the outdoors...

Looking down on inferior beings...

Land ahoy...

Powder puff...

Lip up

Nose, philtrum, mouth... Dijon style:

Amazing Graze

The bunnies enjoyed some time out in the warm spring sunshine today, and just as the shadow were growing longer, and the the light became more golden, they hopped into the trough of grass we've been growing, and began to graze.

Daft Dijon #2

The bunnies have been a bit naughty about going back to their cage at night recently. It may be because the tin of treats (we use a muesli-style rabbit feed for treats) is getting a bit low, with not as many of their favourite bits.

They usually come running back, full speed with binkies, but recently they have developed a very defiant look, and we can see them dig their heels in and sit tight. Mabel usually comes in the end, but Dijon is so stubborn. It ends up with a silly game of chase, and of course bunnies are best at this game.

However, a couple of nights ago, after nearly 30mins of crawling under table and creeping around armchairs to usher him back, I had a brainwave: I remembered how we always joke about Dijon being silly enough to walk into any dead-end container. Even after a trip to the vet, he will quite happily walk into the pet carrier if it's placed near him.

So that is what we did... put the carrier on the floor, in he walked,and was carried back to his cage, where Mabel was waiting (having eatenall the treats).

Surely it wouldn't work again the next night? Anybun with half a brainwould realise our trick. But it did work. And again the followingnight... and, if miraculously he does develop some forward thinking,we'll have to find some different containers for him to explore!

Daft Dijon

A sunny day here, but still a bit chilly... nevertheless, the buns told me that it was definitely warm enough to leave the patio door open, so they could venture outside briefly, then retreat to the threshold... close enough to the doorway to step outside every time I attempted to close the door (we were all freezing).

With the door open, they have access to a safe, fenced off area of the patio. I've planted up lots of containers - grass, herbs, and even a couple of dandelions I've cultivated (huge plants, actually transplanted from a neighbour's garden). There is also a large container of compost for them to burrow.

Mabel enjoys all the grass, herbs, branches out there... but Dijon?? He prefers to eat the rubber seal around the patio door, the cobwebs under the sill, the plastic flower pot, and the sticky label on the side of the large container.

Weeee!

Often, when we're slouched on the sofa, winding down at the end of the day, Dijon will hop over for a brief stroke. Whilst sitting at our feet, having his ears gently tugged and his cheeks massaged, he drop a few poops. We've grown used to it.

Last night, however, he hopped over, then quickly rushed off again flicking his feet at us.

The little monster had done a massive wee right by the sofa. There was absolutely no reason for him to do this. He could easily have gone in one of the litter trays in his cage. Quite what came over him we don't know, but we hope it doesn't become a habit.

An apology... and beggar's belief

First an apology for waiting a month before finding time to post an update. The bunnies have been very settled, enjoying the warmth of springtime, and generally being extraordinarily well behaved. Even when we had to leave them locked up for 12 hours, they didn't kick up much of a fuss. There really hasn't been much bunniness to report.

But today Mabel excelled in exhibiting some daft bunny behaviour... Both she and Dijon can be undignified at time, stretching up at human meal times, and begging for food. Able to smell the bread at lunch time, she did this today, but when offered a piece, did she eat it? No, of course not, she merely sniffed it, and gave it a good, firm, long scenting. Then another, and another. All in all, she scented the morsel NINE times, after which I turned it around, at which point she did decide to eat it. Normally, Dijon would dive in and eat it for her, but today he was otherwise engaged - crossly ripping up a new cardboard box, and teaching it some kind of lesson.

Yawn

It's a hard life being a house rabbit... Dijon, caught mid-yawn:

Stubborn Bun

We mentioned recently that Dijon uses his litter trays all day - such a good boy, but in the evening when the bunnies' area is extended into the living room, something goes wrong.

I am growing tired of picking up 30+ Dijon poos from the living room floor every evening before bedtime, so this evening I've reluctantly placed one of the three (yes, three) litter trays from their cage into a position near sofa where he seems to poo most frequently.

He jumped straight in and did a wee, and is currently scenting every edge of the tray and pooing all around it... on the carpet!

Messenger Bag

More sewing inspired by Mabel & Dijon. This time we've been hard at work on a messenger bag. As with the tote bag, this is made from unbleached calico, but is lined with material from an 'upcycled' duvet cover.

The bag is large enough to accommodate books slightly over A4 size, and has three internal pockets for holding a purse or wallet, smart phone, and a pen.

The edging is home made bias tape made from the same fabric as the lining.

 Calico is a devil to iron, though. Just look at the creases.