Monday Bunday

Good Bunday to all, Tyler and Sydney are resting up from the Bunny Benefit Bash. Binks and visits to the salad bar can wear a bun out. We wish Cadbury and Bunnygirl a well deserved rest for the successful event, if you missed it you can catch the wrap up and see the video HERE.

"It sure was fun to see all our bunfriends and a soft snuggle is the best thing to come home to."

Saturday yielded the first red poppy of the year. Front yard is full of them, and the front strip, by the street is just poppies (carefully transplanted and thinned by, guess who?). This one is from one of the resting vegetable beds in a place that I tried to grow what turned out to be some very sad snow peas. The volunteer poppy was perfectly happy. 

There are also California poppies and Breadbox poppies that have popped up in the backyard, but no blooms from them yet....

Ready, Steady, GO!

Our friends Cadbury and Bunnygirl are hosting an on-line Bunny Benefit with a virtual band that is actually a book that Bunnygirl has written (she writes a lot of books). In case you don't know about this you can check out the band's site and read their stories HERE. Their name is Maelstrom and, well, it is all quite entertaining and funny! There's going to be a video with  40 bunnies from the rabbit blogosphere,  and that's a lot of lagomorphs to capture and cooordinate. Our hats off and ears up to BG and Cadbury for all their hard work. We'll see everyone at the party and will be donating some money to the choosen rabbit charity, Rabbit Rescue where our bunfriends Fez,  Norbert, Abbey and Miss Jack originated. 

We'll be looking for you at the party.

Thump Day

Hop Softly and Chew on a Big Stick

Rabbit services have returned to their pre-illness level, pen is clean and training will re-commence; Disapproval rating is slowly dropping. Yesterday, in a round-about way, I was informed that I will not be teaching next year, all part time teachers are being released. This has been my best year yet, I guess it is good to end on an up note. Life Drawing and Color Theory are finishing next week, then I teach Relief Printing  to the 9th grade, and so it will end. Since teaching is half my income I suppose I am only half worried. In the big picture of melting glaciers, homelessness, human and animal rights atrocities, and such like, it is a small thing. But the Spots may have to sacrifice their pricey salad mix until the local economic situation improves.

Monday Bunday

Humans are still fighting the URI (Upper Respiratory Infection) mentioned in previous post. It would seem to be a nationwide epidemic of sorts and by all accounts can last for three weeks. I seem to have mine minimized with herbs, supplements,  and sinus rinses, not having to resort to DayQuil or NightQuil, as, it would seem, most the population has. It is so slow in going away, the best thing so far has been laying out in the sun (with maximum skin exposed) and getting really warm then taking a nap, then, for awhile,  I feel like it's gone, but we haven't had the weather to implement this course of treatment with any regularity.  My students have partially taken to more hygienic practices in class and are especially fond of the hand sanitiser; cleaning hands with dramatic flourishes upon entering the classroom. It's a start.

Ahem, excuse us, but we'd like a word about the recent drop-off in services. The frequency of treats has dramatically plummeted and we are actually missing jumping in a lap for our dinner. Our pen could be a bit cleaner, too, what is up with the maid?

Do you see this foot?

(That's Sydney's foot)

And do you see this foot?

(This is Tyler's foot, pointing accusingly)

We are putting our feet down and they will be thumping 

if things don't turn around pretty soon!

Be good to rabbits everywhere.

Bunday Night at the Movies

Rabbits Eating Rose Petals

Monday Bunday

Prepare for lift-off

 or 

White Punctuated with Rabbit

A Post In Which........

This is a post in which I describe how I single-handedly took on public health at a small high school. I've been sick most of this week with a pretty ripping cold. It is the same disease, doubtless, that flies through the air at some 300 mph every time one of my students coughs and doesn't cover his or her mouth. It is the same one that exists in the tissues they do not throw away, and the same one that they share with each other via that communal bag of potato chips. Although I have only missed one day at school I have missed enough to my other job as Acupuncturist to total over $300. (I should say that the three days I taught I had my symptoms quite controlled with herbs and supplements, so I didn't feel like I was putting anyone more at risk than they already were.) But worse than loss of income I can't pet the rabbits, or do their training because rabbits can catch colds from humans, I read this in the House Rabbit book. And BF is quite unhappy that he may be the next victim. Today I presented my 11th grade Drawing class with the following:

I should say that students are encouraged to come to school sick for the morning classes, lest they miss an important experience. This certainly doesn't help keep the healthy population unexposed. It would seem, too, that although they have had some sort of health education in terms of sex and drugs and such like, the handling of contagious diseases of the respiratory sort has been overlooked. Once they voiced their opinion that I was just mad because I got sick, they did have to concede that pretty much the whole school was sick because during morning exercise (a whole school activity) once one person coughed the whole school was coughing. A poll revealed that everyone except one girl had been sick in the 11th grade. I suspect her extended vacation in Mexico may have cooked the virus out.  I bought some very nice essential oil hand sanitizer and soap too, and some bleach wipes. Though I don't use bleach for cleaning myself I do have a certain respect for it in terms of germ extermination. Several years ago one of my brothers had a bone marrow transplant for a tricky cancer. I took care of him, post procedure, at "The Transplant House" where all the patients are walking around with someone else's parts. Caregivers had to keep the communal kitchen very, very clean and the rule was you had to wipe down all surfaces with bleach wipes. It is imprinted in my mind as something you do in an extreme circumstance; like epidemics. Although these purchased substances and my presentation brought a certain amount of mirth quite a few students used the hand sanitizer and everyone covered their cough (approximately one third of the class was coughing). I found out that another teacher was telling them to cover their mouths with their hands for coughing, this was not followed by the order to wash hands, resulting in a mass of germs on the hands that go all over desks, door knobs, etc.......(sigh......)  I put a flyer with a short explanatory note in every teacher's mail tray and invited them to follow suit. At the very least my classes will have a higher level of hygiene.......

Sydney says "Rabbits are self cleaning mammals, why can't humans follow our lead?"

Monday Bunday

From Above, A Bun Below......

Sydney is an active rabbit, quite a sprinter and a binker,  recently she has been doing a lot of bunny-ups, not sure what's up with that, no pun intended, and when she stretches out, she stretches across too. This has been my first week of being heavily scheduled for teaching, aside from not knowing if this my last year teaching because of budget cuts (well, budget balancing), and aside from having to scrounge or pay for a supplies because there are no more supplies funds, it has gone pretty well. I did have to confiscate a cigarette lighter which was going to turn into a classroom incendiary device, but that was rather exciting. And really this has been only the tip of the iceberg, this week because I could go on, but really I'm looking forward to a whole new week!

Have a great BunWeek yourself.

Monday Bunday: Training Update

I've made some adjustments in the Spots training program. For a while I had them jumping up on the couch, but became concerned that that was too much excitement for optimum digestion; it just didn't jibe with the precepts of Chinese Medicine with recommend quiet relaxation during meals. Now all training is done on the floor. With horses if you over train the animal will get "sour" and refuse to do what you ask it to. To avoid this I cut back and no longer intensively train at every meal. Now the twice a day pellet rations are fed in the pen, the only requirement is both rabbits have to let me give them a brief pet and touch their ears (remember ear touching is a bonding /your are sooooo dominant gesture). Tyler is good with this and often presents himself when he knows I'm coming with pellets, it is little harder for Sydney, but she is improving. Greens involve various numbers of  "paws on". Very occasionally I will get both rabbits in my lap munching away, more often they trade off perching on my leg and eating. Tyler is quite adept at this and Sydney will, after a bit of a warm up with two paws on, hop all the way on. Behavior outside of training includes Tyler demanding more pets and being more comfortable with me being close to him while this happens, as opposed to arm's length away. Sydney will come and see me if she suspects a treat may be involved and on finding there isn't will only retreat a  short distance, as opposed to simply running away in scorn. I think she is getting closer and closer to presenting herself for petting, but if Tyler is around she'll hop off; he is top bun. I must convince her that she, too, is top bun in my eyes.

Greens for Spots; both rabbits crowd into my lap to grab a bit of salad mix. Tyler pushes his way on first!

Lap feeding can get pretty crowded, but provides exciting and challenging photography conditions.

Here is Sydney having a good long perch and munch session. 

Tyler in perching pose, he seems quite comfortable.

This picture show why Tyler is sometimes known as "Mr. Whiskers" and sometimes as "Smudge Nose".

It is always Bunday in a Rabbit Centered Universe.