So much to post, so little space...

Mickey thanks one and all for the concern and well-wishes over his tooth issues. His ability to use his front teeth has improved a little each day, so he's almost back to normal now. He still has a little trouble with larger pieces, so I have been shredding his greens and putting them in a bowl for him. I still plan on making an appointment with his regular vet once she is back from her vacation, but I've decided to postpone calling until after New Year's.

His Majesty lounging on (and off) his throne



Christmas was lovely, but of course very busy. Mickey got absolutely spoiled rotten by Santa Paws, but being the uber-persnickety bun that he is, he turned up his nose at much of it. The new toss-toys got barely a sniff, the dried dandelion blossoms have been untouched, and the Bunspace Christmas "stocking" (a paper bag full of bunny goodies) wasn't even opened, despite containing many of the treats he loves such as dried apple rings and hay cookies. I finally opened the stocking myself last night and gave him one of the apple rings. It was gnawed a bit this morning, but may have been a bit too much for the front teeth to handle, so I shredded it and added it to his pellet mix.

Having a bit of a lounge in the living room

He still hasn't quite figured out that it's currently okay to go into the living room, although I didn't have to noodge him there the last time he was out. The boy was in there with us the last time, having heard about Mickey's leaps into the recliner and wanting to see one for himself. Mick was not thrilled at having his nemesis in his new space, but an unexpected five-minute-long tummy rub from the boy cheered him up to the point where he was willing to oblige with another leap into the recliner. It was not as spectacular a leap as the first two--he barely made it onto the seat--but it was enough to impress and amuse my son.

A bit of exploring

Surprisingly, he was more interested in snuggling with me that night than in playtime. After about an hour and a half, he began noodging at me until I finally picked him up, which earned me a long face-licking and lots of tooth-purring. The tooth-purring in particular has picked up considerably as of late; he will chatter happily in my ear for quite some time when I am holding him, which makes me wonder if perhaps there has been a silver lining in this tooth-filing cloud.

Taken just before another flop and nap session

I received some lovely Christmas presents as well, but pics of those will have to wait until next time. Can't wait to share them, though, so expect another post very soon. :)



To everyone and everybun

Mickey and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

(Mick was even willing to tolerate wearing a Santa hat for the occasion...

as long as it was a photoshopped Santa hat.) 

In which Christmas doesn't help matters

Didn't think I'd be posting again so quickly, but stuff has come up and I need to vent a little. (Don't forget to scroll down to see what I posted last night as well, plz. )

Lesson learned: NEVER allow a vet to work on my rabbit who I haven't talked to either in person or on the phone beforehand.


Mickey gets his molars ground down every 3 months. This time, he happened to be scheduled for Dec. 23rd. The day before, I get a call from his vet's office; his regular vet is going to be away on that day, and another vet (also rabbit-experienced) is going to be there. Did I want to reschedule or have the other vet take care of things?

If it wasn't for the fact that Mickey was already showing some signs that his teeth were starting to bug him, I would have postponed the appointment, but because I didn't want things to get worse, I decided to let everything go as scheduled. I figured I would talk to the vet beforehand, so everything would be fine. However, when I got to the vet's to drop off Mickey, I asked to speak with the vet and was told that he was with another patient who was under snesthesia, so I left him there with instructions to call me once everything was done.

To my surprise, they called a short time later and left a message on my cell phone; he was fine, didn't need anesthesia, his teeth were trimmed and filed and I could pick him up any time.

"Didn't need anesthesia"? "Trimmed"?

I called them back. It turned out that the vet had done his front teeth, not his back ones. I talked to the vet; he said that the front teeth appeared to be causing some irritation, so he trimmed and filed them. He didn't know about the regular back teeth work, but they appeared to be fine. I explained the situation and he told me that he would put Mickey under and do the back teeth as well and they would call me when he was ready.

We had been visiting relatives that afternoon, so I didn't pick up Mickey until almost closing time (this had been prearranged with the vet). He appeared to be fine and in his usual mildly grumpy spirits post-dental work. When I got him home and back in his cage, though, I noticed he was having a little difficulty getting his greens into his mouth. Normally, he chews up a piece of cilantro like someone would suck up a piece of spaghetti. This time, he took the piece into his mouth, but once the initial bite was chewed up, he couldn't seem to get the rest of the piece into his mouth. I figured perhaps his mouth was still a little tender from the dental work and left it at that. The same thing happened later on that evening when I gave him some kale at bedtime; he nibbled at it a little, then just dropped it.

This morning when I got up and checked on him, I noticed some kale was still in his cage. That was not normal; kale is never left uneaten. When I got home a short time ago, I gave him another piece of cilantro; same thing as last night. He ate some small bits of dried banana that I gave him and didn't have any problem chewing it with his back teeth, but he couldn't eat the larger piece that I gave him beforehand. It's like his front teeth can't break through anything. Could his vet have filed them down a little too much?

I called the vet, but of course, they're already closed for Christmas. Since he can eat small pieces, I don't consider it an emergency; I can chop up his greens into small bites for him or feed him by hand if necessary until I can reach them on Monday, but they're going to be getting an earful on Monday if his situation doesn't improve.

In which Christmas is a mixed blessing

Christmas is not always kind to Mickey.

For starters, from the week before Christmas until sometime around New Year's, he completely loses access to the dining room, which is usually where he spends most of his out-of-cage time hanging out. This is because that is when we put up our Christmas tree, which is always a real tree. It's not just the possibility that he might ingest a few pine needles and get sick, it's the certainty that he would not only eat any cords and light strings attached to said tree, but because we have to move so many of his blockades to put up said tree, he would eat every cord in the room. This means that the dining room is off limits until the tree comes down and natural order is restored.

In past years, this has meant not much fun for Mickey, as not only had his exercise space been reduced, but his loving bunny-mum would sometimes be on the other side of the new blockade at her computer where she could not be reached--and that would annoy the bejeezus out of him. In my defense, I did always try to spend as much time with him as possible as he was running around, but sitting on the kitchen floor for extended periods of time causes my legs to go numb, and that is not fun--and he didn't appreciate me sitting on a chair in the kitchen, either.

This year, though, I decided to try something new; something that would hopefully keep both of us happy. I decided to allow him into our usually off-limits living room. I blockaded off all the trouble areas, put his dining-room litterbox in the living room, went into his kitchen and opened the cage door. He hopped out and immediately headed for the dining room as always, stopped at the gate, tugged on it for a bit, then turned around...and went back into his cage.

All within full sight of the now-wide open doorway to the living room.

I went into the living room, sat down and turned on the TV, thinking he'd come running in a short while. Five minutes later, he hadn't budged from the cage. I coaxed him out again; again, he went over to the gate, tugged on it and then returned to his cage. I tried to coax him out again, but he gave me a disdainful look and a Bunny Butt O'Snub. Apparently he was convinced I was playing some kind of game at his expense.

After almost a half-hour, I finally lost patience, scooped him out of the cage, sat him on the floor and nooged him with my foot until he went into the living room.

It was bunny bliss after that. I don't think I've seen that lazy bunneh run around so much in ages. There was much dancing and rejoicing and chewing of wrapping paper scraps (I was wrapping Christmas presents and watching TV while he did his thing). Fortunately, I remembered to bring my Flipcam into the living room:



For the most part, he was a good bunny, with the exception of two times when he leaped into my husband's leather recliner and I had to shoo him off. (I wish I had been able to get that on video, I haven't seen him leap that high in a long time.)

After a while, he finally tired himself out and decided to flop down and clean himself off:



Of course, getting Mickey out of the living room at the end of the night was even harder than getting him into the living room--and now that he's had access to the living room and will be having access for a while, I'm not sure how I'm going to handle things when the tree is gone and things are back to normal. I guess I'll have to wait and see how it goes.

Star light, star bright...

Oh, Miiiick...we have a present!

"Present? For me?!"

For both of us, Mick. It's from your auntie Shell--do you remember me telling you about how I won the giveaway at The Raspberry Rabbits ? Here's our prize!

"Oh, so that's why you have me posed here--is my fur straight? I don't want Sugie and Harrington to see me looking messy."

You look fine. Let's open it up and show everyone.

It's a handmade star! Isn't it gorgeous?

"Can I chew on it?"

No.

"Not even a nibble?"

No.

"Auntie Shell would let me nibble on it."

No, she wouldn't; she worked very hard on it.

"Well, she won't mind if I chew the wrapping paper, will she?"

You can chew the wrapping paper.

"Good--she sends the best paper. Tell her I said thanks."

But wait, there was more!

Along with the lovely star I won was an envelope, and inside the envelope was...

THIS! *SQUEE*!

and a handmade card! YAY!!

and chocolates and tea, and oh, do I feel so spoiled!

Thanks lots, Shell!

(and don't think you're not getting a gift in return for this.. it just might not get to you until after Christmas, though)

A couple of other things to mention before I sign off:

Mickey's meditation room is now official. He says that he can now finally perfect his loaf technique.

Annnnnnnd...we have one more gift to show off:

Meet the newest member of our family: Grandbaby #3, my older stepdaughter's first child.

Name: Christopher Michael
Weight: 9 lbs., 13oz.
Height: 20"
Date/Time of Birth: 12/9/2010, 3:11pm EST

Picture was taken a few hours after he was delivered by c-section. He's a BIG boy!

Don't you just love presents at Christmas? ;)

Pictures!

The fershlugginer battery charger has finally been found! And just in time, too; it seems that Mickey was going to keel over and die if I didn't get some new pictures posted:

Well, at least keel over anyway...

Um, Mick? You can get up now, I've got the pictures uploading...

Oh, come on, Mick! It's not like it's been that long...

"Humph! Sez you...How's a bun supposed to keep his popularity ratings up if he can't be seen? You even posted a RECIPE, for cryin' out loud! "

Ok, ok, I'm sorry...I will make sure the battery charger is always within reach from now on.

To be honest, it's been crazy here these past couple of weeks. My house is still somewhat in Thanksgiving mode, I have to get my Christmas decorations up this week. The orders for the candle party I had have been arriving in dribs and drabs instead of all at once, so my dining room has been knee-deep in boxes and candle stuff. I've finally got it all sorted out, though, and almost all of the orders have been delivered. My house still looks like a UPS warehouse, though...

...not that somebunny minds all that much...

"Do you HAVE to throw this one out? I could use a new meditation room."

Mick, there are at least four other boxes you have for that. We can't keep all of them.

"Hmmph...Fine then, I'll just use this while I can...now stop bothering me and let me meditate."

As you wish, Your Majesty.