Outed

A few weeks ago we bought a puppy pen for the bunnies. The idea was to find them some type of cage we could erect in the garden where they could play in safety during the summer. The wooden pen I had made about 10 years ago had been brought inside to act as a barrier to prevent them escaping into forbidden areas of the house.

Although we had ordered a drop-pin version from an eBay seller named Easipet, we ended up with the non-drop-pin version. All this means is that instead of separate panels that can be joined using a drop-pin, they are pre-ligated. This error turned out to be a better choice for us as we could securely set up the pen on our patio and fix it to the wall. We now have a semi-permanent run on the patio with direct access from the living room.

The bunnies absolutely love it! Mabel has developed a way to let us know when she wants to go out, and they hate it when the patio door is shut after they've been outside. Dijon will deliberately stand in the way of the door so we can't close it, even if it's pouring with rain outside.

The two of them have demonstrated that they know their names. When they are outside, if we call their names from inside, they will come bounding in (hoping for a treat), hop over to say 'hello' and then bound out again. Aeroplanes and magpies are things neither of them like, and should one fly overhead, the bunnies come shooting inside.

Here they are, happy in the pen.

Captured...

Here's a drawing of Mabel & Dijon. It perfectly captures the relationship between them and the way they position themselves - Dijon stretched out, Mabel huddled. Not bad at all, for a 6 year old.

 

Emergency

6:00 p.m... we noticed Mabel wasn't her usual self. She was throwing herself around, writing and looking very uncomfortable. Unusually, she allowed us to stroke her without protest (normally, stokes are very much on her terms), and she overtly did a wee outside of her cage.

So there was a last minute call to the vet, which thankfully closes at 7:00 p.m, and there was one appointment left. Off we set... We suspected it was gas (from what we can only guess), a diagnosis the vet agreed with as he could feel no blockage in her gut.

A very reasonable consultation fee plus the cost of Metacam later, and we have a happy Mabel again. She is springy and bouncy, and just as calculating as ever. She's not interested in hard treats at the moment, but was keen to eat a sprig of parsley and a small grape.

Happy Birthday, Mabel

Well it, it may have been Father's Day, but far more important than that, it was Mabel's first birthday. She had a delightful birthday tea that both bunnies enjoyed. Happy Birthday Mabel!

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.