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...

 

Mabel and Dijon - a compilation of the best photos

 

We hope you enjoy this compilation of photos, in memory of Mabel and Dijon, showing the amazing bond between them.

We selected Mabel and Dijon (in 2011) from 2 litters of Dutch rabbits (now we know it’s better to adopt from a rescue centre). They shared the same father, so Mabel was Dijon’s half-sister. They were put together by the breeder as soon as they were old enough to leave their mothers, and we brought them home shortly after. 

Rabbits from the same litter don’t necessarily get along – they can fall out, especially when their hormones kick in. Dijon did pester Mabel a bit when they were young, and his first neuter didn’t help – he continued to mount her and spray urine around our living room, until, in desperation, our vet agreed it was worth going ahead with ‘exploratory surgery’ to see whether anything had been missed! It had – she found testicular tissue lodged in his inguinal canal, thank goodness, and once it had been removed, Dijon became the perfect gentleman. He adored his Mabel, cared for and protected her, and, as you’ll see toward the end of the compilation, loved to throw himself at her feet! Mabel finally lost her battle to a mandibular abscess in 2018, which is when we adopted Ebony.
 

Dijon's sofa moments

Here's another compilation of special moments with Dijon. This time, footage of him enjoying time on one of his favourite places – the sofa. 

Whenever he jumped up to the sofa or armchair, Dijon would race from side to side, binkying and flopping. The first recording is from 2016 – we don't seem to have any before then, probably because he and Mabel were kept away from the sofa in their early years, as Mabel enjoyed burrowing into the upholstery! The final recordings – shown in slow motion in this compilation – were taken in 2022. By then, Dijon had injured his knee, and was an old man at 11 years old, so we lifted him to the sofa so he could have fun. We stopped lifting him to the sofa, shortly after this – his knee had become arthritic, and we were worried he would hurt himself. 

The compilation consists purely of his binkies – all the footage of him resting on his back when he threw himself on his side has been cut, but as it is the video is over three minutes long!

Over a decade of bunny yawns

 

Here's a compilation of our favourite bunny yawns from the past twelve years! Snoop puts in an appearance at the end (he saw the edit was near completion and yawned just in time to be included). Dijon appears more than anyone else – his yawns were always more cute than the usual scary bun yawns, and he yawned a lot as he became an old man… many were captured in his 12th year! 

(Music credit: Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, Op. 46: I. Morning Mood, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)

 

The World is Not Enough

 

Ebony and Snoop have permanent, 24/7 access to our 3.5m x 3m dining room. That's where they stay overnight. During the day, they also have access to the rest of the living room. Watch how fast they move when the gate is opened in the morning! 

Snoop also races to go into the hallway, every time the door's opened – Ebony has never crossed the threshold, even though Dijon loved venturing out and now Snoop does too. She doesn't like the hard, slippery laminate flooring. 

Most days, whatever the weather, the bunnies also have access, via the patio door, to a run on the patio. They can choose to go out – the door is not shut (despite plummeting temperatures indoors) until we're sure they have had enough of being outside. Frequently, just as we go to close the door, they miraculously wake from apparent deep sleep, nosing our ankles to tell us they're not finished with the great outdoors.  

Seeing how eager they are always to have access to more space makes it even more sad to think of so many rabbits restricted to hutches... A Hutch is Not Enough

 

Revenge

 It may look innocent enough, but Snoop was certainly a bit taken aback...was this revenge for Snoop's disturbance? (see our previous post)

Clumsy Snoop

 ... or was it intentional? Every time Ebony settles down on a comfortable surface - a cushion, her mat, the blanket, Snoop has a way of disturbing her. This disturbance was more dramatic than usual...

Snowy videos from Mabel and Dijon's early days

First, a video from 2011… and a big wee in the snow by Dijon. The little girl keeping up the supply of snow for them is now 15yrs old – Dijon saw her through nursery, the whole of primary school, and most of secondary school. 

This was before the bunnies had a run set up around the patio doors – back then, we had to place them in the run for outdoor time, whereas now they can choose where they want to be, which is far better (not for us – we must freeze when they ask for the patio doors to be open in winter).

 

Next, a video from January 2013 – Dijon was far more ‘yellow’ when he was little, and his markings sharper. By the time he reached 12, he was greying and his blaze was wobbly, but in our eyes he was far more handsome than a pedigree Dutch.
Look out for him doing another wee in the snow, near the start!! By this time they had their run on the patio, so we had the patio door open for them despite freezing temperatures, and we were shovelling snow into their pen to keep them entertained… but it was worth it!