Ethel - litter box binkies

Ethel was jumping around like a little piece of popcorn (with ears). Activities like that usually happen so fast, they are near impossible to catch on video.

Well, this happy dance lasted a while and the part captured on video is where her exhilaration extended to the clean litter box and hay. Now the little tremors were intermittent, so this 6+ minute clip has been edited down to about a minute (Wait - What's that whooshing sound? Oh, it's all the RR readers breathing a sigh of relief.)

The first part is there because Lucy is exploring in the background, jumping into one of their boxes, poking her head out of another window and then exiting; right after Lucy exits the box is when Ethel happy feet go into action (at least, for the purposes of this clip). At the end, Ethel hops out of the litter box and joins the other buns; Lucy is munching hay cubes on the patio.

In case that's still too long for you, here's the Reader's Digest version, the best binky, "rapid fire".
And now: Short Attention Span Theater presents ....

> ; )

Bunya, a legend in his own mind

Ethel: Yes, Bunya, my lord, I bow down and give an oath of fealty to you.
Thou art the alpha bun.

Bunya (sliding under Ethel like it's the winning run scoring at home plate):
Okay, great - now you can lick me. Just lick me already.
Ethel: Did this bozo think I was serious?
He needs to look up the definition of "sarcasm".

A quick-like-a-bunny bunny favor, please

Atlanta magazine publishes a "Pet of the Month" in their print edition. Website viewers can "vote" on the entrants. However, the online voting doesn't make a difference because the "winner" is picked by the editorial staff.

As with many such general "pet" contests, the entries are 99% cats and dogs ... Not that there's anything wrong with that* (cats and dogs) - I've had and loved both. I haven't looked through all the entries, but I only saw one other bunny.
And a dog wearing bunny ears.
~sigh~

The goal - Get some recognition for GHRS and maybe get some more bunnies adopted. Or donations. Either will do. (Of course, a side benefit may be more RR traffic ... one can hope.)

Anyway, maybe if Bunya gets more "10s" and gets a higher score, it might improve his visibility to the editorial staff who pick the published "winner".

This should take you no more than 3 seconds:
Click here for Bunya's entry.

On the little orange-red ruler to the right of his picture, click on the "10" (ten).

That's it - you're done! No registration, no cryptic words to type, nothing ...

And we thank you!

(*Seinfeld reference)

Bunny care - Water and temperature

Bunnies' normal temperature runs over 100 degrees.
Plus they wear little fur coats.

So having a house bunny makes sense, especially here in the South where it can get HOT in the summertime.  The bunnies like air conditioning and avoiding the heat as much as we do. To help the bunnies cool off, we give them cool water, sometimes with ice cubes, in their big crockery water bowl.

GHRS suggested using bottled or filtered water, so they now have their own pitcher in waiting (in the frig). Remember - bunnies should always have access to clean, fresh hay and clean, fresh water, 24/7.

Bunny water service set

An observation about Ethel: She loves when the fresh cool water is first put out in the morning. Not necessarily to drink it - but to lean against it.

You can see the remains of a few ice cubes left floating in the water.
Even in the air conditioned inside, they melt fast.

Tried to get pictures of it, but when I get close, she moves. Sometimes, she almost curls herself around the bowl. Other times, she leans her head on it. This morning, Bunya had backed up to the bowl and was cooling his butt against it.

Be sure to help your bunnies "Be cool!".

One day at the bunny gate ...

Bunya: Stop doing that with your ear - it freaks me out.
Lucy: What?
Bunya: Just stop it ... someone is going to think you photoshopped
your right ear off.

In Memoriam - Bluebell

An adorable little bunlet previously featured in Rabbit Ramblings has passed over the Rainbow Bridge...

Bluebell

Bluebell was over 10 years old and had adoring human slaves who will miss him ... they want everyone to be extra careful with their aging buns. You can use the comments section to offer condolences to Bluebell's humans.

If you want, you can make a donation to a bunny shelter near you in his memory.
If you don't have a local shelter, here's a great one.

Rainbow Bridge is on its own page.

Where are the "Buncam" three?

Perhaps it's daytime and you click on the "Buncam" button in the right-hand column ...
but you don't see three bunnies.
Well, sometimes you do. Especially dusk & dawn, bunny active times.
Or meal times - those are bunny VERY active times.

But those times you don't, where are they???

Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler have nothing on Rabbit Ramblings as we took our cameras deep into the wilds of the basement bunny domain last weekend to see where these creatures are when they are out of sight.

Ethel was actually out in the open,
snuggled down like a little bunny Sphinx,
in the coveted pen gate threshold.

Lucy was in what we believe to be her favorite
under-cover location, the Cheerios box.
They have chewed enough of a hole in its top
that you can sometimes see her black & white self
peeking though the skylight hole.

Bunya was snoozing in the tunnel ...
guess he wanted some cool shade,
away from that afternoon sun (or afternoon light bulbs).

Or perhaps when you don't see them,
they are at rehearsals for their new stage play!
Bunya wants to audition for Desi's part,
but in any case, has Fred down pat.

Bunny delight

If the bunny delight is not a treat, then it's a clean litter box with 3 kinds of fresh hay...

All together now: Nom, nom, nom

C'mon in - the hay is fine!

Bunny math

Our daughter is studying to become an elementary school teacher. She sent me a picture of the banner in her math book.

For the chapter on multiplication, the banner at the top of the page is a bunch of bunnies.

I don't get it -- what's the connection???

(Pssst ... Get your bunnies "fixed", so they can't do "math"!
It improves their mood, helps them live longer and makes them easier to litter box train!)

Adventures in bunny grooming

Grooming bunnies has been discussed in prior posts, including Grooming - Proper Posture & Procedure. If you haven't seen it, you can check it out after reading this post.

Sunday morning is the big weekly clean-up. We empty their pen, vacuum, change litter boxes, groom the bunnies and give them a brief physical inspection. Grooming involves catching a bunny. None of them particularly likes to be groomed.

This first picture is actually from the earlier post - Ethel, always the little lady. She does not like it any more than the others, but she is usually pretty easy to catch and is compliant while being groomed. She tolerates us. She also sheds the least. However, this does not mean that she won't "flick" us off when we put her four (paws) on the floor after we're done.

Bunya is also relatively easy to catch, because he thinks you are going to give him a treat. We do give them treats after their turns (Bunya is the only one who will actually eat them during the process). However, his medical woes of a few months ago make him wary of being picked up and put on the counter (always watch and hold them - you don't want them to try to jump down from any heights because they can seriously injure themselves). He recalls being force fed the Critical Care and medicine. So, while there was no towel to wrap him into a bunny burrito, he was tossing the brush aside, so we got that on video...

By the way, we do NOT use the wire side of that brush on the bunnies. They have very sensitive skin and that would be too harsh. The other side is very soft bristles and that we do use.

Bunya getting his
shaggy butt groomed
with the furminator
(but gently - no pressure)

He's not happy about it,
so you have to hold on.

All three bunnies are good communicators. They know how to flick you off. If you are not familiar with this, we tried to capture it on video. However, Bunya still had papaya treat breath and perhaps recalled that we aren't all that bad, so he only flicked us off in his first hop away; after that, it was just about transportation. We'll get an extended flicking off on video sooner or later (one that lasts several hops until they are out of sight, in a box or someplace).

And here's Lucy's grooming position ...

As part of cleaning the pen, we empty it out, including all the boxes and tunnels. We groom before we put that all back (less places for them to hide). Lucy went in to check out the empty pen and we closed the door until her turn. However, when entering the pen, Lucy shot past like a bullet and headed under the desk. She backed herself in the corner and we knew that her weekly grooming was over.


Lately, she has been letting us pet her a little, like when getting treats and at meal time ... even rub her forehead and ears. We didn't want to inhibit that behavior, so we let it go. She won that round and her shaggy butt has little fur spikes coming out of it. She looks like a buncupine (bunny and porcupine mix). Bugs the heck out of us but she doesn't care ... these kids today with their crazy hare-dos, I tell you...

Have you had any adventures in grooming your pets?

A Bunny Father's Day

I didn't know if you had to be of a certain age to know what SWAK on the back of an envelope meant. I guess not because my daughter sent me her own variation on it and she's only 263 months old.

But the envelope was only the bunny beginning. She found a bunny card for Father's Day - and it's not a re-tooled Easter card! I've no doubt that finding this specific topical card took some searching.

"When you care enough to send the very best"
Score one for Hallmark!
(Enter "bunny" in their search engine and
find over  100 bunny cards for all occasions)

And my present inside - a brief discourse on the rabbit hybrid, the Jackalope (previously identified via the comments in this post).

I think this is the company that makes this postcard

Way to go kiddo - love you, too!

P.S. You, RR reader, you did the math, didn't you? 263 / 12 = ....
> : )

Update on Sir Winston

Sir Winston, who now
has even more reason to smile

From Kat: Sir Winston met a wonderful young lady today who was so smitten by his smile and kisses, that she decided to be his forever slave! Yeah for Sir Winston!

Thanks for the update, Kat.

If you missed your chance with Sir Winston, I will hazard a guess that the Los Angeles Rabbit Foundation has a few other bunnies for you. So if you are in their area, check it out.

GHRS - New FB banner bunny

GHRS recently changed their Facebook page's profile picture. I love the expression on this bunny.

What could this bun be thinking?
And you were expecting ...?
You appear to be empty-handed human. No treats? No greens?
Why are you still here?
You paparazzi are most annoying.
I'm sorry; this is a bunny-only club. You must leave.
The quality of help these days ...

This is the complete picture.

What do you think the bunny is thinking?

Bunya - large and in charge

A happily re-bonded Bunya is pleased to accept licks and grooming from the ever sweet and affectionate little Miss Ethel...

So much less stressful ... for everyone!

Random thoughts from Ethel

My mommy was cradling me in her arms and I noticed -
I really need to get my nails trimmed.
But I was too comfy to bother. Maybe later.

Oh! Oh! I can do an imitation now.
See, this is me doing my impression of Lucy!
I figured it out all by myself -
you gotta' mostly close one eye and kinda' pop out the other eye.
And look crazy - don't forget the crazy!

Bunnies on guard duty at the gate

Speaking of "watch bunnies" (see yesterday's post)...

The bunnies have different styles in just about all things, including guard duty at the gate to their pen. Some bunnies are more alert (or high strung) than others.

Here are the girls on duty ...

 ... and then, there's Bunya on guard.

*sigh*

Did I mention that power napping is one of Bunya's super powers?

Another bunny commercial

Prior posts with bunny commercials include (click on the number):
1
2
3
4

Bunnies can smile!?!

Eh? Eh? What do you think?
It's like the Anti-Disapproving Rabbit.

The Mona Lisa of Bunnies...
The Buna Lisa?

Actually, this is Sir Winston and he is up for adoption with the Los Angeles Rabbit Foundation. If you are a potential west coast bunny slave, contact them! (Or if you know someone who lives there, send them a "cute bunny available" alert, along with the link to LA Rabbits.)

Thanks for the submission, Kat.
You can find more bunny pictures by Kat here.

Bunnyfest 2012 - The T-shirts of...

Last Bunnyfest post ... the souvenir T-shirts, of course!

Due to the comment on the May 31st post by sandy l, I was on the lookout for T-shirts with something related to the really cute Bunnyfest poster. There were a couple, shown below. If you'd like one,. check with the GHRS Hop Shop to see if they still have some for sale.

In addition, sandy l, one of the GHRS volunteers said that they are looking into putting others, perhaps the poster, on the GHRS Zazzle site. So, you might check there every so often.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bunnyfest P.S. Did you get any pictures of the Windward Animal Hospital table at Bunnyfest? If so, please email the pictures to windwardwecare@gmail.com. Thanks!

Bunnyfest 2012 - The Look-alikes ...

Lucy or not-Lucy?

Not Lucy. Relatively easy (at least, for us) -

Lucy has blue eyes and

one white ear and one black ear.

I think her butt may be bigger, too ("but"

please don't tell her I said that!).

Bunya or not-Bunya?

Not Bunya.

Although you could have fooled me!

When I was showing my wife the pictures,

she couldn't believe this wasn't Bunya.

Bunnyfest 2012 - The services of ...

There were lots of bunny services at the Bunnyfest.
You could get a wellness exam by Windward Animal Hospital.
The HRS volunteers were offering grooming services. If you missed Bunnyfest, catch up with them at the GHRS shelter for those same services and more; if you use the link provided here, just click on the "Services" tab at the top of the page.

But I think my favorite was the line for bunny massages.
This fuzzy bunny was whacked out like when my wife mesmerizes the bunnies ...

Fuzzy bunny: That's it dear ...
please get all four paws.
So, tell me, where did you study?

Well, Dr. Phillips can tell you
all about that if you contact her ...
and are able to stay awake.
Fuzzy bunny was getting sleepy ... sleepy ...

Companion bunny was waiting on the table, not understanding ...
Why didn't the human slaves book the "his and her" double massage package
so we could both relax at the same time???

Bunnyfest 2012 - The Bunny Merchants of ...

It's all about the Bunjamins, and there were lots of great bunny things to buy and benefit GHRS, too.

Mobile version of GHRS's Hop Shop

DSV Enterprise had many handcrafted
charms and pendants, some on scrabble tiles, like these.
(Email: slventura@yahoo.com)

Bunnies by The Caricature Dude
(One on the left is Hare-E Potter)
Lots of choices here - caricatures of you, your bunny,
or you and your bunny.

Bead-az-zled had lots of cute bunny earrings
(and other custom jewelry)

The Bunny Bakery has something (many things)
for the bunny slave's sweet tooth.

But if you missed these opportunities to benefit GHRS, you can always donate some Bunjamins here.
> ; )

Bunny smack-down on snake!

We interrupt the Bunnyfest reporting for another RR bunny "news" item ...

My wife called this to my attention.
(Please note that soundtrack and captions are not RR's.)

I don't know if you would consider this rabbit brave or foolish. I certainly would not take on a snake, nor would I encourage our bunnies to do so.



At first it looks like the snake is going after the bunny, but after some deft acrobatic moves, this bunny schools that snake until it runs away and finally escapes by climbing into a tree!

That rabbit must have ducked into a nearby phone booth (or cell phone store) and changed from Clark to Superbunny.

Miss Waffles at Bunnyfest!

Miss Waffles provides advice to the bunny-perplexed (Ask Miss Waffles) and has her own Facebook page.

Miss Waffles is the GHRS office manager and resides in her box on the desk in the office there. They set her up similarly on a table at Bunnyfest.

Miss Waffles checking out her mobile home.
It (and she) usually reside on the desk at the GHRS office.

Miss Waffles, out to give princess waves to her adoring fans (me).

Oh, and in the education section of Bunnyfest, Miss Waffles held a contest ...
right under the poster explaining a bunny's digestive system.

Using a modicum of discretion (or perhaps so as not to tax her own digestive system, since the jar was bigger than her), it was my impression that Miss Waffles decided to substitute a breakfast cereal for the represented contents.

Thank you, Miss Waffles...

Although I think it will be quite some time before I purchase Cocoa Puffs again...

In honour of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee

Ethel, with her usual diplomacy, wanted to offer a tip o' the crown to

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee

Ethel: Where are the trumpets?
I specifically requested trumpets!

Kat, once again, thank you for the special effects!
Check out Kat's photography here (including bunnies!).