The Zen of Bun

Happy (Belated) Blogiversary to Us!

2012-02-26T16:55:00.000-05:00

My calendar skills have failed me yet again.

A while back, I was looking through some old posts and realized that it was coming up on two years since I first posted in this blog. I immediately wrote down the date on my calendar and made plans to put up a post to celebrate. Today, I sat down here, clicked on that post--and realized that I had written down the wrong date. Yesterday was our blogiversary.

*cue the snickering noises coming from the direction of somebunny's cage*

Oh, well...

Anyway, in honor of this supposedly momentous occasion, and inspired by d.moll and her Analog skills, I went into my photo archives, opened up my handy-dandy Paint Shop Pro, and had some fun:

...from humble beginnings, a legend was born...

...who knew that such a shy and sweet bun would

become a superstar?

...even at a young age, it was clear that this one

was something special...

... as his star grew, he still managed to stay

as humble and lovable as ever...

...and even now, his fame has yet to peak,

his potential is still untapped. Who knows--

MICK!!!

"Yes, mum?"

Who told you that you could rewrite my captions?!

"Well, yours were really boring--and our loyal readers deserve to be entertained for once."

*sigh* We'll discuss this later, mister. Let's just finish up--and no more shenanigans!

"Fine, fine, fine...hmph, the thanks I get for wanting to do things properly around here..."

Thanks much to everyone who has read, commented, linked, followed and enjoyed our blog. Mr. Mick and I hope that you have had as much fun with us as we have with you, and we hope that we continue to entertain you for many more years to come.

Hugs, nose bonks, bunny kisses and much love,

Jade and Mickey

"Excuse me, shouldn't that be 'Mickey and Jade'? After all, I am the reason they all come here, y'know..."

Our Weekend at Petco

2012-02-23T17:13:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, Mr. Mick and I participated in a Rabbit Rally at the local Petco. We were there representing the House Rabbit Connection (a chapter of the House Rabbit Society representing MA and CT), along with two other volunteers. This was our first public event, so both of us were a little nervous, but it went very well and hopefully we were able to educate a lot of people about rabbits as housepets and encourage those who were interested in getting a rabbit to adopt from a shelter or rescue.

Mr. Mick inspects his temporary digs on Day 1

The first day was a little unnerving for both of us. While I knew that Petco allows people to bring their pets into the store while they shop, I didn't realize just how many people choose to do that--and how many owners of LOUD and YAPPY dogs like to shop at Petco on a Saturday. Fortunately, we ended up positioned to the side of the entrance instead of in front of it--not so fortunate in that fewer people noticed us, but fortunate in that none of the yappy dogs and their owners noticed we were there, so Mick and his fellow rabbit volunteers were not as stressed about it.

"Wake me when that damn cocker spaniel is gone."

Along with Mick on Day 1 were two other rabbits:

"I hear you folks like Spots--do you know that dreamboat, Tyler?"

Punkin Pie, the English Spot, and Grady, the Dutch.

"I'm a lover, not a fighter...but if that dog gets any closer, I'm gonna kick some tail!"

Their mom, Mary, made some wonderful posters for us to display:

The Petco staff were super-nice, and they were so interested in the rabbits. They were always coming over to us to pet the buns and tell us about the rabbits they had owned in the past and ask questions about rabbits. One young man told me that Mick was the first rabbit he had ever petted in his life.

"Of course, you know they all came here to see me.

I AM a superstar, after all."

Day 2 went even better--not only were all the yappy dogs gone, but we were stationed right at the entrance, so everyone could see us.

Mick had two new bunny volunteers to work with this time (volunteer Mary has six rabbits in total; three bonded pairs) :

"Who cares about Tyler? I want to meet Sydney!"

Little Boy (another Spot) and Espresso (or Essie, for short--a lovely black bun of unknown breed). Unfortunately, Essie was a bit shy, so I didn't get any really good pics of her:

"Come on out, honey--don't be shy!"

(yes, Essie was in the house)

You can barely see Essie's head peeking out from behind the house on the right.

Getting acquainted with the neighbors

We gave out a bunch of rabbit care guides and other rabbit info, and talked to a LOT of fellow rabbit lovers. We ended up staying an hour past our allotted time because we were having so much fun meeting people. It was exhausting, but all kinds of fun. We may even end up doing it again next month, depending on the scheduling. (These are only a portion of the pictures I took; if you would like to see all of them, click here .)

New Stuff, Exciting Stuff, All Kinds of Stuff!

2012-02-17T13:52:00.000-05:00

With all of Mr. Mick's shenanigans, I haven't had much time to report on the usual goings-on here, so this is where I play catch-up.

I got some awesome new stuff recently--first, a new t-shirt featuring that suave and sophisticated ladies' bun from the West Coast, Tyler:

The only way this shirt could be more awesome

is if it said, "Helllllllllo, ladies!"

Then there's the adorable tote bag I won in the Rabbit Slippers giveaway:

Just too cute for words.

They've got another contest going on now, so be sure to stop over there and check it out.

I'll definitely be needing the tote this weekend. Mr. Mick and I are going to be doing our first educational event for the House Rabbit Connection this Saturday and Sunday (Feb. 18th and 19th) from 11am to 2pm at the Petco store on Merrill Road in Pittsfield, MA, so if you're in the area, feel free to stop by and say hi. I'm hoping to bring Mick both days, but it will all depend on how Saturday goes for him. I will definitely be taking pictures (and video if possible), so you'll get to see how it went.

In other news, I have been very busy working on crochet projects. Right now, I have two going at once: a baby blanket for a relative, and a throw that will be a housewarming gift for friends. I will post pictures when I'm done; I would post a sneak-peek, but there is the possibility that the recipients might see them and I want them to be a surprise.

Instead, here's a few pictures of my last completed project, a throw/lap blanket I made for Mick's beloved Auntie Shell of The Raspberry Rabbits:

I had made Shell a scarf as a Christmas gift, and she liked it so much, she asked for a throw out of the same yarn, which is Plymouth Yarn's Baby Alpaca Brush. It's soft and fuzzy and very snuggy, according to Shell. The great thing about making throws this time of year is that they keep you warm while you're making them.

That's all for now, I think. I need to get all His Majesty's stuff together for the trip to Petco tomorrow. Wish us luck!

Under House Arrest

2012-02-10T01:10:00.001-05:00

Hey all, Mickey here--

Well, we made it home from our Super Bowl adventure in one piece, although I probably should have stayed in Indianapolis considering the reception I got at home. The Big Guy and The Boy were looking to make hasenpfeffer out of me for taking their stuff, and Mum was still mad about the Patriots losing (and The Big Guy celebrating his Giants winning for three days straight didn't help matters there--I thought she was going to make stew out of him if he'd kept it up much longer). I tried to make amends, but it didn't go all that well. I gave The Boy his stuff back, but I forgot to reprogram his iPod with his crappy music and he got miffed. I gave him one of my water bottles to make up for the one of his that we lost, but he didn't like that, either. I even got The Big Guy a new lawnmower (better even than his old one that we lost) but then Gronk showed up and I had to give it back. (Dude, it's not my fault you were being so generous with your credit card after the game--I didn't make you drink all those carrot brews...)

Anyhow, it's all over. Things are back to normal now, and I have promised Mum that I will be a good bun and not get into any more trouble...

...of course, I may have neglected to mention that Weasley's been talking about hooking up with our friend Wesley and going to the Olympics in London. Oh, well, why get her all upset now?

(Note from Jade: Mickey's Super Bowl adventure came to you courtesy of Karen of Rabbits Eat Quilts, who came up with a lovely little tale of Weasley going to the Super Bowl--only to have me take off and run with it. Had she known what she would have gotten into by including Mick in Weasley's story, I wonder if she might have reconsidered. As I told her, she is the Brady to my Gronk, and deserves all the accolades if you enjoyed it. We now return you to our regularly scheduled Z of B. )

The Real Halftime Show

2012-02-06T00:26:00.001-05:00

Hey all, Mickey here--

If you haven't already read Weasley's account of what happened at the game, you should. Basically, we got bored in Mr. Kraft's special box (which wasn't anywhere near as special as he made it out to be--no good hay, no kale, no carrotinis, not even a proper throne to sit on!) and wandered around a bit. Biff and I found some decent seats, Harrington made friends with the cheerleaders, and the old man got himself dropkicked for a field goal--and that was just the first half!

All of a sudden, the place went pitch black! There were people running around everywhere, and all this stuff was being dragged onto the field. Being rabbits, we got curious and had to investigate, even though it was really hard to see what was happening. There was all kinds of noise and chaos; it was hard to figure out what was going on.

Next thing I know, the lights come back on, and:

Harrington's part of the halftime show!

(I don't think he liked this part much...)

Of course, we couldn't let him have all the spotlight...

(I thought she was going to sit on me for a second...whooo, scary...)

(Madonna said we were the best backup dancers she's ever had.)

Of course, the next thing I know, we're all scooped up and brought back to Mr. Kraft's box. It wasn't a fun place to be, especially when the Patriots ended up losing. (Biff doing a Victor Cruz-style victory salsa dance didn't help matters, either.) Security was called, and you know what happens next...

So at the moment, we're in the pen. I tried calling Mum to see if she could help, but The Big Guy answered the phone and said she was busy putting her fists through a wall and saying bad, bad things, so I knew she wasn't going to be very helpful. Weasley and Biff said they'd see what their mums could do, so hopefully we'll be able to get back home soon. If not, does anybun know a good lawyer?

We're In!

2012-02-03T18:00:00.000-05:00

Hey all, Mickey here:

As you may have heard from my pal Weasley. we had a little trouble at first getting Super Bowl tickets. That problem has been solved, and here's how we did it:

See, I knew the best way to get to see the Super Bowl was to get a pass from one of the players. The question was, how do we get in to see the players?

I knew Mum would have the answer, so I gave her a call on The Big Guy's cell phone (I would have taken The Boy's, but he always keeps it on him. The Big Guy never uses his phone.) Mum said the only way we might get to see the players is if we could somehow sneak in to where they were giving interviews to everybody, something called Media Day.

I did some asking around and found out where this Media Day thing was, and we went over there--just in time, too, because who did we meet there?

Gronk!

Wow, is he huge! He noticed us right away, and asked us what we were doing there. When we told him we wanted to see the Super Bowl, he said he could hook us up no problem.

That Gronk is such a nice guy, he even let us get interviewed with him.

Of course, after that, we were the main event of Media Day. Everyone wanted to hang out with us...

Suddenly, the owner of the Patriots showed up.

He declared us the Official Super Bowl rabbits, and said we would be sitting with him in his special owner's box. We all approved of that idea. I hope it's bigger than Weasley's box--no offense, my friend, but those have been some really tight quarters. A bun hardly has room to do his business in there.

Anyway, it looks like we're all set. Can't wait for Sunday!

Postcards from the Box

2012-02-01T00:43:00.000-05:00

Dear Mum:
Well, we're on the road to NYC. Thanks for packing up the treats for me and Weasley. Tell The Boy I'll be careful with his GP-whatzit directions thingie...and his iPod...and his credit card. You might have to get him a new water bottle, though; I think we left it behind at the rest stop.
Love, Mickey

Dear Mum:
Writing this from Biff and Sogna's before we head out. They have some very nice humans; Lisa is packing up more treats for us, and Jon is helping me reprogram the iPod (tell The Boy he has lousy taste in music). Looks like Sogna is coming along as well. I don't mind--the more, the merrier...as long as she keeps her paws out of my kale, we're good.
Love, Mickey

Dear Mum:
There's been a change of plans: we're heading for North Carolina to visit Auntie Shell and pick up Harrington (and maybe Hannah). Weasley and Biff keep talking about "carrot shine" and they're hoping Harrington knows where they can get some. Weasley finally let me drive, but he wouldn't let me use his driving goggles, so I'm going to have to see if I can find some. (Any idea what The Boy's credit card limit is?) I will write again when we get there.
Love, Mickey

Road Trip!

2012-01-26T17:19:00.000-05:00

Hey, all--Mickey here. Looks like I'm going on a little road trip--here's the story:

I was taking a little nap when my good friend Weasley got in touch with me. He said that he wanted me and our pal Biff to go to the Super Bowl with him. He had it all planned out, except for one little problem...he needed some wheels and a motor to hook up to his box to get it road-worthy. I told him I could take care of that, no problem. The Boy has a thing with wheels and a motor, he wouldn't mind if I took--I mean, borrowed them.

I waited until I knew The Boy was busy in his room and then I went outside.

Wheels? Check. Motor? Check. Only one little problem...

Dang, that is one big wheel. If I tried to take that, I'd end up squished. (Not that The Boy would mind, but Mum would be pretty upset.) I'm not a bun that is easily discouraged, though. I just went around to the back of the house to see if there were any other wheels-and-motor I could find.

This was right behind the back door, and it looked promising:

Unfortunately, there was no motor, and the wheels?

Not exactly road-worthy, that's for sure.

I was not giving up, though--there was one place left to look; The Big Guy's shed. He keeps all kinds of stuff there--and sure enough, I hit paydirt!

(Emphasis on the dirt.)

Motor? Check.

Wheels? Check.

Just gotta clean this bad boy up, get Mum to pack me some treats, and then I'm off to Weasley's. YEAH, BABY! ROAD TRIP! WOOOOOOOOO!

Flinging in the New Year

2012-01-16T16:55:00.000-05:00

Another New Year is starting to go flying by--we're halfway into January already!

We had a fairly quiet New Year's; spent it at home drinking sparkling apple-cranberry juice and watching the ball drop on TV. Mick had his own way of celebrating:

(This was recorded on my cell phone--the "incoming transmission"
was my sister texting me Happy New Year)

The Christmas tree was taken down last week--a very painful process, as Douglas fir needles turn into cactus spikes when they start to dry out. (I will be assisting hubby in the process of picking the tree next Christmas--he brings home beautiful trees, but they are not always decorator-friendly.)
Mr. Mick has his space back now, and I have brought back a few items that had been previously stored away:

His cardboard tunnel (seen on the left) and his basket of toys (none of which have interested him so far)

AND

His FAVORITEST toy of all:

His Bunny IQ treat-hiding toy (which you may remember from here and here).

This is now how we usually find Mick these days:

...patiently waiting for his toy to be filled with Banana Bites and Pumpkin Bites so he can pull off the lids and get his treats.

"Do you notice there's something missing here, Mum? Hmmm?"

I try to mix things up--put a treat in only one space, put the lids on with no treats inside, move the toy to other locations. His Majesty does not appreciate my efforts.

"Do that again and I will poop in your slippers."

Somebunny does not like variety in his routine--unless it means more treats instead of less.

Last Post of 2011

2011-12-31T13:41:00.000-05:00

And so we come to the end of 2011--good gawd, where did the time go?

Mr. Mick has adjusted to the invasion of his exercise space by our Christmas tree--although the little bugger gave me a fright the other night. He managed to wiggle his fluffy butt into one tiny gap not blocked off by the x-pen fence. Next thing I know, I look up and he's inside the fence and sniffing at the tree stand...which has the preservative-loaded water in it. Cue the heart failure and much hollering on my part as I rushed over to get him out before he decided to try a sip. He gave me a look like, "What are you yelling at me for? I just wanted to check this thing out!" I fixed the gap problem, and thank gawd he didn't nip any cords, either.

A few pics to bring the year to a close:

Nose rubs make for happy bunnehs.

Mick will park his chin on my leg and just stay there

while I rub his nose. When I do, he will lick my knee long enough

to actually leave a wet spot on my pants.

Avoiding the paparazzi.

The stepstool is Mick's new favorite hidey-hole. He will go under there when he wants to be left alone.

Getting ready for...

...a nice nap.

Woke up long enough...to switch sides.

Came out to have a few treats

(this was snapped while he was chewing)

Decided to finish his snack over by his litterbox.

Another pose for the fans, and then...

...back to his spot.

Mick and I wish everyone and everybun a most Happy and Healthy New Year. May 2012 bring you all countless blessings each and every day. Thank you for visiting our little blog, and we hope you'll be back next year as well...and bring treats. (You know who wrote that part.)

Christmas Tree Bunnies

2011-12-24T17:38:00.000-05:00

FINALLY got our tree up and decorated for this year! Hubby has not been a very cooperative tree-fetcher these past few years (I think it's part of his campaign to switch to an artificial tree--so he won't have to help with any of the process. Silly him--not happening.), but once I told him that if there was no tree forthcoming, he was going to get put in a tree stand and decorated with lights and ornaments, he finally got himself in gear.

Not all of my ornaments are rabbit-related, but I do have quite a few bunnies on my tree. All but one or two, I have bought over the years at our local nursery (they do the BEST Christmas displays, they even have an upside-down tree!):

(This one is one of my favorites; it's supposed to be a metal bunny mold,

like the ones used to make chocolate bunnies way back when.)

These two pics (above and below)

are actually the same ornament--it's two-sided.

I used to have two of them so I could show both sides,

but one of them broke last year.

I was so upset because the artist no longer makes them, so I can't replace it.

This is the side I chose to display this year.

I *squee*-d so loud when I saw this ornament;

I ADORE Beatrix Potter bunnies.

The only rabbit you will not find on our tree?

"Hmph...Unless I can nibble on it, I want no part of it.

Call me when Santa brings my treats..."

The reason for somebunny's discontent:

It's not that he can't nibble the tree; we just don't want him nibbling the cords. Also, we use a tree preservative in the water so the tree lasts longer and we don't want him possibly drinking it. His Majesty is lucky he gets to be in the same room with the tree this year--in the past, we've had to block off the room altogether. I was originally going to put up and take down the x-pen fence as needed, but since the grandbabies may be visiting at some point (and we don't want them getting at the tree, either) I decided to just leave it up.

Here's the un-bunnyproofed version:

Note: I'm going to have to update these tree pics post-Christmas--we've had to replace the star and we've added some more ornaments.

Mr. Mick and I wish everyone and everybun a blessed and joyous holiday season, no matter what holiday you choose to celebrate. Treats for everybun, and nose bonks and bunny kisses to all!

The Wearable Mr. Mick

2011-12-12T21:16:00.000-05:00

Today did not start on a good note; Mick needed a trip to the vet's because he was not eating and not behaving normally. The vet did x-rays and poked and prodded, but could not find anything obviously wrong; the prevalent theory is that Mick had a bad reaction to the introduction of arugula to his diet (this was the third time he had eaten it, and while he likes it a lot, it doesn't appear to like him so much). He is doing much better now, so thankfully I should be able to call the vet tomorrow and report that a follow-up visit is not necessary.

However, on the bright side, I received a special and much-anticipated package in the mail today. As I posted here back in October, Donna of Lavender Rabbit Hoppenings had surprised me with a lovely necklace featuring Mr. Mick. I contacted her not long after that and asked her if she could make me some matching earrings. I had also noticed a lovely stretch bracelet with bunny pictures in her Etsy shop, and asked her if she could make one like it, but with pictures of Mick.

The earrings arrived first:

I am snagging the pic Donna sent me to show them off,

since she takes way better pictures than I do.

Aren't they gorgeous?! There was all kinds of *squee*-ing when I opened the box, especially when it turned out that Donna had included yet another surprise:

Now you see why I used Donna's photo before--

my camera no like close-up shots so much.

...a cute little matching adjustable ring. To. Die. For.

The bracelet took a little longer; there were many emails back and forth between Donna and myself, with pictures galore, until we got it all fine-tuned. I was so excited when I saw the package in the mailbox, I immediately had to rip it open:

The pctures DO NOT do it justice, people.

There are 8 pictures in all; more cute than jewelry should be allowed. :)

I immediately had to put it on and wear it to the vet's so I could show it off, and I have only taken it off since to take the pictures.

(Note: I really wear them on my right hand;

I had to move them to my left hand so I could take this picture.)

Thank you SO much, Donna--it is absolutely perfect!

One quick final note: I will be mailing out the Mickey holiday cards this week, any future vet trips not withstanding, so if you want one and haven't sent me your mailing address yet, be sure to email me and let me know.

Would anybunny like a Christmas/holiday card?

2011-12-08T16:56:00.000-05:00

You know that if this was a real hat,

there'd be some lethal disapproval going on...

Hi all,

Just a quick post--while ordering Christmas cards for this year, I decided to order some featuring Mickey for all our bunny-loving friends and faithful blog readers, so if anyone would like a card from me and Mr. Mick for the holiday season, please email me at jade@jademyst.com and let me know what your mailing address is (if I don't already have it) and I will send you one.

Hugs and much love,

Jade :)

Mr. Mick's Thanksgiving List

2011-11-23T18:05:00.000-05:00

Hey all, Mickey here.

What is it with you humans and cleaning things?! I could have sworn Mum just cleaned my cage not all that long ago, and here she is cleaning it AGAIN! She says she's making sure everything looks good for Thanksgiving, because there are people coming over. It's just her mom and some of her littermates, and they've seen the house not-clean before, what's the big deal, I say?

That's when I ended up in the carrier. Hmph.

Mum says this Thanksgiving thing you humans do involves being grateful for all the good things we have, so since I was stuck in the carrier for a while, I decided to make a list of all the things I am grateful for:

1. Having a Mum who loves me.

2. Having a nice cage to live in.

(Having it cleaned, on the other hand...)

3. Having lots of good food to eat, like kale, and dandelion greens, and treats...mmmm, treats...

4. Having a nice comfy throne to lounge on.

(Having The Boy taking my picture

when I'm trying to take a nap...not so much.)

5. Having fun things to play with; toys, boxes, tunnels, The Boy's shoes...

And last, but not least...

6. Having nice people like you reading this blog

and saying nice things about me.

Warms my fuzzy little heart, it does.

Mum and I wish everyone and everybun a Happy Thanksgiving (and if you happen to live someplace that doesn't have Thanksgiving, have a really nice Thursday, ok?).

'tis better to give than receive

2011-11-20T15:30:00.001-05:00

...but getting stuff is all kinds of fun, too--especially when it's an unexpected gift.

A couple of weeks ago, my dear friend (and Mick's beloved Auntie) Shell of The Raspberry Rabbits put up this post about some lovely rabbit-themed trinkets she had recently purchased. One of these trinkets was a lovely little ceramic basket in white and green with a bunny perched on the handle. I immediately recognized the pattern as being Bunny Toile, a pattern I have been semi-collecting (I have three pieces, but as it tends to be expensive, I have not expanded my collection yet), and commented (with tongue firmly in cheek) that I was a little jealous that she had found such a precious piece that I had not known existed (I've only seen Bunny Toile in kitchen items, such as plates, platters, bowls, etc.) and would have loved to have gotten for myself.

I should have known...

This past Thursday, a package from Shell arrives in the mail. I was completely surprised, as I was the one who was supposed to be sending her stuff (she was one of our calendar winners, plus I was sending her a gift myself).

What was inside?

*SQUEE*!

Also, a lovely card featuring two of the most adorable assistants anyone could want...

...wishing me an early Happy Birthday. Honestly, the *squee*-ing was just non-stop, people.

When I emailed Shell to thank her and "oh, you shouldn't have" her, she confessed that the post was her sneaky way of getting me to tell her which one I liked so she could send it to me for my birthday. (She knows me far too well; I am one opinionated wench--she knew I wouldn't be able to resist saying something.)

Thank you a million times over, Shell *hugs*--this little sweetie will be sitting on my vanity and holding my earrings after I've worn them (that is, until my lazy butt gets around to putting them back on my earrings rack...I am so bad about that).

Calendar Giveaway Winners

2011-11-14T11:54:00.001-05:00

"There's some very lucky people out there today--

they get to have me in their homes without me shedding on them."

Yes, it's time to announce the winners of our calendar giveaway. For once, Mr. Mick did not pick the names, as having to pick seven names required far too much compensation (to begin with, we can't afford a private jet, never mind the cost of keeping it regularly stocked with kale and papaya bits) , so the winners were chosen through random.org's number generator.

And the winners (in no particular order) are:

1. Juliet, our favorite Crafty Green Poet

2. The lovely Abigail Emily

3. Mr. Mick's beloved Auntie Shell of The Raspberry Rabbits

4. Lisa of Little Bun in the Big City ; law student and bun-mom extraordinaire.

5. d. moll of The Qi Papers ; artist, chi-manipulator, 4(or 5)Buns wrangler.

6. Emily aka Hef's Mom; lover of bunnies, German Shepherds and cooking at The Bunny Lounge

7. My dear friend Lesley B, who has no blog for me to link that I know of (but if she ever does, I will link the bejeezus out of it)

Congratulations, all of you! Please email me at jade@jademyst.com with your mailing address (if I don't already have it), so I can get your prize out to you ASAP.

Everybody else, go visit their blogs and check them out (if you haven't already).

"Hmph...'unreasonable demands', my fluffy butt!

All I want is to be able to travel in style and comfort,

is that so much to ask?"

Note from Jade: Apparently I am an idiot--the giveaway was supposed to end on the 15th, and I thought today was the 15th. It's not; it's actually the 14th, which I didn't realize until about 5 minutes ago. Doesn't really change anything...but considering that this was a CALENDAR giveaway, I feel especially stupid...and the chuckling noise coming from the direction of the rabbit cage isn't helping at all...

Announcing the Zen of Bun "Mr. November" Giveaway

2011-11-01T23:32:00.000-04:00

Boy, am I cutting this close--I said I would announce this on Nov. 1st and I'm getting it in with minutes to spare here on the East Coast.

As I mentioned here, Mr. Mick won a coveted spot in the 2012 Bunspace.com calendar. The calendar came out last month, and it is just chock-full of adorableness. His Majesty is one of the buns chosen for the November page, and since my birthday is in November as well, it makes November a doubly-special month. To me, that much special deserves to be shared, so here's what we're going to do:

I have not one, not two, but SEVEN copies of the 2012 Bunspace calendar--one for each of seven lucky people. Each calendar will come with an "autographed" photo of Mickey as well.

To enter, you can do one (or more) of three things:

1. Leave a comment on this post (and if you follow this blog, you get an extra entry)
2. Like or comment on the Facebook link to this post
3. Send a tweet to me (@jademyst) and let me know that you want to enter the giveaway.

That's a potential of four entries per person if you're really wanting a calendar.
Deadline is November 15th; the winners will be announced here at the blog.
Good luck, people!

"Come on, who wouldn't want to have me

in their home for an entire year?"

Things We Disapprove Of

2011-10-31T12:02:00.007-04:00

SNOW.

LOTS OF SNOW.

SNOW THAT DESTROYS A VERY LARGE

AND VERY FULL BURNING BUSH.

*!&;^%$ SNOW!

We were without electricity, heat and water for about 18 hours over the weekend. It was not pretty, but we managed to stay relatively warm and didn't try to kill each other. There's still people doing without, though, so we're counting our blessings.

"Sez you--I'm still miffed that you didn't let me out to play Saturday night.

I expect treats and an apology, pronto."

One last thing: check in here tomorrow (November 1st) for our big giveaway!

SQUEE!!!

2011-10-20T17:10:00.000-04:00

WARNING: The following post may cause excessive amounts of *squee*-ing, mainly from the poster.

A bit of backstory first:

As some of you may know (and if you don't know, you should), my friend and fellow bunny-blogger Donna of Lavender Rabbit Hoppenings has a monthly giveaway of some of the absolutely gorgeous jewelry she makes and sells in her Etsy shop . I enter her giveaways each and every month because I am a greedy wench who must have the nice things, and I have been lucky enough to win twice (click here and here for details and pretty pictures).

A short time after the September giveaway, I got an email from Donna. While I hadn't won that particular giveaway, it seemed it wasn't for lack of help. After prize-choosing bun Cooper picked the winning slip, he went back for seconds--and grabbed the slip with my name on it. (Smart bunny, that Cooper.) Donna said she couldn't give me the giveaway prize, but she would be sending me something else...and boy, was she right about the "something else"!

How do you like THIS?!

*SQUEE*!!!

Extreme closeup *SQUEE*!!

Wearable Mr. Mick! Without the shedding! How can you not love this?

I put it on in a heartbeat, and will not ever be taking it off except for showering and sleeping for quite some time.

THANK YOU SO MUCH, Donna! If I wasn't so darn excited right now, I would be crying. (Don't think there won't be a return giftie, either--for both you and Cooper.)

*ahem* I don't suppose there was anything for me in there?

No worries, Mick; Donna didn't forget you. You'll get your treat tonight.

Tonight? Why not now? Why am I being deprived?

You aren't being deprived. I'm just making sure that somebunny's tummy is fully recovered from all the treats he scrounged the other night--or do you really want another butt bath so soon after the last?

*grumbling under breath*

Humph...you would have to go and bring that up,

wouldn't you? Fine, I'll wait...

I thought you'd see it my way...and since it is indeed 'Tocktober, here's a pic of somebunny's now-clean butt:

*sigh* The things I put up with...I'm getting extra treats for this...

sigh The things I have to do around here...

2011-10-10T15:02:00.001-04:00

*blows cobwebs off the blog page*

*checks date of last post*

September 14?! MUUUUUUUUM! Honestly, do I have to do everything around here?

Hmph.

Hey all, Mickey here. Apparently Mum has been slacking in her duties as chronicler of my exploits and author of my press releases. Granted, there really hasn't been much going on there lately, but still, my adoring fans need to be kept informed and my adorable face needs to be shown as often as possible. Is that so much to ask?

I've heard that toes are popular lately, so here you go.

Let's see, what's been going on? Well, I was boy-free for about three days--my nemesis went on a weekend trip to Baltimore all by his lonesome last week. Mum was worried, but I was happy to have some peace and quiet for a change. (Heck, I was hoping he'd be gone longer--I might have been able to snag his room.) Of course, he had to come home safe and sound. I think he might have missed me, though; since he came home, he's been somewhat nicer to me--pets me a little more, slips me chunks of apple now and then. I guess he can stay...for now.

Mum has been on one of her "get Mick to try new food" kicks lately--she says the produce available at the local grocery stores hasn't been spectacular, so she's trying to introduce some new stuff so she'll have more options available. So far, the brussels sprouts have been a hit; the swiss chard, not so much. (Don't get me wrong, it's edible, but it just doesn't do much for me.) She's been trying to get me to eat more hay, too, but the really good hay she was getting before is out of stock, and what's been available is just meh. I'm fussy about hay, it's got to be just right before I'll touch it.

I got another new throne last week--now that the weather's getting cooler, Mum's wanting to make sure I have something warm to snuggle on when I want to. She's been wanting to take me outside for some fresh air, but there's just been too many bugs around. She says once the temperature's dropped enough to kill the bugs, she'll get the x-pen out.

Hmmm, I think that's about everything...whew, this blogging stuff is hard work. I think I need a petting break--hey, Mum!

Ahhhh, much better...

Ok, I think we're done here. I'm gonna take a little nap. Y'all have a good day--and don't worry, I'll make sure Mum does a better job of keeping this thing updated from now on.

Showing off just a little

2011-09-14T16:55:00.000-04:00

Somebunny is going to be a little miffed at me, but he's not getting the spotlight this time. I have been waiting to show this off, and I finally have a chance.

Some of you may remember the "Milo's Bunny" crochet square I designed last year to honor my grandfather (and if you don't, you can find it here). When I found out that Lisa, bunny-mom to Buttons and Bella of Little fluffy adventures, was expecting her first child, I knew that a "Milo's Bunny" blanket would be a perfect gift.

I'm still trying to work out the kinks in the two-color version (it's been a huge battle between the seriously-fussy side of me and the lazy-wench side of me; one side wants it perfect and the other side doesn't want to deal with it), so I went with the one-color (with a little white for the tail) version:

Here's a closeup of the detail:

And a closeup of one of the squares:

Of course, the baby showed up well before I finished it, and it was looking like he'd be a teenager before the blanket arrived in the mail (gotta love the postal service--next time, I'll swim it across the Atlantic myself, it'll get there faster), but it did arrive and all is good.

"Ahem...aren't you forgetting something?"

Um...no, I don't think so.

"Yes, you're forgetting the part where I helped you...

or I should say, tried to help you, and got no appreciation for my efforts?"

Mick, you tried to eat the yarn--that is not helping.

"I was not trying to eat the yarn! I was trying to cut it for you!

Hmph, how rude...that's the last time I try to help you with a project..."

Oh, boy...I'm in for some serious snubbing now. I guess I'd better go find the treatball...catch you later!

Thinking inside the box

2011-09-08T01:45:00.000-04:00

Some of you may remember Mickey's meditation room from past posts:

I had moved it into a permanent spot between our TV table and a desk after Christmas, and it was promptly ignored by His Majesty. Apparently I messed with the bun-shui when I chose to make its placement acceptable to human standards.

I left it there, since it was helping to hide wires and wasn't sticking out like a sore thumb. After a while, I started putting his toys in there, since he wasn't paying much attention to those, either. He has quite a stash accumulated between bought toys and ordinary household objects, and each and every one consumed his attention for anywhere from one to five minutes before being doomed to perdition in the former meditation room.

That is how it had been for months...until a couple of weeks ago, when somebunny started rummaging through his toy collection. At first, it was to haul out a set of fruit-flavored balsa wood blocks (a gift that came with an order from some bunneh supply store, I forget which one) and promptly start gnawing on them--something he's never done before; wood is low on his things-to-chew list. The next thing I know, he's pulling out his old tart tins and flinging them around, which prompted the boy to start playing a few games of "put the tin on the bunny" until I told him to stop.

Last night, I looked up from my computer, and saw this:

Tonight, I moved the toys out of the box to see what he would do. He promptly went into the box and started digging around and nibbling at the corners here and there, then came back out for his usual petting and adoration session. I'm not sure if there will be any future bunstruction going on there or not, but I will let you know what develops.

More treatball!

2011-09-05T00:45:00.000-04:00

Okay, before you watch this, you should click here and watch the two videos I posted yesterday.

It's ok, I'll wait...

...

...

...

...

...

*hums a happy little tune*

...

...

...

*plays a little Sims on Facebook (honestly, I'm hooked)*

...

...

...

...

...

*checks her watch*

...

...

Did you watch them? Great! Okay, now watch this!

And wouldn't you know it--the minute I shut off the camera, he came over and dropped it at my feet! How cute is that?!

Treats!

2011-09-04T17:57:00.000-04:00

Treats for Mr. Mick--and two new videos of Mr. Mick getting treats, which hopefully is a treat for all of you.

First off, Mickey got a special treat last night, courtesy of our dinner out:

(of course, I always manage to pick a day when his cage is less than spotless to shoot video...)

Where there are treats, there is sometimes also a treatball involved. Here is Mr. Mick playing with his favoritest toy in the world:

What this video fails to show is the trail of treats that somebunny managed to miss. For every one he eats, there's about three or four he leaves behind--sometimes he goes back and gets them, and sometimes he ignores them altogether, which means I'm picking them up and putting them back in the treatball for Round 2. I try to keep the treatball treats to the healthy stuff. This particular mix consisted of two broken-up papaya tablets, a couple of broken-up Oxbow veggie treats, a few dried papaya and pineapple mini-bits and some dried veggie bits. When he's emptied the treatball, he will often pick it up and run around with it in his mouth (which is something I really need to get on video because it's too darn cute) before either dropping it at my feet or flinging it into a corner somewhere.

Hope everyone is having an enjoyable Labor Day weekend--as for me, I'm spending it catching up on chores, how bad is that? :)

A Word from Mr. Mick

2011-08-30T17:56:00.000-04:00

Yes, I know we've used this pic a lot lately,

but hey--it's a damn good picture of me.

Hey all, Mickey here.

Just wanted to let you know that we are all safe and sound here in MA. Other than losing power for about 4 hours very early Saturday morning, we got through that fershlugginer hurricane just fine. Personally, I spent the weekend either sleeping on my throne, snuggling with Mum on the couch or bugging Mum and The Boy for treats and petting (and humping their feet if they didn't do what I wanted), Mum says she is going to change my name to Prince Humperfoot if I don't cut it out.

Anyway, that's all for now. My new throne is calling my name and I cannot resist. Mum will post more when she gets a chance.

Mr. Mick's Game of Thrones

2011-08-23T01:27:00.000-04:00

Mr. Mick has been a rather grumpy despot this past week, mainly because he has not had a proper throne to sit on. The two he had were in dire need of washing, but there wasn't enough laundry that I could add them to in order to make a full load of laundry. Last Monday, when I cleaned his cage, I put a pair of folded towels inside instead of one of the thrones.

You would think I had given him a bed of nails.

There was much flinging of anything that wasn't anchored down; his hay basket, his jingleball, his keys, his toy chain. I was repeatedly subjected to both the Bunny Butt O'Snub and the Dread Glare O' Sulk. The towels themselves were pushed around and clawed at--until somebunny realized that he was going to need something to park his fuzzy butt on that wasn't his cage floor.

Suddenly, the towels weren't so bad after all.

A few days later, there was a package from Leith Petwerks . It couldn't have come at a better time.
Inside the package:

A new bowl for Mr. Mick's salads, because somebunny has a nasty habit of flinging any bowl or plate that gets put in his cage, even if there is a pile of greens on it.

AND

A brand new throne.

These are Mick's assortment of thrones; the pale green plush was his first, followed by the large gray plush and the new dark green fleece. The new throne is not as soft as the other two, but that didn't seem to bother His Majesty at all. He was snuggled up in it practically from Day 1, and let me know that I was forgiven for the moment...

...until today, when I washed all three thrones.

He has his gray one in his cage now. As soon as I put it in his cage, he had to give it a thorough inspection:

"Did you remember to use the dryer sheets?

I am NOT going to be happy if my fur gets all static-y."

"Hmmph...I suppose it will do."

A benevolent despot is His Majesty...at least until the next laundry day.

Ah, there's good news tonight!

2011-08-11T00:55:00.000-04:00

As you can see, Mr. Mick is too tired to share the good news, but he had his follow-up visit with the vet today and he has received a clean bill of health! YAY!

Dr. Shanahan said that, while she could still feel the spot under his skin where the abscess was, it was a very small pocket in the muscle and it feels much like a deflated balloon--nothing in it. We will have to keep an eye on that spot to make sure that "balloon" doesn't inflate again. Other than that, he is a healthy, handsome boy. His weight has stabilized at 4lbs, 10 oz., which is still much smaller than he was previously (he had been at 5 1/2 lbs. before he got sick), but oddly enough, he feels like he is heavier than he is. For gaining all of three ounces since his illness, he is more solid and his bones do not stick out nearly as much as they had before. If you asked me to guess his weight before he hit the scale, I would have guessed at least 5 lbs. His vet and I discussed it, and much as I would like to see him weighing at least 5 lbs. because of how he dropped so much weight before, this seems to be a good weight for him for overall health.

Of course, he may end up putting on some extra ounces now that I got him a new treatball. He still has the old one, but I also found this on Amazon.com. It has adjustable holes and fills much easier than his other one. I'm saving the old treatball for his papaya mini-bits, but I break up Oxbow veggie treats for his new one. Mr. Mick has already figured it out and was happily pushing it around all over the dining room to get every treat out. I may also break up some of his papaya tablets and add them to the treatball as well.

I'm also been trying to teach Mick to hop up on the footstool under my computer desk. He's done it a few times on his own, but never seems to want to stay up there for very long, so I've been trying tempting him with bits of dried kale. If he does it on command, he gets petting, praise and the treat, but if he does it on his own without my command, he gets petting and praise but no treat. The idea is for him to do it on command and not when I don't want him there. We'll see how it goes.

The Return of Mr. Mick

2011-08-02T03:41:00.000-04:00

Took this during Mr. Mick's out-and-about time tonight:

I had forgotten about this treatball until recently, when I saw an article about a similar toy and realized that I could use Mick's papaya and pineapple mini-bits in the one I had. Of course being that treats were involved, he figured it out pretty quickly. Usually, he just picks it up and flings it until all the bits are out, but this time, he finally used it as he's supposed to.

He is doing quite well; the lump where the abscess was seems to be getting smaller and does not feel like it's filling up with ick again. We are keeping fingers and paws crossed for a clean bill of health when we see his vet again on the 10th.

Icky Stuff, Round 2

2011-07-25T12:11:00.000-04:00

Sorry, no pictures for this one--I'm just too tired. I will take some new ones of Mick and post them later, so you can see how good he looks (well...except for one spot).

I had planned to make an appointment today to have Mick's vet check out the spot where his abscess had been. It was mainly healed up, but there was a lump remaining; possibly some scar tissue, but still something I didn't like on him. I figured it was better to be safe than sorry, and even if it was just scar tissue, they might be able to smooth the spot out without much trouble.

It's a good thing I had already planned on doing it, though. Last night, Mick came up to me for petting while I was on the computer. I reached down...and felt something gooey on his cheek.

Uh...oh.

I scooped him up and brought him out to the kitchen to check him out. Sure enough, his cheek was coated with ick--his abscess had returned, and this time it had ruptured.

His Majesty did not take too kindly to being poked and prodded again; I had to wrap him up burrito-style in order to clean out the area as best as possible and clean his fur. I cleaned out all the places where he might decide to lay down and flop (to prevent further infection), then put him back in his cage.

First thing this morning, I called his vet's office and they had me bring him in. Dr. Shanahan looked the area over and felt the lump, which is much smaller now, but still big enough to concern both of us. She said that there was a part of the lump that appeared to be sreading downwards like a root and had me feel the area to show me what she meant. She recommended putting him on Baytril again for two weeks to see if that would shrink the lump; if not, then surgery would most likely be necessary to see what is going on in there and to hopefully smooth out the area. I agreed to that plan of action, and so we came home with Baytril, more Critical Care and an appointment in two weeks' time (sooner if things get worse instead of better)

Other than this, Mickey looks great. He's gained three ounces of weight back, but he looks heavier. His fur is looking good and his eyes are big and bright. His bunnitude is as fiesty as ever for sure. The only mar to all this perfection is the wound on his cheek (which was reshaved to keep it clean and make it easier to see), but even that isn't that easy to spot because of all the surrounding fur. He was not at all happy to be taken to the vet's first thing in the morning, and even less happy when I left him in his carrier while I gave his cage a thorough cleaning before putting him back inside, but a dose of Baytril, a dried apple slice and a fresh bowl of pellets and oats have placated him somewhat.

As for me, I am in dire need of some coffee so I can be functional enough to get some errands done this afternoon before I crash and nap on my couch. I will update more later.

Three Years In A Row!

2011-07-17T17:29:00.000-04:00

"They say a picture is worth a thousand words?

Well, this is the face that will sell

a thousand calendars."

He did it again.

For the third year in a row, Mr. Mick has been chosen to appear in the annual Bunspace calendar--proceeds from sales of which go to the House Rabbit Society.

Needless to say, we are quite thrilled and honored; his pic (the one shown above) was one of 93 chosen out of 770 entries. His Majesty did make an attempt at being humble about it, but that lasted about five minutes before he demanded extra treats and a promise of a full-bun massage later this evening.

He's already gotten some extra spoiling already; last night, we went out to dinner with some friends of mine, Kayla and Ryan. They are also bunny slaves (to Freddie, a Holland Lop, and Luna, a Silver Marten) and are longtime fans of Mr. Mick, but had never gotten the chance to meet him in person until last night. His Majesty was quite gracious; he not only allowed both of them to pet him, but to hold him as well. Kayla was even granted an extra-long snuggle session; he perched on her shoulder and gave her kisses, much to her delight. Both went home with a souvenir gift of a fur sweater, compliments of Mr. Sheddy Bun.

In other news, I was the lucky winner of the Lavender Rabbit Studios June giveaway--and look at the lovely gift I got!

Her name is Miss Anastasia, and she is just gorgeous. She came with a lovely card, and a willow ring for Mr. Mick, but I was so excited, I never got a picture of them. I snapped a couple of quick pics and put her on immediately.

Here is a closeup--she comes with a copper chain that matches her copper fastenings and background perfectly. Thanks again to Donna for giving away such a gorgeous piece--and to Dot for picking my name!

Great news at the vet's

2011-07-13T17:28:00.000-04:00

"I said NO PICTURES...dang paparazzi..."

Still no recent Mick pics just yet, but hopefully soon...

Follow-up visit #2 was this afternoon, and we have very good news.

First of all, Mr. Mick has gained two ounces since last week's visit! I have been giving him a tablespoon of Critical Care (apple-banana flavor) twice a day--I put it on a plate, then put his greens on top and he eats it all up. Tamsin from The Rabbit House suggested giving him a little porridge of rolled oats to help with the weight gain, but I decided to add a daily pinch of dry rolled oats to his pellets instead, and he loves it! Once he's back to a weight of 5 1/2 pounds, I'll stop the Critical Care and stick to just rolled oats to help him maintain the weight. He hasn't even noticed that he's not getting his usual treats, either; I do give him a bit of dried kale now and then, and he did get a dried apple slice the other night, but overall, he's been just as happy to get what he's been getting.

Dr. Shanahan checked out his wound and said it had scabbed up so I wouldn't need to keep washing it now. There is one area that looks like a small pouch-like spot that I pointed out to her; my concern being that it could be a place where infection could be hiding. She checked it out and said that it appeared to be fine, but to keep an eye on it just in case. Worst-case scenario, she would open it up from underneath (not in the same place) if it did need to be cleaned out. Right now, all I need to do is make sure Mickey doesn't scratch at it while it's healing up; a little bacitracin on the area to keep the scab soft should keep that from happening.

She also had results of the tests taken on the ick that was cleaned out of the abscess. When Dr. Leahey did the operation, he had asked if I wanted them to analyze the stuff to see what kind of infection we were looking at. It wasn't a cheap process, but I said yes because I wanted to know exactly what we were dealing with. The test results came back as pasturella, which is fairly common and, according to Dr. Shanahan, the Baytril should have cleared it up easily. I've heard some horror stories regarding pasturella infections, so I'm glad we seem to have caught it before things got worse.

The verdict: no need for more follow-up unless something happens, no more Baytril, keep up with the weight gain plan. The improvement in Mickey's condition has been amazing; you can see how much better he is--his eyes are bigger and brighter, he looks and feels more solid. Even his poops have gotten bigger and better--the Poop Inspector would be turning cartwheels of joy in the street (if she wasn't so out of shape, anyway ;) ).

Thanks much to everyone for all your love and support while we've been dealing with this. It has been greatly appreciated. I have a bunch of other stuff to fill you in on, but that will have to wait for another post. His Majesty's been fed, and now it's my turn. :)

Follow-up #1

2011-07-05T13:22:00.000-04:00

"Not my good side at the moment, but it's getting better..."

First off, thanks so much to everyone for all the good wishes for Mick--so sorry we couldn't answer each and every one, but we did read them all and we love you all for them.

Mr. Mick went back to the vet's for his first follow-up visit this morning. His bloodwork results were finally in, and everything is good. His protein was a wee bit high and his potassium a wee bit low, but neither are cause for alarm. His vet was surprised at the discovery of the abscess; she said that she had checked his jawline before and during his tooth-filing (she was holding his head in that area as she worked on him) and she hadn't felt it at all, so it had to have formed rather quickly. That more or less supported my thoughts on it; he would have shown signs of something like that far sooner if it had been there before, and I would have felt it myself if it had.

Dr. Shanahan checked his wound and said that it was healing nicely. I asked her if she would clip some of the fur around the area back a bit; some of it was matting because of ick and whatnot, and I didn't want the mats pulling and bothering him. She took care of that and also cleaned the wound for me, since there were two of us to keep him still and that way she could see where the problem areas were (there's two spots where pus is still showing). She said to keep an eye on those spots, but that it looked good overall.

I asked her what the best way was to get some weight back on him, as she had weighed him and he's dropped another ounce (to be expected with everything going on, but still not good). She recommended that I give him Critical Care as a diet supplement and gave me a pack to use. She wants to see him again next week to see how things are progressing.

Once we got home, I flushed out his wound again and gave him a couple of syringes of Critical Care and his Baytril before putting him back in his cage. My sister stopped by, so His Majesty got some extra love and attention and I got an assistant to help me keep him still so I could get all that done. He's a lot fiestier now that he's feeling better, so it's been a struggle to keep him still while I clean his wound. Even putting him in a bunny burrito doesn't help all that much--I would ask the boy to hold him still, but Mick gets twice as fidgety when the boy's around as is, so that wouldn't help matters.

That's pretty much how things stand at the moment--thanks again for all the love and support, and I'll be posting more updates as things go on.

A Bit of an Abscession

2011-07-03T01:42:00.000-04:00

"Well, it's a good thing we got those

Bunspace calendar contest entries in when we did,

that's all I can say..."

It's a long story, and it started this past Thursday.

I brought Mickey to the vet's on Thursday for his quarterly molar-filing. As always, they pop him on the scale beforehand. The scale reads 4.08 pounds.

Wait, what?!

He can't weigh 4.08 pounds, I tell them--he weighed 5 1/2 pounds the last time I brought him in and that was three months ago. The vet checks her records and then weighs him again. Sure enough, Mr. Mick has somehow lost 1 1/2 pounds in three months. (I thought I had combed a pound of hair off him the night before, but I really didn't think I HAD taken a pound of hair off him!)

All joking aside, both Dr. Shanahan and I were very concerned. She gave him a physical exam, but didn't feel anything out of the ordinary. It was agreed that, on top of the tooth work, full x-rays and blood work would be taken and that she would go over him again while he was sedated--just in case something was being tucked away undetected. (I went through that with Mickey's predecessor, Karnage--the tumor invading his intestines was hidden under his ribcage and not detected until he was sedated and his muscles relaxed.) The hope was that the teeth were the cause of the problem and that once they were filed, he would put the weight back on, but we couldn't assume that.

Teeth were done, and we went home to await test results. All seemed to be well; Mick's usual tooth-related issues (crusty eyes, moist nose, minor sneezing) had cleared up on the spot as always and he was his usual self...until last night (Friday).

Mick had been perfectly fine during the day--he tackled me for shredded carrots and chowed the romaine lettuce I gave him. The only odd thing was that he was suddenly lounging in his litterbox instead of on his throne. I didn't think much of it, just wrote it off to the fresh hay I'd put in, which was softer than what had been in there--maybe he was feeling like munching on some hay now that his teeth were fixed.

But he didn't budge from the litterbox once he went in there.

When the time came to let him out for exercise, he finally hopped out of the litterbox and went into the dining room. I thought ok, all is good--until he parked himself under one of the dining room chairs, settled down...and didn't budge.

No running around. No begging for pets and kisses. No nothing.

He wasn't hunched, not hiding, just lounging--but it wasn't right. I finally picked him up, checked him over, gave him a short tummy massage and then put him back in his cage. He hopped right back into his litterbox and settled down again.

No begging for treats, no interest in any food--I even waved a pinch of shredded carrots in his face. Nothing.

When the world's biggest treat-fiend isn't wanting treats, it's not good.

I took him out of his cage again, took him into the living room, snuggled him, gave him a couple of syringes of water, massaged his tummy again. He tooth-purred a few times, but there was some light grinding here and there as well, which didn't make me feel any better. Finally, I gave him another syringe of water, put him back in his cage so I could get a couple hours sleep on the couch, then checked him again about 8am this morning (Saturday).

Nothing eaten. No poops in the litterbox, and despite the water I syringed into him, no pee either.

Called the vet on the spot; they had me bring him in.

Dr. Shanahan wasn't in, but fortunately all the vets there are rabbit-savvy to varying degrees. Dr. Leahey informed me that the x-rays that had been taken on Thursday didn't show anything, and they were still waiting for the bloodwork results from the lab. He weighed Mick again, took his temperature (98.4, a bit low for a bun), then started feeling along Mick's jaw.

Suddenly, he looked at me. "Did you notice this lump before?"

Lump?! What lump?!

I put my hands where he indicated; there on Mick's left jawline was a dime-sized lump. I hadn't noticed it before, not even with all the petting he got last night.

Fortunately, the lump was in the jaw muscle and not in the jawbone itself. Dr. Leahey and I pretty much agreed that it needed to be dealt with on the spot, so Mickey got sedated again and the lump was opened up, revealing lots of ick.

Hello, abscess. Goodbye, weekend plans.

Right now, Mick has a good-sized hole in his cheek about a half-inch in diameter, give or take. My job is to administer banana-flavored Baytril once a day and keep that hole clean and ick-free. To put it in a hopefully not-gross way, it's been like trying to wipe a toothpaste tube clean, but the toothpaste keeps oozing out here and there. Fortunately, the dried veggie treats that I ordered from BinkyBunny.com chose the perfect time to show up, so His Majesty the Impatient Patient has had nommy stuff to keep him entertained. He's sitting next to me as I type this, in his spare litterbox with his flannel sheet over him to keep him from getting too chilled by the AC. He's had dried veggie treats and a bit of romaine, and more syringes of water. He's been spending all evening trying to clean himself after each time I've flushed his wound with wound wash saline. Poor bunneh--he's not going to be posing for any pics for a while, that's for sure.

I'm just glad we got in to the vet when we did, as they are closed both Sunday and Monday because of the holiday. I have been living on caffeine and frayed nerves for three days now as is--I would have been a basket case if I had chosen to wait until after the holiday. We see Dr. Shanahan on Tuesday for follow-up, so hopefully things will be looking better by then.

Hoppy Birthday, Mr. Mick!

2011-06-20T12:58:00.000-04:00

Today is Mickey's 4th birthday, and we've already been doing some celebrating. He got his birthday present a few days early: a new throne. Two, actually, since I wasn't sure which style he would like. We're not tossing out his old throne because he still loves it (I actually caught him grooming it last night while he was out and about) but now when one throne is being washed, he has another one to lounge on instead of having to settle for an old towel or sheet.

As it turned out, it's a good thing I did buy two, because Throne #1 got rejected the very first time I offered it to him. I think it's because the sides are much higher than those on his regular throne; I thought that might be a plus so he would feel more secure, but apparently that is not the case. It's now sitting in my dining room on the off-chance that he might want to use it to relax on when he's out.

Last night, I sprinkled a few shredded carrots inside to see if I could tempt him to give it another try:

"Ooooh, what's this? Carrots on a cushion? What a novel idea...nomnomnom..."

" I'm supposed to eat the carrots while sitting on the cushion? Don't be absurd; anybun can tell that this is clearly a substandard cushion.
It's got a DOG BONE in the middle, for cryin' out loud!"

"The carrots were quite tasty, though--got any more?

Ooh, there's my treat toy--did you fill that up for me?"

Yes, his Rabbit IQ toy was filled with more shredded carrots as a birthday treat. You might remember this video:

I would have taken a more recent picture, but the boy came out and started playing "cover the treats as fast as Mick can uncover them", a game which His Majesty found surprisingly entertaining. He started flipping those covers so fast that the boy could barely keep up, and got so excited that the boy stopped playing because he thought he was upsetting Mick. Tired him out was more like it; I scooped up Mick for a calming snuggle and he relaxed against me immediately. A half-hour snuggle and he was ready to bop around again, so I set him down.

After a while, all the exertion caught up to the birthday bun...

...so it was back to his cage and the comfort of New Throne #2, which was far more to Mr. Mick's liking:

Throne #2 is just as plushy-soft as his original throne, but is larger and has no sides. You can just see the corner of the original in the lower left corner.

"Oh yes, this will do...mmmmm...zzzzzzzzz"

A belly full of shredded carrots and a nice cozy bed to sleep in, what more could a bunny want?

Spring Interlude

2011-06-09T15:07:00.000-04:00

Thanks much to everyone for all the well-wishes. I had been so hoping to dodge allergy season, but it got me anyway. Feeling much better now, so I thought I would take a page from everyone's book and show off our outdoor pretties.

Unfortunately, not all of it is pretty. All that stupid snow we got decimated the rhododendron in front of our house:

We're hoping it'll come back, but it still breaks my heart to see it like this, especially when this is what it looked like two years ago:

Fortunately, the rhody in the backyard has not only survived, but thrived:

Because it's in the backyard, it blooms much later than the one in the front, which is good because the front yard one often ended up getting hit by the last frost of the winter just as it was blooming.

Hubby has both his gardens set up; this is his flower garden surrounding our waterfall pond:

Because it's a mix of wildflowers and nursery plants, it tends to look a little overgrown (it also looks like that because hubby isn't always diligent with garden maintenance, but we won't go into that). I found the perfect garden stone for it a couple of years ago:

Oh yes, it lives up to its name and then some... :)

This is his vegetable garden:

It's not very big, but that's how we like it. There's tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, lettuce and a few other things that I forget. He even added a couple of basil plants for Mr. Mick. We're just hoping the fershlugginer chipmunks will let us have some of it this year.

Back to the front yard: hubby found some lovely hanging baskets this year:

The perennials at the bottom surprised us by coming back quite strong, and hubby's added a couple more so that he won't have to worry about that space next year.

Milo the bunny statue has his annual batch of impatiens again:

He is an excellent gardener: yes, impatiens are hardy plants, but the ones that grow in his wheelbarrow always bloom biggest and best of all our plants.

And just in case you were looking for a certain spoiled rotten wabbit:

"Hmph...Like anyone comes here to look at plants..."

Mr. Mick's Musings

2011-06-01T16:55:00.001-04:00

Hey all, Mickey here. Mum has been under the weather with something she calls "hay fever", so I've taken it upon myself to update you on things. (Personally, I don't get this hay fever thing--she's around my hay all the time with barely a sniffle, so why the problems now?)

Anyway, just to let you know, I am doing perfectly fine. Thanks much to everyone for being so concerned for my well-being; I do appreciate the sentiment, although I could have told you that there was nothing wrong--I just wanted a higher quality of meal, that's all. Honestly, would it kill Mum to make me a proper salad once in a while? I did finally convince her to add a pinch of shredded carrots to my breakfast greens, so all is good for now.

Like what you see? The Boy has been proving himself useful for once; he has taken on the job of being my official photographer for promotional purposes. The Bunspace.com calendar contest is under way and I am hoping to be chosen for the 2012 calendar. The money raised by the contest and calendar sales goes to benefit the House Rabbit Society , so it's very important stuff--and you know if I'm in there, there will be lots of calendars sold. Don't get me wrong, Mum takes some very nice pictures of me, but the Boy has this real fancy-schmancy camera and he really knows how to make me look good. All the pictures in this post were taken by him.

In other news, I have been getting to spend a lot of time in the living room lately. Mum said it's because the Yankees are playing on the West Coast right now, so the games have been on late at night during my exercise time. She can't watch the big TV and be on the computer, so I get to play in the living room while the game is on. (I don't know where this West Coast is, but if having the Yankees play there means I get to be in the living room, can they play there all the time?)

Last night, though, the game ended earlier than expected, so she had the nerve to shoo me out and put up the gates! I showed her, though; when she was busy on the computer, I did some snooping around and found a way to get up on top of my cage again. I even found the box where she keeps all my treats! I pulled everything out of the box--the dried dandelion blossoms, the dried apple slices, the dried papaya/pineapple bits--I tried to get at the treats inside, but I couldn't get the apple slices and dandelion bags open, and in my haste to get the papaya bits (that bag was open), I knocked the bag off the side of the cage. Mum heard the noise and came to investigate. She shooed me off the cage top and put me back in my cage, then started putting everything back. She freaked when she couldn't find the papaya bag, thinking I might have eaten them all (and trust me, I would have!) but then she found it and it was all good...well, for her it was--I wanted treats!

Well, that's pretty much what's been going on with me. Mum will probably have more to report when she's feeling better. I'm heading for the throne for a well-deserved nap now. This blogging stuff is so tiring...See ya later!

It's Our 100th Post, but...

2011-05-23T01:03:00.001-04:00

...I wasn't planning for it to be like this.

Up until a couple of days ago, Mr. Mick was doing just fine. Eating like always, putting out poops that any good Poop Inspector would have been proud of--until this past Friday, that is, when things got very weird.

It started when I went to feed Mickey on Friday afternoon. I noticed that he hadn't eaten some of the basil I had given him the night before. I didn't think much of it at first, just dismissed it as having given him too much--but then I saw that he hadn't eaten much of his pellets. That was not exactly unusual for Mick, either, but combined with the leftover greens, it had me a little concerned. Mickey didn't appear to be having any problems wanting food, though; the minute I opened his cage, he was all over me hoping to get some treats. I gave him his usual papaya tablet, cleared out the old greens and gave him some fresh cilantro. He nosed at it a bit, then started eating. He didn't attack it with as much gusto as he normally does, but I figured okay, he's eating, it's all good.

That night, when I let Mick out for his run, he bopped around and demanded petting as he always did. No signs of any illness or discomfort; I gave him a belly rub and his tummy didn't feel swollen or hard. I figured I was overreacting...but then I checked his litterbox. His poops had shrunk to about half their normal size. Uh-oh...

I scooped up Mick, brought him into the kitchen, gave him a couple of syringes of water, some Laxatone that I still had from his hairball incident, and some Benebac, then I put him back in his cage and gave him some romaine lettuce to eat. He nosed at it a bit, then started nibbling at it.

In the morning when I checked on Mick, there was still some lettuce left and the litterbox in his cage showed no signs of poop. I called my vet, but it was 11:45am and they close at noon on Saturday. I called the emergency vet in my area, but all I got was voicemail. (I left my name and number and a brief message, but they never called back.) I took him out of his cage and syringed some more water into him, then massaged his belly for about half an hour. He licked my face and toothpurred. I put him back in his cage, switched out his oat hay for a fresh batch, tossed the untouched pellets for a fresh batch, and emptied out his water bowl and gave him fresh. At the last minute, I added a bunch of orchard grass; he appeared to take a nibble, so I left him to it, hoping I had solved the problem.

Since then, there have been no real changes. He's still doing all the "big 4"; his poops are a little bigger, but still not normal, and I'm finding some hair in them. His eating habits are still weird as well; he will be all over me wanting treats (I've cut him back to only papaya tablets), then when I give him greens, he'll nose at them as if he's looking for something before he finally starts to eat them. This is totally unlike him; normally, he'll tear into his greens after he gets his treats, even if it's only a papaya tablet.

There is only one thing that might explain everything, and even then, it's a little weird. I've started buying the occasional bag of salad mix because the greens at my local grocery store haven't been the best recently. Last week, I bought a bag that was a mix of radicchio, some odd lettuces, and shredded carrots. Mick would nose through the mix, pick out the shredded carrots to eat first, then eat the rest. The day after I used the last of the bag is when all of this started--and I wouldn't put it past His Majesty to decide that if he wasn't going to get shredded carrots in with his greens anymore, he wasn't going to bother eating anything else.

I'm calling my vet tomorrow and bringing in Mick for a checkup just to be on the safe side, but if that prima donna thinks I'm going to be buying that salad mix again, he's sadly mistaken.

"Hmmph...can't blame a bun for wanting a proper meal..."

UPDATE: Monday 5/23 1:50pm

The vet's visit has been postponed for the moment; poop inspection shows good improvement, and pellets have been eaten. I am going to continue to keep an eye on things and see how it goes. For now, it looks like somebunny decided he wanted to get more fancy salad mix, but he's completely out of luck now.

Candy Apple and Bunny Glass

2011-05-20T10:06:00.000-04:00

Thanks much to all for the Mother's Day love. Hubby and I had a lovely dinner at one of the fancier places in the area, and Mr. Mick and I had a nice long snuggle once I got home and changed into something worth shedding on. Here's one of the bestest parts of my Mother's Day dinner:

(apologies for the crappy cell phone pic, but it was all I had)

Looks almost exactly like an apple doesn't it? The picture doesn't really do it justice; the detail was quite amazing. It is an apple--a hand blown candy apple!

And inside...

Apple mousse! Almost exactly the color of the inside of an apple, and the flavor was light and subtle, almost like eating a real apple--except that real apple skin doesn't crunch and get all sticky in your mouth. :)

There was the briefest glimpse of sunshine a few moments ago--we've had grey skies and too much rain this whole week. I have been considering commissioning an ark to be built if I don't see some sunny days soon. In the hopes of inspiring some brightness outside, I have been doing a little spring decorating inside, and I hauled out my collection of bunny salt cellars.

These are also known as salt dips, and they were once used instead of salt shakers. Each one is in the shape of a bunny in a basket (the bunny is the lid), and they come in all kinds of colors. I also have some larger versions; same style, but candy dishes instead of salt cellars.

This is a closeup view of one; I usually sit them near a window so the sunshine hitting the glass brings out all the lovely colors, but I decided to make them a table centerpiece for once. Bringing them out inspired me to add to my collection, so I had to go on eBay and see if I could find some new pieces. I placed bids on two cellars (ruby red and marigold colors) and a green candy dish, put another cellar on my watch list and was able to buy one cellar immediately. What color was it? Sunshine, of course! :)

Mr. Mick on Mother's Day

2011-05-08T13:21:00.001-04:00

Hey all, Mickey here. Since you humans are celebrating Mother's Day today, I told Mum I would handle the blogging detail for today.

(Mum says to ignore the mess of hay in the pic; she's cleaned the cage since then--sheesh, Mum! They know that!)

Mum and I celebrated our 3rd buniversary together last Sunday, something she apparently forgot to mention because she was too busy talking about that silly Boy of hers. Hmph! Just because she went and gave birth to him does not make him more special than me--after all, she chose me, didn't she? He's just been lucky to have been around longer.

I will be a gracious bun, though, because it is Mother's Day, and I have a bunny-mum who has loved me lots for three years now. I will admit, there have been a few times when she could have been less loving (like when she clips my nails, or washes my butt, or cleans my cage, or takes me to the vet...) but overall, I'm happy that she chose me out of all the other rabbits at the humane society.

The Big Guy and The Boy also appreciate all she does for them. They gave her some nice gifts for Mother's Day:

(The Boy also gave her a card, but not until after the pic was taken.

Wouldn't let me sample the flowers, either...)

I gave her my usual: lots of nose bonks and bunny kisses. She says she never gets tired of those. The Big Guy is taking her out to dinner tonight, so I'll surprise her with some snuggles after they get home.

I hope the rest of you are taking the time to show your bunny-mom (or your human mom) how much you love and appreciate her. After all, she did/does an awful lot of stuff that nobody else would do for you....unless you have somebody else wiping your butt, in which case I don't want to know about it.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to catch a bit of a nap before tonight's snuggle session. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms (and bunny-moms) out there!

The Boy and The Rabbit

2011-05-04T15:50:00.000-04:00

Mr. Mick and the boy in a rare moment of coexistence

(I am so dead if the boy finds out I posted this)

The boy does not like the rabbit.

He calls the rabbit "defective" and "ugly" and "stupid".

He hates it when the rabbit bugs him while he's trying to study.

He hates it when the rabbit chins his stuff and sheds fur everywhere.

He REALLY hates it when the rabbit gets into his room.

And yet...

When the boy is upset

And he doesn't want to talk about it

He can be found

Sitting in front of the rabbit's cage

With the cage door open

Petting the rabbit's nose

And scratching under the rabbit's chin

While the rabbit licks his hand

And makes it all better.

We've been Disapproved!!!

2011-04-27T14:48:00.001-04:00

It's official, Mr. Mick is a Disapproving Rabbit . Needless to say, we are quite proud of this achievement, although it's already gone to somebunny's head; he's wanting some extra treats and the run of the house for the occasion.

Mr. Mick's Musings

2011-04-24T02:28:00.000-04:00

Hey there, Mickey here. I told Mum that I wanted to do the post for Easter Bunday, and she said that was fine with her.

First off, I want to mention some bunny-blog friends who have recently passed from this world. A fond farewell to my friends Ginny, Freckles and Sugie ; we were never pair-bonded on this earth, but we are bonded in spirit, and I know that you will be there to guide my way when it is my turn to make that journey. Mum and I send lots of love to you and your families.

Next, I want to thank everyone for spreading the word that live rabbits do not make good Easter gifts, but do make wonderful pets for the right people who do the research and learn how to be respectful and loyal bunny-slaves.

On the homefront, I recently had my first outdoor exercise session of the year. We had some warm weather last week, so Mum set up my exercise pen. Here's a couple of videos she shot for the occasion:

Mum says her voice sounds funny because she was still getting over that virus she had. I say it's because she's telling stories about me and the grass--I knew darn well it was edible before, it just wasn't as tasty as this year's grass.

What she should have mentioned is that there were all these nasty birds making noise while we were outside! I kept thumping at them to tell them to shut up, but they just kept on squawking and squawking. Mum was worried that the birds were scaring me, but I wasn't scared, I was ticked off! Stupid birds. Mum said she'd never seen me thump so much in my life. I say those birds had better watch their beaks next time I'm out there.

On another topic, what is it with you people and your litterboxes? I don't care if you watch me when I'm using mine, so why can't I watch you when you're using yours?! The Big Guy just had a fit when I went into the bathroom to say hi and see what he was doing; he made Mum shoo me out! How rude! I should have humped his foot while I was in there.

Uh-oh, Mum's coming at me with that look in her eyes. She's been plucking at my fur a lot lately. She says it's because I'm shedding and she can't stand to see all the little sticking-out bits of fur. I think she just wants my fur for something. Doesn't she get enough of it when she grooms me?

Here she comes--I'm out of here. Happy Easter, everybun, and don't forget to email me--especially if you're a cute and single ladybun.

Nose bonks,
Mickey

The benefits of being sick

2011-04-17T15:34:00.000-04:00

Actually, there's no benefit to being sick...unless you're Mr. Mick and it's your bunny-mum who is sick.

A couple of weeks ago, I got hit out of the blue by a virus; swollen glands, sore throat, earache, low-grade fever, coughing, and general misery. Fearing that it might be strep throat (to which I am highly prone) and not wanting to suffer more than necessary, I immediately went to the doctor's.

Good news: no strep

Bad news: no quick-fix. A virus can only be waited out; you can take pain relievers or other meds/treatments to alleviate the symptoms, but not much else. This particular virus, I was told, usually lasts about 4-5 days.

So I spent the next 4-5 days glued to my living room couch because I was too miserable to do much else. I used my cell phone to check email, read bunny blogs and post occasionally on Facebook and Twitter, but otherwise I laid there, occasionally watched TV and slept.

The menfolk were not much help; they generally try to avoid dealing with sick people unless they're the ones who are sick (and then they want 24-hr. attention because they are DYING, dammit). Fortunately, I had the best of bedside care from Dr. Mick, who was happy to sit on my chest for three hours and lick my face for the small price of an ear rub. He was also more than happy to take advantage of the fact that, because I was not able to sit at the computer, he got to have access to the living room for a few days.

It always amazes me how excited he gets when he gets to go in there. I swear that lazy bunneh never runs so much or so hard as when he's in the living room. Our dining room (his regular exercise space) is nearly twice the size of the living room, and he very rarely runs full-tilt in there unless he's running one of his Bunneh 500 laps from the living room to the dining room to the kitchen and then back into the living room. You'd think the newness of the territory would wear off after a while, but it never does. He's even expanded his repertoire of living room activities to include leaping up beside me on the couch, which only gets him picked up and set back on the floor again. (The main reason he's not allowed in the living room unless strictly supervised: the first time he ever hopped up on the couch, he peed on it.)

Sure enough, after about 5 days, I was feeling about 95% better. I've still got a bit of a cough, and my voice still has a little rasp to it, but I can function normally again. I'm back on the computer, which means the living room is once again off-limits for the most part to Mr. Mick, so now I get to hear the sound of a grumpy bunneh shaking the baby gate that blocks his way every night.

Spot the Bunneh

2011-04-03T12:34:00.000-04:00

Where's Mickey?

Give up?

Here he is!

Foo' wabbit.

I bought these mini-bales of hay from BinkyBunny.com (one young oat, one orchard) and they are a perfect fit for Mick's cage. I wasn't sure if he was going to like them or not, but since he had his teeth done, he's been going to town on the oat bale. Apparently the only thing he doesn't like, though, is where I put it--I had it up against the right side of the cage and he keeps moving it out to where you see it. I'm tempted to switch it with the orchard bale (which is next to his throne and he hasn't touched it yet) to see what he'll do.

How do you make a bunneh happy?

2011-03-29T13:07:00.000-04:00

If the bunneh in question is Mr. Mick, here's how:

Now if there was a way I could do this 24/7, he'd be all set...

Hoppy Birthday, Auntie Shell!

2011-03-27T15:54:00.000-04:00

Mum and I want to wish a very Hoppy Birthday to our dear friend Michelle May of The Raspberry Rabbits .

Auntie Shell, here's hoping your birthday is all kinds of goodness times infinity. For your birthday present, you get bunny kisses and nose bonks, and Mum says I can be available for stealing if you can make it up here before your birthday ends. ;)

Love,
Mickey

Post-Vacation Craziness

2011-03-24T13:00:00.000-04:00

You know that expression, "I need a vacation to get over my vacation."? Well, in my case, it's "I need a vacation to get over coming back from my vacation."

We got back last Saturday night, and it's been one thing after another.

To start with, when we arrived back at the hotel to pick up my son's car, his heater fan wouldn't work, which meant a very chilly ride home for everyone, since we hadn't had time to change out of our light summer clothes. Not really a good thing for three people who already had scratchy throats and coughs (we're still not sure if it's allergies from climate changing or mild colds, since no one's gotten any worse since we picked it up). We've been coughing and hacking for a week to ten days now, so hopefully whatever it is will be out of our systems soon.

It's also snowed twice already since we got home--Hell-LO, Mother Nature?! It's supposed to be SPRING already!

On Monday, I get a call from my mother that word has come down through the grapevine that my dad was hospitalized with chest pains (my parents have been divorced for many years). To say that my dad is hard to track down is an understatement; he thrives on letting as few people as possible know his activities. I finally manage to find out that he is in the hospital with pneumonia and pericarditis (inflammation of the heart sac), so I go to the hospital to see him with two of my siblings. He is doing well now, and the last I had heard from my aunt, if all went well, he'd be out very soon, maybe even as early as yesterday.

Yesterday, I get a call from my oldest brother's fiancee--they're still in Florida (they left here last week) and somehow, my brother got stung between the toes by a stingray! She was calling to find out if I could dig up any info on what should be done for treatment, since they had no internet access. I got the info she needed, and since they haven't called back, I assume all is well, although I'm sure my brother will be a hurting boy for a couple of days.

Yeah, it's been a crazy week so far.

The vacation was lovely, though: we had lovely warm and sunny weather just about every day but one.

We saw some spring training baseball games.

We hung out at Capt. Hiram's SandBar and watched the pelicans.

We went to the beach and enjoyed sun and surf...

...and the seagulls watched us.

...gawd, I miss this.

Of course, it was good to come home and see Mr. Mick again. He was very well-behaved for my sister--that is, until the very last day, when he chewed her iPod cable as she was packing up her stuff to go home.

By the way, Mick--I'm finding hay in some very odd places here...and there's some chew marks I haven't noticed before...and there's bunny poop in my grapefruit tree pot...and it doesn't look like yours...and is this a half-filled carrotini glass in the pantry?!

"Sleeping...know nothing about it...and I plead the Fifth..."

When the Mum's away...(for rabbit eyes only)

2011-03-10T11:29:00.000-05:00

Hey there, Mickey here.

Got a whole house to myself for a while. Mum went on vacation and she took The Big Guy and that rude Boy of hers with her, so it's just me here. Mum was nice enough to leave me a slave to make sure I'm taken care of, but we all know who's in charge here.

So now that I'm in charge, it's time for a Rabbit Party! No humans allowed--just my bunny buddies. Non-rabbit animals will be tolerated if necessary, but no humans 'cause you guys spoil all the fun.

It's BYOT (bring your own treats)--I've got dandelion greens, lettuce, kale and LOTS of hay. I'll send the slave out on a carrot juice run to keep her busy.

Just don't let your humans tell Mum, 'kay? I know she's not paying attention to the blog, she kept going on and on about spending all her time in something called a "jacuzzi". I dunno what it is, but it seems to involve water, so she can't be using her loptop there.

RSVP in the comments section, and hope to see you here!

Seat of Power

2011-03-06T23:43:00.001-05:00

My sister came over again for a few extra house- and wabbit-sitting instructions (and to use my internet because high-speed does not exist at her current place). I made sure this time to instruct her on the intricasies of maintaining the most important piece of furniture in the house: Mr. Mick's throne.

It may seem like an ordinary fuzzy green pet bed, but in Mr. Mick's world, it is so much more. It is a poop receptacle, a meditation mat, a snuggly spot for sleeping and absorbing sunshine, even a substitute companion.

Poop Receptacle

The towel in the throne is there because once His Majesty is firmly ensconced in his seat, he is loath to move unless absolutely necessary. While he will get up and go to the litterbox if he needs to pee (because a wet throne is not a fun throne), he sees no such need when it comes to poop. At any given time, if he is not sitting there, you will usually see a few dozen little pills in his place. The towel keeps the throne poop-free--all I have to do is lift it up and dump everything in the litterbox. I would like to think he is simply being gracious enough to leave samples so that the Poop Inspector doesn't need to pull out his litterbox to check on things, but it's more likely that he's a very lazy bunneh.

Meditation Mat/Snuggle Spot

Need I say more? It was either a really cold day when I took this pic or I made the mistake of putting a substandard towel in place. Mick only allows certain towels to cushion his fuzzy butt; anything else usually gets tossed off.

Substitute Companion
This is the one that has had me scratching my head. I often catch Mick licking the edges of his throne--not chewing it or nibbling at it, just licking it, like he's grooming it. At first, I was concerned that he might be ingesting some of the fuzz, but I tried dampening my fingers and rubbing the edges and no fuzz came off. I thought perhaps he was attracted to the apple-y scent of the softener sheets I use, but I use the same softener sheets on his towels, and he doesn't lick the towels. (I switched to unscented, though, just in case--no change.) My sister saw him doing it and thought that perhaps he was treating it like a stuffed animal companion. That was the only suggestion that seemed to make sense.

In other wabbit-related news, I found a bunch of very large matted clumps of fur on the bottom of Mickey's back feet. I was able to comb them off and still keep his tootsies fuzzy-wuzzy, but he was not at all happy about the process because it involved keeping him belly-up. He fussed and kicked and flipped himself right repeatedly; he was not at all a happy bun. Once I set him down on the floor and he had a chance to hop around again, though, he seemed to realize that things were all for the better, and decided that I was forgiven enough to be allowed to pet him and rub his ears for a while. A kind and merciful fellow is His Majesty.

As for me, I still have yet to pack for our trip, which means I will be doing an awful lot of rushing around over the next two days. His Majesty's throne has been washed, dried and returned to his cage with haste (you should have seen the glare I got when somebunny found a lone towel where his throne should have been), but his cage still needs to be thoroughly cleaned so my sister doesn't have to do it. I'm going to need to get to the store and make sure the royal pantry is properly stocked as well.

"Well, of course you do--I need to be kept in the manner

to which I have become accustomed.

Now, please; it's nap time, and you're interfering with my rest."

Preparations

2011-03-03T19:20:00.000-05:00

In a few days, we'll be heading to Florida on our annual pilgrimage to worship at the altars of sunshine and baseball. After the winter we've had, I am in desperate need of both.

My sister will be wabbit-sitting for His Majesty as always. In fact, she's stopping over tonight for our usual walkthrough, in which I show her where all his stuff is and what his routine is and he tries to convince her that he requires far more attention and treats than his evil mum gives him. I know she will spoil him almost as rotten as I do, so I have no worries. At least he is a healthy bun right now; last year, I was dealing with giving him eye meds and hoping she wouldn't have to.

I will miss my pampered orange furball, but I know he will be in good hands.

You all won't even notice I'm gone, though, because I will be bringing my laptop as always so I can keep up on all the goings-on in the bunny community. I may even throw in a post if I have a chance, because there will be days when we have nothing going on and lots of pretty pictures to share.

Here's the latest video of Mr. Mick, who found a new something to explore recently: the empty laundry hamper that I left in the dining room by accident.

Happy Blog-iversary to us!

2011-02-25T14:05:00.000-05:00

I wasn't planning to go so long between posts. but when I happened to be reading through some of my older stuff earlier this week, I realized that Zen of Bun has been in existence for exactly one year today! Yay!

As you can see, Mickey is completely overwhelmed at the thought.

It's a good thing I held off, too, because I didn't really have much of anything interesting to post about, until Mickey decided to take matters into his own paws. He's currently in the boy's doghouse again, although I will say that is with somewhat good reason for once.

Two nights ago, the boy was studying at the dining room table when I let Mickey out for his run. Of course, the first thing Mickey usually does when he comes out and sees the boy sitting there is to go over and give him a noodge to get his attention. The boy never appreciates this, so I was watching to see what would happen in case I needed to run interference. I watched Mickey run up to the boy, but for once, he simply scooted under my son's chair and went over to his tunnel under the table. I figured that my son had noticed this, so I sat down at my desk and went back to my computer.

"GHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

I spun around at the sound of my son hollering, although I had a good idea what had happened.

"What's the matter?"

"Why didn't you TELL me you let the furball out?! He brushed against my leg and scared the **** out of me!"

I held back a snicker and reminded the boy of all the times that I had indeed informed him that Mick was on the loose and gotten "I know that." in response. He was not amused. Meanwhile, Mr. Mick was still nosing around my son's feet, either clueless as to the uproar he was causing or determined to continue it. The boy pushed him away, muttering threats of violence against fuzzy critters who persist in interrupting his work. Mickey finally went over to me to get some petting, and I figured the matter was over.

A short time later, the boy finishes his work, gets up, wishes me goodnight, and heads off to his bedroom.

A few seconds later:

"OH MY GOD! *LOTS of swearing* "

I hear a bunch of things being moved around, and more swearing. I get up and rush into his room. My son is on his knees next to the bed, and I realize what has happened. Mr. Nosy Bunneh has struck again.

My son is leaning down and reaching under the bed. "You little ****, how the **** did you get in here?!"

"Did you leave your door open? I closed it myself before I let him out."

"The door was closed when I came in--and yes, I closed it after! Get out from under there, you little ****!"

He reaches under the bed and thrashes his arm around. I can hear nails clickety-clacking on the floor under the bed, and my son curses again. I clap my hands and stomp and order Mickey out. A few moments later, there is an orange blur and the furry invader is skedaddling out of the bedroom. My son is muttering more threats under his breath. I reminded him that he knows he's got to keep an eye out because Mickey does not miss any opportunity to go where he's not supposed to. (I will admit; this is the fastest I've ever seen him do it, though--I didn't even hear him go into the hallway after the boy.)

The boy was (again) not amused, so I left him to go back to what I was doing, making sure to close the door tight. Good thing I did, because within a moment after I sat back down, guess who was heading back into the hallway? I grabbed my camera to get a picture (since by then, I knew this was going to be a blog post), but Mick scooted back into the dining room the minute he heard me get out of the chair. Three more times, he went back into the hallway, until I finally opened the bathroom door so he could run around in there. (Of course, just as I did that, my husband gets up to use the bathroom--and closes the door again after he leaves.)

Of course, now Mick's headed into the hallway any time he's out, just in case he gets another opportunity. I make sure the bathroom door's open now, so he can bop in there and feel like he's accomplished something.

Foo' wabbit.

Yeah, all that nosiness can wear a bunny right out.

Anyhow, I would like to thank one and all for reading this blog over the past year. I hope we've managed to entertain you, and hopefully we'll keep entertaining you in the years to come.

"If I'm going to be doing this for another year, I want more treats."

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T18:31:00.001-05:00

Valentine's Day is relatively low-key here. Hubby and I do exchange gifts, but nothing hugely expensive. Most of the time, it involves both of us getting each other goodies from Catherine's Chocolates , our local handmade candy store. I get him his favorite milk-chocolate-covered cashews (and some chocolate-covered wintergreens for myself) and he gets me chocolate-covered strawberries. He also gets me roses or a bouquet of assorted flowers as well.

This year, I told him that all I wanted for V-Day was a display shelf for my bunny stuff. He recently built himself a shelf for his collection of Sesame Street characters (that's a story for another post), and I have a ton of bunny items that are sitting in a pile on top of a bedroom table in dire need of proper displaying. He said he'd be happy to do it. Of course, he still got me roses and choc-covered strawberries anyway, but I told him that won't get him out of building me a shelf. :)

For once, I actually dressed for the day: red top, red earrings, and this necklace, which I thought particularly appropriate:

Isn't it sweet? I got it during a bunny event at Berkshire Humane Society, the shelter where I got Mickey.

Speaking of Mr. Mick, while he doesn't get special gifts for V-Day, he did get a little extra treat in the form of some teeny-tiny dried pineapple and papaya bits. He got them as a belated Christmas gift from my girlfriend Laura, and I have been very stingy in doling them out so as not to have more tummy episodes. Needless to say, I was practicially tackled just opening the bag.

"If you value your life, you will dish out the treats NOW."

Once he was somewhat appeased with his treats, he was willing to pose pretty for a Valentine's Day message to his fans:

To all the single ladies out there:

I will be your hunnybunny

If you will be my bunnyhunny.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Love, Mickey

How can anybun resist that? Hope everyone and everybun is having a Happy Valentine's Day.

Things that go "thump" in the night

2011-02-06T13:57:00.000-05:00

I let Mr. Mick out for his run last night, and everything was normal for a little while, but then things got a little odd.

As I was on the computer playing a game, he came over to tug on my pants leg as always (the bunny equivalent of ringing a bell--it means His Majesty wants some petting and there had better be some petting given or else). I reached down and stroked his nose for a bit until he decided he'd had enough for the time being, gave a little thump and hopped over to the rug next to my desk.

I went back to my game and continued playing.

A short time later, I hear him thump again. I look over and he's under one of my dining room chairs as always. All seemed to be well, so I went back to playing.

(THUMP)

I look at him again, look around--nothing. I turn back to the computer.

A minute later:

(THUMP)

I turn around again. I look, I listen. Nothing that appears to be alarm-worthy. "What is the matter with you, silly bunny?"

Mick ignores me. I turn to go back to the game.

(THUMP!)

I get off my chair and get down on the floor. Mick is still under the dining room chair. I go to move the chair to get a better look; he thumps at me, scoots out from underneath the chair, and moves back to the rug. I figure okay, he's looking for some extra attention, so I stretch out on the rug (which usually results in him coming over to snuggle up against me and lick my face).

He comes over, but then he stops, thumps at me, turns, runs under my computer chair, thumps again, then goes back under the dining room chair. He huddles up and thumps again.

Okay, something's definitely weird.

I get up, go over to the dining room chair, move it and pick up Mick. He offers no resistance. I check him over; other than a couple of poops stuck to his butt, he seems perfectly fine. I sit down in my computer chair and give him a snuggle and tummy massage. After a while, he makes an odd noise, like a small whine or a sigh. I stop the massage and check him out; he's fine and more than happy to continue snuggling, so I snuggle him for about a half-hour more, then set him down to see what he would do. He bops off as if nothing had happened, and the rest of the night goes without incident.

After I put him back in his cage, I go to check the front door area. His litterbox is there, but since he tends to leave a few stray poops outside his box on the doormat, I always have to do a little cleanup there before bed.

The entire mat is covered--and I mean covered--with bunny poops. Like somebunny's butt exploded or something.

His Majesty on the aforementioned mat

I guess the tummy massage must have done the trick.

Happy Year of the...CAT?!

2011-02-03T19:10:00.000-05:00

Today begins the Year of the Rabbit in many Eastern cultures. The Vietnamese fellow who did my nails today told me that in Vietnam, however, it is the Year of the Cat, as they do not have the Rabbit in their zodiac/mythology. I told him that they should consider adding it.

Mr. Mick thought I should not have left him a tip. He says cats are already worshipped as gods in some places, they don't need a year. I told Mick that it's not my manicurist's fault that the Vietnamese do not have a Year of the Rabbit, and he always does a lovely job on my nails, so he gets a tip.

His Majesty continued to grumble about the injustice of the matter until I silenced him with an ear rub and a massage. Once suitably mellowed, he was willing to allow cats to have their year...but only Vietnamese cats. "The rest of them are out of luck, it's our turn."

"mmmmmm...a few treats, a nice massage...I'll take this for a year or so..."

Here's wishing everyone and everybun a joyous and much-blessed Year of the Rabbit (and a happy Year of the Cat to our feline friends as well).

It's Snowing Again...

2011-02-01T14:06:00.001-05:00

Just in case anyone's thinking I'm being a tad melodramatic:

This is the view from my kitchen window.

Another view (hubby is somewhere back there shoveling a path to the birdfeeders).

This is the view from my dining room/office window.

And we're getting even more over today and tomorrow.

"I think I'll sleep in today...wake me when it's spring..."

You and me both, Mick...

Picking A Winner

2011-01-31T10:57:00.000-05:00

Oh, Mick?

"Yes, Mum?"

It's time for you to pick our giveaway winner.

"Do I have to? I'm pretty busy here."

Busy doing what?

"I'm fluffing up my towel for my mid-morning nap."

Your nap can wait for a minute, I just need you to pick a winner.

"But that's one minute of naptime gone. You know I need my beauty sleep."

I think you can manage, Mick. Besides, there's a treat in it for you.

"Only one treat? Honestly, is that the best you can do? I'm sacrificing sleep for this."

Fine, two treats, but that's it.

"Deal. Now let's get this over with."

"Hmmmmmph...that's a lot of papers there. I dunno if two treats are proper compensation..."

Don't push your luck, Mister.

"Fine, fine, fine..."

*grabs paper, flings it*

"Now where's my treats?"

The perils of disturbing a grumpy bunny on a Monday morning, folks.

Anyway, we have a winner, and the lovely scarf is going out to:

Donna of Lavender Rabbit Hoppenings!

Congratulations, Donna. I already have your address, so your prize will be getting out to you as soon as I can dogsled my way to the post office. We're getting another foot of snow starting sometime tomorrow, according to the weather people. That is NOT how I want to start my February.

Eskimo Jade and Nanook Mick of the North(east) signing off.

And now, a word from Mr. Mick

2011-01-28T22:53:00.000-05:00

Hello, Mickey here.

I know you're used to seeing Mum's words in this space, but since she's gone and fallen asleep and left her laptop within my reach, I thought I would take the opportunity to commandeer it and do my own blogging. (I guess you can call it a LOPtop now. Bunny humor = comedy gold.)

As she's probably told you, she's gone and changed my diet--without my permission, mind you--and practically eliminated my treat supply. She's even gone and gotten rid of my favorite pellet mix because she says they've started putting too many treats into it. (Need I mention that is WHY it's my favorite pellet mix? They clearly know what we rabbits like!) Now, I ask you--how is a rabbit supposed to get through his day without a few dozen treats to keep him amused and entertained? Do I take away her sweets without asking? (If I could get into that pantry of hers, I'd certainly give it a try--all's fair in love and treats, I say. )

It's been a long and drawn-out battle. I can't go into details (don't want to give out all my secrets) but let's just say a good snubbing and some flat-out sulk had to come into play. I was also forced to abandon some dignity in the process, display an excess amount of cute and *sigh* beg, but I will say it was well worth the effort. Mum has finally agreed to allow one or two small treats at mealtime, and to add a pinch of whole oats to my new Oxbow pellets. She says that as long as it doesn't cause me any tummy issues and I don't get fat, she's fine with it, and so far it hasn't (and I am NOT fat! )

Hmmmm, I can see why Mum likes this blogging stuff. I suppose I should add some new pictures as well:

This is me getting ready to chin that boy's shoes. He HATES it when I do that--which is precisely why I do it. Let me tell you, boys are nothing but trouble sometimes. I don't know why Mum has to have him around; he makes a mess, he's lazy, and he doesn't pet me nearly as much as he should. He only thinks he's the one in charge.

Mum did some of her fancy computer stuff on these next two:

She said the originals looked a little blurry, but they looked like artwork when she fixed the color on them. I say I look good no matter what, so she didn't need to do all that much, but they did come out nice.

Anyways, all this typing has tired me out, so I think I'm gonna take a nap. If you want to hear from me more often, feel free to send me one of those email thingys; my email address is mrmick@jademyst.com . Mum says that she'll let me post once in a while if I get enough emails.

Also, don't forget to enter Mum's giveaway . The drawing is January 31st; it's a pretty thing she made (although she wouldn't let me chew it) and if I know her, she'll probably send you a nice picture of me to go with it. How can you pass that up?

Shhhh, now let me sleep...

Treats for Jade!

2011-01-21T15:20:00.000-05:00

I know, I've been a posting fiend lately, but since I'm snowed in yet again there isn't much else to do. Besides, I've been dying to show off the lovely goodies I've gotten lately.

First off, these lovely bundles from d. moll and 4buns' The Qi Papers Etsy store arrived on Monday:

Inside those lovely bundles were these *squee*:

and these *SQUEE*:

Lovely, lovely notecards that I will have such a hard time parting with, although I do plan to keep one of each for myself.

There was a beautiful origami crane as well, which I plan to string with fishing line and use as an ornament.

As if that weren't enough to brighten my snow-filled week, with yesterday's mail came my giveaway prize from Donna at Lavender Rabbit Hoppenings, which arrived all sweetly wrapped for me:

Christmas in January! YAY! And inside *gleeful shriek*:

Aren't they GORGEOUS? I am so wearing these out to dinner tonight.

Donna was even nice enough to include something for Mr. Mick as well:

A willow ring and some dried pineapple for His Majesty, who was hoping that he would get the entire envelope-ful for a treat, but is currently on a treat-free diet because of some minor digestive issues (mainly that he's been eating too many treats).

Thanks much to both d.moll and Donna (and their respective warrens) for making this week a lot brighter.

(Of course, if it would JUST STOP SNOWING, that would help...)

Speaking of giveaways, don't forget to go HERE and leave a comment so you can be entered in my giveaway--and feel free to pass the word along to everyone else so they can enter as well.

It's Only January...

2011-01-18T16:14:00.000-05:00

...and I've had enough of winter already.

We're on our third snowstorm so far, and this one's loaded with all the sleet, ice and ick that I absolutely HATE. Plans for the day have been cancelled yet again, which is probably what I hate most about winter in the first place. In order to cheer myself up and take my mind off of the white junk overloading my yard, it's time to post some bunny pics.

Mr. Mick's meditation room has found a new home, thanks to post-Christmas redecorating. He was not exactly thrilled at first with the fact that I folded in the flaps to make things look neater, but is undecided as to whether or not he should do a little bunconstruction to improve matters.

Taking a short break for a hay snack after tossing his tins around. Mickey cannot stand to see a stack of anything go unflung. The tins tend to suffer much of his wrath, possibly because they do make such a soothing clanking sound when banged on the floor. People who say rabbits do not make a sound have obviously never been in our house.

A regal pose for the masses from His Majesty, who is willing to tolerate the assault of the paparazzi on occasion because he knows it will please his faithful worshippers.

You know that you are truly crazy bunny people when you not only outfit your bunny statue in a hat and scarf for the winter, but you actually dig him out of a three-foot drift because you don't want him to be buried. (The latter was my husband's doing, actually--he was clearing snow away from around the house to protect the foundation and insisted on digging out Milo as well.)

For those who may not recall, Milo was a gift from my husband and is named for my late grandfather because Milo's outfit and his wheelbarrow remind me of him. My husband is not normally a bunny person, but he gets a huge kick out of Milo and says it's the best gift he's ever given me, so we both tend to treat it a little differently. Yes, I actually made that scarf and hat for him, and I must say he looks darn cute in it.

Speaking of scarves, don't forget to go here and post a comment so you can be entered in my giveaway. Deadline is January 31st--and followers get an extra entry as well, so make sure you click on the "follow" button while you're at it.

Somebunny is jingling his toy keys, which means it's time to end this and go tend to His Majesty. Have a great day, people--and stay warm!

Time for a Giveaway!

2011-01-15T17:51:00.000-05:00

Posting again, Jade?! So SOON?!

Why yes, amazing, isn't it?

But why?

Because I have something that I just can't wait to show off--and give away!

I have been toying with the idea of crocheting some beaded scarves/sashes to sell on Etsy for a while now. Those of you who follow The Raspberry Rabbits may have seen the scarf/sash I made for Michelle, and if you click on the link at the right of the page for my crochet project pics on Facebook, you can see another one that I made (the recipient of which will be unnamed because it is a gift not yet given). The response was so positive that I decided to give it a shot, so I went out and found some lovely yarn and beads and set to work on one as a prototype.

Here is the result:

(sorry, bunny not included)

(closeup of detail)

Color: white w/silver-lined glass beads (inspired by Michelle May, who loves her white :) )

Yarn: Baby Bunny (what else?) by Plymouth Yarn--60% Pima Cotton, 30% Modal, 10% Angora

Beads: 0/6 seed beads, clear w/silver lining

Care: Hand wash, dry flat

Length: approx. 40"

Width: approx. 3"

This is a very versatile item; it can be worn straight, knotted or wrapped as a scarf, or tied around the waist as a sash or belt.

The ones I plan on making for sale will be slightly thinner, so I have decided to give this one away to one of my loyal readers/followers.

Giveaway details:

1. The drawing will be on January 31st.

2. If you want to be entered, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post. If you are a follower of this blog, you will get an automatic second entry.

I'm so very happy with how this scarf turned out, so I really hope whoever wins it will be just as happy with it. Good luck to all! :)

A New Toy and a Question

2011-01-14T15:25:00.000-05:00

One of Mickey's new toys that he got for Christmas was a BunnyIQ toy called Linnea (purchased through Bunspace.com ). This has become his favoritest toy ever, for reasons that will become clear when you see this:

Oh yes, anything involving treats is a big winner in the Mickster's book.

He picked up on it fairly quickly; according to the instructions, you show them the treat in the dishes without the covers, then once they've grasped the concept that treats are in the dishes, you then put the covers on and let them figure it out from there. The boy decided that he was going to teach Mickey how it works. This is the result:

Now, the moment I set the toy down, there's an orange blur and those wood covers go flying. He scared himself the other night--he flung a cover into his meditation room and the sound of it hitting the cardboard walls made him jump about a mile. Made me jump, too; it sounded like he'd run into something he shouldn't.

Now for the question:
I love getting comments from everyone who reads this blog, and I really appreciate hearing from each and every one of you. I'm just not sure as to the best way to respond to the comments we get; while some commenters leave an e-mail address that I can reply to, many do not, and I'm not sure if I should post reply comments since I don't know if people actually look to see if there is a reply posted or not.

So help me out here, fellow bloggers and commenters: how do you respond to the comments you get? Do you like to get a response to your comments? What works for you?

Okay, so maybe that's three questions...

Anyway, any input you can give will be greatly appreciated. I'm also thinking of doing an occasional feature called "Mr. Mick's Mailbag" so His Majesty can give his own point of view in here once in a while, so let me know what you think of that while you're at it. Thanks much! :)

The tooth and nothing but the tooth

2011-01-03T17:48:00.001-05:00

Called the vet this morning and brought Mr. Mick in this afternoon to get his teeth checked and see what the heck is going on in his mouth. His regular vet, Dr. Shanahan, gave him a thorough exam as well. The patient was on his most charming and best behavior for her, tooth-purring with delight at all the attention he was getting.

Results:
His front teeth are fine, he may just need to get used to them being a little shorter than before. She showed me how they were lined up just right, with the lower set just touching the upper set in the back.

The substitute vet did file down what points were there on his molars, and they look good.

Mr. Mick got a clean bill of health as well.

The vet's analysis:
Mickey isn't used to the shorter teeth yet, but they will grow back and he'll adjust.

She was nice enough not to charge me for the visit, and she also said that a note would be put on the computer to do back teeth only and only do front teeth if necessary.

I brought Mickey home; upon being returned to his cage, he tore into a plate of dandelion greens like he hadn't eaten in weeks.

The bunny-mom's analysis:
Somebunny is a freaking prima donna who not only is way too fussy, but apparently has decided that he likes having his greens shredded for him far too much to go back to having to chew them up himself.

"Hmph...and what, may I ask, is wrong with

wanting a higher level of service around here?!"

Christmas Gifts and a Hoppy New Year

2011-01-01T11:16:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned last post, I got some lovely Christmas gifts, perfect stuff for a crazy bunny lady:

This charming fellow was given to me by my younger stepdaughter. His lantern will hold an actual tealight candle, so he will be placed on or in front of our front step once the snow has cleared out, so that people visitng our home will get a proper welcome.

He will also have a companion:

This fellow was one of my husband's presents for me. He's made of metal, and as you can see, he also carries a tealight candle in his lantern, so I will have two greeters for my doorway once I've figured out how I want to arrange them.

At the moment, they are guarding my Christmas tree for me, and doing a fine job of it:

Last, but not least, there's this sweet bun, who was a belated Christmas gift from my sister:

She gave him to me last night at my cousin's, where we were celebrating New Year's. Isn't he sweet?

He's all soft and squishy and sparkly. I want to give him a name, but haven't come up with anything suitable yet.

Speaking of soft and squishy...

"Excuse me? I will not be referred to as 'squishy', thank you very much."

Mr. Mick and I would like to wish everyone and everybun a Hoppy New Year. May the Year of the Rabbit bring you all the best of everything. :)

So much to post, so little space...

2010-12-29T16:52:00.000-05:00

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

2010-12-25T02:38:00.000-05:00

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

2010-12-24T13:22:00.000-05:00

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

2010-12-24T00:14:00.000-05:00

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...

2010-12-15T00:41:00.001-05:00

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!

2010-12-06T01:13:00.001-05:00

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.

Taking A Page From The Bunny Lounge Cookbook

2010-11-24T23:23:00.000-05:00

If you have not been to The Bunny Lounge, you have not only missed a chance to see the adorable Hef and his canine roommates, Shadow and Bandit, but you have missed out on Hef's Mom's cooking. She loves to cook and is always happy to share her recipes with her readers. I gain weight just looking at her food.

Recently, she shared a recipe for slow-cooking pork tenderloin in the crock pot with BBQ sauce until it became like pulled pork. Now, I luvs me some pulled pork, but I'm not a big BBQ sauce fan; I like to taste meat before sauce, so I decided to take the recipe and experiment using tomato sauce instead. I ended up adding diced tomatoes because it didn't look like I had enough liquid (and running to the store on the day before Thanksgiving was NOT an option) and using Italian seasoning as well.

The results were AWESOME! Hubby loved it so much, he had thirds. The pork was tender and juicy, the broth was tomato-ey, yet not overpowering. Hubby and I had it over bread, but you could just as easily serve it over pasta. I'm calling "Italian Pulled Pork", and here is the recipe:

Italian Pulled Pork for Crock Pot

2 ¾ - 3 lbs. pork tenderloin (I used two tenderloins, about 1 ½ lbs. each, since they were Buy One, Get One Free at my local grocery store)

1 small can Contadina tomato sauce with Onion and Garlic (tossed the can before I realized that I would need the size for a recipe--it's the smallest can they have)

2 14.5 oz. cans Contadina diced tomatoes

Mrs. Dash Italian Medley spice blend to taste (I really loaded it on, probably used a tablespoonful in total)

Pour tomato sauce in bottom of crock pot.

Add tenderloin, turn over in sauce a few times until well-coated.

Liberally shake Italian Medley over tenderloin and sauce.

Top with diced tomatoes.

Sprinkle a little more Italian Medley over the top.

Place lid on crock pot and cook on low for a minimum of 8 hours, opening it once or twice to turn the tenderloin.

Take a fork and rake it over the tenderloin to shred it, then mix it with the broth.

Serve on bread or pasta.

Serves 4 to 6.

We'll definitely be having this one again for sure. Thanks again to Hef's Mom for the original recipe.

To my fellow Americans, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. To everyone else, I suggest making tomorrow Italian Pulled Pork Day, and enjoy! :)

Gifties!

2010-11-18T00:16:00.001-05:00

I was SO excited to get this in the mail on Monday:

*SQUEE*!

A notecard set, magnet and a sweet card from Sue and Clovis of Clovie Boy! Sue is a wonderful artist, and if you have not checked out her blog or her Etsy store yet, you should.

Now. No, seriously, NOW.

It's ok, I'll wait until you come back...

*hums happy tune while she waits*

There you are. Isn't it awesome? And Clovis is just the handsomest boy, I want to squeeze him every time I see him. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Sue and Clovis!

This is how happy I am with this gift; I squeezed the last drop out of my dying camera battery just so I could get that pic to show everybody. When I checked the memory card, I had a few pics of Mickey still on there, so I thought I would show those as well.

Please ignore the mess, it's been cleaned since.

This is Mickey's latest toy: a cardboard tunnel from BinkyBunny.com . It can be stretched out, curved or straight, and folds like an accordion for storage.

So far, it has the Mickey seal of approval; he likes to bop in and out of it, and it's great for hiding from or escaping the boy...

...because if you don't escape the boy, this is what happens:

The "pillow on the bunny" trick does NOT get the Mickey seal of approval.

And now, I will be hunting for that fershlugginer battery charger. Wish me luck!

For Malcolm: The Joy of Loaf

2010-11-14T22:51:00.000-05:00

My last post mentioned that Mickey is a practitioner of bunny yoga, specifically the "loaf" position. Allow me to expand on this:

"Loaf" is a position of being and doing, of verb and noun; the bunny is involved in the act of loafing while actually looking like a loaf of something. Above, Mickey performs the "fresh-baked bread" variation. The paws are thoroughly tucked in, the head and body are also tucked in, yet the pose is one of complete relaxation. Sometimes, a bunny even gets so relaxed that they transition from "loaf" straight into all-out "flop", but that is often accidental and not a desired occurrence.

Behold the ultra-rare "carrier loaf". "Loaf" is best achieved in one's cage, under a chair or table, or in any sheltered area so as to avoid interruption or in case a full-fledged nap is called for.

The "loaf" position is a time to reflect upon one's state of bunnyhood; to contemplate ways in which one can achieve all that is desired--a few more treats, an extra ear rub, world domination, whatever--or review past actions and their success or failure.

"Loaf" is not a position to be taken lightly; it requires great concentration, and any interruption of the process is guaranteed to result in some serious disapproval, if not some retaliatory poop in your shoes. I was lucky to escape with only minor snubbing after taking the photo above. If you happen to see your rabbit in the "loaf" position, it is recommended that you maintain your distance, but observe them carefully until you are certain that it is safe to approach before attempting any kind of communication.

Assorted Stuff

2010-11-10T15:47:00.000-05:00

There are some things that cannot be shown, and yet words do not adequately describe them.

For example, Mickey and I have developed a nighttime ritual recently. Because of his massive amounts of shedding, I have been unable to snuggle him as often as I used to for fear of killing my washing machine and dryer with fur lint. This has resulted in him spending more hours a night out and about for exercise in the dining room, where shedded fur on a rug is easier to remove. His normal routine involves a lot of what I call "under-chair bunny yoga"; find a chair, crawl under it, assume the "loaf" position and meditate, then find another chair, repeat process, and so on. This is occasionally broken up by trips to the litterbox, which he seems to have decided is the best place for any photo opportunites that may be considered as he will sit up and prop his paws on the rim of the litterbox in a pose worthy of any ingenue on the red carpet. Afterwards, he will hop down, leave a few poops outside the box (souvenirs for the fans, perhaps?) and go back to meditating.

The new ritual begins with a tug on my pants leg, or if I am not wearing pants, a nose bump against my ankle and possibly a pawing at my shin. That has always guaranteed him some petting (and still does) and sometimes that's enough to make Mr. Mick happy and he'll scamper off to do some more bunny-yoga. Sometimes, though, he will move over to the blue rug in front of my husband's desk next to where I am at the computer and lounge. That is now my signal to get up and go lie down next to him so he can come over for the exchange of kisses. Sometimes, I will lie down on the rug first and he will immediately leave whatever he is doing in order to stick his face up against mine and give my face a good licking while I scratch behind his ears, give him an ear rub or pluck as many tufts of loose fur as he will tolerate before he goes dancing away with a happy little ear and tail wiggle.

He will only do this if we are alone, so it is impossible to capture video or photographic evidence of the ritual, but it is the sweetest of moments. No matter what kind of day I've had, it is always much cheerier afterwards.

The candle party I mentioned in my last post went quite well. Mr. Mick was the star of the show and was brought out by popular demand after the candle stuff was over for much petting and oohing and aahing. Many of the guests had only seen him in pictures and were absolutely overwhelmed with the in-person cute. His Majesty tolerated the adoration of his subjects quite well, content to snuggle against me while everyone petted him and told him what a gorgeous boy he was. He even allowed a couple of the guests to feed him some treats before he was returned to his cage for his afternoon nap.

In other news, my work on the Milo's Bunny square has been put on hold until after the holidays. I have finished one square and it came out lovely, but there's still one or two spots where the execution needs to be tweaked before I'm happy with it, and right now, I've got some other projects that need to be worked on for holiday gifts. I will be picking it up again as soon as the holidays are done, though; I just found out that one of my friends and his wife are expecting their first child in May, and I want to make a Milo's Bunny blanket for them.

A few more bits of PaintShopPro fun for you (since I still can't find my darn charger): these pics are all done with an effect called Time Machine, which will render an image in the style of different photography techniques; from the early days of Daguerrotype--

(click on these to view them larger, the effects are awesome)

to the Cyanotype of the late 19th-early 20th century--

to the look achieved with the box cameras of the early-to-mid 20th century--

to a more modern developing technique known as "cross-process" achieved by processing color film with chemicals designed for processing a different kind of film (for example, the effect shown is achieved by using chemicals for processing photo film on slide film)

Hmmm, I should try putting a bunch of these together and making an Andy Warhol-style Mickey poster or something...

A Confession

2010-11-06T03:16:00.000-04:00

This past Thursday, I was the awfullest bunny-mom ever.

Let me say that this has been one of those weeks. I'm hosting a candle party this Sunday and I've been trying to find the time to get the house cleaned and ready, but distractions of one kind or another have been putting me off-track all week. Wednesday, I was supposed to get my nails done (I am seriously vain about my nails, having been a reformed nail-biter for many years, so when they start to look rough, I freak), but had to put it off until Thursday. I also had a hair appointment scheduled for Thursday afternoon at 3:30pm.

Of course, it was a miserable, gray rainy day Thursday, and having not slept well the past few nights, I ended up sleeping far longer than intended, so by the time I was up, fed, showered and dressed, it was already going into afternoon. By the time I got to the nail salon for my manicure, it was already about 2:00pm. I was finished in time to grab a late lunch before the hair appointment, got that done, got home, sat on the computer for a bit, watched some TV, took a brief catnap, and was just about to sit down at 10:30pm to do the weekly payroll when I suddenly realized:

I hadn't fed Mickey all day.

(I know, how bad is that?!)

Now, this is not to say that Mr. Mick had no food. On the contrary, he had a pile of hay and a dish of pellets leftover from the day before, so he hadn't been starved, but he had not received his usual daytime fresh greens and treats, and from the way he carried on as I immediately went to the fridge to remedy the error, you'd think he hadn't eaten in a week. (of course, if he'd made that kind of stink earlier in the day, I would have remembered far sooner). He was trying to open the cage door as fast as I could get the latch open, and immediately climbed all over me as I was opening his dried bananas container to try to snag what he could get. Once he had a piece of banana to chew on, all was well with the world and he was amenable to much petting and apologies. He even gave me a few licks to let me know I was forgiven--even if he wasn't going to get an extra banana slice for his pain and suffering. I still feel bad about completely forgetting, though--that is not good bunny-mom behavior.

In other news, I have been unable to take new pictures of Mickey because I cannot remember where I put the battery charger for my camera, so I have been playing around with some of his old ones. Karen M. of Rabbits Eat Quilts has been posting about her Photoshop lessons (and putting up some lovely pics), so I was inspired to open up my trusty PaintShopPro and have some fun. This is the picture of Mickey that appears in the 2010 Bunspace calendar:

I edited out the plastic container in the background as best I could, using Object Remover:

This is going to be the base for a bunch of effects, but here's two for now. Here is Mickey in Enamel:

And here he is in Colored Foil:

Isn't that awesome? Wait until you see some of the other effects. Thanks to Karen for the inspiration!

Halloween Friends

2010-10-31T01:29:00.001-04:00

Halloween has simply snuck up on me this year. I haven't had nearly the time to decorate as I normally do. There's a few things that are up, so it's not all bad, but not nearly enough that you'd even know we're aware of the holiday.

While getting out my box of Halloween decor, I found a few things that I thought Mickey might like. Perhaps they could be new buddies for him, like Clovis' friends over at Clovie Boy.

Friend #1 showed a lot of potential; Miss Witch Bear is about the same size and color as Mr. Mick, and he did seem to be attracted...

...but not interested enough, I guess.

I offered a couple more friends for his approval:

Unfortunately, while Mr. Black Cat was sniff-worthy, he just came off as having a flat personality, so no chance there. As for poor Mr. Bat, he was flat-out rejected. I guess somebunny is planning on going trick-or-treating solo this year.

Oh well...Happy Halloween, all! :)

Bunneh Beautification

2010-10-21T01:34:00.000-04:00

I've mentioned before that Mickey is a year-round shedder. There is not a day that goes by that the fur isn't a-flyin' in this household. However, even for those who shed 24/7, there are certain times of the year that are worse than others, and this is one of them. It's like living with a fur version of Br'er Rabbit's Tar Baby, except that in this case, the rabbit (fur) sticks to you instead of you sticking to it.

Fortunately, His Majesty enjoys a good grooming to a certain extent, and we have also had the good fortune of some sunny weather that's not too chilly, so I have been able to bring the grooming sessions outside instead of filling my mudroom with clouds of fur. Today, I decided to make it a full day of bunny beautification by adding a pedicure and an ear cleaning.

First came the pedicure, which was a bit of a necessity as somebunny's nails have been pretty dang sharp lately. Mickey tolerates the procedure, but neither of us really like it because of one thing; blood. (WARNING: the following details are not particularly graphic, but if blood makes you woozy, you might want to skip to the next paragraph)
A rabbit's nails are like a hollow tube, and can bleed when being cut for the first time, but usually after that, the nail seals off and does not bleed when cut unless you cut too much. Sometimes, though, for some reason the nail doesn't seal and will always bleed, no matter how little you cut it. Mickey has two nails like that, one on each paw on his left side, and they always seem to bleed like a stuck pig when cut, which makes things very messy. I don't mind the sight of blood, but I hate it getting all over him and I always worry about the possibility of infection. Mickey seems to get extra-jumpy when I do those nails as well, but they have to be trimmed like the others, so there's not much I can do. We both lucked out this time; there was much less bleeding than usual--I'm guessing the result of the cooler weather, but I'm hoping maybe the nails are going to seal up after all.

Once the nails were done, it was time for the actual grooming. I try to keep the grooming to between 45 minutes and an hour, since that's usually the point where I'm never sure if I'm causing more shedding than fixing it. Mickey enjoys being groomed, although he tends to always want his left side facing me for some reason; when I turn him around to get his right side, he manages to maneuver himself so that he's facing left again. If I turn him so I can get at his back end, he decides that he wants to explore the table for a bit, so I'm alternating between combing and retrieving. Facing forward is his favorite part; he likes to sit up and place his paws on my shoulders, then he leans against me and tooth-purrs sweet nothings near my ear and gives me kisses...then tries to chew the neckline of my shirts.

In between grooming, I cleaned his ears as well. According to my vet, lops seem to have more trouble with accumulating ear wax (probably because of the positioning of their ears). I was mortified the day she took a swab and removed a humongous lump of waxy buildup from one of Mickey's ears during an exam, so I have been vigilant about cleaning them out at least once a month. Mickey does not approve of this, although he tolerates it to an extent. He certainly doesn't make it an easy process; there is much head-shaking and bobbing and weaving involved, but I managed to get them reasonably clean.

The final detail is combing his underside, and he hates it with a passion because it means being flipped on his back. It was even worse today, because I found not one, but THREE large snarled fur clumps at the base of his tail and had to very carefully comb them out without completely de-furring his poor little cottontail.
The entire beautification process complete, I brought him back inside and even posed him for a quick photo. (Yes, I was a bad bunny-mum and combed his fur backwards to make him look super-fluffy):

"I had better be getting some extra treats for this

--and stop calling me Mr. Fluff-n-puff!"

Hopefully, the birds and squirrels can use all the excess fur I left outside to line their winter nests. There's certainly enough of it out there; my husband says it looks like the bunny exploded.

Calendar Contest Results

2010-10-11T12:01:00.000-04:00

The results of the calendar giveaway are in. Mickey himself picked out the winner; I wrote each entrant's name on a slip of paper (two slips for followers--and yes, those are stubs from an old charity raffle) and offered them to him:

Of course, being Mickey, he wasn't going to make the process easy:

"You want me to do what?!"

"Ok, fine, but I get one banana slice for this--and put away that camera, for cryin' out loud!"

Terms were agreed upon, and so he picked a slip (or more accurately, grabbed and tossed one), and so our winner is: The human (aka Buttons' mum).

Congratulations, my friend--please email me (jade@jademyst.com) with your mailing address so I can get your new calendar out to you (and international mailing is not a problem).

Thanks lots to everyone who entered--this may be my first giveaway, but it won't be my last. :)

New food? Pew food!

2010-10-10T15:56:00.000-04:00

A quick reminder: the winner of my calendar giveaway will be announced tomorrow, so if you would like a Bunspace.com 2011 calendar, go to this post and leave a comment (and if you're a follower of this blog, you will be entered twice).

On to the post:

I have mentioned in the past as to what a picky eater Mickey is; if I want to introduce him to a new food, it often takes days before he'll even give it a sniff, and then a few more days before he decides if he likes it or not. Over time, I have figured out some tricks to getting him to try things, and I have figured out some patterns as to what he'll like and what he'll pass up, but overall, it's a whole lot of trial and error.

Until last Tuesday, anyway; I think I may have found an exception to the rule.

One of my regular rabbit-related readings is a column by Phyllis O'Beollain, who writes about small animal issues for Examiner.com. One of her recent columns was about the benefits of cilantro for small pets and humans. I know a number of people who feed cilantro to their rabbits, so I thought perhaps I would give it a try, so I bought some when I went food shopping this past Tuesday.

As soon as I brought the groceries into the kitchen, Mickey started going spazbunny in his cage; not exactly abnormal behavior for him, but a little odd since he'd already been fed. Usually, a full belly means a long nap, and the most I might get is a glare of disapproval for disturbing his rest. I told him to settle down and started unpacking the groceries. I always save Mickey's greens for last, so after putting everything else away, I pulled the cilantro out of its bag...

...and immediately started gagging. According to Phyllis' column, the name for the cilantro seed, coriander, comes from the Greek word for bedbug. I now know why: good gawd, what a stench!

I looked over at Mickey in his cage, still spazzing out, then looked at the cilantro. I washed some of the cilantro and gave it to him; he jumped on it like a rabbit who hadn't eaten in days. It was gone in a heartbeat.

Well, that explains a few things, like why he likes my son's feet.

I have now added cilantro to my list of wabbit food, but I do so reluctantly since I need a gas mask to even handle the stuff. A good bunny-mum must make the occasional sacrifice for her pets, though.

Speaking of which, I need to feed him.

Here's his latest video for you to check out while I do that:

Calendar Bun Contest

2010-10-04T12:56:00.000-04:00

The Bunspace.com 2011 calendars I ordered arrived today, and they are just lovely:

(For once, my flash actually makes a pic look even better. ;) )

Of course, I immediately had to open one and look for Mickey; I found him in March.

Where's Mickey?

There's Mickey!

Of course, somebunny was a little disappointed that his picture this year is much smaller than he expected, but he is trying to be humble about it, since he knows how lucky he was to be chosen in the first place. I told him that if his pic was any bigger, no one would want to turn the page when April came around, and that wouldn't be fair to any of the other rabbits in the calendar. That soothed his ruffled fur and put him in a better mood.

And now, the contest part--these are truly lovely calendars (and I do not say that just because Mr. Mick is in there, the cute is to die for), so if you would like one for yourself and haven't ordered one from Bunspace yet, leave a comment on this post. Next Monday, I will choose someone out of all the comments received and will send them a calendar. If you follow this blog, let me know in your comment and you will get an extra chance to win. Good luck to all! :)

A quick update

2010-09-30T22:33:00.000-04:00

Just found out that the Bunspace 2011 calendars (featuring a certain spoiled rotten mini-lop, among others) are now on sale at Bunspace.com . Proceeds from calendar sales benefit the House Rabbit Society.

In other news, Mickey's quarterly molar-grinding went well. It's a good thing we decided to change it to every 3 months rather than every 6 months; while his teeth hadn't gotten to a point where they were irritating his mouth, they were definitely bothering him to some extent. As his vet said, better to take care of it now when he's healthy than risk him possibly going into GI stasis, which would upset his immune system and make grinding his teeth more difficult. He's back up to a little over 6 lbs., which is a good weight for him, so all in all, everything's good.

"Hmph...easy for you to say, you weren't the one getting stuff stuck in your mouth and breathing funny gas..."

The Zen of Bun

Happy (Belated) Blogiversary to Us!

Our Weekend at Petco

New Stuff, Exciting Stuff, All Kinds of Stuff!

Under House Arrest

The Real Halftime Show

We're In!

Postcards from the Box

Road Trip!

Flinging in the New Year

Last Post of 2011

Christmas Tree Bunnies

The Wearable Mr. Mick

Would anybunny like a Christmas/holiday card?

Mr. Mick's Thanksgiving List

'tis better to give than receive

Calendar Giveaway Winners

Announcing the Zen of Bun "Mr. November" Giveaway

Things We Disapprove Of

*SQUEE*!!!

*sigh* The things I have to do around here...

Showing off just a little

Thinking inside the box

More treatball!

Treats!

A Word from Mr. Mick

Mr. Mick's Game of Thrones

Ah, there's good news tonight!

The Return of Mr. Mick

Icky Stuff, Round 2

Three Years In A Row!

Great news at the vet's

Follow-up #1

A Bit of an Abscession

Hoppy Birthday, Mr. Mick!

Spring Interlude

Mr. Mick's Musings

It's Our 100th Post, but...

Candy Apple and Bunny Glass

Mr. Mick on Mother's Day

The Boy and The Rabbit

We've been Disapproved!!!

Mr. Mick's Musings

The benefits of being sick

Spot the Bunneh

More assorted stuff--with videos!

How do you make a bunneh happy?

Hoppy Birthday, Auntie Shell!

Post-Vacation Craziness

When the Mum's away...(for rabbit eyes only)

Seat of Power

Preparations

Happy Blog-iversary to us!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Things that go "thump" in the night

Happy Year of the...CAT?!

It's Snowing Again...

Picking A Winner

And now, a word from Mr. Mick

Treats for Jade!

It's Only January...

Time for a Giveaway!

A New Toy and a Question

The tooth and nothing but the tooth

Christmas Gifts and a Hoppy New Year

So much to post, so little space...

To everyone and everybun

In which Christmas doesn't help matters

In which Christmas is a mixed blessing

Star light, star bright...

Pictures!

Taking A Page From The Bunny Lounge Cookbook

Gifties!

For Malcolm: The Joy of Loaf

Assorted Stuff

A Confession

Halloween Friends

Bunneh Beautification

Calendar Contest Results

New food? Pew food!

SQUEE!!!

sigh The things I have to do around here...