Unusually Cuddly

[MimzMum]

I had a lovely time with Fiver this morning.

For the whole time I’ve had him (since Aug. 20 or so) he’s always been really nervous about touching. Especially his face. It took me a long time just to get him to let me give him head pets. Even then, if I touched his ears or down his cheeks or near his eyes, he’d flick his ears at me and jump, usually causing me to jump as well. He also doesn’t want you touching his back. (makes grooming a nightmare) I have to assume that he associates this with being picked up, which he refuses to have done. The face thing, well, I worry that someone must have flicked him in the face if he was ‘being naughty’. Who knows what ‘being naughty’ meant at his former home?

This morning though, right after I woke up, I found him lying as close as he could get to me in his pen. I opened the door (he usually makes a break for it but didn’t today) and reached in and he stood up rather slowly and then lay back down while I proceeded to pet his head. His little eyes eyes closed dreamily and he just sat there and let me nose rub him. And then I tried rubbing over his ears. He didn’t move at ifrst, but then he got up and shook his head and I noticed he’s kicking at that right ear quite a bit. (What is it with my bunnies and their right ears?) So I stopped for a moment and realized that, with how dry our house is, I must’ve created a lot of static electricity by rubbing his ears and it must’ve tickled horribly. He kicked at that ear on and off most of the morning as a result. Poor guy.

But when he sat back down I was able to pet his face and rub my fingers gently over the sides of his face for about a half an hour. That is epic for Fiver. He normally doesn’t want anyone touching him anywhere and this was quite an event.

I noticed, while petting him, his tummy was gurgling. I had thought maybe he was lethargic because he might have gas, but then he’d get up and kick at his ear or hop into his litter box and then come back to have more pets. What a change! I was soaking up his enjoyment of being petted I think as much as he was enjoying being petted.

He hasn’t come out to binky as much in the evenings as he used to. He seems perfectly content to have his pen door open and either rest right next to me in there on his sleeping mat or curl up on the towel outside that I use to cover the cage door with so he can come and go without catching his foot in the bars. When he does binky, he runs in and out of the cage at high speed, then tears aroung the approximately three feet of space on my blankets that is not covered by stuffed animals or me. He grooms every plushie he comes across. And now, he sits right next to me with his back facing me and bumps his little hind right up to my leg. When he first came home, he would not sit anywhere near me.

I guess I’m doing something right. Now if I could just get him to sit still while I apply cream for his heels or check his nails, etc. He still does not appreciate being picked up at all. Once you get him in your arms, he sits there and gives up and lets you hold/pet him, but I get the vibes from him that he’s tolerating it at great cost to his patience.

[jerseygirl]

This is great! He must be feeling real safe and secure. Bet it was lovely to pet that rex fur for so long!

[MooBunnay]

Awww – you are definitely making a lot of progress with him! It always takes a lot of patience to get a scared or timid bunny to come around, but it sounds like you are well on your way to making a great bond with him!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Awww those days are the best!!

[Beka27]

enjoy those cuddly days. as you know, they come and go. Mead’s been craving head pets all this past week, and i’ve been happy to oblige.

[MimzMum]

Tell me about it, Beka. Last night I noticed Fiver’s heels are getting worse. (WHY I don’t know, I’ve done everything I can think of to alleviate the problem!) So I attempted once again to ‘sneak’ some Neosporin onto his sore spots. (I still can’t find plain calendula anywhere.)

As usual, it was a goose chase. In the litterbox, out of the litterbox…oink-grunt-lunge…for ten minutes straight and I was getting exasperated. (This is about 1 AM and I’m already beat.) I finally decided I’d had enough of the Ms. Nice Guy routine and made a grab for him. (Not in a nasty way, but tried to be firm and calm.) He FLAILED and SQUIRMED and STRUGGLED so much that I would almost get him out of the pen and would have to put him down because I was SO afraid I would hurt his back. We went around like this about 5 times. I was terrified he’d have a little bunny coronary…or maybe I would!

My son heard me having trouble and got up to help. (BLESS him!) By this time I finally figured that if, instead of trying to catch Fiver around his middle (which I was doing to avoid those wildly spinning wheels of his) that I would come from his breastbone area in front and his hocks in back and, if I cradled him a little differently, he actually didn’t realize he was being lifted until I almost had him in my lap, then he tried to bolt so I had to completely block him with my arms. By this time I think he was too tired from trying to escape, so he just sat there, huffing and puffing at top speed (also there was fur flying everywhere, apparently his shed is not quite done yet) and I had my son put the gel on his feet as I pointed to where it was needed. We got him done and I let him go, but he just crawled back into his pen and laid down and his sides just heaved and he was shaking…I felt TERRIBLE. But heck, it had to be done, there was no other way. It took what seemed like forever to get him calmed back down though.

He did come out of his pen a little later after a veggie cookie and a lot of pets and a squirt of rescue remedy. I just wasn’t sure he’d be alive this morning though, so I hardly slept. I was in a bad way when I got up, I can tell you.

So…. *sigh* So much for our nice time. I don’t think he’s going to trust me again for another month. And in all that time he still needs grooming and nail trims and medicine for his hocks…hogeeze, never mind gland cleaning! 0_o Can’t get there from here!!

[bunnytowne]

Well you know it was necessary to do this and his hocks weren’t getting any better.  He will forgive you.  Y’all were doing so good with the pets there. 

[MimzMum]

I know BT, but I worry. I mean, how much stress is TOO much for a bunny? Especially a teeny critter like Fiver?

I managed to sneak up on him with the tube last night while he was trying to get on top of all the plushies. ^_^ I was glad to get that done without a hassle for a change.

Of course, today was grooming day. I took about ten bunnies off that boy, but he was grunting and grousing at me the whole time. >.< *sigh* I just oink back.

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