Hoppy New Year Everybun!

We have had a terrific but busy Christmas and everybun is now pooped! Hopefully we'll get back to our usual blogging schedule in 2011!

Hope everybun has a wonderful NYE. We are snuggling up and keeping warm and looking forward to all the adventures that 2011 will bring us!

Extreme grooming

Getting ship shape for the big day!

Secrets

Bella looks a bit surprised! What has Buttons just whispered in her ear?

Decorations ctd...

Buttons says: "I also approve of this sparkly stuff, can I eat it?"

1 week to go!

Yay our tree is up. And Buttons approves!

Parsley treat...

Public service broadcast

Morning all!
Apologies, no photos today as its been a busy week, and Bella and Buttons have been too busy for posing! Instead, i came across this site today i thought i would share: it has tonnes of useful info on communicating with our bunny companions! Two ears up from us!
http://language.rabbitspeak.com/

New box...

But they don't seem to be too sure of this one... no nibbling yet!

Little helpers...

I'm not sure why this video has come out on it's side... Anyway enjoy Bella "helping out" with the sweeping up!

Snow and snuggles

We've been having an unseasonally cold and snowy week and it's best to stay inside by the heating and snuggle up with your significant other!

In repose

Bella loves stretching out on top of her house... unfortunately this doesn't leave much room for little Buttons! (If you look hard you can just about see him squeezed in behind her!)

Bunnies doing bunny things

Happy Bella!

Oh look at these cute mini-films I got last night. I spent quite a while hanging off the end of the sofa trying to catch Bella's happy jumps, and she kept doing them off camera!

First a little one


A little higher...


She's really relaxing and enjoying exploring the house now. Much less nervous!

Christmas is coming...

Well, almost! But Look! Two new bunnies (ahem, hares actually) arrived this week to adorn our Christmas Tree! Thanks to Annette and Arrabella. Aren't they gorgeous?

Buttons gave his seal of approval with a chinning!

Bella was less interested, but there was a big pile of readi-grass in front of her!

Now we're getting in the festive spirit!

Study on ears

Some have 'up' earsSome have 'down' ears

Some are stubby...

Some are big...

Some are like satelite dishes, receiving your favourite tv show

Some are filters- only hearing what is important (and have cute white go-faster stripes)
Some flop out
But they are all soft and twitchy!

Happy Thanksgiving to our North American Friends... Happy Snow Day to our Scottish Friends (hoping the snow gets to Essex soon! I Love SNOW!)

Permission to land?

Bellabunairlines requesting permission for fly past? Just admire my beautiful ears, I mean, wings :)

Adventures in the lounge

Hooray! Today we let Bella into the lounge again... she's been barred of late due to bad toilet habits (and we realised we were perhaps rushing her - the lounge is a big scary place for a rabbit!). She's been really growing in confidence in the last week, and in the lounge she really started to enjoy herself.

The best surprise though - Buttons let us know very clearly that he was also very happy to be out of quarantine and back in the lounge... see his happiness displayed around the 1min mark!

Note also barricaded area to stop Bella going in the corner she previously decided was a good toilet area!

Food! (Yes, it's theme thursday again!)

Buttons has been getting ready for his audition for the local (bun)-am-dram society's Christmas production of Oliver! Here he is, practising the cute eyes and longing look for food in the famous scene: "Please sir, can I have some more?"



The funniest part of all this - he had just eaten his body size in Spring Greens! How could he need any more food!?!

Thanks to Theme Thursday for the inspiration.

Oh, you are so small I didn't see you there!

Bella: Hmmmph, this cushion is a bit lumpy, and I just want to get to that piece of lovely hay aaaaaalll the way over there [streeeeeeeeetch] [trample trample hmmph]
Buttons: Don't mind me. [raises eyebrows] typical!

Isn't it funny that Buttons doesn't seem to mind this!

Hungry bunnies

Buttons is learning that he has to eat quick or miss out with Bella around!

Relax, it's Theme Thursday!

Relax, stretch out with a friend!

Bella's story

Since you asked. Bella came to us via the Rabbit Residence, the most wonderful rabbit shelter in southern England (in my humble opinion) and you can read more about them here: http://bunniestotherescue.blogspot.com/

Thankfully Bella doesn't have a very sad story, she was just, how shall we say "unplanned".

An elderly and disabled lady bought two buns for companionship. As is usual, the pet shop didn't sex them right, or advise her on neutering, and before you could say "breeding like rabbits" she found herself over-run with baby buns and unable to take care of them. The lady struggled on valiantly for quite some time: Bella is from an early litter, and is about 18 months old, but started to realise she couldn't cope so called the rescue to help. They are in the process of rehoming 10 bunnies from this lady. And they've also talked her into fixing the ones she wants to keep and can cope with.

A happy ending for Bella, and us.

Bella is doing ok, but extremely nervous still especially of all the weird noises our house makes. She feels safe sitting on top of her house though. She loves head rubs, kale, readi-grass and broccoli!

Hop forward, hop back

As you can see (from this poor quality photo), Bella made her first proper trip into the lounge this weekend. She's found her way in by accident before, and immediately been shoo-ed out as she found a corner to pee in!

This time it was a great success... she stayed for over an hour - had a run around and seemed relaxed enough to chill out and snooze behind the sofa (after checking the area was safe by sniffing everything for 30 mins!). And the best success - no "accidents" in the lounge area. Not one!

Hooray I said, and promptly boasted to everyone I knew that Bella was doing really well and getting the litter tray thing already! What a genius!

But since then, I'm continuing to sweep up poo tods (when we had a rabbit when I was a child we always called them rabbit tods, I don't know why, but it's stuck with me), and twice last night, she wee'ed on the newspaper next to one of the litter trays instead of in it. I don't know if those were accidents because she doesn't fully get it yet, or accidents because it was Bonfire night (all weekend) and our neighbours were going crazy with the fireworks.

Floor to litter tray ratio of tods is definitely improving in favour of the litter tray.

I think I've been doing everything right, in terms of placement of trays, nice hay to entice her in, 'scenting' the trays, moving 'accidents' back into the tray etc. The thing I've struggled with is that it's not so easy to pick Bella up and place her in the tray when she has an accident - she's a big heavy girl, and clearly not in favour of being picked up.

Yesterday I tried sitting with her for a while and giving her a treat every time she went in the litter tray. The accidents last night may have been a protest because the treats disappeared!

Advice please... any tips on helping Bella get it? Give her more time I guess - I know you are all going to tell me I'm being impatient!

Do not disturb

We're busy snuggling ;)

Oh, Hi!

Hi, I'm Bella! I'm very excited! So much to do, so much to sniff, so much to eat! I love eating... I could eat aaaaaaaaaaaaaaallll day.

That is, when I'm not snuggling up for a snooze with my new man Buttons. Here we are together below - isn't he dreamy? I'm totally in love and very excited to be here. My favourite bit of the day here so far is when the human brings us breakfast, and dinner. She even sits on the floor and lets us eat Kale right out of her lap and gives us head rubs at the same time. I love eating!


Now I just have to work out why the human keeps following me around with a dust pan and brush and pointing towards the tray of saw dust and hay in the corner... I'll ask Buttons about that. Strange humans.

She's arrived!

And she loves kale!

AND... (fanfare) ... we named her Bella

Happy Halloween!

Ok ok so it's an old photo...sorry (They are coming home on Tuesday - EXCITED!)

And ok OK, I know it's not a pumpkin either, but this mini-squash is the closest thing I managed to grow this year. Just enjoy the cute photo and be grateful.

What big ears you have....

Look at her... isn't she beautiful!

Ok, she's a little bigger than Buttons...

But they were very happy together!

If it continues to go well this week, they'll be coming home together next Tuesday. Can't wait.
We are going to give her a new name... the husband and I just don't fancy Anya... not sure why. But we'll have a think and let you know that next week.

Love triangle shocker!

No, not an episode from your favourite soap opera!

Who is this new character?

This, dear readers, is Anya, in a photo sent to me yesterday by Caroline at the rescue. Anya is a lady bun at the rescue who seems to have diverted Button's attentions! Who knew our little man was going to turn out to be such a lothario!

In fact, don't be feeling sorry for Sapphire - she drove him to it! The report is that while Buttons fell for Sapphire, the affections were not requited, and she was too bossy for our little Buttons. He didn't waste much time shifting his attentions to Anya though. We're going to meet her this afternoon!

Of course, I love all bunnies, and if Buttons loves her, then we will love her. But I'm so disappointed that we won't be bringing Sapphire home - she was so beautiful! Anyway, who knows what might happen next... I certainly didn't expect to posting this a few days ago!

To be continued ...

Theme Thursday: MONSTER

http://themethursday.blogspot.com/

How much do you love your bunny?

Please pass this around any British Bunny lovers! The RSPCA are doing survey just for us!

http://survey.rspca.org.uk/servlet/survey?surveyId=MjEyNjUS1

Bonding update

Not much to report... true love takes time! But so far so good!

When we first dropped Buttons off at the resue on Friday night he was terrified, and clearly concerned we were about to dump him amongst all these alien creatures! We are convinced that he's forgotten that he's a rabbit... when a doddery old lady bun, tiara, ambled into the crate Buttons had been assigned to say hello and welcome him (and she smelt some fresh kale), Buttons jumped out of his skin and looked at her like he'd never seen such a strange thing before!



Later that night we had an update from the rescue that he'd calmed down, and was starting to make friends with all the house bunnies at the rescue! A good sign!


As you know, the bonding process can't be rushed, so it wasn't until Saturday that he was introduced to Sapphire, but the first meeting went well. Buttons was definately interested in her, and they spent some time sniffing each other. Hoorary. We're just waiting to see if Sapphire will requite his affections... but it's looking good so far.

4

Tune in for the next part of our love story, later this week folks.

The problem we didn't foresee - we miss Buttons! The house feels so empty without him...

Date night... the build up!

Yes, tonight is the big night folks. It's as if he knows - Buttons has now stopped moulting, has spent lots of the week grooming and of course, looks gorgous! He's also been particularly excitable since we got home from our holiday. Either he was very very pleased to see us, or he knows that something exciting is happening this weekend! Wish us luck!

"What are you looking at?"

Super excited!

The humans had a lovely relaxing beach break in Turkey the past week, where thankfully it was still around 25degrees centigrade all week so we could swim in the warm sea! (not so fun returning to 5degrees C and rain at 4am this morning when our plane touched down!) Hello Britain!

The most wonderful part of the trip was, discovering wild Turkish Rabbits living in our resort. They were gorgeous, and not at all like the wild rabbits that live in the UK. They were grey and white speckled - a bit like a cross between an English spot and a Dutch rabbit . Sadly we were floating in rubber rings in a water park when we saw them and didn't have a camera stashed in our swim suits!

Anyway, we are also excited, as Buttons is going this friday to meet Sapphire (who BTW has been renamed Hermione by the rescue, due to multiple Sapphires, and we think we might rename her too if she comes to live with us...)

Here is a lovely video I just took of Buttons. It seems a bit dull at first - hang on in there - the last 90 seconds is worth waiting for!

Picky eater

Not fit to be seen in public

So we haven't blogged aaaaaaaaaaallllllll week, and that's mainly because Buttons is in the throws of a mega-moult, and was a bit embarressed to have his scruffiness in the public domain!Look at him! I think it's quite funny - he's half way between a cute fluff ball and a bit of mange!

"Hey lady! who are you calling mangey! Un-fluffin-believable what I have to put up with round here!"

You will see that behind him, Button's has been counting down the days to something... Not sure if he's counting down the days to our holiday (when he'll have a whole week of being cared for by the Husband's mum) or counting down to the day he gets to meet his new (potential) girl-bun!
The rescue told us that Sapphire's spay-op went very well this week, and we're preparing for bonding sessions starting 22nd, after our little trip to the sunshine! How exciting.

Little tail

A lovely film of buttons doing what he does best... turning 360 degrees to lick his tail!

Remembering

We're still waiting and getting excited about introducing Buttons to Sapphire, his new potential girl-bun. She is hopefully going to be neutered this coming week, so we'll keep you posted on what happens next.

While getting excited about a possible new addition to the family, we couldn't help remembering our much loved and lost little skittles. This video was the last one of him, taken three days before he died back in July. Only now can I watch and smile instead of feeling sad!

Buttons fights back!

Buttons gets seriously annoyed with the paparazzi filming his every move and takes his revenge on the camera!

The tail end of a stretch!

Bye bye! The human's mother has been visiting for a few days. It was great to see her (even Buttons enjoyed her visit, having a good sniff in her handbag!).

Bunny cuddles

... are the best! we're very lucky that buttons trusts us to pick him up and seems to love a snuggle!


Move over! My turn!

Punk bunny

" How dare you brush my fur the wrong way and then take photos and put them on the blog because you think it's funny!"

"I do not look cute. It is not punky. It's ridicule! "

Shopping

The detritus of a shopping trip lies across the lounge floor: new shoes, new shoes, new shoes, bunny.

Eh? Who bought the bunny?

"I am just lying in wait, ready to eat your new shoes when you turn your back (evil laugh!)"

yum yum!

:-9 more treats please!

Interesting developments afoot

This morning I paid a visit to the most wonderful rabbit rescue I've ever seen, The Rabbit Residence.

You can read more about their bunnies here: http://bunniestotherescue.blogspot.com//
and I'll tell you all about it in a second but why was I there?

We keep thinking on and off that Buttons might like a friend to play with. He must miss all the grooming time he had with Skittles, and when the husband and I are out at work, our kitchen must be quite dull for an excitable young rabbit. But we weren't sure - he seems very happy being on his own. So we agreed, that we would look around, but only get another bunny if it was absolutely perfect and if Buttons was 100% cool about it/her :)

Today was my first visit to the Rabbit Residence, and it was like fate. I arrived, and the owner Caroline said that currently she doesn't have any single small females, but she'll let me know as soon as one arrives. I was disappointed, but since I was there, I thought I'd have a little play with the residents (so many cute and friendly bunnies skipping around their own field! I was in heaven!). I was down at the bottom of this field with a giant lop the size of a small dog (one day... not sure Buttons would cope with a bunny 10 times his size, hee hee!), when I heard Caroline shouting my name. What could she want? So I dragged myself away and back up to the top of the residence, and a woman was standing next to Caroline holding the most gorgeous netherland dwarf (apart from Buttons, ahem) I've ever seen. She's just arrived to drop off this bunny, Sapphire, at the residence, as they had bought 3 baby rabbits for their children, but the other two rabbits didn't get along with Sapphire.
Thank goodness they heard about Caroline and the Rescue!
I held Sapphire, and she snuggled down in my arms very happily. It was love at first nose wiggle for me :) Goodness me, I feel a bit guilty posting a picture of another bunny on Button's blog!

Anyway. It's definitely not a done deal yet, by any means, so let's not get carried away!!!


First Sapphire is going to have to be health checked and then spayed and vaccinated. And then if she's ok after all that we will have to take Buttons to meet her and see how they feel about each other. I'm very encouraged about the way Caroline runs her excellent rescue though - she said that she would board Buttons for a week and do the bonding there with Sapphire, where they are both on neutral territory, and then deliver them back to us. What a great solution!



About the Rescue Residence:
http://www.rabbitresidence.org.uk/
I was just so happy when I walked down the lane and found this bunny-haven field they have. There is a mix of rabbits with in and outdoor runs, sheds, houses, lots of grass, tunnels. Oh! It must be heaven for them. They have had some trouble though from residents at the top of the lane, complaining about the people driving down their lane to get to the rescue. Boo hiss none-bunny loving people! Can't they see what an amazing job the team at Rabbit Residence are doing.

'M' is for...

Moulting! (Again!)

Post bunny

Buttons would like to say:

rest in peace Baxter... we hope you find lots of lovely grass to jump around in and nibble on the other side.

http://houseofrabbits.blogspot.com/

oh yes... even more!

Buttons and the husband getting cosy on the lawn:



Being on lawn this long must be like a disneyland all you can eat breakfast buffet for bunnies! More bacon anyone?

more of the same, but a bit different!

the best bit is as 26/27 second in, when he gets surprised by the sounds the chickens are making!

Bouncing around the garden!

playtime in the garden

Took lots of great photos and videos this afternoon, when we took Buttons out to play in the garden, but the internet connection is soooooooooooooo S.L.Ooooooo.W tonight, that here is just a taster.

More will follow when we have more time and better wires! We promise! If you want a sneeky peek, some videos are up on You Tube already, just need to make the links.

Hope every bunny has had a relaxing weekend!

Caught in the act

Ok, terrible quality pictures I admit, but I just laughed out loud when I came into the lounge and found Buttons and his toy bunny sitting side by side in peaceful companionship. "Can't a guy get some peace when he's trying to have some alone time with his lady friend? Geez!!"

And then, just to make my day, I managed to catch him in one of his hilarious cat-style stretch and yawns! Ok I missed the bit that really makes me giggle when he does a massive lion yawn, but I was pleased to get some of it on camera!

Buttons vs the grass

receding hairline?

I just loaded a batch of photos onto the pc that have been sitting on my traditional camera for a while (i've been a bit iphone happy since I got that last month!). I thought this capturing an interesting moulting pattern on Button's forward was adorable!