Tag Archives: Rabbittude News & Shops

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 …

The Kitty Cat Bunny Rabbit

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Well Hello, Tigger!So what is a kitty cat bunny rabbit?  Tigger had so many characteristics like a kitten or cat.  First there was her desire to scratch rather than bite.  She was constantly grooming herself more than any cat I have ever seen.  She was very conscious of keeping her fur in pristine condition.

We read a suggestion when Tigger and Shadow were little to use a spray bottle with water to give bunnies a squirt to discourage bad behavior.  Well Shadow would shake water squirts off like a puppy and continue being bad.  Tigger hated the water and would slink away like a cat, but furtively try to sneak back in later to continue when she hoped we weren’t watching.

Tigger was very independent.  She knew her name, no and lots of other words, but whether she responded, depended on whether she decided she felt like it.  She loved to preen for the camera.  And she wanted to be petted, but on her terms.  Those cute kitty style flops we showed on Wednesday, she would often get into the sweetest curled up positions and then look straight at us with those beautiful brown eyes.  It was an invitation to come pet her, she was ready and waiting now.  We called it her cute bunny con jobs, still we fell for it every time we saw it. 

The altered photo art piece I have shared today was created with the magic of Photoshop since I couldn’t ever catch this on film in real life.  Later in life, Tigger was more proactive and just a bit less distant when she wanted to be petted.  She would come to where we were sitting on the sofa or loveseat, stand up on her hind legs and peek over the edge to catch our eyes.  Then she would sink back down on the floor and hen up or flop out right below where our hand would be so that we could just reach down and pet her.

She was a bunny who purred.  She would tooth purr when we petted her, when Shadow groomed her or when you talked to her sweetly from across the room telling her she was a good bunny.  It was so soft, you rarely heard sound, but would feel or see her jaw gently moving and would know she was happily purring away.

Coming next week, Tigger gets into everything.

The Model Bunny Rabbit

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Tigger posing for the camera
You worked it baby girl!

From early on when the camera would come out, Tigger would pose.  This series of photos was all taken at one time within just a few minutes.  Tigger seemed to instinctively know to show off all sides of herself to the camera.  We really believe she knew she was beautiful. 

She had a way of moving that was dainty, delicate, precise and smooth.  Unless she was freaked by something, she was all very coordinated ballet like moves.  She may not have liked being picked up, but she loved attention.  If I brought out a camera and was taking pictures of Shadow and had no idea where Tigger was, usually within just a few minutes she would be hoping in and taking over the photo shoot.

Besides her desire to pose, we called Tigger our model bunny because of her finicky eating habits.  She was always slender, bordering on anorexic thinness and quite fussy about her food.  We always joked she was on the model diet, avoiding eating whenever possible, but grabbing yummy treats from time to time.  Tigger would sniff meal offerings and sometimes hop away.  We would put salad greens on a plastic picnic plate and she would sometimes take the plate and toss the salad.  Other times she would overturn pellet or hay bowls if they weren’t to her taste.  There was nothing physically wrong with her that the vet could find, she was just a really picky eater.   

One time when we had Tigger, Shadow and Portia, we received new pellets and hay from our regular company and the taste obviously differed significantly from past seasons.  All three bunnies turned their noses up at the new food.  We got some of the old season and mingled it in with the new and within a couple of days Shadow and Portia were eating it.  Tigger held out for two weeks refusing to touch the new.  We were feeding her lots of greens to make sure she was eating enough and checking her weight too. 

We spent a lot of time during the first five years of Tigger’s life following her around begging her to eat.  Then she suddenly started to eat as if she was making up for all the years of lost time.  We said that it was obvious our model bunny had retired and now intended to enjoy life to the full. 

We had never thought we would see our Tigger chubby.  The last six years of her life we had to watch that she didn’t eat too much fattening food.  We had to protect Shadow so that she didn’t hassle or attack him trying to steal his treats or push him away from food.  She would run dancing around our feet as we carried food and dive at the plates of greens as soon as they were put down acting like a starving rabbit.  Sometimes she would move to stand on the plate hovering above the food making it hard for Shadow to get his share.  She became chubby at times and we would have to put her on a more restricted diet to get her weight back down again.  

Next post on Friday, the Kitty Bunny …

Meet the Velcro Rabbit

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Tigger the Velcro RabbitPreviously, I wrote about how much Tigger hated being picked up and held.  There came to be one place that was an exception for her where she wanted me to hold her and not put her down.

It was my custom at vet visits to keep handling of Tigger to a minimum thinking that was what she prefered.  So I would pick her up out of her carrier, put her on the scale to get her weight and then put her right back into the carrier afterwards until the vet would come in to examine her.  I discovered Tigger the Velcro Rabbit by accident.  Usually, I am wearing knit tops, Tees for the most part.  On one visit when she was about a year and a half old, it was chilly and I had on a sweater.

I was following my usual procedure and after the weigh in, I picked Tigger back up intending to put her back in her carrier.  That was when I discovered she was attached to my sweater.  She had hooked her little claws around the loose knit weave and wasn’t letting go.  I held on to her petting her and talking to her while we waited for the vet.  It was a bit of a problem detaching her from my sweater to then put her down for the exam when the vet came in.  It occurred to me that the vet’s office was perhaps an exception to Tigger’s don’t hold me rule. 

After that visit when she needed to go in, I would hold her and talk to her while we waited for the vet.  Many times she would hide her head underneath my arm and not want to even look around.  She would try to hold on to me and not want to be put down for the exam.  At times if the vet or vet tech forgot and didn’t continue to hold her quite firmly at the end the exam, she would actually make a little leap off the table straight into my arms.  I made sure to be standing right at the table at all times talking to her, petting her head or covering her eyes if she was getting really scared.  My rabbit was like Velcro and sticking to me in preference over the vet. I was clearly her chosen security. 

It was humbling and awesome to know that I had earned her trust to the level that she was placing herself in my care by her choice.  From that time forward whenever I held her at the vet or later in life when we needed to hold her for medicine, feedings or to clean her up, she also earned the nickname Baby Girl.  That is how we would be talking to her at those times:  “It’s okay Baby Girl”, “It will be over soon Baby Girl”, “We’ll look after you Baby Girl’, “Good Tigger, sweet Baby Girl”.

If it hadn’t been for wearing that sweater, I might not have discovered how much Tigger had come to regard me as her protector and that she wanted me to hold her and comfort her at the vet’s office.  So if you have a very independent rabbit and are trying to respect that, you might want to check to see if the vet’s office is an exception zone where they too would actually like some comfort cuddling.  We never took Tigger to the vet unnecessarily just to get cuddles, but it was a bonus to the visits to be able to make the visits better for her and get some snuggles in return.  Because of what we learned from Tigger, we also discovered that Shadow too sometimes wanted to be held and comforted while at the vet.  

 

What’s Your Name Bunny Rabbit?

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Baby Tigger Bunny RabbitOur little Tigger bunny was unforgettable.  Her looks were  unqiue, but she also packed a truly big rabbit personality into her little bunny size.  The vet she saw the longest summed it up when she said, “Tigger is many things, but stupid isn’t one of them!”  We had many nicknames for her over the years because of the oh so many sides to her looks and personality. 

We had read that it helps a rabbit to get to know their name by hearing it in every sentence to associate that name as being theirs.  We talked to her a lot all of her life. At first, we ended almost every sentence with her name.  However, Tigger might have thought at times that her name was “No, Tigger!” or “Tigger, No!”.  We found ourselves saying that a lot as she taught us a whole new level of bunnyproofing.  We didn’t shorten her name or call her anything else until it was clear that she recognized that when we said Tigger, we were talking to her.  In the decade with her, we embraced every possible variant of her name: Tig, Tigs, Tigster, Tiggers, Tiggery, Tiggirl. 

It always surprised people who weren’t familiar with rabbits that she knew her name.  She actually came to know a whole lot of words and phrases.  We were certain without doubt she knew her name, because when we had both rabbits and would yell “No Shadow”, Tigger would ignore us.  She knew we weren’t talking to her.  When we called her name, she would react.  It wasn’t always the reaction we wished, but she would react to her name.   We could be across the room and if we started to say, “Good Tigger, Good Bunny”, she would start to tooth purr.  We would be able to see her jaw gently moving as she purred.

There were a couple of nicknames she earned by her size and shape:  Half-Pint Harley, Little Bit, Hipless Wonder, Weasel Bunny.  Most nicknames we called Tigger were based on her personality:  Princess, Lady Bunny, Tasmanian Devil, Air Bunny, Wiggle Worm, Freakazoid, Squirrel, Tiny Terror, Little Stinker, Pretty Bunny, Model Bunny, Kitty Bunny, Velcro Rabbit, Baby Girl.

How did one very small rabbit come to have so many names? All these nicknames have a story.  By telling you her nicknames now, I am giving a preview of some stories to come.  Tigger packed an awful lot into her decade of life.  She so rarely looked to be really resting.  Most of the time she seemed to be plotting and planning her next move, the next thing she would try.  She was energetic beyond belief for the bulk of her life, right up until just the last few months.  It was like having a living breathing Energizer bunny rabbit who would just keep on going and going.  It was amazing to know her!

Coming Next on Wednesday, meet the Tasmanian Devil bunny.

 

So, How Many Chins Does a Rabbit Have?

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Tigger chinning one of her toys

My toys must have my scent!

The title is a bit of a trick question.  As a noun, a rabbit has one chin.  Turn chin into a verb by saying a rabbit chins things and a rabbit has as many chins as they want to have.

Tigger was religious about chinning things.  She would make the rounds on a regular basis chinning everything in her cage and her play area.  I knew that rabbits had a scent gland in their chin and liked to claim things by chinning them, but I had never seen any other rabbit be quite so territorial as Tigger.  Tigger was always on the move and as she moved she would chin things.  It was almost as if you could see the little bunny mind thinking, “This is mine, this is mine and this is mine too.”   Everything was regularly and thoroughly claimed by Tigger.
 
It was hard to pet Tigger because she was so much on the move.  After she would hop into her cage to get her bedtime treats, she knew it was settle down time.  It was one time we could usually open up the cage door and be able to pet her (blocking it with our bodies though against potential escapes).  There was a ritual first that had to be observed before we could actually pet her.  Tigger would sniff the hand reaching in.  Then she would chin the hand.  Only then would she lay down and put her head down in position to allow the human hand to pet her.
 
The rituals that were so much a part of Tigger are what had us calling her Princess very early on.  She wasn’t ever ready for interaction with any living being until she had observed her rituals first.  You had to know how you had to present yourself to Tigger or she would be hopping away in a huff.  The little nose would go up in the air, the back would turn and then off she would hop, sometimes with a thump.
 
Anyone else have a rabbit with an abundant number of chins?
 
 

Rabbittude News Flash – Update

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Daily News Extra! Extra!An upgrade to our Rabbittude website to bring the website and blog together has been in planning for quite some time.  We finally had the opportunity to do the behind the scenes work needed to make it a reality.  We are in the process of bringing it live right now.  Rabbittude.com won’t be available until the file uploading process is complete.

So the next post on our “Calico” bunny will be on Wednesday.  However, we will be moving things to a different web server during the next 24 hours.  That can sometimes cause browsers to have difficulty locating sites for 24 to 48 hours after the move.  Have no fear if Rabbittude.com or the blog disappear, they will show back up again once all the browsers update for the new location.

After the move, you will be able to find the blog on Rabbittude.com or if you have bookmarked blog.rabbittude.com as a favorite, that web address will be programmed to go to the new blog location.  We know we will have some sorting out issues for a short time to and hope to keep those to a minimum.

We have completed moving everything over and combining our website and blog together.  We are still working through a few wrinkles.  It does not look like we have the ability to import current subscribers or followers.  If you were previously subscribed to receive new posts via email, you will need to use the subscribe link on the right to subscribe here.  So sorry all for the inconvenience of having to re subscribe /  re follow!

Good Evening Rabbits

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Shadow and TiggerI have been quiet for a few months, juggling a lot.  Late September and October brought the worst fall allergy season in years.  I hit bottom on my energy level and Tigger and Shadow were experiencing some on again off again illnesses.  As the allergy season moved to its end, I bounced back, to realize that the rabbits were not rebounding from illness as they had been.  There have been a number of vet visits, a lot of prescriptions and a lot of bunny care.

At the beginning of this year, the vet confirmed what I had already recognized.  My funny furry little friends are closing in on the end of their lives.  They have finally reached a place where they are showing their age.  We have entered the realm of rabbit assisted living / hospice care.  That isn’t due to any specific serious illness right now, but things that are now chronic and reoccurring.  It is also based on the fact that some diagnostic tests and treatments are no longer safe given their senior age.  Tigger is due to turn eleven at the end of this month and Shadow at the end of April.  So everything now is focused on keeping them as comfortable, active and pain-free as they can be.  We have standing medications on hand and on file with the vet to be prepared to treat some of the chronic pain and illnesses that have become a regular part of their life and ours.  

It was so sad early on coming to grips with the realization they have entered this end stage.  I now accept it is a joyful time.  They are still with us and bring us so many smiles and laughter.  Tigger and Shadow run a senior version of the Bunny 500 on good days.  They binky and come running to us and still do adorable bunny dances for treats.  Everything they do is just slower and with more care.  They are actually more snuggly with us right now than they have been at any other point in their lives.  Afternoons and evenings, we will see them flopped together, leaning in to each other, propping each other up. 

So we will take things as they come.  I plan to blog a few times a week about the bunnies and what we are up to with the Rabbittude website and shops.

A Picture Instead of 1000 Words

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Tigger Kicked BackThroughout the month of September we were dealing with on and off stomach issues with Tigger. She would be on and off her diet and need gas meds, pain meds, and force feedings of Oxbow Critical Care at times and syringed water. On the 24th, we wrote that she seemed to have turned the corner. Since then she has continued to improve and the picture shows that improvement.

With bunnies, we have learned that subtle behavior changes can signal their health issues more clearly if you watch them closely. When Shadow spends a lot of time cleaning his ears or has one ear up, one ear down, we know it is time to have the vet take a look at his ears for an inner or outer ear problem.

With Tigger, a clear signal that her tummy is fine can be seen in this photo. She is kicked back with her back legs stretched out and is lying full-out on her stomach out in the open. When she starts pulling her legs underneath her and looking like a bunny hen all the time, she is starting to have some issues and doesn’t want to lay on her stomach.  Especially if she does that in places where it isn’t easy to reach her, we know she needs some help.

Our key to keeping our bunnies going throughout their ten and half years is keeping a close eye on their behavior, knowing quite well what is and is not normal for them.  We have learned to recognize the small changes in their daily activity that can be signals of changes in their health.  Since both bunnies are elderly now, we keep a closer watch on them now than we did when they were younger and act more quickly if it seems something isn’t right. 

Being able to have more pictures like this makes life so sweet.

What Does It Mean When A Tigger Sees Her Shadow?

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Tigger's Shadow
Well I know it means more winter when the groundhog sees his shadow. So what does it mean when a Tigger sees her shadow? Are we about to be hit with winter early in Georgia? It has been cooler than usual for this time of year.

It was cute to see Tigger pause in her rounds in a way that had the light hitting her just right to give her a shadowy twin.