Vanity License Plate - 4 OF 5

So many possibilities here. One of these has a good chance of being right (but all other suggestions welcome)

80% there?
Personal rating system ... being brutally honest in self-assessment?
4th of 5th family member?
4th of 5th child in the family?
4th of 5th car in the family?
4th of 5th BMW in the family? (If so, do you adopt?)

Or they could be a fan of Star Trek ...
remember the Borg, "7 of 9"?

Wild Animals: Deer and Fox and Bunny - Oh my!

Almost forgot about this - from January 11th, when Atlanta was frozen in:

Dark outside. As I head downstairs and pass the front door, I look out the front window and see ... deer! A line of deer carefully walking down our icy street, across our lawn, and down our driveway. They head by the side of the house and I watch as they disappear into the back yard woods. Nothing left now but their footprints across the lawn.

Deer track in the snow in our front lawn (a sheet of ice covering snow).
We don't live in the country - this happened in our subdivision.

On the right - deer track. On the left - kid tracks from days later.
Thanks for coming over to dig us out!

When I was finally able to get out of the subdivision, a fox ran across the road in front of my car.

 

It will be nice when it's not so cold and the visitors to our front lawn can return to our favorites:

Look closely right in the middle, for our tiny yard inhabitant.
He stood absolutley still for a while and then was gone like a bullet.

What animals other than your pets have ventured into your yard?

Bunny crackers!

 Are they for humans or bunnies?

Mmmm - I tasted. Don't care who they're for, they're mine.

Are there little human crackers for bunnies?

The Three Bun-keteers

Ever wonder what they do when you are not around?
It's not all mischief...

Just now walked in on the buns unexpectedly and they were just lined up under Lucy's favorite "hang-out-under-this" chair, hanging out, chilling.
Or plotting their takeover in formation, with military precision (See sneaky).

What did you find your pets doing when you walked in on them unexpectedly?

Bunny CSI

Bunnies are SMART.
Now, I am sure, just like humans, intelligence can vary between individuals (witnessed in prior pets I have had, and many humans I've known), but never think you have a dumb animal for a pet.

To illustrate, I pull a case from the Bunny CSI files: The Team of Thieves - Bunya & Alice (now Theodore, but that's another story, Update about "Alice").

The bunnies learned VERY quickly that tasty things came out of this tin.

From the right hand column of this blog (things that look like bunnies), I offer Exhibit A in this case: This tin initially held an assortment of bunny-safe treats, purchased from our local HRS chapter (North Georgia HRS)

Sometimes, I would be on the sofa and give them treats from it. After a few, I would close it and put it on the coffee table.

"Alice" had no problem making herself at home just about anywhere she wanted, including on top of the coffee table.

After treats from the tin once, Alice started nudging the tin across the table until it fell off the table and hit the floor.

Then, "Alice" would peer over the edge of the table to see if it opened up to display all the treasures inside. It never did.

But just to see ... I would pick it up and put it back on the table. Same thing - "Alice" would nudge it over the edge and then peer down after it to see if that effort yielded a better result.

"Alice" must have done that a half dozen times -- and then Bunya caught on to goal of the exercise: Release the treats!  After "Alice" knocked it off the table, Bunya would run up to the tin and start bunny boxing the lip of the tin!

And here is the evidence in close-up. You can see the scratches around the edge of the tin from Bunya's safe-cracking efforts.

After a while, I would put the tin out of their reach. But once, I got distracted and was sucked into the vortex of working on the computer.

After a while, it got very, very quiet.

I got up and found Bunya and "Alice" by one of the legs of the coffee table, eating treats as fast as they could munch. "Alice" had knocked it off. Bunya had gotten it open. A successful caper -- they were in bunny thief heaven.

How does your pet show its smarts?

Lucy - another position to mezmerize (& bunny care point)

Love those blue, blue eyes!
And those fuzzy feet!
Bunny care point - do NOT trim the hair on the bottom of bunny feet; it is there to protect them.


I was so peaceful ... now, who is that paparazzi guy looking over your shoulder?

 What's your pet's favorite position?

Top 10 Ways You Know You Love Your Bunny Rabbit [Part 1]

It's all about the bunnies! [Feel free to substitute dog, cat or whatever your pet is for “bunny”.]

1. Your friends and relatives all buy you bunny stuff.
See myriad pictures down right column

2. Your family sends you bunny cards for your birthday.
Even if they have to save up Easter cards and write "birthday" over "Easter"

3. You shop for the freshest greens at the farmer's markets.
But you don't eat salads

4. Your family tells you how much healthier you'd be if you ate more like your bunnies.
Constantly ... give it up already, like I haven't heard this 100 times

5. You have more pictures of your bunnies on your cell phone than anything else.
Yeah, sorry about that, kids

6. You wear a Bugs Bunny costume every Halloween.

Batman is not even in the running

7. Your favorite dance is the Bunny Hop.
What's "Disco"?

8. The only bumper sticker you ever put on any of the cars you’ve ever owned reads: Let me tell you about my bunnies!
My bunny is cuter than your honor student

9. The first thing you do in the morning, after answering nature’s call, is go feed the bunnies.

And they are soooo excited to see you.

10. Your computer bookmarks are all bunny-related sites.

Do you need any others?

(Many thanks to my many pet-loving friends and relatives who cheerfully added to this list.)


Just what are the humans hiding up these stairs???

How can you tell that you love your pet?

Personality - Ethel

Ethel, aka Effy, Effel. The pipsqueak.

Ethel is the peacemaker of the trio. If she were in high school, she would be voted "Most Likely to Give Licks to Her Penmates". If we come upon the three of them all hunkered together, she is usually the one grooming the others. She is also the snuggle-bunny.

My wife will set Ethel in her lap and sit in front of the computer, checking e-mails with the mouse in one hand and the bunny in the other hand. Or on the other hand. Or under the other hand.

Yes, I am quite comfortable, thank you.



Mmmfph ... a little more towards the back, please.



.

Ethel seems to like pellets and treats more than her veggies. While Bunya and Lucy are chowing down on breakfast, she'll wander into the kitchen to see what I am doing. This usually gets her a little bowl of crumbles she can munch without peer pressure.

If Ethel were a cartoon character, she would be Jeffy in Family Circus. You know how they show him getting from point A to point B and the path curves all over the place? That's Ethel. When I put treats on their plate, Bunya and Lucy are like heat seeking missiles and head straight for it at high speed.

Ethel is off somewhere, having stopped to smell the roses. She'll lift her head and look around like, is there something going on? Realizing it's something to eat, she'll run wide behind the sofa, under the coffee table, through the cardboard tunnel, behind the cardboard condo, and finally meander in to the last few remnants of whatever was served.

Perhaps that how she keeps her svelte figure.

How do you see your pet's personality?

Shhh ... Be vewy, vewy qwiet ...

[C'mon everybody, in your best Elmer Fudd voice...]

"...I'm hunting tweats"

"Got'em! Heh, heh, heh."

Some treats had been set aside for later, for all the bunnies. Didn't quite make it. For Lucy, this is very minor mischief.

The Bunny Museum

My son e-mailed me to make fun of me for my bunny blog. In spite of this, I thought I would pass along what he sent me: The Bunny Museum (Pasadena, CA)

There is a commercial for it at The Bunny Museum Commercial starring "Frodo Baggins" and "Lucy Pevensie" (aka Elijah Wood and Georgie Henley).

I write a bunny blog, so I am prevented from making any further editorial comment.

It's not being paranoid if they are really plotting mischief...

You can see yourself from these surveillance photos...

A questionable assemblage, if there ever was one.

 Shh shh. It's him! Act like you're eating.

Don't look up at him! Lucy, why are you looking up?!?

Dum, tee da, dum .... [whistling, acting nonchalant, tapping foot]

What mischief do your pets get into?

Cute, cute, cute - Meet Cookie (No relation)

Found what I consider to be another irresistibly cute bunny picture (also from BunSpace) ... this picture won the "Back to School" photo contest (First Place!)

 You can find out about Cookie and his family at

http://www.bunspace.com/view_bunny?bunid=9600

The picture above was made into this very funny poster:

BTW, Cookie is no relation to Mr. Cookie (They call me Mister Cookie).
Cookie lives in Indiana, USA and Mr. Cookie lives in Rhodes, Greece.

Bunny Care - A regularly scheduled adventure: A Trip to the Vet

Well, nothing more fun than going to the vet. Your pets love it, right?

Step one is always: Round up up the bunnies. Bunya and Ethel are usually pretty easy in any case, but Lucy will run away. My wife tried a new way to get them in the carrier for this trip, a "Hansel and Gretel". She left a little trail of parsley to and into the carrier. They ate their way in - Lucy was first in. This will probably never work another time, but ingenious nonetheless.

It was only Bunya's actual annual check-up appointment but all three bunnies were to get a fecal matter test (to answer that age old question: Is their poop okay?). In case there is a problem, you want to know whose poop came back with the bad news. So, you have to identify whose poop is whose ... from all the little pellets in the litter box (or those that have been dropped hither and yon in the excitement of the moment).

Whose poop is that?!?

Not mine.

Nope. Not mine either.

It was here when I got here.

Yeah - that's the ticket. It was already here.

Without being a witness or devising some method to otherwise determine whose is whose, it's kind of like asking which factory worker made the M&Ms you're eating.

Maybe an eating analogy wasn't the best, but you get the idea.

Here was the scheme: Set up the little pen we had with some food, water and hay. Insert bunny and wait until the required lab specimen appears. Bag it and tag it. Then sweep the area clean and insert new bunny.

Normally, Poopzilla (name changed to protect privacy) has no problem spilling pellets like a broken Chiclet machine.
In here, nada.

Lucy just munched the food until I finally let her out. Ethel had a look like she was a condemned prisoner and did not understand why.

At least I figured out another use for the setup. When we are giving Lucy and Ethel time with the "baby" food, we had been restricting Bunya to the pen solo. For a change, the girls were in this little setup with their baby food and Bunya got to roam around.

And don't feel too bad for Bunya. He gets a treat while away from the baby food. Tonight, it was carrot tops. 

Carrots, we found out at HRS, are like donuts for bunnies. A portion size might be about the size of your pinky fingernail or you could end up with overweight, unhealthy bunnies. Restricting carrots from bunnies - who knew?!?

A quick aside: While I sit at the computer, I can not see the little pen. Interestingly, Bunya had gone to watch them; all of a sudden, he comes running around to me, sits down and begins to stare at me. Not moving.I checked the girls. They were done and all reunited to play.

He has done that to me before, but usually, just when he wants a treat. He has a very determined little look and does not give up. "Perseverance furthers."





Right: Bunya's patented stare-down started at an early age.


Anyway, since we couldn't get distinguishable poops, we took all 3 to the vet. Everyone got weighed. Bunya's about an ounce over 4 pounds, Lucy is just under 4-1/2 pounds and little Ethel is 3 ounces over 3 pounds, if we slip our thumb on the scale.

Bunya checks out okay. Yay. However, during the examination of Bunya's nether regions, my wife of the medical training starts asking myriad medical questions while the doctor is probing the area, answering all her questions, pushing parts aside to show her and explain what's where, etc, etc, etc (say it in a deep voice and it's a tip of the hat to the King of Siam).

Bunya's not too keen on the exam but the very capable nurse has a Vulcan neck grip on him worthy of Mr. Spock himself, and he is not going anywhere.

So, when the exam is over (Bunya hates the dental part most, I think), Bunya is set on the floor with the other bunnies. He starts giving Ethel "the eye"... we've seen it before and know exactly what he is going to do. Obviously, he found the extended medical discussion, uh, shall we say, "stimulating"?

At left: Not what it looks like!
In this case, Ethel was just trying the most direct path to the piece of cookie she had dropped.
Note that Lucy has strategically retreated to one of her favorite spots, under that chair.

Yes, they are all fixed. It's a show of dominance, who's "Top Bun" (tip of the hat to the movie). Ethel let him get away with that the first week they were together, but not so much since then. Bunya is trying to go at it and the Doctor pulls him away a few times.

It seemed like a good time to them put in separate clean cages and we went for a quick lunch, giving them a chance to poop in private. That done, I picked them up, brought them home and let them loose in their basement lower level. (See Bunny Habitat - Change in location) They were very happy to be home and all three started off by running into their pen and checking everything out. All was as they left it. And they got a new little Timothy hay tunnel to play with (couldn't resist - spotted it on the vet's shelf while waiting for them to be rounded up to go home).

It's all good.

What's your strategy for rounding up your pet to go to the vet?
Do you have any funny vet tales?

Cute, Cute, Cute - Meet Mr. Cookie

I know, I know, it's a little past this theme but I just love this picture.

You can find out about Mr. Cookie and his family at

 http://www.bunspace.com/view_bunny?bunid=16703

It is just a priceless expression. To me it's:

[Sigh] Okay, I'll pose because it makes Mom happy and, after all, I am so darn cute.

Cute Overload

From their cutest videos of 2010:
Finger size bunny babies
http://cuteoverload.com/2010/03/09/this-just-in-finger-sized-bunny-behbehs/
Fuzzy white licks
http://cuteoverload.com/2010/07/18/no-words/

They didn't pick this one, but I think it could rank in the Bunny Top 10:
Bunnies in Dixie cups
http://cuteoverload.com/2010/10/06/i-wish-i-was-in-dixie-cups/

An earlier treat bowl incident - Bunnies in space

As long as your atmospheric helmet is filled with treats, you can survive in any environment...

Bunny care - The Bunny Burrito (with Alice, er, well, I mean Theodore)

This technique, illustrated in a most professional manner by the nurse at our vet, is for when you need to control the bunny in a firm manner, for example, to administer medicine or inspect dentition.

The bunny volunteer from our audience today is, of course, Alice Theodore, for whom the burrito hold was an imperative. (But for the name change, I could have called this post "Alice in Chains" - that's just a band reference, nothing dirty).

(Pink eyes = Alice Theodore
Blue eyes = Ethel.
Do not confuse the two, although it is admittedly hard to distinguish from this photo.)

OMG, Theodore is such a cute bunny.

Have your vet or an HRS volunteer show you how to wrap your bunnies in a towel so that they stay with you and do not hurt you or themselves.

VERY IMPORTANT ALICE UPDATE!!!

New first-hand information from Alice's new human:

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Alice is not an only bunny. She is one of seven bunnies, three cats, and a Great Dane, and yet we have a very peaceful household....

He is slowly sidling up to the other rabbits, and they are gradually allowing it. They will now generally allow him to eat hay and treats with them....

All in all, Theodore is a joy, and he seems to take joy in his new home. His continuing adaptation to life with us shows visibly every day.

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Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the big reveal: Alice is a boy bunny!

This slipped by countless professionals.
In their defense, "Alice" was a very small bunny, with humongous rabbitude.
In Theodore's defense, maybe he was so angry because he got a girl's name!
(Check out the lyrics to "A Boy Named Sue" by Johnny Cash.)

And so in tribute to Theodore, nee' Alice, a short presentation:

Any way you slice it, that is one Theo-dorable bunny.

And we are very, very happy that he is assimilating into his new fraternity.

> : )

Vanity License Plate - JOY2UME

A wonderful Happy New Year sentiment ... Joy to You and Me
Anybody out there old enough to remember Three Dog Night's "Joy to the World"?

BTW, a "three dog night" refers to how cold it is - how many dogs you need to sleep with you to keep warm ... two, three. A three dog night is cold.

Three Bunny Night

Bunny care - Treat jar incidents

Okay, we're being honest here, including our boo boos. Don't be a hater ... learn from our ... learning experiences.

Don't hold your bunny too close to the treat jar unless you have a REALLY firm grip on it.
It is within the realm of possibility that they could dive in to become at one with the treats.

Meet SpongeBob SquareBunny...

This is "condensed Bunya". Just add air and you have instant bunny!

Actually, he wasn't even traumatized. We were.
He just kept eating the treats. 

What "oops!" moments have you experienced with your pets?