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- This topic has 16sd replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 7 months ago by
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So, some of you may remember a post of mine about my bf’s mother’s rabbits, and how I was worried because they were kept in less than ideal circumstances…ie, outside in the summer heat, without hay, and only pellets for food. When the girl bun seemed sick, they were both moved inside, and my boyfriend started going over there everyday to give them greens and hay and let them out for at least a few minutes a day.
Well, I’m visiting them right now (he lives 90 minutes’ drive away from me) since I have a job here this week, and I brought Lizzy Diva Bunny with me. She’s a little annoyed because she’s in a cage, rather than the plush hutch/pen combo she normally has, but seems to enjoy having a new place to explore! (His apartment is absolutely not as bunny-proofed as mine, so I have to keep an eagle-eye on her when she’s out…even so, yesterday she decided the trash can looked interesting. So she hopped into it. And then FREAKED OUT when she realized she was in a container and couldn’t get out! Poor bun! *snicker*)
But apparently the boy bun of the 2 who live here seems hardier than his girl companion (neither are fixed, they live in separate cages, and don’t seem particularly bonded), so he got kicked back outside. So of course, I whined at my bf, and now we have Thumper in this little apartment too! Oh and he’s such a lovely bun! I love Lizzy, but she’s a little…ummm, aloof? Thumper is SUCH a people-bunny! When I come home, he hops back and forth in this cage and gets all excited, and when I let him out, he immediately runs over and wants to be pet! And when I feed Lizzy before him, he thumps impatiently. He’s a total cuddle-bunny, and I love him and want to steal him! Sigh.
I’m turning him into a spoilt house-bunny, and I’m afraid when I leave, mom will decide to reclaim him and banish him to the yard again. I had to dig 4 inches of soiled reaking pine shavings off the floor of his cage when we moved him in. And now he has nice clean newspaper, which he loves to shred, and I’ve given him a litter box, which he already uses religiously. (He’s better than Lizzy, at present! She’s decided she needs to mark things just to make sure we know she’s still top bun. Like my boyfriend when he was sleeping. He loved that…!)
I let them out one at a time, and he’s SOO laid back…not at all like the descriptions of unfixed male buns I’ve read. Lizzy, on the other hand, is a holy terror when he’s out. He comes over to say hello to her, and she pounces and growls and jumps around and grabs her food dish and turns it over, and eats the food she’d been ignoring for hours to make sure he knows it’s hers, and is a general brat! He seems unoffended, and not particularly bothered. But sometimes they lick each other and sniff nicely…
Anyway, it’s a mute point ’cause he’s not my rabbit. Still trying to think of ways to change that!
Here’s my boy Thumper whom I want to bunny-nap…
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Ohh he’s just adorable! You have to bunny-nap him! It’s so sad to think he might go back to being in a cage all the time and not around you who obviously already loves him and wants to spoil him. If your boyfriend is anything like mine then just bat your eyelashes and make a cute face and say puhhleeease tell your mom to let me keep him. It just might work lol
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Yay! I have good news!
My boyfriend asked his mother the other day if she minded that we stole her rabbit (Thumper), and she said, ‘No. He’s probably so spoilt now there’ll be no living with him, anyway.’ And he said, ‘Great. We’re keeping him.’
This is my new step-bunny, Thumper!
(This picture really reflects his personality, laid back and floppy and a little goofy…with those great big ears! He makes Lizzy look petite, even though he’s not much bigger!)
Lizzy Diva Bunny and I are safely home, and she’s thrilled to be back in her hutch/pen, and to get to run freely around the living room. She’s getting to be a world traveler! She doesn’t really LIKE to be in the car, but she tolerates it very well. Even laid down and washed her face a little. And since we’ve been home, she’s been running in circles and binkying CONSTANTLY. (She binkied at the bf’s house, too, so she wasn’t unhappy. She just knew it wasn’t all hers, and you know how Diva Bunny feels about World Domination!) She’s even been following me around a little! Shocking! And this is the kicker…after a 20 minute session of scratching her head, she sidled up alongside me and LICKED MY ARM! REPEATEDLY! She’s either really happy to be home, or really trying to prove she’s as nice as Thumper!
Meanwhile, I have the BF set up with everything he needs to take care of Thumper. Poor guy, I came home yesterday and there were bunny pellets all over the floor. He’d felt bad because I was taking care of both buns, and wanted to do his share. So he filled up both their dishes with pellets. FILLED THEM UP! And Lizzy, being the troublemaker she is, got annoyed at Thumper, and flung the full dish across the cage, scattering pellets everywhere. And I came home, and he expected me to side with him against Lizzy’s evil ways, and was quite disappointed when I said, ‘Honey, I told you they only need 1/4 cup a day, and I gave it to them this morning. Would you mind putting all the pellets back?’ He know has a 1/4 cup measuring cup in the pellets bin. And detailed dietary instructions listed on every side of the aforementioned bin, so they can’t get lost.
But I, like Beka, was still worried about poor Flower, the girl bun, in the other house. And this is where BF shows what a great guy he is! He’s been working 16 hour days and coming home at 11pm lately. I’ve been working 12 hour days and coming home at 3am (at which time I let the bunnies out, and they bounced all over him, and he just slept right through it with no complaints!). I haven’t seen Flower at all. I asked about her yesterday, and it turns out, BF has been going over to give Flower lettuce and hay and some pets at 11pm every night, before going to his house to do the same for Thumper and Lizzy! Aaaawww!
So, Flower still isn’t as well-tended as Thumper (or the ultra-spoilt Lizzy Diva), but she isn’t forgotten.
BF’s are awfully great sometimes!
As are floppy Labrador Retriever-type rabbits
(If Thumper’s a great dopey Lab., Lizzy’s a cross between a poodle and a pit bull…man, you should see her snarl at Thumper when she’s in her cage and he flops along by! Snarls and grunts and pounces and swipes and ears pinned back!)…maybe I’m wrong. Maybe she’s a poodle-Velociraptor mix!
Thanks for all your support! Keep thinking happy thoughts for Flower!
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I don’t know what I can do about Flower, other than make sure that Thumper’s treatment serves as an example. (“See, bunnies CAN be litter-boxed trained so they can hop around the room without making a mess! And they eat the hay, not just sleep on it!” Etc…) It’s sort of like trying to take someone’s kid away because you think they aren’t treating it right. I’m surprised we got away with thieving Thumper…
And there are humans in that weird situation that need saving, too, and I’m trying, but there’s only so much I can do… Life is complicated. People are difficult. Bunnies and children are stuck in between.
Anyway, Beka, BF is only doing 2 jobs for the summer, and his normal job gets off at 3pm. And he’s trying to move (better for him, worse for Flower left-behind), so the cube-structure probably isn’t going to happen anytime soon. We’ve had possession of Thumper for all of 1 week, so obviously we’re still working. For the time being, he gets out for at least 1.5 hours a day. Before he was lucky to get out for 10 minutes a week, so he’s ecstatic, but already pushing for more freedom, now that he’s had a taste of it. Probably the best solution for the circustances is an x-pen around the cage, but we may have to look at covering the x-pen somehow (a recent post…I fogot the poster’s user-name…sorry! I remember your bunny-avatar, though!…used a screendoor. Maybe that’s the right direction.). Thumper is much more….bunny-like than Lizzy. Lizzy’s aloof and territorial, but doesn’t shred or chew or dig or get into too much trouble. Thumper is a sweetheart, but he’s a fearless jumper, and a rooter into odd corners, and is used to barking dogs and screaming children, so he doesn’t even hear it when you say, “no”, or “off”. We’re starting to train him that “no” means “no” with a spray bottle, but I’m afraid to leave him in an uncovered x-pen just yet because I’m pretty sure he’d just find a way to leap over it…
Anyway, we’re working on it. And just happy we’ve sort of started to save one creature in that household…
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Hi- that was my bunny’s pen with the screen on top
I made the NIC grids go on top of my cage and around it so half the cage was square and half was circular and then the screen happened to fit it perfectly and the little corner on the circle part were too small for my bun to jump out. It really works great.I’m glad things with Thumper are working out and I’m sure the more you talk to your bf’s mom the more she will learn about how to care for Flower. I didn’t have a clue either until I found Binky Bunny. Your bf sounds so sweet, and a softie just like mine. When I first told him I was getting a bunny he said well is that a good idea? and now he wants me to get another one lol!
Good Luck with everything!!!
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I know, Beka. Believe me, I’ve had the same thoughts you all have about Thumper’s cage and Flower’s still being there (not to mention the humans that I worry about too…). I just wanted you to know we’re still in process.
I tend to be a little controlling (shocking, huh?!
), so part of me wants to just tell BF, “I’ll just take him. You don’t really have the time right now.” But that’s not fair to BF to not even give him a chance, and one needs to have patience with the learning curves of humans as with bunnies. They’ll both be fine…and I’ll be annoyingly helpful the whole time!
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