Bunny kisses!

A little update on our bunny, Sam. We are still giving him his meds twice a day for his respiratory infection. He is not over it as of yet, but seems to be getting better as he is not weezing near as much as he had been. 

Last night, we had him out with us sitting on the sofa. He snuggled up next to me a bit and kept giving me "bunny kisses." Of all the rabbits we have shared our lives with through the years, we have never had one that actually gave us kisses before ...

Turns out that the "bunny kisses" are much like what a cat or dog does when they "groom" one another. And, it is also a bunny's way of showing you that they love and trust you. Rabbits are prey animals and lying next to their humans as close as Sam is in the above pic shows much trust (most especially when they lie on their side exposing their belly)! 

We will keep treating Samuel until his meds are finished. He is currently being given antibiotics so it may take a bit more time to take affect. If not, we will be taking him for another trip back to the vet for further treatment.

Lady Tabitha guarding her brother Samuel's cage. She and Mr. Midnight take turns

HAPPY SATURDAY TO ALL!!!

Feline for Thought Friday

This week's "Feline for Thought Friday" is brought to you by ...

"Bunny Sam" 

HAVE  A  GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!!!

Critter Corner ...

~ HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!!! ~

A Healthy Bunny is a Happy Bunny!

For the past couple of days or so, our Netherland Dwarf bunny Samuel ("Sam") has been sneezing and weezing with a runny nose. So this afternoon, I left work early in order to take him to our trusty vet, Dr. Ostrich at Eagle's Peak Animal Clinic.

Turns out that he has a respiratory infection and needed meds and so Dr. Ostrich gave us a prescription for an antibiotic called sulfatrim in a liquid form. We must give it to him in a syringe twice a day.

I had a feeling that was what the issue may have been as many years ago, our Mini Lop bunny Barney, had one as well. But instead of a liquid medication, we were given rather large pills which were very hard to adnminister. So, how exactly does one give a rabbit pills? Well, since the pills would not dilute in water and we were afraid to give it to him the way in which you can give a cat or dog meds using a pill popper, we broke it up in tiny pieces and mixed it in with a very small bowl of rabbit pellets so that he would in gest it all in one sitting. It worked!

"Sir Barney Charles"

To be honest, it was actually a relief to find out that what he had was treatable. Rabbits are not known for having the strongest of constitutions and even though you may keep your bunny indoors as we always have sometimes all it takes is a draft to get them sick. Hopefully now, he is on his way to making a full recovery!

A little Playtime between friends ...

A couple of times a week or so, we give our bunny Sam a chance to jump around and spend time with the cats. It gives him the time he needs to spend outside of his cage while allowing him to be closer to and play with his feline "siblings." ...

Tabitha says,"Hey, yo ~ over here!"

While cats are "generally" considered to be solitary creatures by nature, rabbits are not. They need the companionship which they would normally have outdoors ...

A little toe-nibbling on mommy's foot?

"I love you, too!"

"Until one has been loved by an animal, a part of their soul remains unawakened."
 ~ Anatole France 

Sam's New Bunny Bedding ...

For many years, I used pine bedding in my bunny cages. My very first rabbit, a black & white male Mini Lop named Sir Barney, was a rescue from the apartment of a woman customer who had abandoned him, (along with two adorable flea-covered kittens) leaving them without food or water for at least a few days, when my boyfriend at the time found them. When we took him in, I knew absolutely nothing at all about rabbits other than they wiggled their noses and hopped around a lot ... LOL!

So I decided to purchase a book on how to take care of rabbits and temporarily used cedar bedding ~ that is until I later read in my bunny care book that the dust causes very bad respiratory infections! At that point, I began using pine bedding as I was told that it was the better choice for both the indoor bunny's health and odor control.

Recently, I was doing my usual weekly pet food and supply shopping at Pet Smart when I came across a new brand of paper bedding in the "small critters" isle ...

 

 Kaytee Clean & Cozy Lavender Scented Animal Bedding

Kaytee Clean & Cozy Animal Bedding is made from paper material that meets FDA standards for food contact, is 99.9% dust free and offers guaranteed odor control. It is safe for small pets, comfortable, and 20% more absorbent than other leading brands of small pet bedding and litter. It's also great for guinea pigs, hamsters, gerbils, domestic rats, and other small pets.

And, it is fairly cheap as well ~ definitely cheaper than the pine bedding I had been buying. So far, so good!

Cats and Rabbits?: An Unexpected Good Match!

Through the years, my hubby and I have shared our hearts and our home with a total of eight cats and five bunny rabbits. Never ever have we had a problem with either species getting along with one another. Strange, right? I mean, felines and rabbits being known as predator and prey?

I suppose it is all in how you view it logically. For example, our cats have always seemed to treat our rabbits as if they somehow knew that they were part of the family. Now, eventhough our cats are and have always been 100% indoor pets, I have no doubt in my mind what-so-ever that had they seen any sort of rabbit running around in our back yard that their predatory instincts would immediately kick in and that poor bunny would automatically be prey!

Why is this so? Well, for one thing the cats enviornment has a lot to do with how they react to rabbits. How you introduce them to one another, how they share territory within your home, how aggressive the cat OR bunny is, etc. Cats out in the wild naturally tend to be solitary animals where rabbits are known to be social and stay in their own little groups (afterall, being prey there is usually safety in numbers).

But, domestic cats have been living with us for so long that they have adapted to being around us and/or other animals and therefore tend to be much easier to handle, if properly introduced, around newcomers and even get a bit lonesome for the company of others whether it be ours or another animals. Such has been the case with our critters. What seems like such an unlikely match is more often than not a really wonderful companionship ...

I have found a great link to an article about the relationship between cats and rabbits from House Rabbit Society. Here it is:  
http://www.rabbit.org/journal/2-11/cats-and-rabbits.html

 

My nephew Dustin with his female dwarf bunny "Sydney" who was one of our rescue bunnies back in 2011.

Meet Sam!

This is our little 4-year old Dwarf Bunny, Sam. Like all of the other rabbits we have had in the past, Sam was a rescue bunny. My hubby and I came home from a Fourth of July picnic a couple of years ago and there he was hopping around in your front yard along with his buddy ~ another white and brown dwarf whom we named Sidney.

We ended up getting a good home for Sid and, of course, keeping Samuel.  Sam is such a character! He uses a litterbox, although I never had to train him to do so like my other rabbits. When he is hungry, he will literally stomp on the floor of his cage until I come and feed him. He loves the cats ~ most especially Midnight. And the feeling is mutual as Midnight loves to keep him company by lying aside of his cage almost every day ...

My dad just loves Sam!

This is Sid (Sam's brother) having some fun watching TV with his new daddy, Dustin!

What can I say? I'm a real sucker for cats and rabbits!!! LOL!!!

Cats & Friends: All You Need is Love ...

Through the years, my husband and I have shared our lives with a few bunny rabbits as well as kitties. So far, we have had a black & white Mini Lop named Sir Barney who lived to the average age of 7 years, a gray & white speckled rex named Choloe, and now a brown & white speckled Dwarf bunny named Sam.

Barney was by far my favorite as he would actually give you little bunny hugs by resting his chin on your shoulder and I had such an easy time litterbox training him. Yes, I said "litterbox." There is a great rabbit training book called, "Hop to It" and it teaches you how to train your bunny to use a cat litterbox, how to keep your bunny away from dangerous household items such as wires and cords simply by bunny-proofing and saying  a few simple little words, and much, much more!

Before we rescued our first bunny, Barney, I never knew squat about rabbits. So, I bought a few bunny books and learned a few things such as rabbits do not have the ability to vommit and if they develop a hairball or something they must have it surgically removed. I also found out that un-neutered male bunnies will spray just like male cats do if they are not taken care of. Most interestingly though, they are not stupid. Since they are such sensitive creatures by nature, you can not yell at them if you wish to make them listen.  If you do, all you will suceed at is terrifying him to the point where you have lost any trust you may have had before hand. Instead, you have to pick them up right away if they are misbehaving and repeat the words, "no, no ,no,  (and their name)" several times while placing them gently back into their cage. Trust me, they do not appreciate being confined to their cages after being left out for a spell and so the "dumb bunny" gets smart very quickly!!

Surprisingly, all of our cats have always taken extremely well to our rabbits and they often snuggled and played together ...