3 posts tagged “bunny”

For my friend stopped running today."

We lost Bun-Bun yesterday. Sometime during the night he had a stroke, so we took him to the vet that we really like. They're very nice - They normally don't take emergencies, but they are willing to when things call for it.
Dr. Dorn explained that bunnies can and frequently do bounce back from a stroke. All we would need to do is keep him hyrated, fed and clean until he snapped out of it. We were actually in the waiting room, ready to leave, when he suddenly had a seizure in the crate. The techs whisked him straight back, but there was nothing they could do. His heart stopped, and he was gone.
Strange thing is, I knew two days ago that he would be leaving soon. He and San were snuggling on the floor, and I had an incredible urge to take a picture of them. I knew that it would be that last one I would take.
I'll upload it later today, once I get it off the camera.
My friend Kim is looking for a home for her little bunny guy, and I would gladly take Murphy, but I realized that Sanjuro needs a big, sturdy guy to flop into, someone who we know can withstand her Snuffles and keep her eyes and nose clean for her, and who can protect the cat from her temper tantrums. He sounds like a sweetheart of a bun, though.
Anyone looking for a bunny near Columbus, Ohio?  Kim loves bunnies, but has realized that her life has no space for a bunny right now, so she's doing the awesome and responsible thing and looking for a home for him.  It'll be hard for her, as it would be for anyone, but I commend her for it.
Usually the shelters have bunnies who have lost a friend, so we're going to start looking there for ones, soon. Sanjuro isn't doing so well right now, so chances are we'll need to find her a friend ASAP.

UPDATE:

Luckily, Sanjuro won't have to spend tomorrow night alone.
Yes, we've already found her a friend!
She took it very hard; the worst of us all, and for good reason. So after we had calmed down a bit and had some lunch, we decided to go to the Western PA Humane Society (where we found Bentley) and see if they didn't have any bunnies who might be missing their friends. The WPAHS doesn't separate bonded pairs, but it's entirely likely that someone would have surrendered a bun who was one half of a bonded pair, or would have adopted one bunny but not the other, etc. etc...
Anyway, we went down there and we looked over the bunnies. The most sociable was a really big girl - a Californian - named Cheeks. Next to her was a big boy named Rodger, and a smaller girl named Greta. Now, not only do we sort of need a big bunny, but I know that big bunnies are hard to find homes for.
We spoke with one of the workers to see about arranging a little meet n' greet between Sanjuro and their buns tomorrow, during one of their scheduled Bunny Romps. Normally that would have been cool, but they're having a huge adoption drive tomorrow (Saturday), with the radio showing up and all sorts of giveaways and craziness happening. In other words, it would be really loud and really stressful for Sanjuro.
We decided to go home, get Sanjuro, and go right back. Oddly enough, Sanjuro hopped right into the crate. I had told her before we got the crate ready that she was going to meet a new friend. She closed her eyes and ground her teeth at this; I seriously think she knows more English than we give her credit. Especially since she HATES going into the crate, but she went without a fuss.
Once we got there, we decided to start with Cheeks. Normally San is an aggressive bun, so we were kind of worried, but it went beautifully.
San and Cheeks were in separate halves of an exercise pen, both stretched out and grooming themselves in each other's presence. Basically ignoring each other, and that's a good sign with bunnies. At one point Cheeks put her nose on the ground, trying to get San to groom her and make friends, but San got offended. Sanjuro is the Queen. She doesn't give groomings, she gets them. Luckily, Cheeks realized that she had offended San and immediately started grooming her own ears and doing all in her power to make up. Sanjuro accepted Cheeks's apology, and put her nose on the ground to receive groomings and show that no harm was done. Cheeks tried really hard to groom San's nose through the bars; it was so cute!
Things went a million times better than expected, but upon reading the sheet that came with Cheeks, I can see why. She used to have a friend, too. Her owner surrendered her because "We can't afford them." The sheet mentioned that she gets along well with cats, and other rabbits.
Sanjuro looked really sad to be coming home alone, though. I feel bad that we couldn't bring our new bun home tonight, but we really need to clean and get a new litter box and everything. We know it might take a week or so before they can be unsupervised together (we can keep Cheeks in a pen) but considering how well their first meeting went, I'm not worried.
So, tomorrow our Queen will have an attendant. They will probably gossip about our past King, and Sanjuro will show her all the things they used to do.

I will probably spam my gallery tomorrow with pics - You are forewarned!
Crazed

Seriously.
(A quick warning to the squeamish - you might want to stop here.)

Okay, so today started out pretty normal, with the plan of hanging out with a friend and watching cartoons. After we picked her up and got ourselves some foodstuffs, we came home and had lunch outside (because it was nice) and then went upstairs for some toony goodness. Brian stayed outside to do some repotting and to let the cat have some more playtime in the lawn.
After a bit Brian comes upstairs, brings the cat in, goes back out to lock up and then returns. We're in here making some DVDs, and we hear "Bran, come over here! Hurry!" coming from the living room. I'm thinking, "Oh no, Bentley is having some terrible seizure!" (the kitty has feline epilepsy) and Valerie and I go running into the living room.
Turns out, there is a dead bird next to Bun-Bun's cage. Not a chickadee, but not robin-sized, either. Inbetween, so it's a medium-sized bird, I would say, in a rather drab grey/brown. Brian was afraid he would have to wrestle the cat away from it, hence his calling out. Luckily, Bentley wasn't that interested and wandered towards the kitchen. The bird was semi-wrapped up in the mat we keep in front of the door.
Anyway, I grab the paper towels and Brian picks the poor thing up and takes it outside. I'm thinking Bentley killed a bird - His first! Normally when he manages to get his paws on them he remembers that he doesn't know what to do with them, and immediately lets them go. Moles and mice fare... Otherwise.
I'm half-congratulating the Mighty Hunter when Brian returns and states there is no way the cat could have brought it in the house. He had carried Bentley upstairs. The bird was big enough Brian would have surely noticed if Bentley had caught one outside. He's a curious kitty, and has to be carefully watched because we don't have a full fence. Also, Brian had looked it over once he got it outside. It did not look like a "cat kill". No blood, no matted feathers wet with saliva, no punctures... What's stranger, it was stone cold and stiff with rigor mortis. It had to have been there a while, and it was totally intact. Cats don't do that; we've all seen our share of kitty kills, and agreed that it did not look like a cat kill.
Well, when did it get in the house? We often leave windows open at night because of the heat, so it might have gotten in at night, but Bentley was in bed with us all last night. I know this because I recall him getting onto the bed shortly after we did, and I accidentally kicked him at various hours and he protested by sinking his claws into my feet. He is the kind of cat that will honestly sleep in the bed all night long, if only to cause us humans discomfort by taking up most of the bed. We only leave the upstairs windows open a crack, but occasionally we'll forget to close the kitchen window above the sink, or the one in our pantry, and both are very large and bird-friendly openings when left that way.
I think I left the pantry window open.
Besides, anyone who knows our kitty knows that if at all possible, he kills his prey via drowning in his waterdish. Sounds sadistic, but we've seen it done to silverfish and moths. We know he's done this to a mouse once, because we found it in the basement (which was dry) in a little puddle sans bites or scratches. Hence why we sometimes refer to Bentley as "The Baptist".
The bird was two feet from a half-full water dish. This was clearly not the work of The Baptist.
There's no evidence of a head-on collision with the wall. (I've seen those, and they ain't pretty) Well, the only other thing in the house that could have killed it was the bunnies. We kind of looked at each other at this realization, then looked at the rabbits. "No," we said, "They couldn't have... Well, actually, THESE rabbits..." *nervous laughter*
I then decided to take a look at the little tufts of grey fur that was near the mat that I had meant to sweep up this morning, but had decided to let be.
It was actually grey feathers mixed with grey fur.
Grey fur.

Bun-Bun.

Of course! This explained the intact condition AND the location of the bird. He was in the corner, near the entrance to Bun's box.
Just to be sure, I pet both the bunnies and got a "fur sample" from the both of them and compared it to the fuzzy, feathery mess.
Yep, it had to be Bun-Bun.
You see, Bun is very territorial, especially when it comes to his box. Bentley has tried on several occasions to investigate the interiors of the bun cages, and he immediately regretted it. I've also seen Bun-Bun bitchslap (seriously, it's the best word for it) various small birds, chipmunks and squirrels that decided to wander up to him while he was in the lawn just to say hello. He'd never killed them, but they were stunned for a small period of time. I then recalled hearing a little lagomorph factiod that the full force of a rabbit's hind leg kick can kill a cat or a small dog if they get it in the right spot on their head.
Birds, I know, are nowhere near as sturdy as that.
The best we figure is the bird, having found its way into our home, might have perched on the wire top of the bun cages and discovered the yummy smell of bun grain, which might have been what the bird was looking for. Bun-Bun likes to spend his nights stretched out on the living room floor next to his girl, and he's usually facing the cages.
Bun-Bun probably saw the intruder in his cage, growled, and leapt to the attack. His favored method of attack is punches and kicks. He doesn't bite or slash with his claws; that's Sanjuro's (our girl bun) area of expertise. The bird probably stumbled out of the cage and died not far from the door (right where the mat is), or was jumped before he even made it inside and kicked to the curb, as it were. Poor guy never stood a chance!
So yeah... Tim was right. Listen to Tim.

Believe this or not, but honestly, all the proof I needed was when I held a feather to Bun's nose and asked, "Was this YOUR doing?" and he gave me that enigmatic smug look (the one normally reserved for cats) and ground his teeth at me. For those not well-versed in Bunny Lingo, that's the rabbit equivalent of evil laughter.
That's my bunny! ^_^

Later!
Crazed

(PS - Before you call me a horrible monster, I do feel bad for the bird... But at least Bun-Bun got him before The Baptist did!)

I say "first" because it was the buns' first time in the lawn of our new house! ^_^
The fence in our lawn is only on two sides - The back to the road is totally open, so we had to get a pen for the buns, first.  Bun-bun is pretty laid back about going inside, but San hates being picked up, so it really helps that there's a fence-like bit, there.  She could easily knock it down or poing over it, I think, but she "respects" barriers.

Anyway, it was a nice evening and we had just gotten the pen, so why not try it out?  It's cooler outside than it is inside anyway, and Bun-bun is going through his molt right now and could probably use some cool summer twilight.  The pen by itself is a bit small, but was an acceptable size once we butted it against their cages.  Next time (perhaps tomorrow?) we're going to use one of the fences as a wall in addition to the cages and pen, so they should have plenty of space to play and lounge in.
It's much better than their current "Bunny Coolant System", they agree.  The "system" consists of frozen two-liters wrapped in handtowels and placed on strategic lounging spots.  Good for warm summer days, but you just can't beat a nice, cool lawn.
Just wanted to share some happy bunny goodness with you before I went back to my chainmaile.  Otakon is 2 weeks and counting!

Later!
Crazed