The Tigger Principle

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 …

2 thoughts on “The Tigger Principle

  1. LOL! That bunny posture gives it away. If they are reaching with their hind legs, you know what they are thinking.

    That is a good idea to put a rug on top of the cage. Pikachu was jumping onto his cage to get out of his “lair”. I now hang a towel over the doorway, above the cage now, and that prevents him from jumping onto the cage after bedtime.

    • Yes indeed, bunnies speak quite loudly with their body language.

      It is funny sometimes how things would work out with the rabbits. We put the cardboard and rug on the cage top for Tigger’s safety and ended up creating a new space that she and then later Shadow too truly enjoyed having.

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