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.