One evening on the sofa

Some evenings, the bunnies will get on the sofa to check if I am in a generous treat mood (or when it is very close to 9pm, when they get their favorite treat, a Probios).

Here, Bunya was in a generous loving mood and was grooming Ethel, which she LOVES. It's very cute as he works his way from her forehead to the tip of her ear. Most of the time, she's loving on him. So, Ethel, the hyperactive, ADD bunny, just can't accept the loving. She jumps off the sofa, runs around and springs back up for more.

For perspective, my recliner is beside the right end of the sofa and that's where I am sitting while the bunnies stare at me. The second time, Ethel hops off, runs around to my right, THUMPS because I am not dishing out treats, and hops back up to be with Bunya.

Here's the rough schedule:
16 seconds - Ethel hops off, runs around and jumps back up at 22 sec
At 35 sec, Ethel hops off again, runs to my right and THUMPS - you can hear it at about 40 sec. Then she levitates back up to the sofa.

She does this so much - comes for a treat, doesn't get treat, hops off, runs around, thumps, and hops back up to see if the displeasure she has expressed resulted in a treat.

Bunya does NOT move. He waits, he stares. Notice how the pillow is blocking the end of the sofa arm? That's because, if he wants a treat, he will STARE at me and bite the fabric on the arm. You can hear it crunch. If I move for a treat, he stops. If I don't, he keeps staring at me and takes another bite. Until a treat results.

Bunnies are so freaking smart - and have us so trained.

Funny Bunny Monday Meme*day

Often accompanied by an angry thump.

www.facebook.com/GeorgiaHouseRabbitSociety

Funny Bunny Monday Meme*day

Bun, James Bun. Or Lucy thumps at Goldfinger

Lucy was chill-axin' with us, all comfy, just watching some tube.

Then one of the classics came on: 007 ... Goldfinger!

Lucy in her post- and pre-thump stance

Something set Lucy off at the beginning of this movie and three of her thumps were caught on video. Usually, they are so fast and discreet (the movement, not the noise), we can't even spot who thumped. I wasn't even sneezing (typically, Ethel's trigger to express her extreme disapproval).

Lucy does kind of have that polished black tuxedo and crisp white shirt 007 look, though.

What's not to like ... Great movie? James Bond/007? Sean Connery? Shirley Bassey?

Sorry, Lucy, we will have to agree to disagree about this one.

*THUMP!*

Bunnies are self-cleaning

As demonstrated by Ethel, here washing her face ...

Their little hands and arms move so fast!

Of course, those fast "cocky" movements are also a key component of the *THUMP* delivery system.

à la minute...

Finally home.
Sitting with the bunnies in the basement, checking email and such.

Have a dry cough, for whatever reason.

Me:  *cough*
Ethel:  THUMP!

Me:  *cough*
Ethel:  THUMP!

Me:  *cough*
Ethel:  THUMP!

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
It's going to be a long evening.
For both of us.

Ethel in her paper digging box -- and out of it

Ethel still LOVES her digging box.
She stayed buried in there so long (yes, this clip was really cut down), that I lobbed in a treat to perk her up. Look for the tips of her ears. Near the end of the clip, her little head pops up.
Of course, when Bunya sees treats flying, he hops over to scam some for himself.

One morning, I accidentally made a loud noise. You know how bunnies love those.
Ethel was in her paper box happily tunneling away. In the millisecond after the loud noise, she was a bolt of lighting standing about 5 feet away from the box, at attention in her on-guard position - and a piece of her paper box came with her...

Love those blue, blue eyes!

I could have made a video of this, too.
This is what the video would look like -- stare at the picture for 60 seconds.
She did not budge after the rocket ride. She stood frozen like that trying to figure out where the danger was coming from.
Then she thumped at me and ran off to her pen.

The digging box evolution is told here and here.

Afraid of Shark Week? HA - try Shed Week!

It seems to have started again.
This is just a small sample from a weekly grooming. A lot of it gets sucked up in the hand vacuum.

You can spot whose hair is where.
Bunya is the upper left third. Lucy is at the bottom and Ethel at top right.

Love this season. Sitting, reading or watching TV...
the stir of air from the lazy ceiling fan ...
tufts of bunny hair gently floating on the breeze...

It's a vicious cycle: Loud noise. Bunny thump. Loud noise. Bunny thump...

Everyone, all together now:
AHHH-CHOOOOO
*Thump!*

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... time has passed since I started this post above (a week or so).

Now the bunnies are really looking shaggy. Bunya's got little tufts sticking out all over, especially from his poor butt. Ethel is all one color - white - so she is always in season and looks the best. Lucy has little white undercoat tufts peeking out from her form-fitting black capri pants, but it may be from when she sits on Ethel (see head butt).

Last night, I picked up Ethel, who for some reason is incredibly drawn to munch on the carpet fringe. I covered the fringe (again) with some of their cardboard playthings and took her to sit with me on the couch. After petting her for a while, she jumped off and left a little hair model of herself on me.

Groomed them this morning.

Grooming advice:
Either do not wear a black T-shirt
(effectively a bunny hair magnet) or
have a lint brush handy (we always do).

This is only a portion of what remains
after Bunya would tolerate no more grooming.
The rest may be in the hand vac, in the trash can,
or, mostly, floating around in the rays of sunlight.

The girls won't eat a treat while being held or while they are being groomed. They can be persuaded to indulge once we're finished and they have reclaimed the floor.

When I put down Bunya after grooming, I always get several rear feet "flick-offs" as he hops away. This, although he doesn't seem to mind eating all those treats while being groomed. Short memory.

How do your pets react to grooming?

"Thump" caught on video

As recapped in the right-hand column definitions:
Thump – The noise a bunny makes by cocking its back leg and letting it pound the floor. It might be scared or angry (you sneezed too loud – bunnies do not like loud). Or it might be happy (Oh boy, our human is going towards the treat jar!).

As amusing as I find my bunnies, I try to keep a camera on hand to catch when they are behaving in their funny bunny manner (I know, this really surprises you). Sometimes, I catch something I was not expecting and this was one of those times.

The bunnies were exploring a new newspaper box. After Ethel hops out, Lucy will come back to the box and face left. Watch her back foot; her little white sock makes it easier to see. (Turn your sound on.)

We have had a sneezing "fit", you know ... 3-4-5 sneezes in a row ... and Lucy used to thump loudly after each one. (She is more used to them now and will wait until we finish before giving one loud thump; we choose to believe she is saying "bless you" ... better than what she is probably really thinking.) We even knew to expect the "post-sneeze thump" syndrome, but we've never really seen a thump before. We are always amazed at how loud any of them can thump; how loud it is to you depends on how high you have your speaker volume, but trust me, they thump LOUD.

I don't know the reason for this thump: fear/warning or excited/pleasure. But it was fun to watch the video later and realize it was "caught on tape".

Bunya family thump trivia - frequency of thumping, most to least:
Lucy, Ethel, Bunya

If Lucy had been a boy, a good name for "him" would have been Donald Thump.