Updates, and Our New Friend Spike

Hi Friends! We've missed you!

The Sogna has been doing fabulously since "the scare," she ate her breakfast the next morning and has been fine since.

We were in almost exactly the same scenario with Biff on Tuesday, perhaps a bit more frightening: He refused to eat dinner, and seemed sick and uncomfortable until breakfast the next morning. Biff has also been fine ever since, if disgruntled about syringe feeding.

The rascals beg for their morning slice of apple... AFTER they've already had their morning slice of apple. You can see Biff is just outside the kitchen.

The Sogna continues her wild digging extra curriculars, and nothing we can do to change her setup seems to curb the damage. She is currently able to fling litter box contents approximately six feet which is actually quite impressive in my humble opinion. I have ordered a screen from BinkyBunny.com that sits directly on top of the litter (not raised in the box) and is supposed to stop her from digging and also make it easier to conserve litter. I worry about her history of sore hocks, though, so if I see any signs of irritation on her feet I will throw the screen out immediately.

The cardboard box next to the overflow box is a new element I just added today. The litter box system just keeps evolving. But I doubt it will work. (Yes, I did dismantle the bottom level of the Maze Haven. It looked like an earthquake had hit it.)

Now for something completely unrelated.

This is Spike:

I read on the NYC Buns listserv that someone had posted to Craig's List that there were domestic rabbits all over a Queens park. I got in touch with one of the rabbit rescue volunteers who lives in Queens, and we decided to go on a trapping mission. She had gotten in touch with the original Craig's List poster and they went together on a Saturday, and had successfully trapped two Californians and discovered one body, in a matter of 30 minutes or so. (Two weeks ago it was very hot, so we suspect heat stroke). The next day, on a Sunday, she was in touch with park staff and they confirmed that there were still more buns in the park. So we went out there.

We found Spike more easily than I thought we would, as the park was thick with brush. We spent about an hour chasing him through the brush carrying x-pens in 90 degree heat. When Spike was ready, she just hopped into the open carrier of her own accord. While we were there a man and his young daughter came by with a Californian on a harness that they had said that they had caught quite easily in the same park. We tried educating him, but he didn't seem to want to hear it. We had thought that there had been another bun in the brush, but it was hard to tell whether it was the same rabbit since they were all Californians.

Spike had pretty severe mites, and an eye infection. Ticks are still being pulled off of her. I had wanted to bring her home to foster her, if only for the weekend, but Jon would have thrown me out of the house if I brought home another bunny. But she is being well taken care of at the shelter. In our last update from the park staff, we were told that there were no more rabbits spotted except one more body.

So, grand totals: Three buns taken to the rescue. One caught by the man and the little girl. Two succumbed to heat stroke. All Californians, all of adult size, all quite tame. None spotted before a couple weeks ago. What other conclusion can be drawn except someone dumped six helpless, domestic rabbits in the park?? Pretty disturbing, but at least four of them survived. Send your bunnies a hug on behalf of these poor little guys.

Back to school on Monday. Dreading it with all my heart.

Hope everyone and everybun is well and comfortable and beating the heat.

Sogna is FINE!

After a most terrifying night...

I woke up this morning and Sogna was behaving perfectly normally. Eating normally, temp is normal to the touch, and switching between moving about and stretching out comfortably.

I hate to speak too soon, and I am staying home today to monitor, and recover myself, but thank goodness it seems like it was "just" a little gas.

Sogna in Stasis

I walked in the door at about 12:45 a.m., after working two jobs and a total of 14 hours today.

I gobble down a slice of pizza and get the bunnies' nightly treat of one papaya tablet each as fast as I can, because I'm eager to get to bed and get a little sleep before work in the morning. Usually the buns hear the container from anywhere and come running before I even leave the kitchen.

Biff was waiting for it underfoot. When I sat down to give it to them, I realized Sogna wasn't climbing into my lap. So I gave a most anxious Biffy his, and went to bring the Sogna's treat to her, thinking she was probably hard at work in the litter box.

Still, it's not like Sogna to fail to come running to food immediately.

...and she wasn't in the litter box.

I found the Sogna camped out in her tent, and she wasn't leaving. I tried to give her her treat.

She refused.

What?!?!

I've always speculated that it's because of her year of starvation: Sogna does not refuse food. Ever. Until recently she wouldn't even take breaks eating dinner.

Couldn't coax her out.

Finally, I was scared enough to move the tent.

Chased her around the apartment to take her temperature.

Exactly 99 degrees Fahrenheit. Even after the "chase" should have warmed her. Sogna tends to run high. 103-104 is normal for her.

I should have known something was wrong by the way Biffy is acting. Completely out of sorts. Following me around like my shadow, attached to my ankle: "Mom! Help her!"

I gave her 1 cc of simethicone and approx 5 cc of lukewarm water. Also brushed her somewhat but she was becoming very stressed. Will start with critical care tomorrow if necessary, and I'm emailing the vet right now to find out how long Reglan will keep. If the stuff from October is still good I will give her some of that too.

I'm so exhausted I'm borderline incoherent. Is there anything I should be doing to contain this situation that I'm forgetting??? Should I turn off the air conditioner in the bunnies' room? Our AC is not on a thermostat, there is a unit with a low, medium, high dial. currently set on low which pretty much feels just like medium. It is somewhat chilly.

I have had one of the most difficult weeks at my day job that I have ever had. Too exhausted to think.

We're sorry... we can't stop blogging about digging

Hey All!!!

We feel bad for not updating you sooner to let you know that we did just fine 4th of July weekend, being left alone. On the 4th, after Jon and I returned home, we were actually able to see lots of fireworks all across the horizon from our 17th floor apartment, and none were close enough to be loud enough to scare the buns.

The buns pretty much looked like this when we got back, not disturbed in the least:

In other news, we replaced our litter boxes with a covered litter box. The idea was not so much to prevent digging, but a wishful thinking that the Sogna wouldn't be able to literally gut this one and empty it all over the floor like she was doing with the old one.

We were not so lucky.

Jon got clever and decided to install an "overflow" box to catch the litter box contents that Sogna removes from the litter box proper.

Sogna digs in there too.

In fact, the mostly-empty box seems to have diverted most of Sogna's digging attentions. So actually, the new litter box is a relative success quite by accident.

Biff prefers to observe digging activities from a safe distance. He knows by know what happens if he stands too close (litter box contents dumped on his head several times recently).

And by the way, the bunnies have shown me their opinion of celery, by not touching it whatsoever.

(The bowl from which Biffy IS eating contains our daily shared portion of 1/4 cup of Oxbow pellets).

We hope you have all been well and are enjoying your summer. Hopefully we'll be around more in the next few weeks. Only three weeks left of my internship! And only four until I go back to school :-/

We Love Our Chair!

This is what I saw when I got home from my internship at 12:37 am Thursday night/Friday morning.

The bunnies love furniture, but they have the notion in their head that they're not alone. It was a surprise when I walked over and they remained there and allowed me to pet their heads, instead of jumping down and running to hide.

(Side note: Note the HRS Journal and the Astronomy magazine on the table, with the bunny nibble marks? Guess whose is whose).

Tomorrow morning Jon and I will be leaving to go to my parents' for approximately 24 hours to celebrate the holiday and my birthday (Tuesday). We still haven't decided whether to take the bunnies or to let them stay home. If they stay here, I will leave two large bowls of water, serve an early dinner for the evening, and Monday's breakfast, which they will probably devour before dinner time even rolls along.

Part of me is a worry wart and says something will happen and I won't be here to take care of them. Part of me says I should let them stay for two reasons: First, they will unfortunately have to go to my parents' house next weekend for my cousin Jeana's wedding, and it would be inhumane of me to take them in the car two weekends in a row (according to them). Second, I believe there will be fewer scary fireworks in this urban environment than out in the land of backyards and cul de sacs.

What do you think I should do? What is the maximum duration that you will leave your rabbit(s) unattended?

Otherwise, everything is going well over here. Mommy is tired, Biffy is shedding, Sogna is gutting the litterbox. We are headed to Target today to get them one of those covered kitty litter boxes.

We wish you all a Bunderful 4th of July!

Apple Branches!i

Not too many apple trees grow here in Queens. Even if they did, I probably wouldn't feed anything grown in the city to my bunnies, considering the kind of air those plants have been breathing.

But we LOVE apple branches!

And the ones we've bought places and online just don't have the same appeal as the real deal.

So we were very excited to hear that our friend Alice over at Potentially Nervous found a new batch of apple branches near her new West Coast home!

The box arrived in the mail Monday night. When I got home from my internship at 1am last night, I cracked open the box. I was nervous. These were much slimmer than the ones we had gotten last time. Would the buns still be interested?

I offered a fistful on the floor, then held one out to Biffy.

He ate it like a piece of spaghetti (or in rabbit terms, a piece of hay).

When I got up this morning, only remnants were left over. So I replenished.

Biffy prefers me to hold out each piece for him, and when they get too small to be of much interest to him, he throws them around like a toy.

And Sogna? She doesn't care. She just wants to eat! In true Sogna form.

(I did not weave the heart-shaped basket in the photo above. It's made of willow. I bought it over a year ago, but for some reason they only chewed the top off of it then never touched it again).

I think this is a great fiber-rich snack/toy, especially these days when shedding season is in full swing. While Sogna sheds heavily and almost constantly, she gets "feathers," so I know when she needs some de-furring. In fact, we call her a ragamuffin. And she's pretty cooperative about being petted, plucked, and tolerates some brushing in very small doses with lots of pets mixed in.

Biff on the other hand... you would never know just by looking at him that he's shedding in the least. But run your hand over his body (if he'll let you, he's more of a head/face-scratch kind of bun), and clumps of fur come out. Seems like they come out of nowhere. I tried to brush him this morning because he needs it desperately. The mission was a massive failure. For my efforts I will go to work trying to explain away four deep, parallel gashes on my collarbone.

Hope everyone is staying cool.

Where have we been?!

We're back! Jon and I had a wonderful trip. We took some great pictures, but I seem to have misplaced the adapter to plug the camera into the computer to upload pictures, so I can't show you any.

The Sogna was a perfect angel at Mima and Pops' house, and didn't dig in the litter box once. She has since resumed her usual activities. As some of you predicted, Sogna did win the hearts of my parents. How can you not love a bunny who sits at the door of an 8 foot x-pen all day for someone to come and pet her?? I'm told Biff was increasingly aloof as the week went on, and didn't really let anyone pet him for that whole week. Even after we brought the bunnies back home, it took him a couple of days for him to return to his normal (still grumpy) self.

It has been WILD ever since we got back. We returned on May 27th, and I'm only just getting back onto the blogosphere now! I started my internship the week after we returned, and now in addition to my day job, I intern from 6 or 7 until midnight. That alone would be incredibly exhausting, but on top of that the volume of work at the day job has gotten RIDICULOUS!

Less than a week after we got back, and Jon came home from work to find this:

Now I know my posts are getting a little bit redundant with all the bunstruction, but what happened here is kind of amazing. In case you can't tell, that stuff all over the floor in the entrance to our apartment in the above picture is Yesterday's News litter. And shoes. Both litter and shoes are kept securely in the closet to the right of the door.

Notice anything unusual?

The closet door is not open.

The door doesn't quite close properly, and you can see the weight on the floor is there to make sure the rabbits don't wedge their faces between the door and the wall and push it open. They must have squirmed their way in there, torn up the bag of litter, and somehow dug out each and every bit of the litter, and dragged out the shoes, getting them past this big door obstacle in their way.

Mind boggling, isn't it? Are you impressed yet?

I am SO sorry that I have neglected all of my blog reading with all of the madness at work lately, although I'm sure it has hurt me more than it has hurt you. I'm going to go try to start catching up now.

Hope you have all been doing fabulously well!!!