Natasha Rabbitova's 2015-16 Blog

Rabbits Online Forum

Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Natasha gave me quite a scare last night. By and large, her health has been really good throughout our time together (knock wood), so I'd hoped that as she got older she wouldn't develop the periodic stasis problems which Scone suffered from throughout his life.

Last night when I got home from work I opened Natasha's cage, but instead of waiting for me with her paws on the gate, she was just sitting passively in her safe spot in the corner of her cage. I put out her dinner - kale, her favorite - but she didn't touch it. She just hopped into the living room and sat next to Marge, her big stuffed bunny. When I called for her to come for a treat, she didn't move - although she did take a dried banana chip when I offered it. I left her alone while I had dinner, but she hadn't gone anywhere by the time I was done.

Alarm bells started going off. She wasn't hunched over or grinding her teeth, but she wasn't herself, either. I offered parsley, but she just nibbled a bit of a leaf and turned her head away. I even brought in a tray of snow, but she ignored it.

She eventually laid down in front of the front door, in the cool breeze under the door, and seemed to be comfortably napping. After a while, I started her hopping around from place to place, and when she discovered the sprig of parsley on top of the snow tray, she ate it. Success! She started digging in the snow and dumped the tray, then ran into her cage and vacuumed up her kale. This morning she was back to normal. Crisis averted.

A few pictures to start the year:

The local Wegmans supermarket has a "please take" box by the door, where you can pick up packaging and the like (a great source of free aluminum baking trays). They had a round box made of light wood of some kind - probably from a cheese or something like thtat - which seemed like a perfect bunny toy. Natasha loves it - I fill it with yummy Meadow Hay or Oat Hay, and she picks out what she wants (and dumps the box as it gets low). She's started sculpting the edges, too.
natasha_9556-8903.jpg


Dumping hay boxes is hard work - time for a nap.
natasha_9560-8904.jpg


Natasha and her stuffed friend, Borders Bunny:
natasha-borders_9563-8905.jpg


Napping together:
natasha-borders_9561-8906.jpg
 
So cute, she certainly seems to have quite the luxury life. So glad that you avoided a stasis episode with her. They're not fun.
 
I love seeing Natasha's photos! She always looks soooo soft, I want to give her a big cuddle.
 
Natasha's stuffed friend Marge (short for Margerine) has been poorly of late. Natasha's over-enthusiastic grooming has worn holes in her extremities, so I had to do some restorative surgery this afternoon. I stitched up her arms, and gave her some socks to keep her feet warm (as well as fully stuffed and ungroomed).

Natasha inspected the surgical work carefully.

natasha_9877-8935.jpg


Natasha seems very satisfied with Marge's recovery.

natasha_9873-8934.jpg
 
Nat has some attitude!!!!! She's a diva and she is AWESOME!!!!!! Give her a snuggle and smoothing for me.
 
Natasha loves oat hay. All I have to do is open the cabinet and say "yummy hay", and she runs over to her hay box and waits impatiently.

natasha_9887-8937.jpg


Just relaxing....
natasha_9891-8938.jpg


Fully relaxed, Natasha still keeps one ear trained on Dad, just in case...
natasha_9894-8939.jpg
 
Spending a nice Saturday morning with Natasha and my new camera.

A brown paper bag is a favorite bunny toy - you never know, it might have a treat in it...
natasha_0086-8965.jpg


Gotta check both sides...
natasha_0089-8966.jpg


"Nose rub, please, Dad?"
natasha_0101-8968.jpg


A bunny kiss is Dad's reward...
natasha_0096-8967.jpg


natasha_0103-8969.jpg


Yummy oat hay always hits the spot.
natasha_0105-8970.jpg


natasha_0107-8971.jpg


natasha_0112-8972.jpg
 
You do a really good job at capturing her beautiful black rex fur color and texture. Not easy with black buns.
 
... which is 1,500 miles West of Natasha, at the moment. I'm going to spend a week at the Sun'n Fun Fly-in in Lakeland, Florida, and have stopped off in Fruita, Colorado, for a week on the way (as you do...). My friend Jerry and I took a hike in the Colorado National Monument this morning. Here are a few pictures I took on the hike - and the first is a bunny:

0803-desertcottontail-8994.jpg


It's a Desert Cottontail, to be exact. He was hiding in a bush, just watching as we hiked by.

Here are some more denizens of the desert, pictures taken in Monument Canyon or Wedding Canyon:

A Rock Wren:
thumb2_0829-rockwren-8995.jpg


There are thousands of lizards everywhere in Colorado, but if you look closely they're not all the same. Depending on what website you look at, there are anywhere from a dozen to forty kinds. This is a side-splotched lizard:
thumb2_0886-sidesplotchedlizard-8996.jpg


This colorful character is a Western Collared Lizard:
thumb2_0937-westerncollaredlizard-8997.jpg


If you want to follow along on my flight, I've got a blog going at our local flying club's website, which starts here:
https://ehfcmembers.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/by-skyhawk-to-florida-day-1-ithaca-to-oshkosh/
 
I'm so happy to see that you and Natasha are fine! Although I'm sure she misses you now.. she'll be very happy when you get back home!
I love the pics and stories of Natasha and her activities with the hay box that became a tray, and Margerine's surgery, etc... she's so sweet!

Nice pics of FL and CO!

Make sure you don't take too long traveling - Natasha is waiting for you!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top