Happy New Year - Year of the RABBIT!!!

Happy New Year!!! We wish you a very peaceful and happy Year of the Rabbit.


Now to the story of the day. Biffy is somewhat in love with the bathroom. Here's an old pic of him just hanging out in the bathroom. Sometimes he lays across the door way, sometimes he stands guard just outside the door in the hallway. We frequently get our feet boxed for daring to use the toilet or brush our teeth in Biffy's bathroom. How dare we?

Another favorite perch of his is behind the toilet. When he got sick, he went behind the toilet and wouldn't come out. I eventually fished him out of there to get him into the carrier and take him to the vet. He also likes to explore the space under the cabinet under the sink, and dig in any clothes or towels left on the floor.



On Thursday morning, I was getting ready for work and the bathroom door was open. He went in, which of course is not unusual. He often likes to dig in the towel on the floor outside the shower. Suddenly, I saw him jump. My little explorer bun probably didn't know where he was jumping to. And I definitely don't think he knew it would be all wet in there, when I had just gotten out of the shower.


He tried to escape by jumping back out, the same way he got in, but he didn't realize that it was not only wet, but also slippery in there, and he flailed pathetically.

Biffy looks for an escape route.

Eventually, he realized he couldn't get out on his own, and stared at me beseechingly to get him out of there. I took pity and lifted him up and over the side of the tub, and gently placed him on the towel right outside the door of the tub.

Biff was so indignant at having gotten wet, being trapped, and then being picked up all in such a short time, he wouldn't even say goodbye to me when I had to leave for work. He sat outside the bathroom, grooming himself and licking his wounded pride.

Biff is still in love with the bathroom, and just this morning he boxed Jon's feet so hard he left distinct scratch marks because Jon dared to use the toilet.

Anyway, everyone have a wonderful New Year!!!

Christmakkueidiwali!!!

I hope everyone had a Very Merry Christmakkueidiwali!!!! (Christmas + Hanukkah + Eid + Diwali!) Sorry I've been lost in law school land and recovering there after. So said I pretty much missed the holidays in Blogland!! But I'm trying to catch up on reading all of your blogs and sharing your holidays retrospectively.

Well, this post may take a bit longer than most considering the current state of my computer. The bunnies were bad last night. Check out the latest fruits of bunstruction:



But I'm ashamed of how long it's been since my last post. Especially when I've been dying to show off these most special Christmas gifts I got this year! The first couple of gifts I'm about to show you I received during finals and shortly after, when I've been trying to catch up on day-to-day existence and haven't had time for the cyber world :(

First, I received these little beauties from Annette Tait over at the Dragon House of Yuen blog! Some of you may remember Annette made me a beautiful purse last year in a perfect image of my two beloved bunnies. I finally got around to sending out a thank-you gift this fall, and I got this beautiful Christmas gift in return! A very beautiful and unexpected surprise!!


For some reason I couldn't get a great picture of the first mini baby hare up there, but I like the second picture because it shows the beautiful fabric Annette used to make these little guys. It's also nice and soft and flannely. We were considering not getting a Christmas tree this year, but when I received these, I knew I had to get one!!


These lovely cards were also part of the gift, both made by Annette herself. The one on the right was a card for me, and the one on the left will be sent to some friend somewhere soon!!

Annette is so creative and makes beautiful things, so check out her Dragon House of Yuen etsy shop if you haven't already!

Then I received another beautiful, unexpected and undeserved gift! The picture really doesn't do it justice, but I received this beautiful, hand quilted jingle tree from Shell over at the Raspberry Rabbits!! And it looks absolutely beautiful next to my small table-top Christmas tree.


(The other decorative white tree on here is also very special to me. It's an ornament that my mom got us that says "2010 First Christmas in our New Home - Jon and Lisa.")
Shell also sent this lovely handmade Christmas card, all clean and white of course, and a set of fusion tea and chocolates!! Delicious!!!!




And the buns certainly enjoyed destroying the beautiful tissue paper Shell wrapped our gift in. The paper was so beautiful that I didn't mind leaving it on the floor for them ;)


One more gift I wanted to show you guys. You may hear me complain fairly often that I don't have enough decorative bunnies adorning my home. Well, Jon's parents were nice enough to help me change that!

This is one of two beautiful bunny bookends that I got for Christmas from Jon's parents. These little buns work arduously to keep my books on the shelf!

On one last unrelated note, thank you all so much for your well wishes for finals. Law school is kind of unique in the world of higher education in that I don't think the professors are given any deadline as to when they must submit grades. I know my professors weren't ALLOWED to submit any grades to the registrar until Dec. 22nd, when the final exam period technically ended. Then, since I attend a Catholic institution, the entire administrative staff left for vacation the next day and won't be back until Jan. 3rd. So the very earliest I can get any grades back is Jan. 3rd. One of my professors actually told us not to expect grades until at least a week or two into Spring semester, which doesn't even start until Jan. 10th! So for now I'm just trying to put these exams out of sight, out of mind.

Hope everyone had a happy, healthy holiday.

To Grandmother's House We Go!

We're still here!!! Everybun is doing just fine, except I (the mom) have been CRAZY with finals coming up soon. I can't believe how fast the first semester has gone. And I'm nowhere near ready for finals, the first of which is in two weeks! Ahhhh!!!!

Meanwhile, the bunnies keep themselves busy and seem to take pretty darn good care of each other. Jon makes sure that dinner isn't late when I have class late, and the buns appreciate the punctuality.

I was ordering pellets for the buns, from binkybunny.com, and saw they have these new Willow Wreaths for sale. My buns love anything willow, but these had some leaves still on them in the picture. Since my buns don't seem to share too well lately, I got them each their own.

Immediately upon my putting each box of willow wreath on the floor for them (each wreath came in its own box like the one in the picture above), each bun DOVE into their wreath! It was unbelievable, they actually LEFT their dinner for the willow wreaths. I was worried they might not like them because they were literally covered in leaves, and also the willow twigs seemed to be thinner and less dry (still green in the middle) than the willow balls/cubes/rings that they're used to. I was wrong. They loved them.

The picture above depicts what remained of the willow wreaths less than 24 hours after being presented to the buns. We give them two enthusiastic paws up. EACH! And as you can see, they're a pretty decent size, too, much bigger than I expected.

Anyway, I need to go finish packing. We are headed to Mima and Pops's house for Thanksgiving and my sister's birthday. Always a busy weekend. The buns are suspicious as I took out the carrier already to change out the hay. They're assuming the worst.

The buns have a pen at Mima's house that stays set up for them all the time although we really only go for holidays. It has foam floor mats, a cage inside the pen for privacy (or hiding from the dog if necessary), and toys and blankies which my buns have already more than sufficiently marked.

3 outfits? Check. Pajamas? Check. Toothbrush? Have one there. Bun food? Check. Stasis kit? Check. Homework? Check. ...

Happy Thanksgiving Everybun!!!

:) Victory

I've never been so proud to be from Suffolk County, Long Island, NY.

http://animals.change.org/blog/view/the_nations_first_animal_abuser_registry?me=nl

Siamo Tutto Bene

(Title may need some explanation. There's a fairly recent movie called "Everybody's Fine." I started watching it, and realized it's almost the same as an Italian movie called "Siamo Tutto Bene", which means, Everybody's Fine! Must be either a remake or based on the same book or something).

Anyway, i just wanted to check in and let everyone know that really, everybody's fine here!

There were some ups and downs and scariness, but Biffy is all better and we (I) stopped giving him his medication on Thursday. The last few days I used a towel and it helped a lot! I'm not so good at making a secure bunny burrito, but I tried and Biff seemed nice and distracted by taking out his aggression on the towel. He chewed the towel and I really think it helped keep him calm. At some points, he'd clamp down on the towel like a baby's binky. (Get it? Binky?)

He seems to be feeling fine, although from the medication dripping down, he has a big ol' mat right at the bottom of his whiskers and it might be bothering him, I'm not sure. I'm afraid to try to cut it out for him, though.

Sogna's good too, although right around the time of stasis they both started a massive shed. So, Sunday morning, I got the old pen, locked myself in it with Sogna, and the furminator, and the brush. I was in there an HOUR with her, and she's still shedding like a beast. But I let her go, because I think an hour was quite enough for her. Then repeated with Biffy, although I wasn't in there as long with him because he doesn't shed badly, and he was done when he was done for the most part.

So now, the buns are mostly back to their studies. Midterms are this week, and the first draft of their final paper is due Sunday. Ahhhhh!!!!! (Midterms don't count, nor does the first draft, but it's a whole heck of a lot of work and it just keeps increasing...)

Wish me luck!

Stasis Update

First of all, thank you all for your support and indispensable advice. This blogging community has been invaluable to me in more ways than one, and I feel privileged to consider myself a part of it. I honestly never would have thought I would have so many wonderful friends who I've never even met, who care so much about my bunnies, or that I would care so much about all of yours.

Biff is doing great. He's back to his normal energy level and appetite. He runs towards his food, and gave quite a chase this morning when I tried to wrangle him to give him his medication. He's even enlisted the help of the Sogna girl, who gets in between us when I try to catch him, and has been giving me so much attitude on behalf of Biff that you'd think she's the one I'm picking up and syringe feeding!

I called the vet yesterday morning, to ask how long I should continue to give him his medication, since he was already eating Saturday night. They said at least two more days.

I would like to ask for just one more piece of advice. I can't get Biffy to swallow his medication. I squirt it into his mouth, he drools it out. Of course then it gets all over him, and he spends the next hour or two cleaning himself. So I'm sure he's getting most of it into his system. Is that OK? Good enough? How do you all get your buns to lick swallow their medication when they don't want to? I thought it might help if I administered his medication with him securely on the ground, thinking maybe he's too uncomfortable to really eat anything. Of course that doesn't work, because if he's on the floor, he doesn't stay still and I can't get it into his mouth. And it's easier for him to run away. Please share your thoughts.

Thanks again, from the bottom of my heart, and Biffers asked me to thank you for him too!!!

Our First Emergency

My sweet little boy didn't come out of his cave for breakfast yesterday.

I tried putting his food near him, because it's unusual for him not to run for breakfast, but he pushed it away. Tried giving him an Oxbow Papaya Tablet as a treat, but he didn't take it. Parsley, no.

At first I thought maybe he just wasn't hungry, breakfast was late and encroached on naptime. But he never refused food before. And he was still pooping like a champ.

So I went out, got a pineapple to juice, a feeding syringe, and a thermometer, and came back. He was hiding under the bathroom toilet and wouldn't come out.

When I picked him up, he didn't struggle at all. I held him for several minutes without a kick. This was definitely NOT my normal healthy boy.

His temp read 99.2. I thought, that couldn't be right. So I tested the thermometer on Sogna. 102.4. So, if anything, the thermometer was giving higher readings, not lower. (Although, at our last vet visit, they told me to keep an eye on Sogna because her temp was a little high, but she was perfectly healthy. So I think she probably just runs high.)

At this point, I panic. I have no medications whatsoever in the house, because the buns have never been sick before. At least not since Sogna was in foster care.

I called the vet, who closes at 5, at about 4:30. I explained the situation, and asked whether I should wait til the morning or come in now. They said, you could get simethicone and try to get him through the night, but, "you know with rabbits, they go fast." Ahhh. Ok, will you stay open for us? We're on our way.

I packed up the whole family (Jon to drive, me, the patient and Sogna for moral support), and headed to Brooklyn. The nearest vet is 20 min away.

I'm not going anywhere.

We got there, and I tried to read the thermometer over the tech's shoulder. Looked like something in the 96's or 98's but I'm not sure. Definitely bloated in his upper GI tract, more towards his chest where I didn't think to look.

They checked his teeth to see if that was the problem, but they said his teeth looked perfectly normal. I guess his molars have somehow ground themselves down since our last visit.

So, not knowing the source, they gave him IV fluids and a Reglan injection. Sent me home with meds. Reglan and Simethicone 3x/day, critical care 4x/day, call us if it gets worse.

They said it was good that I recognized a problem, the fact that he was still pooping means that we caught it early before it got more serious. Man was it serious to me.

I'm calling the ASPCA

Biffington does NOT like to take his medication. The only thing that he doesn't seem to mind is the Reglan, I guess it's yummy. I guess part of the problem is that I have to hold him to feed him. And Biffers is NOT a bunny who likes to be picked up. He started eating last night, (not back to normal just yet), so hopefully we won't need to medicate him much longer and we can leave him alone.

So, he gets his meds and critical care, doesn't swallow them, and spends the remainder of the day cleaning the mess off of his fur, until next dose.

Biff is only 2 and a half, and has never been sick before. I know stasis can happen at any time for any reason. I guess I just thought I had more time to enjoy them being healthy.