Plan Ahead for International Rabbit Day

Bunny hugging earth
I didn’t know that anyone had designated a day for rabbits until someone sent me a link.  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 – How to Train a Human: A Guide for House Rabbits

Bunny HuggaWell, I expected to be back much sooner today, but nothing has gone as planned.  So I will stick with something amusing to follow.

I could really use an end of day laugh.  How about you?  So BunnyHugga has this great guide – How to Train a Human: A Guide for House Rabbits

Then if you dare you can continue on to see what your rabbits have been up to in the other training areas:

 
Too funny!

Follow Friday – Doctors Foster and Smith

Doctors Foster and Smith

Click image for small animal section

One thing that was really hard for us early on was finding all the supplies we needed for Tigger and Shadow.  Although we are in metro Atlanta, many of the good products for rabbits weren’t carried by any distributors in Georgia.  We had to have nearly everything for them shipped in.

Ordering delivered direct had issues, like huge shipping costs.  I was always scouting for the online store that was located the closest so that it would have the lowest UPS / FedEx / US postal shipping costs.  It was frustrating at times to have the shipping be equal to or more than the items I needed.  It was also tricky at times to balance the amount of shipping time needed versus when things were running out. 

Doctors Foster and Smith have come along way in the ten years of Tigger and Shadow.  At the start, they were mostly dog and cat.  Now they have lots of small animal products and all the things ours love best like Oxbow products, Peter’s grass products, treats, toys and lots of other stuff.

Shipping has been $5.99 per order which is a dream and I see they have it listed on the site as free shipping for orders $49 dollars or more.  They have a catered pet program.  You call to sign up for regular delivery of products direct to your door.  You create your menu which can be different items, quantities, and schedules.  Every 10th shipment is on them!

I think it is time for me to order some pellets, hay, papaya tablets, treats and some grass mats! I think it is also time to get myself an organized shopping list and sign up for the catered pet program.

Follow Friday – Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue

5 Flavor Variety Pack - Home Baked Small Animal Treats

5 Flavor Variety Pack - Home Baked Small Animal Treats by MHRR on Etsy

As I promised earlier, this one is for the Pooper Troopers aka bunny rabbits.  Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue has a shop on Etsy, The Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue Store.

They have a number of tempting handmade treats for small animals.  The picture here shows the five flavor variety pack which includes Mixed Berry Mint,  Banana Cilantro, Pumpkin Spice, Carrot Parsley, and Apple Banana.

For humans, they have some lovely greeting cards and postcards.  Actually the treats benefit the humans too, since happy bunnies make everybody happy!

MHRR store is a collective with members in different areas of the United States.  So a multiple item purchase might ship from more than one location.  The descriptions give full details.

Making a treat purchase from them is akin to adopted bunnies helping out rabbits still needing adoption to forever homes.

The Bunny Pootique

BFFs "Oopsie & Poopsie" - Bunny Poop Plush Set

Wish I had thought of it! BFFs "Oopsie & Poopsie" - Bunny Poop Plush Set by Flat Bonnie on Etsy - Click image to goto item

Ten years with rabbits and it never occurred to me to actually do an internet search for bunny poop.  Ah well, it is never too late to learn about new things.

Earlier this week, someone commented they thought someone on Etsy had bunny poo encased in metal for sale.  True, as a pet memorial item.  You send in the poo and she will encase it in Sterling Silver and create earrings.  I have to admit that I have worn my bunnies’ poo, many times, but it was not intentional on my part.  It isn’t among my fondest memories of them.  So I will take a pass on this product.  However, if this is of interest to you, you can find it on Etsy, search for “bunny poop”.

Earlier this week I did a comparison of bunny poop available from Ebay sellers.  Etsy also has one seller of  Rabbit Manure Fertilizer Green side dressing Gardening garden All Natural.   That title obviously has some keyword stuffing and doesn’t read so well.  They give the size as a US Postal Priority box of poop for $6.99 with $12.00 shipping cost.  They say they stuff as much as possible into this box size which gives me a mental picture of a box about to pop with poop.  They list a benefit of the rabbit  manure, it doesn’t burn like some other manures.  I can verify that should be true since our bunnies have never caught the house on fire with their poop even though we have gas heating and thus pilot lights and open cooking flames.  The Etsy seller sounds quite friendly saying, “I look forward to shipping you some soon!”

Chocolate Bunny Poop Soap

Chocolate Bunny Poop Soap

The item in this picture was created for Easter and sold back then, but I’ll bet there could be more if you ask!  You can click on the picture to see the full listing, except the selling price.  I love the irony of bunny poop as soap and who doesn’t love a deep chocolate color and scent?  This was created by Etsy seller Love Lee Soaps.  It was intended as an Easter basket gag gift, but I think has a great year round potential for rabbit lovers. 

Looking at things available on the web, I am a bit disturbed by how many items are gag candy gifts / treat bags made to look like they contain bunny poop.  This kind of puts the gag into gag gift for me. It reminds me too much of an item from The Bad Bunny List.  Someone left an open candy dish of Raisinets in the bunny area.  I would never leave any open food in a bunny area being concerned about a bunny eating forbidden / dangerous foods.  However in this case the bunny claimed them in a different manner, by pooping in the dish and marking it “theirs”.  I could picture the next unsuspecting human not paying attention, grabbing a handful, tossing them into their mouth and really get a taste surprise. 

On Amazon, bunny poop returns something cute for kids to aid in toilet training: Toilet Buddy Poo P. Bunny . Cute name, Poo P. Bunny!  The product description says  “Toilet Buddies are designed to open up family communication, peak children’s interest, and most importantly initiate toilet training readiness. They empower children to explore the toilet and bathroom independently with fun and humor.”   And it gives your toilet a cartoon bunny rabbit ears, face, paws and carrot!  The price is $17.59 and eligible for free shipping.

Part of the reason the Bunny Poo P. Bunny makes me smile is it really gives the feel of bunny is watching you.  That reminds me of a story told to me by someone I met at a rescue group meeting.  She would leave the bathroom door open and her bunny would come to the doorway, see she was occupied and race off to get into trouble while he knew she couldn’t get to him.

Bunny Poop Necklace

For today's necklace, Wood Bead is standing in and playing the role of Bunny Poo

I will admit, I did buy something this week that tickled my funny bone. It is upscaled and subtle enough to need a second look to “get” it if you don’t actually see a title. I bought this Bunny Poop necklace by foowahu on Etsy.  I haven’t received it yet.  The shop is in vacation mode right now.  So if you like it you will have to check back in about a month to see if it is back in stock.  I loved the necklace and the description: Watch your step! Those dang bunnies leave their little ‘presents’ everywhere!

And so they do and do and do…  I will share something for the pooper troopers later.

 

*** Addendum, remembered after I posted.  One internet search told me that one of the people search companies had located Bunny Poo for me.  If I paid their fee, they would provide me with the real age, location, address and phone number for Bunny Poo.

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!

Follow Friday – Fet the Tun Rimes Loll

Runny Babbit by Shel Silverstein

Available on Amazon

I have always had the tendency to say the wrong thing.  As a teenager, I heard a saying that I had to adopt, “I only open my mouth to exchange feet.”  It hasn’t gotten much better doing things through email or online.  Now I still say the wrong stuff, but due to those fat fingered / slippery key typos.  I have all kinds of whoops going on at times.

One of my big speech problems is a tendency to Spoonerisms, dyslexic  transposition of full words or parts of words.  Here’s the Wikipedia definition with some funny examples:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoonerism.  It happens for a lot of people and some people all the time.  The best example I ever saw was a weatherman who meant to talk about cold air masses, but instead reported that there was a possibility of cold mare as_ _ _ ,  you get the drift. 

So a couple of years ago when I saw the children’s book Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook by Shel Silverstein, I had to get it.  Even as an adult, I loved reading about Toe Jurtle, Goctor Doose, Bumping Jean, Rirty Dat, Flutterby, Batty Meaver, and of course the star of the book, Runny Babbit.  It is wonderfully illustrated throughout with cute black and white line drawings.

What started me thinking about my oopsies was a thread on Etsy that was talking about a feature I thankfully hadn’t become aware of with any of my keyboard slips.  It seems there has been a built-in automatic censor to keep offensive language out of titles and chats.  It has however had unintended consequences in some cases when someone did one of those keyboard typos. 

The thread I was reading provided a link back to a truly funny example from a thread in 2009 (now closed and archived, but still readable).  A woman intended to type in her discussion title as “What do you think about men’s shirts?”  Only she accidentally left the “r” out of shirts while typing.  The automatic Etsy censor replaced her unallowed word choice with something it was programmed to believe was more appropriate for a title.  So her discussion thread posted under the title:  “What do you think about men’s poops?”  Needless to say, it had quite a run and drew a lot of people into the thread. 

Others on Etsy reported it had been disconcerting to be discussing watching birds (tits) in the chats and have the automatic censor change what they were writing to boob watching.  As I program some things on the web for others to use, it is a cautionary tale of not making assumptions that everything is either black or white, on or off.  I don’t / won’t / can’t always know better than users.  Which brings me to a second favorite saying I saw years ago, “HUMOR, never leave home without it”. 

So this weekend, grave a heat time!  

Follow Friday – The Language of Lagomorphs

The Language of Lagomorphs Website

Click to go to website

Ever found yourself wondering what on earth your bunny was trying to tell you? The Language of Lagormorphs has in-depth information to help you learn rabbitspeak.

If you are new to rabbits, I would recommend the sections on Offendedness, Territoriality and Anger first. Misunderstanding rabbit language in these instances can lead to bunny bites, not fun.  Here is a full list of the behaviors and corresponding articles:

  • Introduction
  • Hierarchy – Prove That You Love Me
  • Grooming – Yeah Baby, I Like It Like That
  • Gazing – Ah, This is the Life
  • Nose Wiggling – Follow My Nose
  • Offendedness – R-E-S-P-E-C-T is What My Bun Demands of Me
  • Territoriality – Gimme Some Space, Man
  • Anger – Why, You Fiend!
  • Sadness & Fear – Alas, Woe is Me
  • Curiosity – Hmm, What Do We Have Here?
  • Begging – Pleeeease Oh Please Please Please!
  • Play – Yippie Skippie!
  • Racing – The Need for Speed
  • Shudders – Shiver Me Timbers!
  • Binkies – Did You Say Binky?
  • Signoff – In the Interest of Interspecies and Intraspecies Relations

I have a fun You Tube video, I will post later today!

Follow Friday – Just Tomatoes

Just Tomatoes Online Store

Click on image to go to website

JustTomatoes.com is our second recommendation today for bunnies and humans.  They carry dried fruits and vegetables.  You can order from their online store or check the website to see if their products are carried in a store near you.

 
The colors and tastes of their dried foods are just wonderful.  Our bunnies are fond of the bananas and mango as treats.  Just make sure to make treats a rare treat part of the diet since fruit is fattening for bunnies!  We love the fruits too as a snack or added to plain cereals.  If you have recipes calling for dried fruits or veggies, their products would be great.
 
They carry both conventional and organic product choices.

Follow Friday – Busy Bunny

Busy Bunny Online Store

Click image to go to their online store

BusyBunny.com is a company with products our bunnies have just loved over the years.

Tigger & Shadow’s favorites have always been the willow chew products, grass mats and the various cardboard tunnels, cottages and boxes that they have.  Here are links to two favorite willow items and search pages for the grass mats and the cardboard tunnels and hideouts available:

Bunny Chew Ring

Willow Tunnel

Grass Mats 

Cardboard Tunnels & Hideouts 

They have also had things over the years we have picked up for ourselves: rabbit magazines, figurines, jewelry.  Hoppy shopping!

Follow Friday – A Test for You & for Bunny

 

Bunny Whispers

Hey did you hear there's a test tonight?

These tests have been on the web for quite awhile, fun if you haven’t seen them before:

How much of a bunny slave are you?  Find out here:
The 100 Question Slave Purity Test

Do you have a toughbun?  Questions are adapted from various stories told about toughbuns:
The 100 Question Toughbun Purity Test