Category Archives: Bunny Stunts & Fun

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The Tigger Principle

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Tigger contemplating the leap

Yes she did hop up on the green planter box, right after this picture was taken.

Tigger’s life goal seemed to be to go where no bunny had ever thought of going or been before and to do it in whatever was the worst possible way.  She kept us on our toes trying to keep ahead of her with bunny proofing.  It was clear very early that Tigger did not seem to understand the concept of limits and personal safety.  Throughout her life and then Shadow’s, who learned by copying what he saw her do, we found ourselves repeating this question a lot, “Have you lost your little bunny mind?” 

In her early kitchen days while we were bunny proofing her room and getting her litter box trained, her posture in this first picture was a sign.  When Tigger looked at something, she was thinking and what she was thinking was, “I’m going to go there.”  If she stood up on her hind legs and looked at something, that is exactly where she would be leaping next.  I took this picture, then had to run for her right after it was taken.  Tigger jumped up and landed on the top of the green planter box we had wedged to block access to the back of the refrigerator.  I had just seconds to prevent her from hopping down and getting behind the refrigerator and the unprotected cord and outlet back there.

It was fortunate we learned this behavior in the kitchen because it allowed us to see and identify a lot of shortcomings in our  bunny proofing when we moved her run and play time into the guest bedroom / office where her cage was kept.  We knew if Tigger looked at something that she was planning on going there and we had better make sure that it was safe or truly off-limits inaccessible.  When we saw her sitting up on her hind legs looking at the top of her cage, we knew that was next on her bunny to do list.  We had to act fast, because the bars on her cage top were far enough apart that there was a good chance she would not have a safe landing and would harm herself.  We got a piece of cardboard right away and cut it to the size of the cage top and held it in place by using Acco binder clips to clip the cardboard to the cage wires.  With that in place, she hopped up and landed without the fear of a leg or paw dropping through the bars, but the cardboard was a bit slick and she almost went skidding off the other side.  So we got a small throw rug the size of the cage top and used jumbo 4 inch paper clips to clip the rug to the cardboard.  As you can see, she enjoyed her new hang out.  Throughout her life, Tigger loved the high ground of resting on her cage top, able to completely and easily survey her rabbit domain to rest while plotting next moves.

Tigger on her bunny proofed cage top

Resting for now on her bunny proofed cage top

Tigger was extremely fast and we didn’t always catch her scouting looks, so she still got into to some places that we never expected.  She used the cage top as a stepping stool and hopped from there up on to the desk and started looking at the hutch on the desk.  We had to move things around so that the cage was too far from the desk for her to make the leap.  Otherwise, we thought it was entirely possible that she would hop up each shelf and get to the top of the hutch.  It we had allowed that, it wouldn’t have surprised us at all if we had come into the room to see Tigger hanging from the ceiling fan.  She seemed to set no limits for herself as you will learn in the rest of our posts this week.

Coming on Wednesday, Commando Bunny and on Friday, Air Bunny …

Tasmanian Devil Bunny

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Abstract of Tasmanian Devil BunnyNo pictures on this one.  However, they would have been a blur of motion like this abstract drawing where you see the jumble and tumble of swirling bunny parts.  It is a bit dizzying to look at and so was Tigger if you picked her up as a baby bunny. 

Tigger was like trying to hold on to the whirling dervish Tasmanian Devil of the Bugs Bunny cartoons.  You saw motion and body parts with brief stops.  Tigger tended not to stop until I would get smart and put her back down.  She made it quite clear that to her the term four on the floor also applied to rabbits.  All four paws were to remain on the floor unless she decided on a lift off. 

It was a real exercise to hold on to her safely as she would squirm, wiggle, somersault and do flip-flops in my arms.  In a blur of dizzy speed her head would be up, down, right, left and then repeat the process …  Everywhere the head went the little paws followed and those little paws had kitty sharp claws.  It was early summer in Georgia when we got her, so I was usually in a V neck Tee and shorts.  I would end up scratched all over my arms, legs, neck and Tigger usually managed to get at least one paw hooked into the V neck of my shirt, so I got a good measure of scratches on my chest too.  It was embarrassing to have to admit that a rabbit less than three pounds had mauled me.

I kept trying to pick her because up at first we hadn’t gotten the room with her cage bunnyproofed and I would carry her to the kitchen for run times.  We got that room bunnyproofed pretty quickly and fortunately Tigger was a quick study with the litter box so we didn’t need the easy clean kitchen for long. Then I could allow some of the wounds to heal for a bit.  I continued trying to pick her up but a little less often, attempting to get her used to being held.  Tigger never really got with the whole being held program with one exception that I will talk about in the next post. 

We had wanted to try to do nail clippings at home, but always had to take her to the vet for that.  She needed the fear factor of the trip to hold still enough for exams and nail trims.  Even with that fear factor, it would take three people for exams, two to hold her while the vet examined and two people for nail trims, one to hold and one to trim.  Since Tigger’s top weight was never higher than 5 1/2 pounds, it was extremely close quarters for the humans at vet visits trying to hold one very small bunny rabbit still without stepping all over each other.

It was just amazing how strong and agile one small bunny rabbit could be.  Later in life when she needed medicating or cleaning up due to old age issues, she would still run like crazy trying to get away, not wanting to be picked up.  The difference was that when I did pick her up, she would be amenable to getting things over and done with as soon as possible so that I would put her back down.  Still, she was a two person job.  One of us had to hold her, while the other medicated her or worked on fur cleaning issues.  The response to being put back down did not change no matter what her age.  Once she hit the floor, she would hop off a bit flicking her back paws as she went and would then stop and thump once or a few times depending on how violated she felt by our interference with her person.

We tried to respect Tigger’s desire not to be picked up and only picked her up when her care or safety required it.  The rest of the time, we chose to get to know her and let her get to know us on her terms.  We sat on the floor or laid on our stomach or side on the floor, letting her come to us to interact as she chose.  The room she was in at first was a combination guest bedroom / office.  Sometimes we would sit on the floor with our backs up to the bed.  Tigger would hop on our laps and run up our bodies to get up on the bed. Later she learned to take flying leaps up on the bed and would play with us there.  Blaine would take a sock and play a very gentle tug of war by just giving her some resistance with him holding on to the sock so that she was the one actually tugging at it.  That usually tired her out and she would then take a nap between his legs.

Getting to know Tigger on her terms was rewarding.  Many times over the years she would hop up and bestow sweet bunny kisses on our foreheads.  As she slowed down some late in life, we would have the opportunity to lay beside her snuggling for a time while petting her. 

Coming Next on Friday, meet the Velcro Rabbit.

There’s a Tigger in Our Kitchen!

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Initially, we put Tigger’s cage in the bedroom that we had set up as a combination office / guest bedroom.  We didn’t have the room bunnyproofed at first and Tigger wasn’t litter box trained.  So, when it was time for runtime, we would take her to the kitchen.  The kitchen was both easy to secure by blocking off the only entry into it and easy to clean with linoleum flooring.  Only the spaces around the refrigerator needed blocking. Everything else was cabinets to the floor with no way for a Tigger to disappear or escape.  We blocked one side of the refrigerator by wedging it with a roll of paper towels that she could also chew on while we wedged an upended planter box in to the space on the other side.

We put our regular throw rugs away during Tigger training and purchased some small kitchen rugs that we could easily put in the washer and scattered those on the kitchen floor.  We brought in a litter box filled with paper pellet litter.  We put some cardboard over the only baseboard to prevent her chewing that.  We now had an apartment pet security deposit to protect! We had a washable kitty bed for her to rest on and her carrier with the door off as a hiding box.  She had a water bowl and food bowl on a plant tray to keep those tidy.  The unexpected side benefit of the tray is she liked to flop on it.  The sides supported her and it became bunny furniture.  Tigger also had every bunny loving toy we could think of for her to chew, rattle or throw: empty paper towel rolls, jute / wood small animal chews, cat belled balls, a phone book.

Tigger actually learned to run really well on the linoleum and would go sailing / skating across the floor at unbelievable speed.  Blaine and I would take turns sitting on the floor playing with her and getting her used to both of us.  Here are some of the pictures of those times …

Tigger with toys

What do I want to do first?

Tigger at food bowls

Would you care to explain these weird pellies in with my usual?

Tigger grooming

Okay, what did I hop in? Maybe you should clean the floor more often?

Tigger in litter box

Would it be asking too much for some privacy here please!

Tigger stretched out

Ahhh ... the bunny yoga stretches are so relaxing ...

Coming next week, the Calico bunny rabbit.

Hare Trigger

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Tigger ready to run

Ready, set ...

And she is off in a total freakazoid run.  What set of the hare trigger, er Tigger?  We sure haven’t always figured it out right after more than 10 years.  It could be a noise, a movement, almost anything with Tigger.  Tigger has the shortest fuse from relaxed to full-blown panic of any animal we have ever seen.

We have learned that it is possible to have a bunny stampede with only two rabbits.  Something sets Tigger off and she is off at top speed.  Shadow then thinks something bad is going down and he better start running too.  So, off they both go.  Sometimes they are running top speed together side by side in such tandem you would expect to see a little harness or yoke on them.  Sometimes it is one following the other.  Sometimes they take off in completely different directions and yes they have run into each other head on once. 

Whatever direction they take off, it is the fastest flurry of movement to see with the pounding sound of racing rabbit paws.  Two of them can sound like a herd as the run and run and run.  We end up furiously talking trying to calm them down and try to follow them carefully.  We want to be able to see where they are to make sure they aren’t smashing into things or each other without following them in a way that makes them feel followed which accelerates the stampede rather than slowing it down.  We have to come at them from the side or angles, not directly from behind or the front.

After a few minutes, the frantic racing stops.  Sometimes it is like throwing a switch back to calm.  It is hard to say sometimes what starts it and also to know sometimes what makes them suddenly realize they are safe again.

Tigger never does anything halfway.  One time something set her off while she was in the makeshift tunnel we have of a sheet draped over several open-ended boxes.  It lasted less than a minute and ended before we could even reach her.  The hare trigger went off and she started to run.  Tigger got herself wrapped up in the sheet, managed to free her feet enough to run herself and the sheet into a hay bowl.  That rolled everything over so that hay and bowl went flying up and then down.  Tigger crawled out from underneath the sheet covered with hay, blinking and teary eyed.  We called the vet and watched that the eyes cleared up by the next morning.  She had just gotten some dust in her eyes.  We think that happened with the roll through the hay bowl which would leave the actual cause of the freak out a mystery. 

There have been many times along her ten years that we wondered if the hare trigger would allow her to make it to senior bunny status.  Tigger is living proof that panic attacks alone don’t kill.  However, lots of padding and soft corners in rooms do help to keep rabbits with little hare triggers safer.  We have also noticed that Tigger stays calmer if we are talking to her as we come in to a room or approach her.

Perhaps in Tigger’s case, the hare trigger could be related to poor eyesight.  Since she has always stayed calmer if she hears our voices, maybe she has had visual problems a good part of her life.  We know she does now as a senior bun, some eye issues can now be seen by the vet, but maybe they have been there for quite some time before they could be seen.  

So if you too have a rabbit with a hare trigger, see if lots of talking to your rabbit as you move around lessens the problem. 

Sticky Buns

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Label MakerI was so proud of myself this week.  I finally got all my supplies properly organized into containers and used a label maker to put nice clear permanent (I thought) adhesive labels on the containers. 

Then Shadow decided to show me a completely new rabbit trick yesterday evening.  He hopped up to one of the plastic containers, grabbed the adhesive label somehow with his teeth and ripped it off.  I had to grab him and wrestle the label away from him immediately so that I wouldn’t have to find out how bad an adhesive label might mess up a rabbit’s digestive system.

What on earth was he thinking and why would he go after those labels?  Shoot, now what am I going to do? If I take all the labels off, I am back to not knowing what is in the containers.  If I leave them on, Shadow now knows he has something new to mess with.

Arghhh!  Clearly as long as the he is still breathing, Shadow will continue to find new ways and means of getting into things I would never have dreamed of!  The labels weren’t even on a week. Does he notice new things or what?

Following Up On Follow Friday – Vet Visits

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Tigger GhostHaving read through BunnyHugga’s guides on How to Train Humans, I swear that our Miss Tigger was the ghost writer for the one on Vet Visits.  One of the first suggestions, one rabbit to another, is to make as much mess as possible.  This had been Tigger’s hugely successful MO. 

In the carrier on the way to the vet, she lets loose with absolutely everything she’s got.  We always arrive at the vet with the wettest, stinkiest, messiest rabbit you could possibly imagine.  If they didn’t know us well, they would think we weren’t keeping her clean at all.  We have started to travel with the carrier bottom filled with litter, multiple towels and at least part of a roll of paper towels.  We know once we get to the vet, there is going to be a huge clean up needed to make Tigger even remotely touchable.  I would like to say that I am able to accomplish this clean up without any transfer of substances or smell.  However, Tigger makes sure that I get a good sample of everything.  Its guaranteed that by the time we reach home between my clothing and the bunny towels I take, there is going to be a washer load needing to be done.

The second thing suggested for rabbits is to let loose on fur, so much so that everyone thinks an Angora rabbit is in the room.  We have never been able to figure out how Tigger manages to open up all her fur follicles, but she does.  There will be fluffy floating clouds of fur in the room by the end of any vet visit and everyone is has a runny nose and is coughing and sneezing whether they have allergies or not.

Then there’s the aftermath, where the rabbit must observe a grievance period against humans. Tigger always comes out of her carrier and thumps, does that little head toss with the look and then turns around and does the flicky feet thing as she hops off with that aggrieved hare air. It takes awhile before she forgives us and we are allowed to approach HRH Tigger again.

There are a couple of things unique to Tigger’s vet visits that weren’t in the article.  So if she ghost wrote it, she held a few things back for her use only.  On one visit while we were waiting, after I cleaned her up, I gave her the cardboard roll from the now used abused and discarded paper towels.  I thought she would play with it or chew it and keep herself occupied.  She definitely kept herself busy.  She retreated to the back corner of her carrier and used the towel roll like a baseball bat to blast the sides of the carrier.  Thwack, thwack, thwack was repeated on and off the whole time we were waiting.  We were in an exam room at the end of a hall with the door closed, but she was making so much noise, the vet techs kept coming in every five minutes or so to check that we were okay.  Yeah, no problem, just a Tigger tantrum going on.  Thank goodness she isn’t a biter!

The other thing Tigger does is a huge guilt trip before we even get home.  Tigger hates to be picked up and held.  So at the vet, I would always get her out of the carrier, put her on the scale for the techs to weigh her and then try to put her back in the carrier until the vet would come in.  Tigger fastens herself to my shirt and makes it quite clear that I am not to put her down.  One time, I didn’t pick her back up fast enough and she leapt up into my arms.  Now I don’t flatter myself on this, she has clearly decided that I am the lesser of two evils.  However, it is a huge guilt trip having those big brown eyes looking at me as paws and claws cling.  Putting her down for the vet makes me feel like a hard-hearted beast of a human.

Good luck fellow humans.  House rabbits think it’s a bunny world, and we just live in it!

Was It Something I Said?

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Question marksCall me confused, but I found out earlier that my blog has been blocked by a group.  It appears it happened about the time I posted a cartoon this morning.  Perhaps I should not have admitted that we actually have some regularly occurring greenhouse gases here from time to time.  Or maybe the cartoon of the greenhouse gas producer in the act was too much. 

It is also possible that having a blog that talks about bunnies and is tagged with keywords bunny, bunnies, rabbit and attitude have caught up.  After all, everything that talks about those keywords must be rated XXX, right?  I really must resist the urge I have to do a photo with the stuffed rabbit Peeps that I have.  I can only imagine what trouble that show would cause. 

So, I am scratching my head here.  I guess I don’t ever want to write about some of the things that Tigger and Shadow choose to do.  Fixing bunnies only stops rabbit reproduction.  All I intend to say on that is if you have bunnies and children, do expect at times to hear the following question, “Mommy what are the bunnies doing?”  Looking to see what they are doing and finding a kid friendly explanation could at times be a challenge.

Roaming Rabbits

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Tigger & Shadow on the hop

Tigger & Shadow on the hop

Its morning and I just let the rabbits out and now have the pitter patter of roaming rabbit paws around the house. They are here and there, up and down, chewing this, checking that. Oops! I left open the door to one bathroom and there they are ready to zoom in …

Be back later today …

Just Thinking …

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Whoops

I just love this photo from istockphoto.com!

It is Saturday, a day to unwind, review, mull … zzz. Whoops have to catch myself. Actually, I have been hopping and bopping around the internet to various sites. I am always on the look out for great bunny things or funny bunny ideas.

I am thinking about bunny poo today, lots and lots of bunny poo.  Part of that is because I see lots and lots of bunny poo.  Even when I don’t see the bunnies, I see evidence of the existence of bunnies here.

We didn’t realize that the careful leaving of rabbit droppings in specific areas is part of rabbit territorial marking.   Now we do.  However, we keep telling Tigger and Shadow it really isn’t necessary to mark the area around their litter box as theirs by ringing it with poo.  No one else is going to be claiming those boxes.  We have found that a kitchen skimmer (dedicated to the bunnies, no going back to the kitchen now!)  is a great tool to scoop those up and drop them in the litter boxes.  The cat scoops always had holes too big and allowed the poos to drop right through.

So where am I going with all the poo? Oh that would be telling today and I am going to make you wait and come back another day to find out.

The Things I Do for Bunnies

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Stinky laundryToday is a day of reflection and there are a couple of things that come to mind on this topic.  The first is T-shirt sacrifices.  There is no T-shirt color that can properly hide the discolorations that come from spit out bunny food, bunny pee and bunny poo.  Portia and now Tigger have both needed syringe feedings and would soil themselves and have poopy butt while really ill. 

Portia was pretty good about holding still to be taken care of and cleaned up.  Tigger however, has always been a bit like holding the Bugs Bunny style Tasmanian Devil.  You might hang on, but her position changes regularly and rapidly.  I try to use baby style drop cloths to cover me up while Blaine feeds or cleans her, but she twirls around all over me and I always end up wearing whatever she wants to share.  Immediate laundering doesn’t always get out the ground in stuff that comes with all her wiggling around.  So, there goes another shirt designated to bunny care only.  I know someone out there is thinking, just bunny burrito her in a towel.  I cannot describe how fast she moves, there is no getting her wrapped up into a towel like that, even at a slower ten-year old speed.  Only at her very sickest will she hold that still and then the towel burrito isn’t necessary.

Second, the smell of Cilantro makes me gag.  I don’t know why, but I really hate it.  So of course, the bunnies love to eat Cilantro and want it for variety in their diet.  For me, the only thing worse than the smell of Cilantro in the room is the aroma it leaves hanging around on my hands when I wash it up for the rabbits.  I cannot get it off no matter what I use.  It follows me everywhere. 

Usually, I get Blaine to handle the toxic veggie. I have trouble even being in the same room with it while the bunnies eat it. I went looking for info on Cilantro to see if there are any kill the odor suggestions. Instead, I found there is a member website for Cilantro haters with over 3,000 members: http://ihatecilantro.com/submit.php. Amazing, I am not alone. I will have to look over the haikus of my fellow sufferers.

Back to Tigger for the third, SBDs.  Tigger can clear a room with her gassy issues.  She is the sweetest, fluffiest, cutest most beautiful rabbit and yet if she lets loose, you would swear there was a skunk in the room.  I cannot believe how much toxic gas a five pound rabbit can hold.  Now this isn’t just because she has been sick lately.  Tigger let loose her first SBD right in my face when she was just a baby.  I thought I was going to find a huge pile of poo underneath her and was really surprised to find nothing at all and realize my cute little bunny could let loose a silent stinker like that.  It was a very teary eye opener into the dark secrets of fluffy bunnies.

Dust Bunny

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Shadow cleaning his faceAh, bunnies never learn.  The minute I open the door to our half bath, Shadow’s rabbit radar goes off and within seconds, he is there to zoom in.  He always follows the same course with a lap around behind the toilet.

You would think he would learn about the spider webs back there.  One thing really enjoying a high growth cycle this past couple years in Georgia is the spider population.  I beat back cobwebs on a daily basis in some areas.

It has gotten to be a habit for me to always look at open spaces before walking through them.  Overnight, the spiders will build a web across open areas and doorways.  I hate getting a face full of web.  It is a major freak out that everyone hears about if the spider happens to be in the web at the time.  So I have learned to look first now and proceed cautiously.  Little Shadow hasn’t yet.  He came out from his lap, hit the dining room and starting cleaning his little face off.

I tried to tell him not to go back there, but he just wouldn’t slow down and listen.