This page is all about the real bunnies we have at The Warren, Nosy and Spike. Two litter brothers, born in February 2010.
11th September 2010
It's done. It cost twice as much as it was meant to and is twice as fabulous as I hoped.
Inside there are up bits and down bits, corners for hiding in and straw for drying off and being cosier in. There is a chair for me and somewhere to put a nice cup of coffee.
The sleeping area in the Wendy house has a smaller hutch in it, now filled with straw and baskets for curling up in when it's very cold. As the nights get chiller and colder I'll just keep adding deeper and deeper straw and hay for them. Their favourite spot is up on the top there, so they can see out of the windows!
Something new arrived today too - to complete everything.
It took them about 2 minutes to notice it but then they spent a good twenty going in and out, in and out, in and out ... you get the idea.
My favourite bit is still 'the tunnel'.
I have now fulfilled my childhood dream of having one of those play houses, the ones with the ladder up to an upstairs and little windows. I've always wanted one of them and tried desperately to argue for one for my own children. My plan was too transparent though! Now can rearrange all the plants and boxes, sweep things and plant flowers around the door. My fantasy has been fulfilled. In life, that is a good thing.
And to think, this is what the pet store sold me as a 'large run'. Nosy and Spike can't even stand up in it. Disgraceful.
AUGUST 20th 2010
On Monday morning my husband woke up and stretched. He pulled up the blind in our bedroom and announced 'The bunnies are out in the road!' WAHHHHHHHHHH!
Spike was on the front lawn - when I say 'lawn' I mean the little semi-circle of grass by our front door.
I hoofed it down the stairs, into the back garden grabbing the plastic carrier thingy and executed a sharp u-turn whilst grabbing the most favoured bunny treats. Slowing to a remarkably calm walk, I glided out of the front door and gently place the carrier down on the drive. Spike boinged into it and was 'hutched' pretty sharpish. So far so good.
There was no sigh of Nosy. None at all. I didn't want to call him because I didn't want my eldest son to hear me calling and to find out that he was missing. The driveways around we empty, the close we live in was empty. Nothing. I started to cry. My son appeared in the front door, 'Mummy, what's happened' he said in alarm. I cracked and sobbed 'We can't find Nosy'. My first born boy let out the deepest, most heart-wrenching noise that I have ever heard coming from deep inside him. We clung to each other, me stroking his head, sobbing that it would be okay, and him gasping 'Bunnies, bunnies, bunnies, I love them, Nosy, Nosy, bunnies', over and over.
My husband had rushed round to the neighbours to ask them to help, to see if they had got a small, grey, very nosy rabbit somewhere about their premises. By now my head was filled with images of endless fields, hedgerows and hills with a small bunny softy hopping his way to danger in a big wide, wild world. Spike was sitting silently in the run, not knowing what to do without his brother and soul mate.
Twenty long minutes pass as we silently walk around the driveways and front gardens.
"Look!!" shouted my lovely neighbour, pointing to one of the driveways. Nosy was sitting right in the middle, with his little one up/one down ears. Everyone rushed on mass towards him. "NOOOOOOO!" I shouted, 'STOP!". Running at rabbits means running rabbits.
I walked slowly towards him and he hopped over and right into the carrier I have put nearby.
This is it - the carrier. It is just an ordinary affair. My bunnies love it. It has nothing in it, no food, nothing, yet they can't wait to get into it. Why is that?
I have to admit that, there and then, with both bunnies safe, I crumpled into a sobbing ball of mixed anguish and relief, my son wrapped around the curve of my back, crying his eyes out.
My son is 11. He has 42 soft toy bunnies on his bed. He has always loved rabbits, and it is because of him that I started to make the sock bunnies. He is part-boy/part-bunny. It took us the best part of that day to recover, he and I, just talking over the awful feelings we had had and telling the bunnies over and over how much we loved them. They had wormed their way out of a small space where the hutch run meets the hutch itself. From now on, they will be closed into that hutch and I will be bringing forward the construction of their new, escape-proof, fox-proof all singing and dancing new home because I never want my boy to feel that pain again.
26TH JUNE 2010
11th September 2010
It's done. It cost twice as much as it was meant to and is twice as fabulous as I hoped.
Inside there are up bits and down bits, corners for hiding in and straw for drying off and being cosier in. There is a chair for me and somewhere to put a nice cup of coffee.
The sleeping area in the Wendy house has a smaller hutch in it, now filled with straw and baskets for curling up in when it's very cold. As the nights get chiller and colder I'll just keep adding deeper and deeper straw and hay for them. Their favourite spot is up on the top there, so they can see out of the windows!
Something new arrived today too - to complete everything.
It took them about 2 minutes to notice it but then they spent a good twenty going in and out, in and out, in and out ... you get the idea.
My favourite bit is still 'the tunnel'.
I have now fulfilled my childhood dream of having one of those play houses, the ones with the ladder up to an upstairs and little windows. I've always wanted one of them and tried desperately to argue for one for my own children. My plan was too transparent though! Now can rearrange all the plants and boxes, sweep things and plant flowers around the door. My fantasy has been fulfilled. In life, that is a good thing.
And to think, this is what the pet store sold me as a 'large run'. Nosy and Spike can't even stand up in it. Disgraceful.
AUGUST 20th 2010
On Monday morning my husband woke up and stretched. He pulled up the blind in our bedroom and announced 'The bunnies are out in the road!' WAHHHHHHHHHH!
Spike was on the front lawn - when I say 'lawn' I mean the little semi-circle of grass by our front door.
I hoofed it down the stairs, into the back garden grabbing the plastic carrier thingy and executed a sharp u-turn whilst grabbing the most favoured bunny treats. Slowing to a remarkably calm walk, I glided out of the front door and gently place the carrier down on the drive. Spike boinged into it and was 'hutched' pretty sharpish. So far so good.
There was no sigh of Nosy. None at all. I didn't want to call him because I didn't want my eldest son to hear me calling and to find out that he was missing. The driveways around we empty, the close we live in was empty. Nothing. I started to cry. My son appeared in the front door, 'Mummy, what's happened' he said in alarm. I cracked and sobbed 'We can't find Nosy'. My first born boy let out the deepest, most heart-wrenching noise that I have ever heard coming from deep inside him. We clung to each other, me stroking his head, sobbing that it would be okay, and him gasping 'Bunnies, bunnies, bunnies, I love them, Nosy, Nosy, bunnies', over and over.
My husband had rushed round to the neighbours to ask them to help, to see if they had got a small, grey, very nosy rabbit somewhere about their premises. By now my head was filled with images of endless fields, hedgerows and hills with a small bunny softy hopping his way to danger in a big wide, wild world. Spike was sitting silently in the run, not knowing what to do without his brother and soul mate.
Twenty long minutes pass as we silently walk around the driveways and front gardens.
"Look!!" shouted my lovely neighbour, pointing to one of the driveways. Nosy was sitting right in the middle, with his little one up/one down ears. Everyone rushed on mass towards him. "NOOOOOOO!" I shouted, 'STOP!". Running at rabbits means running rabbits.
I walked slowly towards him and he hopped over and right into the carrier I have put nearby.
This is it - the carrier. It is just an ordinary affair. My bunnies love it. It has nothing in it, no food, nothing, yet they can't wait to get into it. Why is that?
I have to admit that, there and then, with both bunnies safe, I crumpled into a sobbing ball of mixed anguish and relief, my son wrapped around the curve of my back, crying his eyes out.
My son is 11. He has 42 soft toy bunnies on his bed. He has always loved rabbits, and it is because of him that I started to make the sock bunnies. He is part-boy/part-bunny. It took us the best part of that day to recover, he and I, just talking over the awful feelings we had had and telling the bunnies over and over how much we loved them. They had wormed their way out of a small space where the hutch run meets the hutch itself. From now on, they will be closed into that hutch and I will be bringing forward the construction of their new, escape-proof, fox-proof all singing and dancing new home because I never want my boy to feel that pain again.
26TH JUNE 2010
The bunnies are gradually taking over more and more space - i'm hoping that my husband won't notice. Ha ha. Yesterday I expanded their lawn run (not that our lawn is really lawn-like - more crispy,brown stuff) to it's biggest possible without collapsing with sheer flimsiness.
Now Spike can get even further away from Nosy when we are around! Nosy just won't like Spike near us if we are in there - poor Spikey. When we aren't looking they are back grooming and flopping on each other. Nosy is smaller than Spike too, so I guess he's got that 'small man's complex' - tee hee.
I also experimented with their hutch run ...
..by adding a section of the lawn run. I got into a right old pickle though and kept forgetting that bits of it were opened up to allow access and when I put this metal section back on the lawn - I forgot to close up the access doors. Yup - escaped buns. Luckily they are so damn greedy they will do anything for some Woodlands Natural Herbage. They are also obsessed with their plastic carrier ....
All I have to do is put it down, open the door and they both scrabble in. Sometimes they jump in before it's even hit the ground. Wierd - but i'm not complaining! I think they associate it with being moved somewhere nice - ie from hutch run to lawn run. I move them in it because they hate being picked up so much and its less stressful this way.
I must just say, as I always get lots of comments about this, that we don't have any threat from Eagles and the like swooping down and taking the bunnies. Lots of people mention it - we may have a pigeon or three, the odd Robin, but here, in the UK, our birds are slightly less exotic than the US! Having said that I would never go out and leave them in that run, unless I was just popping out for a few mins. They go back into the hutch run then.
WEDNESDAY 25TH JUNE 2010
Nosy and Spike are missing something right now. On Wednesday, the 23rd, they were carted off to the vets' to lose a little bit of dignity - yes, 'The Snip'. I dropped them off at 9.00am and picked them up at 5.30pm. Oh, dear ... they were very sorry for themselves when I got them home....
They had to stay in the house overnight but they didn't look like they really cared less. Spike was much droopier than Nosy .....
They soon perked up though and the next day were back to normal. Today they had a check-up at the vets and its all fine and done with. YAY!
FRIDAY 28TH MAY 2010
The bunnies have got a new grass run today and have been a-sniffin' and a-nosin' around it and, because it's hot today, slumped in the shade for their afternoon snooze. Time for some photos then, boys!
Followed by more snoozing. It's a bunnies life, eh!
THURSDAY 27TH MAY 2010
Okay bunnehs, your pellet days are over! I've been reading up on bunny digestion and decided that they really don't need it. So there, pet store, stop selling me crap I don't need! Nosy and Spike are out on the grass for at least 8 hours every day and when they are back in their run they have loads of hay and fresh herbs to eat. They are so cute and perfect and I don't want them to be in anything but superb health. I reckon its the best thing for them. They don't find the pellets that exciting anyway - not like parsley, clover etc which, of course, seems to taste sooo much better when fed to them by hand. Spoilt bunnies!
Tired of waiting for their new run to arrive I put them out into the old one, making the mistake of putting them in before the top was put on. Out hopped Nosy and off across the garden!! Oh lordy, now what! They aren't exactly trained to come when I call, let along when set free in all that garden greeniness.
The thing with Nosy is that he is .....nosy. I wafted him into a bit of a corner and put the carrier down, door open towards him - and in he went. DUH! Seriously, Nosy, there is NOTHING IN THERE and you blew your chances of an afternoon in the garden (or further).
Tired of waiting for their new run to arrive I put them out into the old one, making the mistake of putting them in before the top was put on. Out hopped Nosy and off across the garden!! Oh lordy, now what! They aren't exactly trained to come when I call, let along when set free in all that garden greeniness.
The thing with Nosy is that he is .....nosy. I wafted him into a bit of a corner and put the carrier down, door open towards him - and in he went. DUH! Seriously, Nosy, there is NOTHING IN THERE and you blew your chances of an afternoon in the garden (or further).
WEDNESDAY 26TH MAY 2010
We have a routine now. First thing in the morning I go out to them, with freshly picked grass. They bounce around my feet until I have sat down in the run with them. Nosy has started to chase Spike away at this time. I thought he was just being mean to him but i've noticed a pattern.
They both start to eat from my hand but then Nosy will then chase Spike away and proceed to run circles around me - round and round - boing, boing boing!
Spike will come back again for some nibbles. Nosy chases him away again and runs circles around me all over again.
Spike retreats to the top section of the hutch. I feel sorry for him and feed him his own lot of grass through the bars. If I open the door and lay the grass inside the hutch he won't eat it. I have to feed it to him - sheesh!
After a while he ventures down again and Nosy acts as described above.
I go away, to get on with getting the kids to school etc.
I spy on them through the window they are perfectly happy to be with each other - grooming, sniffing, eating, snoozing. None of the above behaviour.
If I got out to spend time with them in the rest of the day the above does not happen although they are now both spending more and more time apart, whereas before they spent all day flopped together.
What is going on - eh?!!
TUESDAY MAY 25th 2010
I meant to start this blog when I first got the bunnies but things got busy. I run my own business from home and I have three other blogs as part of that. One more seemed too much to deal with but I know that if I don't start now I never will. The bunnies have changed so much in just a few weeks and it would be a shame to not have a record of their lives.
As soon as they arrived I could see their personalitlies, Spike being more timid. We had named 'one of the new bunnies' Spike before we'd even seen them. Funny how it suits him. Nosy was named after his display of sheer nosiness! First out of the carrier and first out of the kitchen door to explore. Spike cowered under the kitchen chair. This picture was taken of Nosy on his first day, about 15 mins after his arrival. Spike was still wondering what on earth was going on and what was that slippery surface he was expected to walk on!
Both of them HATE being picked up so we've overcome it by using the carrier to transport them from hutch to run and back again. They rush into it quite happily - no idea why because there is nothing in it at all ie food. Just an empty, slippery plastic container. It's less stressful for all of us.
Neither of them are interesting in the ubiquitous 'treats' that I keep reading about. Its pellets, grass, clover and all manner of herby leaves for them. Carrots are ignored. Anything labelled 'Bunny Treats' from the pet store - ignored. In desperation, to find something to use for bribery, I tried a Cheerio. Nope. A raisin. Nope. Cranberry. Nope. Ho hum.
I'm filled with all kinds of worries over them. The fact that I can't pick them up, that Nosy seems to be being mean to Spike, that Spike kinda bit me the other day (okay, he as hiding and I did put my parsley-scented fingers into his hiding place), that they hate me ..... !!!!
It's all a bit emotionally challenging - and I have no idea why.
MONDAY 24TH MAY 2010
Time for shots. Inocculations, injections, vaccinations or whatever your prefered term. Two weeks ago they had Miximatosis jabs without a hitch. On Friday they had the HDV thingy. Boy did it make them sick. I actually enjoy taking them to the vets because Nosy freezes in fear on the vet's table and I get to pet him whilst he shivers there. (i know, that's a bit warped). Spike, on the other hand, rips my arm to shreds as I try to hold him, hand over eyes, clinging on for dear life. The jabs don't seem to hurt them which is a relief.
They spent the next two days miserable as hell. Slumped together 'upstairs' in the hutch only vaguely nibbling at a wee bit of clover if I stuck it under their noses. Nosy didn't seem to be able to hop properly either, I though he was limping and had a sore foot but now realise that he just felt too crap to move properly.
They didn't even come out of the hutch much. We worried lots. On the third day, though, they were back to their normal bunniness. Up and about when I went out to see them first thing. I had no idea they would react that way to the jabs - poor buns.
SUNDAY 16TH MAY 2010
Well, I bought the wrong stuff. Yup. Sigh. I remember this from when I was buying all the baby-stuff for the kids. You never knew what you needed until you'd used the wrong thing. I do feel a little as though i've got two new baby boys! I bought the wrong run.
What kinda size is that for a bouncing bun? I bought two, at vast expense. Grump. Then I unscrewed some bits here and wired a few bits there and 'expanded' somewhat. And, waddyaknow, they can get their little paws right up onto the edge there and Spike was caught balancing on the edge! If I put the lids on they can't binky properly :(
So, all that wooden malarky is being sold and i've ordered two big metal runs which I will still put together to make a mahooosive one which I can lie in, with my laptop, working and getting in touch with my inner rabbit!
I'm getting increasingly annoyed by all the junk available in pet stores - the cages are all too small, the hutches are too small, some of them with weeny grass runs, the runs are too small. Why is everything 'too small'? Even never having owned a pet, let alone a bunny, I know that bunnies need space. I bought the biggest one I could, for the money I could spare.
In desperation I got someone on ebay to make me a custom run to attach onto the hutch. He was a genius and made it exactly how I wanted it.
The lids all hinge up so I can get in with them and there is even a little door on the end there. Now I can leave the bottom of the hutch open and they get themselves up and out in the morning and be safe when I'm not around.
Who said bunnies were cheap pets?
They are almost identical - even down to their not-quite-lopped ears. Therefore, I do not know who is who in the pictures above! The top one is probably Nosy, being very nosy. Actually the bottom is probably Nosy too, being more gregarious than Spike. Spike is a tiny bit bigger and less nosy (!) and not as keen on being touched. Their personalities were blindingly obvious from the moment I opened their traveling box back at home.
Nosy indulges in some comprehensive ear-cleaning. I never knew that anything could be quite as cute. I am totally in love.
