New Territory

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter (or a Happy Bunny Day if you don't celebrate Easter).

The weather here was absolutely perfect--sunny, temps in the 70s, no bugs or humidity--so I decided it would be the perfect day to bring out the exercise pen that I bought for Mickey late last fall, but never got a chance to use up until now. Mickey has never been outside, mainly because most of the time, my backyard is mosquito heaven and I am a mosquito banquet. There are only a few times that my yard is mosquito-free, and very early spring is one of them, so I figured I'd better do it now while I had the chance.

The pen was very easy to set up:

The only problem I had was in trying to put on the cover, which is recommended to give shade and protect from birds of prey such as the local red-tailed hawk swooping in and nabbing a furry snack. In retrospect, I should have laid the cover down and set the pen up on top of it, then flipped it cover side up; it's designed to fit only when the pen is positioned just so--and of course, I didn't have it just so. I settled for stretching the cover over half the pen instead.

Once things were set up, I brought Mickey out in an old carrier, set the carrier in the pen and opened the door. After a few sniffs, he cautiously stepped out and wandered around a few steps--then turned around, went back into the carrier and settled himself down as if to say, "Okay, that was fun; you can bring me back home again now."

I waited to see if he would come out again, but he didn't budge--so I budged him out, then removed the carrier so he couldn't go back in. He came over to the pen entrance to try to get out, but I nudged him away again and went into the pen myself to sit down in the grass next to him. This seemed to satisfy him, so he began exploring the contents of the pen.

Long story short, I ended up spending the afternoon in the pen with Mickey. I played with him, petted him and sat and read while he lounged on the grass, played with his toys and bopped around on occasion.

It took about an hour for him to realize that the stuff under his paws was actually edible, but once he did, it was funny to watch him sprawl out and nibble at the grass. He was in lazy bunny heaven; he didn't have to do anything but lie there and he could still eat.

We stayed in the pen until it was almost suppertime, then I put his carrier back into the pen and opened the door. Surprisingly, he hopped right inside and settled down again for the trip back into the house.

I'm hoping the good weather will continue for a bit longer so I can get him outside a few more times before the mosquitoes get wise to us.