Rabbittude Updates: The Long Story and What Is Coming …

Rabbittude updates: photo showing separate spaces for Leo and OliviaMy last post introduced Olivia … Cue the crickets … Why weren’t there any new Rabbittude updates after that?

Our one experience bonding rabbits was Tigger and Shadow. Time passed. I forgot the challenge in maintaining separate yet equal spaces for unbonded bunnies. Olivia also has litter box habits that are an added issue. But I digress. Olivia’s pee party ways will be another post.

Olivia was still recovering from her spay when we adopted her. We knew it would take some time for her hormones to clear. Leo and Olivia had some first dates late in January 2015. We realized we had misjudged Miss Olivia a bit. She had seemed an easy-going rabbit when we first met her. After settling in, she showed us she had a sassy side too. Leo started out shy and skittish. He lost some skittishness but remains shyer than previous rabbits.

Rabbittude updates: Picture of Leo, his blankie and a girl bunny's towelDates were so so. Olivia would try to chase Leo who would run away. There wasn’t aggression or fighting. Leo was more open to Olivia than to another rabbit we had him meet before Olivia. A friend had a rabbit she thought might be a match for Leo. When they met, he didn’t want to share the same space. He tried to climb over me to get away. Then he refused to let me put him down again. The friend left a towel with the bunny’s scent. We put the towel near Leo at another time. He dragged his blankie between himself and the towel. With Olivia, Leo was willing to share the same space, but was nervous when Olivia moved around. We decided to take it slow to allow Leo lots of adjustment time.

Then Leo experienced problems on and off for several months. His appetite would decrease and then his poops would too, not a good thing in a rabbit. But why was his appetite off? We monitored him closely and took him in for a number of vet visits. No clear cause was found. We stopped dates in case stress played a part. Then he bounced back again. We allowed time to go by to be sure he had recovered. During the summer of 2015, we began some dates again.

October rolled around. I had found my groove again between work and rabbit needs. I planned catching up with Rabbittude updates during the end of 2015 with new plans for 2016. Things went awry with a series of unfortunate events and accidents that took months of recovery time as well as lots of money. I didn’t blog because I didn’t want to bore with details, especially when it was harder to find the funny side of anything. Thankfully, both rabbits were healthy and happy to provide distraction. Fur therapy rocks!

Spring 2016 arrived bringing lovely weather. I hoped crazy times were over. Then we woke up to a flood. Overnight thousands of gallons of water flowed out of our main water line. From what the plumber saw, it seemed likely a local mowing service had hit an above ground pipe causing a break below ground which leaked unseen for a bit and then blew out the main line. Repairs and a water bill for enough water for an Olympic size pool were tough pills, but at least the flood flowed in a way that didn’t cause damage to anything else. It just would have been nicer if we had paid for water for a pool to enjoy. Ah well.

So both humans have worked and worked through spring and summer trying to get ahead of the bills again. I planned a Rabbittude update for August and announced it on the new Rabbittude Instagram account. We had some good dates between Leo and Olivia. Things were looking up. I thought I could meet my schedule for the Rabbittude updates.

Then the flying squirrels arrived. I kid you not. This is the year for crazy.  Thankfully, my sense of humor began to come back. Having a flood followed by flying squirrels just became too ridiculously nuts to not start seeing some of the humor even though the tickets for the amusement have been high-priced.

Rabbittude Updates: Georgia pines against a bright blue sky are hiding a secretBeautiful pines like these grow in abundance in Georgia. Those trees reaching towards the bright blue sky have been hiding an invasion force, flying squirrels that can launch themselves from tall trees and fly about 150 feet. They chose our roof as their landing pad. Being nocturnal, they did their home invasion under cloak of darkness. They created an entry tunnel in to our attic. So how could we not know they were up there? They were sneaky and chose the part of the roof above the room where Leo and Olivia spend the night. We thought scratching and chewing we heard was the rabbits being noisier than usual. Then we heard something running around inside the walls and knew it was not the rabbits.

We found a critter company to evict the squirrels and fix the damage. The company arrived early to seal things up while the squirrels were most likely out for the day. Live traps in the attic have been empty (the company relocates any animals caught). So it seems no squirrel has been left behind. Newly installed metal protection is in place in vulnerable roof areas. The company also sealed and protected areas for our crawl space to prevent any other uninvited critters who might try that route.

When we first moved here, we had a couple of mice sneak in to the house from the garage. We jokingly told Tigger and Shadow they were not allowed to have pets. It did not occur to us to tell Leo and Olivia they could not invite flying squirrels in for all night parties.

Upcoming Rabbittude Updates: A lot of work for the website is still coming! Check out regular posts on our new Rabbittude Instagram account. I will be back here with another blog post next week …

 

Introducing Oliver … No Make That Olivia

Introducing Olivia, Miss Jersey Wooly

Introducing Olivia

We haven’t been quite sure about getting a companion for Leo. He has pretty much been a shy loner bunny and spent the only date we were able to arrange for him trying to escape the room. So my feelings were quite mixed when a Facebook contact of Blaine’s told him about more rabbits being at the shelter where we had adopted Leo.

Then Blaine was sent pictures of a black rabbit that was really hard to see much of in the images because the rabbit was small enough that we could see the holder’s hands, a lot of black fur and big scared rabbit eyes. The eyes really reminded me of both Leo’s bug eyes and Shadow due to the rabbit’s coloring.  I called the shelter to find out more about the bunny and that is when total confusion began. I was told the bunny was an unfixed male Lionhead rabbit, uh well Blaine’s contact had said it was a spayed female Jersey Wooly. The shelter worker put me on hold to take the rabbit to be checked and then the call got disconnected. So I called back, got a different person who said the rabbit was still back in the clinic being looked at. When she checked on the progress, she said yes it was confirmed that the bunny was a spayed female. She said Oliver was about to become Olivia. Unfortunately, I got disconnected again and when I called back a third time to see about arranging a visit, Olivia was back to being Oliver again and round and round we went.

LOL it was really feeling like shades of Shadow all over again. When we had first taken him to the vet as a two month old for his first check, two vets consulted and insisted he was a girl even though Blaine and I strongly felt male because the little squirt was quite obviously squirting. A few months down the line at his *spay* appointment, the vet realized that was not going to be possible and Shadow needed to be neutered instead. In defense of the shelter, the confusion began when Olivia was brought in with a good number of other rabbits. It seems someone was trying to be their own rabbit rescue but without proper funding or set up and had to turn all the rabbits in when they started reproducing with each other. Olivia came in being identified by the person surrendering the rabbits as male. When the clinic did their check, they realized she was female and did the spay. Somehow though in the confusion of caring for all the new incoming rabbits, the computer didn’t get updated to properly reflect the correction of the sexing. Given the time frame of how many rabbits came in, the shelter did a great job of finding new homes for the bulk of the rabbits within just a few weeks.

My calls got the remaining confusion and records sorted out and when we visited the next day, Oliver was now officially Olivia in fact and in the computer. I picked Olivia up to take her to a private room so we could spend some time with her. Right away petting her we realized she had a situation going on with badly matted fur in many places. We asked for a comb and got to work. In just a few minutes, we were well on our way to creating an awesome dust bunny with quite the pile of excess rabbit fur. Olivia was a sweetheart and very patient allowing us to groom her with very little fussing and no attempts to scratch or bite. She seemed so happy to be petted as we groomed her.

We brought her home and for now have her in a separate pen in the same room as Leo’s cage. We are keeping them to separate spaces and runs until sometime after we get her in for a well check vet visit. The spay is still healing and she would still have hormones for a bit yet. So we are just going to let Leo and Olivia get used to the sound and smell of each other with viewing through safe gates for now. Leo is actually interested and curious about her while she for the most part does not seem upset by his presence. There was one brief incident before we got better fencing in place where Leo was close beside her pen the first night and she couldn’t really see him but tried to lash out at the paws she could see. I will hope that was first night tiredness and fear at not fully being able to see who / what was so close to her new pen.

I guess there is just something for us with black rabbits keeping secrets and being mysterious little beings that has loads of appeal for us …

Bun Appetit to All!

Bun Appetit Pet BowlToday is a day set aside in the US for giving thanks. Many have the day or a long weekend off to be able to spend with friends and family. I am so thankful to be celebrating 24 wonderful years of marriage this week and to have a happy healthy bunny rabbit friend in Leo for this past two years. I’ve been quiet here on Rabbittude because we have been working through some business challenges and juggling some illness and injuries. When things get a bit too much, I get quiet and just try to work through everything to the best of my ability.

I hope for those who are traveling this weekend that you will have a safe journey and be able to spend some wonderful quality time with loved ones. Food is very much on the minds of many and in the works, so Bun Appetit to all from Rabbittude. Leo received some goodies from a friend and is enjoying his first taste of cranberries. I have no picture to share of that because Leo will sometimes approach new things with secrecy. He is eating the cranberry treats when we aren’t watching him. They say a watched pot doesn’t boil, well a watched Leo doesn’t like to show that he might be liking new things, fussy bunny.

If you are shopping this weekend and want to check out some things with a bunny twist, we have some coupon discounts in our Buntique shop through December 2nd:

THANKSUS – Free Shipping to US addresses – minimum order $25
THANKS25 – $2.50 off – minimum order $25
THANKS50 – 25% off – minimum order $50

Wherever you are this weekend and whatever your plans, I wish you safe travels and lovely times! If bunnies are there too, give them some head pets from us!

 

Oops … Wish I Could Blame the Bunny

Tweets went nuts this summerWell this is one I wish I could say Leo hopped up on the keyboard and did some magic with his bunny paws and caused all the havoc. However, this one is all on me and not being attentive enough over the summer and missing what Pinterest and Twitter were getting up to together.

So many apps come our way each day, supposedly to make our lives easier, more streamlined. So do you know what your apps are doing while you aren’t watching?

When a connection is established between Pinterest and Twitter, it is supposed to provide a check box and then send a pin to Twitter if I check the box. I rarely used that, because I don’t want to spam with lots of things they can easily be seen by visiting our Pinterest account. Somewhere early in the summer, the hook up between our Rabbittude Pinterest account and Twitter decided to have a tweet fest without me.

Blaine was dealing with injuring his knee a couple of times in a short period. In between doctors visits and rearranging our tasks and schedules, I had no idea what was going on between Pinterest and Twitter. I got on Pinterest a few times to pin lovely things and cute bunnies as a stress reliever and had no idea how many of those pins Pinterest was shooting straight to Twitter. Thankfully not every pin was sent, but I have no idea how Pinterest and Twitter were deciding which ones should go without my permission really, since I had not been checking the check box at all.

So I have caught back up with Twitter over this past week and oh what a mess I found there. This is really going to teach me that I need to look at what the previous person has said on those pins and be sure to change many of them. Lets just say, a lot of those tweets made me feel like an idiot. Some weren’t even in English. I spent several hours this weekend cleaning up the worst of the mess.

I humbly apologize to Twitter followers for the crazy tweets over the past couple months. So now the Pinterest and Twitter accounts are no longer allowed to hook up together. I’m not at all sure I can trust them. Especially since Pinterest support indicated the connection is not created or supported by them. They said they cannot offer any help when something goes wrong. For anyone else using the Pinterest to Twitter connection, I suggest following behind on a really regular time-table to be certain something has not gone awry. Lots of lessons learned here.

Tomorrow, back to bunny stuff …

Follow Friday: Rabbittude on Pinterest

Rabbittude Pinterest Account

There are several dozen boards of all things bunny rabbit on the Rabbittude Pinterest account

I’ve worked a lot on the Rabbittude Pinterest boards. There are now several dozen boards dedicated to bunny rabbits and things that bunny rabbit lovers might enjoy. When you get a chance check it out. I just cannot resist collecting and surrounding myself with bunny rabbits! The Pinterest account provides another way to do that and then to share all the lovely finds with others who love big eared fuzzy tailed friends too.

Bunnies Bearing Gifts Contest Update

Bunny in wig and pearlsWe had a website outage here at Rabbittude yesterday along with a couple other websites we host going up and down for a time. Since the websites aren’t hosted on the same platforms or servers, it was one of those weird awful days when unconnected things simultaneously go wrong. That threw off scheduled blog posts. We expect to be back to posts next week and will have them Mon – Wed and will then take a break to enjoy the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend. We hope everyone has plans to spend some quality time with friends and family!

Since we did have some website downtime yesterday, we are going to extend  entries to our contest for gift certificates.   You can enter through the end of the day EST tomorrow Saturday the 23rd and we will pick the gift certificate winners on Sunday the 24th. Each comment on the blog equals an entry and signing up for our newsletter list equals an entry.

Video Share: The Chewinator

This video is an appropriate follow-up to yesterday’s blog about sneaky little rabbit tricks of chewing on things on the sly. The rabbit in this video is boldly out there with his chewing. Some rabbits like Leo are more cautious and hidden in what they do. Some like Shadow have learned to hide the misbehavior to try to get away with more of it. Whatever kind of chewinator you have, learning bunnyproofing to protect the bunny from digestive harm and protect your home and belongings from too much damage is a must.

If the video isn’t working properly here, a link to it on YouTube: The Chewinator

We have a number of events going on this month and created a new page for all of them:
November 2013 Rabbittude Events

 

Our New Pinterest Bunny Rabbit Shopping Boards

New Pinterest Boards Shop Gifts for Bunny Rabbits Shop Bunny Art & Photos
Shop White Rabbits Shop Black & Gray Bunnies Shop Brown Bunnies
Shop Colorful Bunnies Shop Bunny Rabbit Jewelry Shop Make Your Own Bunny

Today I spent some time sorting out our Pinterest boards in to some new product shopping boards. If you are wanting to buy a gift for your rabbit, yourself or a bunny loving friend or family member, check out our new boards. There are boards by colors, one that is all jewelry, another with items for house rabbits, one that is fine art and art photographs and a final board that has rabbit themed craft supplies, instructions / kits to make yourself a DIY bunny item.

There are hundreds of items that are available. That could change as people go shopping or if a seller takes a vacation break.  Over the weekend I’ll be adding more to these boards. Click any of the images above to be taken right to the boards.

One Monday, we will have more information about Rabbittude special events this month and upcoming sales.

 

Video Share: Cute Baby Bunny Binkies

This video has a super cute little bunny rabbit doing binkies. I love the little airplane ears as this bunny happily binkies around. It is great to find smiles and laughs midweek to move closer to upcoming weekend fun / relaxation.

If the video isn’t working properly here, a link to it on YouTube: Cute Baby Bunny Binkies

Two earlier posts this month to keep in mind:

 

Do You Have a Bunny Rabbit Story to Tell?

Four Rabbits

We have a lot of bunny stories yet to share here and expect Leo will create many more to come. We would also like to include the stories and images of other house rabbits too. So we would like to consider some guest blogging posts here on Rabbittude.

If you have a story idea you would like to share in the comments here on the post or via the comment form under our Contact page, we invite you to do that. If you have things you would like to see us share more of here on Rabbittude, let us know that too. It will help us to decide going forward what we should put in our long-range blog planning.

If you are a writer, we would be looking for something 500 – 1000 words with an image or two. If you are a storyteller, you can consider sharing an image or video you might have on YouTube with some behind the scenes comments about the story behind the image or video. This is your opportunity to pitch ideas to us of anything you might like to share here on Rabbittude. Nothing needs to be submitted at this point except ideas.

We will be working to see about ways of people being able to share images of other rabbits to be able to have some gallery ability of house rabbits here too.

Story Behind the Dust Bunnies

Save the dust bunniesThe thought for the dust bunny art began a decade ago and was inspired by Tigger, Shadow and Portia. All of them were properly fixed so that there were no worries about them reproducing and creating any baby rabbits. But I realized after a time, they had found another means of creating bunnies.

Rabbit shedding season is amazing for the volume of dust bunnies that begin to appear. Tigger almost seemed to delight in crawling underneath things and coming back out with dust bunnies clinging to her whiskers and fur.  It was almost a message that she was seeking out or wanting to protect these little bunnies of hers, because it was hard then to catch her to relieve her of the dust bunnies.  Then Portia joined us and as a Chinchilla rabbit, her dust bunny creation ability was awesome. Little poofs of furry dust bunnies would float around in the air when she would shed.

As I would sweep the dust bunnies away, the dust bunny creators would seek to interfere in my gathering up their little dust bunny babies. I started to envision all the little dust bunnies rising up in protest against me. I pictured myself tied up someday in a fuzzy version of Gulliver’s Travels. Over time, I had seen many  protests about saving various things.  The one protest that finalized the thought for saving dust bunnies was seeing a button that said Save the Chocolate Moose. That tickled my funny bone and made me think of the dust bunnies picking up signs and beginning a protest march against the clean and organized movement that was threatening their existence.

I started the Dust Bunny art with one little bunny protesting. Then that dust bunny was joined by another and another and then finally, they just all had to get together in an all out dust Bunny rally. If you would like to check out the dust bunny art …

Remember to check out our contest this month. If the dust bunnies from our Rabbittude Buntique shop interest you, they would be some of the items to choose from with a gift certificate.