Hanging out in the new space ...

Tigger blending in with the cardboard and night sky ...

Tigger & Shadow enjoying the window bench seat

We thought we had the space all figured out when we got that nifty window ledge arrangement set up that I detailed on Wednesday. Then Tigger decided she wanted to show us some bungineer skills and change things up, big time. She started sinking her teeth into the wall around the window and pulling the drywall out through the plaster. When we heard and saw her do it, we couldn’t easily get to her with the way things were arranged. We had to disassemble the whole set up to get to Tigger and stop her.

We knew Tigger was not going to leave it alone and now had to figure out what to do. Chewing the plaster and drywall up was really bad for our apartment security deposit. It was also potentially extremely harmful to the rabbits. I had contact in later years with a woman who had a rabbit chew up some plaster and become poisoned from it. It required an emergency visit to the vet and fortunately the rabbit did pull through.  I didn’t know about the poison potential at the time we were rethinking this, but just did not want either rabbit chewing the walls.  It seemed like a really bad idea all the way around. 

There was a resin patio storage bench we had purchased for the room that was on the opposite wall. So we swapped the room around putting all the shelf and storage bin units where the bench had been. The bench was a beautiful fit for the window space and the openings in the back allowed the bunnies to easily crawl back and forth through from the bench to the window and back. We extended cardboard up the side of the wall to discourage Tigger from chewing the plaster.

The openness of the bench was not only loved by the bunnies, but it allowed us to get to them easily if we needed to relocate a misbehaving rabbit. It was a wonderful hang out spot. We had a carpet runner on it that was held in place with some elastic sheet straps with the alligator clip ends.  We had one set of straps in front holding the rug in place and another set that looped back through the outermost holes in the back.  We tied a couple bright purple cotton scarves over the sheet straps in the back to discourage the rabbits from chewing  through the elastic. 

Once Tigger and Shadow were fixed and bonded, they would often nap side by side on the window sill in the afternoon soaking up the sunshine. We had a second floor apartment. I often wondered if anyone walking by and looking up or in backyards near by realized it was rabbits in the window and not cats.

Next week Tigger toys …

Plotting ...

Enjoying the new steps ...

Bunny coming through ...

Flopped in her new space.

We decided when we were looking towards the future bonding of Tigger and Shadow to rearrange our living space a bit and dedicate our smallest bedroom to them.  The bedroom was off a hallway enclosed on three sides right across from a bathroom.  So, it provided easy access to two very good neutral territory spaces.  We set them up in side by side cages in their new room and let them settle in, getting used to each other during the two months until they would be old enough to be fixed. We thought we had a really good plan to keep them and the room safe.

We were living in an apartment, so couldn’t make permanent changes.  We didn’t think we could make the window ledge in the room a safe enough place for them, so we started with the intent to block access to it.  We put a black plastic shelving unit in front with bins fully fitting the shelves holding some of their food and hay.  On either side of the shelf unit, we had a set of plastic rolling units with drawers, storing more bunny stuff.  On either side of those we had a covered corner litter box.

Well we should have known that Tigger would find a way to wiggle through everything we had in place and get up on to the window ledge.  You can see her in the first picture sitting on top of the corner litter box formulating the plan.  I didn’t think she could manage it and found myself out maneuvered once again.  We had to quickly move things to get her safely back down and work on plan B since it was clear she was going to insist on getting up there.

We took the storage bin off the second shelf that was almost level with the window ledge.  We put it on the floor in front of the shelving unit with a throw rug on top to make it a little less slippery.  Then we put another throw rug on the now empty second shelf.  The bin on the floor and empty shelf now made a stairway to the window.  We wedged some cardboard into the window space that was folded to fit and fill all the open areas. With the shelf and bins in front, the cardboard was held firmly in place.  We put another throw rug on that to provide a comfy hangout spot. 

You can see Tigger in the pictures checking things out, running through and flopped on the window sill.  We actually made the cardboard ramp through to the litter boxes on each end, so the rabbits could hop up, run across the window ledge and out on to the litter box on the other side and hop down again on the opposite side of the room. 

It became a bunny version of a jungle gym for a time.  They would hop up and down the steps, run through side to side from the litterboxes and just hang out on the window ledge during the day and evening.  It was fun to sit on the floor and watch them on their alternating run times zoom around and take different pathways up down and around to hang out surveying things going on outside the window.  This shelf is also where Tigger would commando crawl around underneath the lowest shelf of the shelving unit. So she just really had a blast with this set up.   

You knew it couldn’t possibly last, right?  Tigger was never a rabbit to leave things alone.  She was always trying to push the limits further and further.  She decided to become a bungineer and wanted to re-engineer the window entirely.  She just loved to test our ability to bunny proof.  With a pet security deposit on the line, and a deep concern for her safety and well being, we always kept pretty close tabs on what Tigger was up to when she was roaming around.   

Coming Friday, the window seat area changes again …