Happy Bunday

**warning this post has numerous pictures of bunnies**

Today I was having a hard time figuring out what to post so I started going through our pictures of the buns. I realised that I somehow missed Berry's Birthday with us. We got Berry in June 2010 (for my 28th birthday you can read about that here). So for today, Berry, This is your Life (insert proper musical accompaniment here)

Baby Berry

From a little bun , Berry was always hard work and pretty much a diva in every way, though its hard to be cross with something that is pretty much a fluff ball. She never really liked being held but LOVES cuddles and pets (the harder the better). Berry never really had any fear and makes J's collie submit to her every time she visits. This started when she was about 6 months old, yes she was pretty much in charge from the start. 

July 2010

By Christmas 2010 Berry was almost fully grown and was very tolerant to my knitting, she even sported some head wear that was carefully had crafted just for her. Come to think of it this could be why she now destroys my knitting with glee. 

Santa Bunny Xmas 2010/2011

2011 was a blur for us and for Berry with many horrible things happening but Berry never gave us much trouble with all her commuting. She even allowed us to pick her up more over that year and she was comfortable enough to zone out see:

zoned out Berry

What we see (yes I took all the bad pictures)

2011 lead to both of the hoomins working, so Berry got a little lonely so we re-homed Ninja and now they are pretty much inseparable.

She loves him really, shes just grumpy on mondays

see bunny kisses

So much has happened I really can't put it into words, though I tried earlier in the post and it has gotten away from me. I will leave you with some bunny kisses and cute bunny pictures:

Smoochies

'she's a good lookin' bunny'

Happy Bunday

What you looking at????

Well the weather may be great but the bunnies are in grumpy form. Ninja has decided that he likes his box and that Berry can not enter it. He has made his emergency exits to the back of the box as you can see (just in case of fire or hoomin interaction).

Berry has decided that she likes walls and flopping out. She has become the bunny master of zen. You can stroke her and move her around with your hands and she stays flopped. You only know that both buns are normal when you open the fridge for some fresh greens!

Everything is quiet here in the bunny house for once. There has been no destruction, no tantrums and the biscuits have been safe and ignored. This makes me think these two are hatching their master-plan of destruction.

I will be vigilant....

Happy Bunday

My box

After a little break from the blog due to my birthday and the pull of this glorious sunshine, I finally got a chance to post today. During our break away, our buns were again looked after by some wonderful friends. Before we left we made sure our buns had everything they needed some greens they love etc. 

Upon our return we expected some joy instead we got 'oh great, you guys are back'. No welcoming binkies, no sniffs, in short no love. It turns out the bunnies had such a great time while we where in Waterford that they did not want us to return. That or they are trying to make us guilty. Ninja just plays in his box and Berry wouldn't even come out of her cage. I'm sure its to make us feel guilty.........

I said 'This is MY box'

Today with the glorious weather continuing the bunnies are enjoying relaxing and being too lazy to destroy things. I'll take the peace when I can get  it.

xx
N

Happy Bunday (and 30th Birthday Countdown - Day 2)

Ninja Bunny

First of all 'Happy Bunday' although here it was not a 'happy' day. Today Berry managed to dive behind the T.V in such a way that I thought I was chasing Ninja, the adorable flopped out bunny above. Alas, no. I was in fact chasing Berry, the slayer of cables.

She had managed to cut through the following:

• The internet cable
• The power cable for the Acer that runs our T.V. system
• The USB cable (used as a connector cable here)
• The insulation of the power cable for the T.V. 

and all in under 5 minutes it took for me to move the T.V. stand and chase her out of her idea of heaven. Needless to say we are not impressed but it is hard to be angry as its only 1 day to go before my birthday and my trip YEAY.  J however is angry enough for the both of us.

Oh and this is a picture of what Ninja was doing the entire time I was chasing a fat bunny around the room like a mad woman:

'This is my box'

Yip Ninja was quite happy digging away in his box until Berry started stamping at me for chasing her, then he turned into  the bunny drummer from hell. He stamped and started lunging at me for chasing his precious Berry.

And all of this BEFORE I got into work today. Thankfully I met some wonderful fibre people today and I even had some wonderful spaghetti bolognese made by J which makes me eat like a glutton and I end up holding my tummy in pain because its too full. No matter what, I cannot leave ANY of it behind........... 

sigh it may not sound like it but today was a good day :)

Happy Bunday - Bunny V's Rich Tea

On and off I have mentioned how my rabbit Berry has a slight soft spot for Custard Creams. Well yesterday I have learned that this has developed into a Rich Tea obsession. Yes I can really only use the word obsession because when she hears the rustling of the packet (yes she can tell the difference of biscuit packets) she turns into a feral creature almost drooling at the mouth.

Now those of you that have been following the buns know that back in early 2011,  there was a great custard cream incident,  if not let me refresh your memory. It was a bitterly cold winter with lots of snow and ice, more than we normally deal with here in Dublin and Berry was about 9 months old. I was sick with the flu and in bed. Now my bedroom shared a wall with our sitting room so I could hear the general moving about of J  making his tea as he got home from work. He really nicely brought me in some hot tea, I sniffled tried not to cough on him and continued to read my book (It was game of thrones btw). About 10 minutes later I hear some really loud profanities and a tearing of bunny paws ending with a bunny dive into a cage.

I got up out of bed (not to fast mind you) headed into the sitting room to find J, covered in freshly brewed tea and some smashing of custard creams on his shirt. He non too kindly told me that Berry had stolen the custard cream out of his hand as he was dunking it into his tea. He yelled at her, she freaked out and bunny dived to her cage with the custard cream in tow.

Berry has never been allowed custard creams ever! But she will try to steal them and she is a cunning bunny.

Yesterday, similar situation, Berry flopped out with Ninja on her carpet. J sitting eating tea and biscuits (rich tea) and me weaving. Berry growing wiser in her bunny years, twitched her ears ad feigned no interest but waited until J had eaten his fill and was nestling his tea before bounding at the side table, knocking over the table and the top few biscuits scattered to the floor. J utters some more profanities and Berry bunny dives to her cage with Rich Tea in tow.

Life lesson: Never ever trust a bunny!

Happy Bunday

Kisses

I hope you are all having a wonderful May bank holiday weekend. We have spent most of the weekend with friends and family and having a wonderful break. The bunnies have been on their best behaviour and only came out of their cage long enough to eat, cuddle and spread some bunny kisses. So I thought I would share one of their kisses with all of you.

Happy Bunday
N

Happy Bunday - Bonding

Last week I mentioned that I would write a post on how I bonded my bunnies. Bonding (for those of you with no rabbits) is a process where your rabbits go from not knowing each other at all to bunny dating and then finally and hopefully blissful bunny love.

In hindsight, bonding my bunnies was like introducing two tigers into a small space. But like any other naive first time bonder, we started out with the hope of this taking about a month. We were very, very wrong.

Bunny dating - yip, I hate to tell you its real and you have to do it. I had Berry for about a year before we got Ninja, so she had the run of certain rooms in our house and we assumed that she would defend these places. So we followed all the normal rules of bonding. We set up a gate in our sitting room and let the two bunnies meet each other for the first time and by the end of the session we had a complete success. Each bunny was so excited to see another rabbit that there was lots of binkys, smelling and positive signals.By the end of the session this is how they looked:

Their first meeting

We kept this up for about a week and we did some bathtub sessions where they could smell and hopefully groom each other. Everything was going so well we couldn't believe it. Then we went away for 10 days (there was nothing we could do about this) and we came back to 2 bunnies who hated the sight of each other. We had to start at the very beginning with the room divider, bathtub sessions and about 30 minute introductions. 

They would not stop fighting. I can't describe what it was like to live with. I have a day by day document of my life at that time over on binkybunny.com and reading back over it now to write this post I have no idea how we still have buns. Our lives where a ritual of bonding sessions, cage times and coaxing treats. I tried every documented bonding I could get my hands on. In the end after 4 months (yip, 4) which included 3 vet visits, I managed to get the buns into the same cage for a night. 

Ninja's first grooming of Berry

The bonding that worked was space. Any bunny owner will tell you that space during bonding is a no no. This is because rabbits fight like tigers and they are lightening quick. They can go into death spirals nipping at each others tails or necks and rabbits skin is paper thin and their teeth are incredibly sharp so if they fight at the other end of the space away from you, injuries will happen. However in my case at the end of my sanity (and wallet!!) I decided to give my buns space. It was like 2 different rabbits where in my house. Ninja needed to be able to feel like he could flee from Berry, he was comfortable in the hall with lots of running room. This allowed him to settle down and not attack Ber every time she came over to smell him. Berry was very patient during these bonding sessions and she would only move to strike Ninja after his behaviour irritated her (this is apparently normal). We followed the  social bunny rules of placing their hay and food together and had one large litter tray so that they had to share. 

The buns first night in the same cage was spent like.... well I imagine like most people are when a newborn has been brought home for the first time, sleepless. We had a torch just in case they would fight and we jumped at any noise but there was just some scuffles and settling. From here our buns just settled into a routine with each other and over time the space between them when they flopped out closed, until we ended up with the two bunnies in love that you guys see every week. 

I am trying to keep this post short but if there is anyone who wants to read the detailed day to day posts you can find them over on binkybunny.com and you will need to register to read the forums. 

Till next week

N

Happy Bunday

The Buns

Well readers, it finally happened. Ninja (the smaller) of our buns has decided after a year, that he does in fact like me! Yesterday I got groomed, some snuggles and I was even allowed to stroke him. For those of you who have rabbits you know how independent they are, everything is on their terms and to make matters worse Ninja has had a terrible start in life. 

This time last year we "rescued" Ninja and we noticed after neutering and bonding him that he had contracted pasteurella. This meant 3 weeks of antibiotics in which an injection was given to Ninja in the morning and one at night into the side of his mouth. As soon as he was able, we bonded our bunnies which I can only describe as horrendous (a post for next week) in which Berry managed to take a chunk out of his jaw. Ninja developed an abscess and back to the vet we went which meant more injections for Ninja. 

Another 2 weeks went by and Ninja was finally better but had huge fear of humans and would only bond to Berry. He would hide behind her and would never come to us (no matter how tasty the treat) or allow us to pet him. This meant that the monthly grooming was an ordeal for everyone. 

Slowly over time Ninja has come around with Berry's help. Berry has no fear of anything, she has even managed to take on J's collie and won!But even now if we stand up to quickly Ninja will bolt and he has amazing hearing so any sound at all he doesn't recognise he bolts back to his cage. 

Over the last 9 months we have spent hours on the floor with him watching tv, letting him come closer to smell us. We have friends who have kindly looked after our buns a good few times now. They are patient and wonderful, caring people who also took the time to move slowly around him and in his eyes (and ours!) never did anything bad to him. I think the fact that Ninja got to meet other humans (that wasn't the  vet) in this way helped him, because after these visits, Ninja would be a little more daring and come a little closer to us. Recently when J was ill, Ninja lay next to him on the couch and groomed his leg. He stayed there for 40 minutes, this was our first proper breakthrough with him.   

I know some people think we are crazy for the amount of time and effort you put in to make an animals life better. But the rewards far outweigh any effort put in. Both of us take such joy out of cuddles or binkies that this little man does now. His fear is still there but to a lesser, more manageable extent. His life is better and as a result so is ours. We spend less time on the floor. He pops up to say "Hi" to us. He follows Berry in her binkies to the 'big white box' where the veggies are kept. This little guy went from a cowering bundle in the corner of the cage, who boxed you every time you put your hand in. To a bunny with a personality, who accepts us and  now is showing love and affection towards us. For those of you still in the middle of helping a rescue, hang in there, there is light at the end of the tunnel along with a whole bunch of cuddles and slobbery kisses.

Happy Bunday
N

   

Happy Bunday

There is love....but just not for you, pesky hoomin!!

There is only one way I can explain the above picture, pure hatred of me. I spent yesterday weaving and generally lying about feeling slightly sick (stupid cold) and the bunnies did not get their normal amount of free roaming time they normally do. This on top of spending friday in their cage in a friends house = 2 unhappy bunnies.  Being the lovable buns they are, they aired their 'grievances' by display all kinds of affection towards each other, like in the above picture but just not to myself or J. 

They turned their back on us when we tried bribing them with raisins (oh yes, you have to bribe a bunny for some love sometimes) but no dice. We tried sitting on the floor with their favourite toy (a cardboard box we turned into a bunny house) nope still nada. We tried kale and basil and nothing not even a slight binky. Our bunnies are telling us that we hoomins i.e. the food and space vendors are failing. It has been two whole days now...TWO and I want some bunny love people!!!! At this stage I'd even take a clothes nibble.

I have even tried custard creams and rich tea biscuits and nothing :( 

Today is not a happy bunday for me, lets see if my buns turn a corner this week  

Happy Bunday - Happy Easter

Happy Easter

Wishing you all a very happy Easter!. ............

Well that was the plan except genius here forgot to press 'post' to schedule this blog post. So I really hope you all had a wonderful Easter break, with lots of bunnies (chocolate of course), flowers and some R &R.

See you next week.

Happy Bunday - The New Bun

10:00 am

10:05 am

10:15 am

10:30 am

10:45 am

10:55am BONDED

11:00 am

See you next week! - B & N

Happy Bunday

*Dun..... Dun .........DUN..............*

Happy Bunday

Welcome to my new Monday feature on my blog called "Happy Bunday". The title gives it away I think but it all came about because of my little buns Berry and Ninja. Their antics have myself, friends and family in tears (both laughter and frustration) so much so that I have decided to share a few of their tales with you. So without further a do

*drum roll please*

Let me introduce you to my first post - Let Sleeping Bunnies Lie

 

Why? 

Because if you don't, destruction will be their revenge

 This is my poof in my living room, I throw excess yarn in here stuff I'm not sure what to do with. Well Berry sure knows what to do, knock it over and dig around in the contents.

oh Yeah and get Ninja involved so the punishment is halved

Happy First Bunday Everyone, see you next Monday.