When Life Gives You Bunny Poop … Go With the Flow …

The Land of Bunny Poo

The Land of Bunny Poo – Fine Art Photograph

A question before the start of the story – Can you actually use the terms semi-precious stones, jade, snowflake jasper, wood hearts, wire wrapped silver and gold, porcelain bowls, beach stones, scrapbook paper, bunny poop, and fine art photography all together and be describing the same thing?  No trick question here, the answer is in the photo. Yes!

So, how did this photo of the Land of Bunny Poo come into being?  Well I have been a busy bunny over the past few weeks creating beaded jewelry and gifts to sell in our Etsy shop, Buntique, to take advantage of the gift buying season and to clear away some of the hoard (horde? – never sure of that spelling) of bunny beads that we have here.  I swear they must be reproducing without my knowledge or approval in their storage drawers.

Anyway, back to the main story of making and listing quite a number of things on Etsy.  Continue reading

Bunny Games with Shadow

Shadow taking as bunny back rider.Shadow loved to play.  He was always looking for ways to have fun.  He would try to get Tigger to play with him. Tigger wasn’t a terribly playful bunny, but was very much like a cat and quite serious. She had to be in the mood to play.  So when Shadow wanted to play games, he usually came looking for us.

Shadow would hop underneath us when we were down on the floor on our hands and knees and run back and forth underneath us, head butting our stomachs or hopping up on to our backs for a bunny back ride.  I usually had on really oversized V Neck T-shirts.  One time I was down on all fours talking to Tigger when I felt a tug on my shirt.  I thought Shadow was pulling on it.  I glanced down and got a real surprise, because he had hopped up inside my shirt and was now peeking out through the V Neck looking at me nose to nose.  That is when I discovered if you wear oversized clothing around rabbits, they just might surprise you and join you in wearing the same outfit at the same time!

If we sat on the sofa to read a book or magazine or look at a catalog, we could count on having Shadow hop up and want us to surrender the paper goods.  We started to play a game with pulling out the advertising cards from magazines.  We would hold some of those in our hand peeking out from the side of whatever we were reading.  Shadow would hop up and “steal” the card and take off with it.  Then he would come back for another and another.  We would run out of the cards and have to go gather them up again so that we could keep reading and he could keep playing the game.

Shadow waiting for a bunny bus ride.We had a special cardboard box with multiple holes.  Shadow and to a lesser degree Tigger liked to have us give them bunny bus rides. Shadow would hop in the box and wait for us to pick it up and carry him to another location in the room.  Sometimes a bunny bus ride was the only way to get him to go to bed.  He would hop into the box and we would carry it over to his cage and put it down with the hole he was facing right up against the doorway to his cage and he would hop in for the night.  That is unless he was still feeling playful and then it might take a couple of bus rides before he was ready to call it a night.

In the evening, Shadow loved to hop onto the sofa and would pull and dig at me before settling down for snuggles and petting instead.  Sometimes if  I was laying down or semi reclining on the sofa, I would suddenly have a bunny on my hip looking at me eye to eye.  If I happened to be eating something he wanted, he would be hopping up and down on my lap and patting me all over the face, arms and shoulders trying to get a treat.  If it was banana, well then I would have a rabbit actually sticking his little nose right up to my lips as if he was going to go in after that banana he could smell on my breath.  It was like having a pat down with a breath check by the bunny police officer appropriately all dressed in black.

Coming next week, Shadow’s favorite toys …

Tigger the Mini Race Horse

Always ready to runWatching rabbits run is incredible.  Tigger ran like the wind.  She was just so fast and so light.  No one could catch her until she would tire out.  When she ran up the stairs, it looked like she was sailing over some steps, not touching them all as she flew up or down them.  Looking at a rabbit sitting still, it is hard to imagine them so fast.  The build of front legs to back legs looks so out of sync and balance.  It would seem that a funny hopping motion would be all you might expect.

But when I watched Tigger sitting as she is in this first picture, I noticed how very long and straight her front legs were.  They were so light and slim in comparison to the rest of her body.  It made me think of race horses with the very slender legs that look like they shouldn’t be able to support all the body weight and yet the horses are pure poetry in motion.  I realized watching Tigger that she would often have the same way of holding her head and front legs as I had seen in horses right before they would leap into a full run.  She also had the same way of straightening her head out level with her body that you see in horses when they race.

Tigger’s Bunny 500 racing was so regulated,  we would say that the Tigger Train was running.  We tried to make sure that there were always easy open running areas around the full perimeter of rooms, because she would run around and around just like a horse running a racetrack.

We also kept those running areas clear of things.  Tigger like a horse was also easily freaked.  A weird sound or movement and she would be off like a shot.  We often said her motto was, “Run first, look later”. Sometimes her freakazoid runs would start Shadow running and we would have an out of control bunny stampede with them banging into things and each other at high-speed.  Their cage at one point was six feet long with a door at each end.  They stampeded into opposite ends of the cage meeting head on in the middle.  They stunned each other a bit, but fortunately were not hurt.  As time went on though, when something would send Tigger into stampede mode, Shadow learned to be in sync with her.  You would see the two of them running full speed side by side as close together as two race horses running in tandem shoulder to shoulder to make that finish line first.

Tigger in ready, set mode ...There was one time that her mini horse racer speed saved her. We would always look at any sofa or chair before sitting down and look for where the rabbits were too as a safety measure.  One evening, Tigger wasn’t as far away as I had judged.  I started to sit down and Tigger decided to jump up and race across the sofa as I was coming down.  I had no ability to catch myself and literally felt her brush underneath across my lower back as she raced through.  I am not sure who was more scared with that one.

We had a couple open-ended boxes with a sheet draped over them as a tunnel for the bunnies.  Something set Tigger off once while she was in the tunnel and she took off top speed.  Somehow, she got wrapped up in the sheet, pulling the boxes down so that she couldn’t run through them.  She kept running pulling everything with her as she then barreled sideways into a hay bowl overturning that, before she ran free of everything and then sat there blinking all the hay dust out of her eyes.  We were sitting there within four feet and this took about 30 seconds.  We couldn’t even stand up to help her before it was all over.  Well, except for the call to the vet to find out what we should look for if the hay in the eyes had caused a problem. Fortunately, she was fine again within 24 hours.

Like a race horse that would become agitated, at the vet we often helped to calm Tigger a bit during exams by covering her eyes.  There was one time the vet told us that the rabbit digestive system was closest to that of a horse.  Watching Tigger, I thought there were many similarities and that we often had a high-spirited mini race horse in our home.

The one regret I have is that we didn’t have an opportunity to catch lots of Tigger and Shadow on video. With my first family bunny Thumper, I was just learning how to take photos with point and shoot cameras.  So there aren’t many photos of him.  With Tigger and Shadow, we were making the switch from film to digital cameras.  So we got a lot of images (lots of bad ones during the learning), but never had the chance to really start learning how to capture them on video.  Something to learn with bunnies of the future …

On Friday, Ballerina in Jammies …

Tigger Toys … aka Baseball Bunny Rabbit

Tigger with lots of toy choices

So many toys, what to choose ...

So what on earth do I mean by calling Tigger a baseball bunny?  Well, she liked to pitch and she liked to bat.  In the picture above, you can see she had lots of different chew toys to choose from and she did like all of them.  But her absolute favorite things to play with were the ones she could throw.  Tigger liked to pitch things.  It really was not so safe to be too close to Tigger if she decided to play, because she could really throw.

Tigger getting ready ...

Tigger getting ready ...

Tigger in action with her throw!

Tigger in action with her throw!

I took the first picture here as she approached her toys and was taken completely by surprise when she picked up her Bounce Back Bunny treat holder, whirled around and heaved it at me like a bunny shot put champion.  Fortunately, I wasn’t hit.  I was amazed she could pick it up and throw it.  The toy had a weighted base to help it bounce back up as a rabbit would try to pull a treat out of the slots in the body.  The size of it was easily equal to the size of her head.  This was the first time she tossed it and I was lucky enough to catch it on camera. Through out her life, she loved to pick up and throw that bunny and any other cat style throw toys we gave her.  We would hear bells ring and knew she was pitching, but when the bell sound was followed by a thump, we knew she was shot putting the Bounce Back Bunny.

Tigger loved to pick up empty paper towel holders and swat things with them.  I discovered how actively she would put that to use in one vet visit.  I took her in and put a paper towel holder in the carrier with her to keep her occupied while we were waiting.  She wasn’t happy about being in the carrier and at the vets, so she picked up the paper towel holder and starting smacking it around and hitting all the sides of her carrier.  We were in an exam room at the end of the hall with the door closed, but she was making such a racket that the vet techs kept coming in every few minutes to make sure everything was okay.  Uh, yeah, just my little rabbit batter doing her practice training and taking a physical means of stress relief.

Her love of throwing things extended also to sometimes tossing the plastic salad plates of greens that we would put down on the floor and flipping over large round bowls of hay.  She had a middle of the night habit sometimes of picking up the corner of her litter box with her teeth and dropping it, repeatedly.  Even up a flight of stairs, behind a closed bedroom door, we would hear thump, whump, thump … pause … repeat …  Sometimes I would get up to go see what she wanted.  Tigger would be sitting at ease in her cage looking at me with that questioning look on her face, “Hey, what are you doing up?”

On Wednesday, Tigger the mini race horse …

Follow Friday – Run Rabbit Video

Okay, been quiet too long with blogging. I am here today to share a super cute bunny rabbit video.  It is five minutes long, but you have to stay to the end to see how this bunny really herds these sheep.

Here is the link just in case the video isn’t working here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeuL5IGimCQ

Monday, I will explain the quiet time here.

Reminder – 1 Week Until International Rabbit Day

3 bunniesJust a reminder that International Rabbit Day is a week away.  It is set for the Fourth Saturday in September which would be the 24th this year.  *Note: Some pick the fourth Sunday to celebrate. 

Here is one suggestion for the day:  “Celebrate this special day with your pet rabbit. Learn a little more about him and how to properly care for his needs. If you don’t have a pet, maybe today is the day to get a pet rabbit! ” 

Click here to go to Holiday Insights for more information on the meaning and origin International Rabbit Day.

The Etsy Rabbits team is celebrating all of September through Sunday the 25th, the day Etsy chose to celebrate International Rabbit Day.  Check out the Etsy Rabbits team blog for the growing list of treasuries of great handmade rabbit items on Etsy, including items by team members.  There are items that are rabbit themed and things on Etsy for your rabbit too.

Treasury Thursday – 72 Hours Mystery

Click on image to go to treasury and view items

This treasury is part of a Nonteam Challenge that runs each week from noon on Thursday until noon on Sunday.  Everyone creating a treasury must build it around one challenge item.  This week it is The Reading Tree by Emerald Town Raven photo in the top.

Looking at Emerald Town Raven’s shop, I saw some beautiful photos of cats.  I was thinking about the length of time for the challenge, 72 hours.  The idea of cats, the mystery of them and 72 hours combined together into a who done it mystery show feel for me and I went looking for items that would go along with that.

I loved using the muscadine grape-vine chews from Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue.  It looked like a group of potential evidence with its “B” crime scene label marker in place.  All in all, this was a lot of fun to create.

Reminder – 3 Weeks Until International Rabbit Day

3 bunniesJust a reminder that International Rabbit Day is 3 weeks away now.  It is set for the Fourth Saturday in September which would be the 24th. 

Click here to go to Holiday Insights for more information on the meaning and origin International Rabbit Day.

Special Note for tomorrow!  The Etsy Rabbits team will be doing some treasuries this month to let more people know about International Rabbit Day and highlight some of the items and shops on Etsy run by Etsy Rabbit team members.  Tomorrow, I will post a treasury that will be all items from Etsy Rabbits team member shops.  Will I be posting one with a fall theme, items for rabbits / pets, a colorful treasury or something else?  Check back to see.

Reminder – 4 Weeks Until International Rabbit Day

3 bunniesJust a reminder that International Rabbit Day is a month away.  It is set for the Fourth Saturday in September which would be the 24th this year. 

Here is one suggestion for the day:  “Celebrate this special day with your pet rabbit. Learn a little more about him and how to properly care for his needs. If you don’t have a pet, maybe today is the day to get a pet rabbit! ” 

Click here to go to Holiday Insights for more information on the meaning and origin International Rabbit Day.

Follow Friday – Tyler’s Workshop on Etsy

Tyler's Workshop on Etsy

Some of the 40+ bunny rabbit items in Tyler

I will start out today with a follow, a favorite shop on Etsy, Tyler’s Workshop.  I have included work from this shop in a number of treasuries and purchased the Bunnyland card (picture below on right).  I have my eye on more cards.

The shop announcement starts out:  WARNING: You have a SERIOUS RISK OF SMILING!  I do smile every time I come to this shop to take a look at what is new.

BunnylandThe artwork of animals just being their cute selves is just wonderful.  Even better is that the art is available on cards, providing lots of choices of cards to send to animal / bunny lovers you know.  Or you can keep cards and frame the artwork to enjoy yourself. 

So I would suggest hopping on over and checking this artist and shop out!  Bring some smiles to your Friday or plan to share some with someone else. 

Tyler’s Workshop currently has:

  • 190+ Items
  • 170 Cards – $3.50 to $3.75 with $.60 for shipping
  • 40+ Bunny Rabbit Items

This is lovely affordable animal art!

And Following Up On Friday – Eeuuuww …

Bunny BreathOkay, I swear sometimes the bunnies read the blog and Twitter feed.  It was only a couple days ago I wrote about The Things I Do For Bunnies and how I really gag over the smell of Cilantro. Someone on Twitter asked if I really hated it that much and I replied that I found the smell of Tigger’s SBDs sweeter than the smell of Cilantro. Tigger’s SBDs tend to smell like a skunk has invaded.

Last night, Blaine washed up a pile of Cilantro for the bunnies while I was working in the office.  I came into the living room after the rabbits had finished eating.  I got down on the floor and Tigger hopped over.  She stopped right in front of me and yawned, sharing a cloud of Cilantro scented bunny breath.  

With Tigger, I do have to wonder if she was addressing me with bated breath wanting to know what smelled the worst: Cilantro, her SBDs or the new entry, her Cilantro breath.  I have to admit, I fled the room so quickly that I am not sure where I would rate the Cilantro breath.  However, I know I don’t need to try it again just to be able to fine tune that answer.  I now have a completely new Haiku idea for the folks on IHateCilantro.com.  If only I could remember how a Haiku is supposed to be written. 

Sigh … where is a good gas mask or respirator when you really need one.