Happy Birthday, Dijon

Dijon is one year old today. Here he is taking delivery of his special birthday tea (what you don't see is that Mabel stole the carrot shaped into a '1'):

If You Love Somebunny Set Them Free...

Well, over the past few weeks the bunnies have been given a little more freedom. They are now allowed into the main part of the living room for short periods. they are quite content with this, although they are perfectly content to remain within their usual confines.

Dijon is obsessed with jumping onto the sofa. Although we constantly push him off to discourage him, he is nevertheless dogged in his quest to leap over us and make it to the magical place that is The Telephone Table. Pushing him away is, frankly, futile; far more effective, I found, is simply to try to stroke him. It confuses him. On one hand he desperately wants that stroke; on another hand, he needs to reach that table.

Mabel, however, prefers to keep her feet firmly on the ground. She quietly takes everything in, scheming and plotting all the while...

2021!

This isn't a post about the bunnies. But it is about the future of bunnymad.co.uk... The news is good.
bunnymad.co.uk will be around for a while to come thanks to the new domain registration rule that allow domains to be registered for up to 10 years. Thanks to this bunnymand will remain in our hands for the next 10 years, safe from the hands of speculators.

You may have noticed that the bunnymad.com domain suddenly disappeared and then reappeared with a 'for sale' sign $1,595 is the asking price (+ transfer fees.) Around about Christmas time it was offered to us... well, we were told we could put in an offer before it went to auction. We did put in an offer which was promptly declined, and an suitable amount was suggested. More than we could afford.

We're not going to let bunnymad.co.uk go the same way.

bunnymad.co.uk is here to stay.

Out!

Since the vet extracted the remainder of his elongated bauble, Dijon has discovered that there is a brain in his head... he has learned how to pull the chain which hangs from the edge of the fence separating their area from the rest of living room, so that it makes a gap just wide enough for him to sneak through.

He has also realised that he stands a great chance of escaping and exploring if no adult human slaves are in the room.


And he knows exactly where to go to maximize his chances of prolonged freedom (amongst the shoes, in the hall, by the front door.)

Warren Peace

We've been away for a few days, returning yesterday.

The bunnies were attended to by a trusted source, and were - apparently - very well behaved and seemed quite content.

We were a little worried that they would be cross with us for having left them, but when we returned home, we received a very warm welcome. Both Dijon and Mabel expressed their happiness with lots of skips and runs, and coming to sniff us all over, give us licks, and generally take advantage by crawling up and down us.

And that is how they have been today, too. They have been very attentive towards us.

What has surprised us more than anything is how much they seem to have grown during our absence. Mabel in particular appears to have grown a lot. She is no longer a cute little bunny, but a but a big grown up doe.

Vet

Dijon has been to the vet. Twice in as many days.

Silly boy began to tug at his stitches yesterday... All credit to him, though, he did manage to last a week without being bothered by them. The problem was that one of the knots must have come loose and this began to bother him. But instead of gnawing it off, he began to tug at it.

Kate, the vet who operated on him, had done a wonderful job of tying the sutures which meant, alas, that they loose one wouldn't come out no matter how hard Dijon tugged. We could see the flesh on his abdomen stretching in a most alarming way. We didn't really have much choice other than to turn him upside down (not a recommended move unless absolutely necessary), and cut off the knot.

Unfortunately, Dijon had managed to cause a little damage to himself, and the end of the incision had begun to bleed. Not knowing how he would react to this, we called the vet and it was recommended that we take Dijon in for a quick examination.

The good news is that there is no real harm done, but the vet suggested we give Dijon a course of antibiotics, just in case of an infection. And to come back after 24 hours for another quick once-over. £7.90 the poorer,  we returned home. Dijon showed no sign of being interested in his wound. So we decided we wouldn't give any antibiotics, yet. (Some of you may tut at us, but we reasoned that the antibiotics would probably cause more problems than they would be worth - all those good bacteria in Dijon's gut could be killed off, causing digestive problems.)

Well, all was fine today, but Dijon and I nevertheless returned the vet. Thankfully, the wound is healing nicely, and so there is no need to return for another few days.

P zero zero

The bunsters were out for about 14 and a half hours today, and NOT A POO in sight! The were let out of their cage at about 7a.m, and remained out until the children's bath time, twelve hours later. And then they were allowed out again from just after 8 until about 10:45. And there wasn't a stray poo to be seen.

It's incredible how less than a week after the elusive testicle was removed, Dijon (and Mabel) are now completely settled, house trained, and considerably less destructive than they were. Dijon, especially, is more snuggly than ever. He'll bound over to us and as soon as he's touched will flop out for a long stoke. Legs out behind him, grinding happily away, and very very licky. He permits us to touch his toes (forelimbs only) and doesn't mind if we tease his tail.

And both Mabel and Dijon have discovered the joy of sunbeams. Lovely to see them basking in the rays that shine through the French windows.

Tranquility

Dijon is much calmer. He still mounts Mabel every now and then, but this seems to be out of habit (whenever we approach the cage with food) rather than through any biological urges.

The number of poos outside the cage has dramatically reduced, the spraying appears to have ceased, and he is a lot less frenetic.

Mabel appreciates it too. She can relax safe in the knowledge that she is not going to be pursued. If it continues like this, then we will be able to give them the run of the entire living room without fear of 'water damage'.

Dijon's missing testicle

Happy news... for our family, the carpets, the walls, but especially for Mabel...

Today the bunnies have spent the day at the vets... 'exploratory surgery', and the vet found Dijon's missing testicle! Now, you may recall that when the bunnies went to the vet for neutering last year, Dijon was found to have one generously proportioned testicle, and one minuscule, fat-covered, one. Well, that turned out not to be the case, and we've had a few issues with Dijon's adolescent hormones.

He has been so intense in his 'romancing' Mabel, for the past fortnight the cage has been shaking like a heart-stopping fun-fair ride as he mounts her everytime he is excited about anything. Poor Mabel has taken to cowering in her litter tray and squealing as he approaches... also the spraying has continued, so we (us and the vet) decided last week it was time to have a look, just in case.

Apparently she snipped open where she thought she'd taken it out before - last time his big one turned out to be all fat with a teeny weeny one inside. She had pulled it as far as possible, had a good look around, but no more to be seen. Again this time, nothing there. So she opened up his abdomen and there it was, a long, thin, 'abnormal' one, hiding in the inguinal canal!

The vet had mixed feelings - she was also very happy to have found it, glad she had done it, relieved that it was abnormal and therefore not really her fault missing it, but her biggest regret was forgetting to take a photo!!

Now we have to hope he doesn't have any problems with the wound - he's been cleaning it a lot, but just hope he doesn't cause problems. He was bit dozy at first but has eaten well, drunk loads, and is now busy destroying his cardboard tube.

Dirty Dog

We've just returned from a day visiting relatives down by the south coast. They own a greyhound, We were, apparently,  covered in doggy smells... Mabel took one sniff, thumped and wouldn't come near us. Dijon sniffed us all over, then chinned us all over, he seemed to like it, then this evening he made extra sure that no other creature was going to claim his territory by doing 86 (yes, I counted) poos over the carpet. Nice. And that was after we'd all had a bath and change of clothes!

Let's hope the doggy smell has worn off by tomorrow!