Get (un)stuffed

I've been busy finding all the video I shot of the bunnies over the last couple of years, and today I edited footage of Mabel burrowing into a cushion.

The cushion, six months on,  is still going strong, although over the last couple of days Mabel has started at it again. It must be the spring weather setting her off.

I hope to have more videos and some photos posted over the next few days.

Manners!

I decided to record the bunnies at breakfast yesterday. They have poor manners and eat very noisily...

Holey Moley!

Oh dear. The spring-like weather has set Dijon off. He’s not in the mood for love, but in the mood for destruction; he’s being a very naughty boy today! And Mabel is also displaying some undesirable behaviour, too.

Let’s start with Mabel. She is determined to gnaw her way into the innards of our one remaining armchair. She has managed to find her way beneath the skirt – so she cannot be seen – and now she is scrapping at the upholstered parts doing her level best to make inroads to the interior. Shooing her away results in an angry flicking of her back feet and a defiant return to the chair moments later.

Dijon has aided her a little, but he is more intent on ripping the cover to shreds. Now, originally this was a three piece suite that was bought to furnish out home when we moved in 15 years ago, so it has (had) lasted well.

One armchair succumbed to Neroli, our previous Dutch houserabbit, who succeeded in tearing in to it unbeknownst to us. Ideally, we would like a few more years use out of the remaining chair and sofa as we are reluctant to splash out on a new one when there are destructive bunnies on the loose.

Anyway, Dijon has been making the most of he teeth by gnawing sizeable chunks from the outer cover. And he simply refuses to be shooed away; he doggedly remains attached, determined to finish the job of embellishing the cover with a fine selection random holes. Not only that, but he is adamant that the decorative piping around the cushion and backrest would look better if it were removed, an improvement that he had made a start on.

They weren’t like this when the weather was cold.

Update

As some of you may have noticed, bunnymad.co.uk has changed. It has received a little facelift, and all older pages have been archived. The reason for the latter is that we just don’t have enough time on our hands to maintain so many sections. Children, jobs, and other commitments (not to mention rabbits) demand too much of our time for us to be able to keep up to date.

So, from now on only the blog will be updated.

And here is the first update of spring...

Mabel and Dijon are now very settled in their ways, and they are quite happy with the arrangement in the living room: in the morning, the Easipet pen is arranged to allow them access only to the dining area of the living room. Straight after their breakfast they are allowed out, and out they stay until it’s time for school (at weekends they stay out).  IN the late afternoon and evening they are given access to the entire living room.

At meal times they have become terrible beggars, and it’s not unusual for them to stand on their hind legs, stretching as far up to the table as possible, demanding something from our plated. They look like a couple of performing poodles the way they tiptoe on their back feet. It’s highly undignified behaviour for bunnies.

Over the cold winter they have learned that radiator give of a pleasant heat, and they love to sit as close as possible. This does keep them out of mischief, but does mean they are in a permanent moult which has caused the filter on the vacuum cleaner to block more than once.  Two rings of black, brown and white fur are a common site on our carpet.

They have also learned to sleep in sunbeams that shine through the patio doors. In the morning they shine onto the radiator, and at midday/early afternoon onto the piano, so Mabel and Dijon will move around accordingly.

If they spot one of us out in the back garden, then the moment we come back inside, the two of them run to the living room door awaiting a treat. If we forget to bring a freshly picked apple twig, strawberry leaves, or a few blades of grass/oats, they do grow a little cross.

It’s hard to believe they’ve been with us for 20 months. They have caused relatively little destruction in that time. Only my slippers and remote controls have really suffered - Dijon has a taste for leather and rubber.

Book

Today I received an email from Waterstones, announcing the shortlist for their Children's Book Prize. I was close to deleting it when I noticed a book listed called 'Rabbityness' by Jo Empson... of course I couldn't resist looking to see what it was... couldn't find a 'look inside' on any retail site, but found this on a blog...

http://picturebooksinelt.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/a-certain-kind-of-rabbityness.html

This blog contains descriptions and images of many pages showing that it's a beautiful book with a deep message about loss and grief... but in particular, a message with which many of us bunny people are familiar: losing a bunny leaves a horribly empty grey hole, a stark contrast to the happiness and fullness their lives brought us, but then we begin to discover the gifts they left behind - the beautiful memories and special qualities they shared with us, as they tried to teach us the value of 'rabbityness'.

I challenge anyone who's lost a bunny to read the blog (or the book!) and keep a dry eye.

Woolly for you

I'm not sure whether it was a lapse in concentration or a lack of respect for the destructive ability of the bunny, but my husband left a long piece of wool on the carpet. Dijon noticed and was picking it up then putting it down, the way they do when nesting. He probably wouldn't have given it much more attention, but I thought I'd better move it to safety, and that's when he decided he really REALLY wanted it. That wool belonged to him.

It started with a tug-of-war, with me not daring to pull too hard in case I damaged his teeth, but then Mabel joined in and it became more of a fight. They were like 2 puppets on a string. There was aggressive tugging, tossing of heads, each trying to win it from one another and from me, then Dijon managed to run off with it, and the wool very much lost! Interesting how they can vary their bite from holding wool to severing wool to chewing wool.

Needless to say it had to be recovered quickly before more was consumed.

What Goes Up...

This evening the living room door was left ajar and Dijon was quick to open it and hop out into the hallway, clickety-clickety on the laminate floor with his slightly-in-need-of-a-trim claws. He was very pleased with himself, and showed us with a very expressive tail that he didn't intend to return to the living room before he'd finished exploring, so we left him for a while as we were in the kitchen. However, very soon the clickety-clickety changed to b-lump b-lump b-lump... Dijon was going up the stairs, and with 3 children asleep up there, this had to be stopped!

Poor Dijon was too scared to come down the stairs, and could only go further up. He had to be rescued and carried back to the living room, where Mabel had been enjoying a few moments of peace, without her man around!

Unfortunately I doubt he'll remember how scary those stairs were, next time the living room door is left open. His bunny desire for exploring new territory will overcome the memory.

Naughtiness in abundance

We now effectively sit in a puppy pen cage in our living room - it is one of the 8 panels ones, we have it from a speaker next to the fireplace, across the fireplace (to protect speaker cable and Christmas stockings), past the other speaker, and television/hifi (yes, we now watch TV through the pen), then it turns the corner and fences off Christmas tree, more cables, router etc. and stops by sofa.

So in theory everything precious is 'safely' cordoned off... but I've seen them eyeing, plotting, scheming... it won't be long...

I've been living with bunnies for many years, enough to know what they're capable of. But others in the family still have a lot to learn... yesterday morning, little Rosie left her precious pink hairbrush on the floor. About 6 of the bristles immediately went missing, no evidence except Dijon nomming brazenly next to the brush. The same evening my husband left a peeled clementine, split in half, in a pot on the sofa... half went the same way as the bristles, leaving a puddle of juice on the cushion.

I dread to think what this - on top of the remote control buttons - will do to his digestive system, but he's certainly still eating well, and - judging by the pile in the cage - no blockages!

Mabel is appalled by his behaviour.

Buttons, Holes

It had to happen, and it did. Quicker than you could imagine...

The one remote control that was untouched by bunny teeth is now the remote control that has been most mangled by bunny teeth.

Stupidly, I left the satellite remote on the sofa when I left the living room. I thought it would be safe; after all, there were others in the room, so Dijon really should not have been able to destroy anything. However, he was very swift, and in the space of 5 seconds he had eaten FOUR buttons. I'm not even sure what one of the buttons does as the label was stamped onto it.

So now there are no remote control units in the house that have a full set of buttons.

Sofa, So Good

Just a couple of days ago we were saying how Mabel and Dijon were behaving themselves since being allowed in 'our' half of the living room... well, they must have heard us and decided that would not do... since then they have been naughty, naughty, and doubly naughty... we have an old piano stool next to our sofa, and they have decided their latest mission is to go under it and burrow their way behind the sofa, using teeth and claws to remove anything in their path.

I'm struggling with this one - every defense I put in place is rapidly destroyed, and it's meant they cannot spend as much time out as they require constant supervision. They know it's naughty, and flick their tails at us if we come near to move them. I'm sure previous bunnies leave their invisible bunny signs to say 'hey, come this way, there's a great tunnel behind the sofa if you can just get there', as it's always been a problem area. Just hope they get bored of trying soon.