So I had another blog called Misty and Cookie's Crawl Space, but since technically Cookie is no longer my bunny, and I have added Charlie to the mix, I thought I would start a new thread.
Cookie is the original bunny (and the original bunny love of my life). While I lived at my parent's house, he was pretty much my bunny, but I knew they would not let me take him with me when I moved out - they loved him to death too and technically he did belong to my sister.
Here is a recent pic of the Cookster
I still see him a couple times a week and he is always very excited when I am in the house - follows me around and won't let me leave his sight.
While I was still living there, I got the urge to go to the Humane Society one day. I saw a dutch mix on the Humane Society website that was the cutest thing - so I decided togo get him.
Neil (my fiance) and I went to the shelter that night, and while looking at the little dutch baby (who was very cute), another little baby bunny came up to her cage bars and yanked on my sleeve. She was also very cute - and very fiesty - doing bunny 500s in her cage and giving me bunny licks through the cage bars.
So although I wanted the dutch at first, I could not resist the little girlbunny they had named "Tiger". So Neil and I took her home.
Cookie LOVED her. She was in quarantine for 2 weeks - to ensure she had no illnesses that Cookie could catch. Cookie did his best to find her - and he did a couple times.
About a week in, Cookie found his way down the hall, past the laundry room, up the stairs, and into the bathroom to find Misty in her cage. I caught them sitting nose to nose, Cookie grooming her through the cage bars.
About the same time I adopted Misty, Neil and I also took possession of a house we had bought earlier in the year. A month after getting Misty, we moved into our new place.
Right away Misty took possession of the entire house.
She has her own room
She has half a NIC cage... there was no reason to finish it since I have never been able tofind a lock or a latch or door that she could not open. She's been as escape artist since she was a baby - could climb and jump out of the X-pen at 3 months old. Even today the only way I trust that she will not be able to escape whatever she is in is to close the door to the room she is in.
Her favorite spot in her room is sitting in her window sill checking out the activity happening on the street - or just taking a nap. She waits for us to get home in her window. When she hears the door open, she jumps down and waits at her door for us to come say hi.
When she's not sitting in the window, she searches the house for anice patch of sunlight to take a nap.
Misty has free run of the entire house when we are home. When we are not home - she stays in her room. We were renovating our house for a few months, and I didn'ttrust her enough to leave her out because I know she is thinking up mischeif to try when we're not around... I still don't trust her not to think of things I have not been able to anticipate...
I call her Princess Misty because she is spoiled rotten. She gets her own way with anything she wants to do - and is pretty much the boss around the house.
Her favorite thing to do it tear up cardboard - any piece of cardboard in the house is fair game and she does a good job of it. She loves LOVES boxes. As I write this she is sitting IN this box tearing a front door.
This is her box castle - I threw it out a few days ago, I don't think she's too happy with me. I wanted my dining room back...
She's my little Princess
So Misty is happy and all is well, but we feel so guilty when we leave the house in the morning and when we go out all day on the weekends. Neil decided we needed a friend for Misty. So we decided to go to a Rabbit Show and meet some breeders.
One Holland breeder I was in contact with had a baby that would be ready to go at the show, so she brought him along to show me and see if I wanted him.
Neil and I walked into the show and saw him across the room - we took one look at the baby and fell instantly in love.
So we adopted him from the breeder and took him home. We named him Charlie - after Charles Lindbergh because he had such crazy long airplane ears.
Instant chaos started. Misty could smell him in the house - he was in quarantine for 2 weeks. Misty become very very needy. Would not stop jumping all over me wanting cuddles. I loved it, but it changed really fast. I made the mistake of letting Misty see me holding Charlie.
She went nuts. I'm talking PSYCHO. She was attacking me like I was her worst enemy. Biting, clawing, jumping, hissing. I have never seen her like that in all the time we've had her. I was genuinly afraid of her. She gave Neil a good gash on his hand.
We changed clothes between petting Charlie and seeing Misty - it didn't help. She KNEW we were petting another bunny, and we needed to be punished. It got so bad that I could not be in the same room with her. If I was sitting on the sofa, she would run at me from across the room and jump at my face, claws ready for scratching and teeth bared.
She was so stressed out over him being in the house that Neil and I - on day 2 of having Charlie - made a tough decision. We had to take him back to the breeder. The whole point of getting Charlie was to make Misty happy. She was so good with Cookie, I just could not believe she was so agressive.
The breeder had someone else interested in him but we had to take him back to her that day.... so we did.
We second guessed returning him the entire way and almost turned back when we got to her house, but we kept thinking of Misty and we were afraid she would never go back to her super affectionate self. It was hardest on me because Misty and I are bonded and it upset me so much to see her like that.
When we returned home, I kept thinking that I should have just gave it more time. Neil and I were just not emotionally prepared for Misty's reaction. I put Chalie's toys in Misty's room, I put his litter in her room and forced her to smell his scent to see what she would do.
Over the course of the next 2 days, she got a little calmer and mostly returned to normal. Neil and I still could not get Charlie out of our minds and we regretted taking him back every day.
So 4 days later I called the breeder and asked if she still had Charlie.
SHE DID! She was going to take him to the new people that morning, but it was raining and she felt lazy, so she still had him.
I told her to keep him, I was coming to get him. So another long drive out to see the breeder, Neil and I got Charlie back, and a huge weight was lifted off my heart.
Misty hated him and hated having him in the house, but I was the boss, and I was going to make it work - and I prepared myself better emotionally for them never getting along.
Charlie was the sweetest bun. Very shy when we first got him, but very quickly figured out that petting was where it was at, and was soon begging for cuddles.
Charlie has gotten so much bigger since we got him - he is already almost the same weight as Misty. Every day I look at him and he's bigger than the day before.
For a long time, it was hard with Misty. At first, I still could not be in the same room with her, but I worked with her every day to re-establish our bond. I spent a lot of time with her, kept a happy face when she would bite the hell out of my hand. I suffered quite a bit of agression, but once she figured out that Charlie wasn't leaving, she calmed down.
Once we let Charlie in the same room with Misty (him in the cage and her with free run), she spent the whole time attacking the cage bars. There was pure agression - she could not stand having him around.
We set up the X-Pen around Charlie's NIC cage, so that she could not reach him through the bars and we left him in the Living Room - part of Misty's territory. She would try to get to him through the bars, but because she could not, eventually, after fighting with it for a while, she would get bored and go do her own thing.
We left that setup for a month or so. Every day she got bored trying to attack him a little faster until eventually she just came down, gave him a dirty look and went to tear up a box in the dining room.
Then we went to the vet because Charlie had worms in his poo!! They both got put in separate carriers, face to face in the back seat. When we got to the vet, they sat in the waiting room face to face in their carriers. They both got their checkups - Charlie had pinworms and Coccidia, so both he and Misty are currently on meds. I can't think of how we came down with either seeing that he never leaves the living room - and Misty has never been sick...
Either way, I got them home from the vet and Misty went over and flopped beside Charlie's cage. FLOPPED! This had never happened before.
I tentitively took the X-Pen away from around Charlie's NIC cage and lo and behold... Misty went over to Charlie and put her head down on the floor for Charlie to groom her.
So as it stands, I am waiting patiently to get Charlie neuterd so that I can takethe next step in bonding and hopefully get Charlie out of the middle of my living room and up into Misty's room with her. Both he and Misty have been getting along better. She does not groom him ever, but she does ask him to groom her every time she sees him. He pulls her fur and is getting a bit nippy now that he is in his teenage years.
So - that's our story for now!
_______________________
:bunnydance:Misty
:brown-bunnyCharlie
and me (Nadia the slave).
Cookie is the original bunny (and the original bunny love of my life). While I lived at my parent's house, he was pretty much my bunny, but I knew they would not let me take him with me when I moved out - they loved him to death too and technically he did belong to my sister.
Here is a recent pic of the Cookster
I still see him a couple times a week and he is always very excited when I am in the house - follows me around and won't let me leave his sight.
While I was still living there, I got the urge to go to the Humane Society one day. I saw a dutch mix on the Humane Society website that was the cutest thing - so I decided togo get him.
Neil (my fiance) and I went to the shelter that night, and while looking at the little dutch baby (who was very cute), another little baby bunny came up to her cage bars and yanked on my sleeve. She was also very cute - and very fiesty - doing bunny 500s in her cage and giving me bunny licks through the cage bars.
So although I wanted the dutch at first, I could not resist the little girlbunny they had named "Tiger". So Neil and I took her home.
Cookie LOVED her. She was in quarantine for 2 weeks - to ensure she had no illnesses that Cookie could catch. Cookie did his best to find her - and he did a couple times.
About a week in, Cookie found his way down the hall, past the laundry room, up the stairs, and into the bathroom to find Misty in her cage. I caught them sitting nose to nose, Cookie grooming her through the cage bars.
About the same time I adopted Misty, Neil and I also took possession of a house we had bought earlier in the year. A month after getting Misty, we moved into our new place.
Right away Misty took possession of the entire house.
She has her own room
She has half a NIC cage... there was no reason to finish it since I have never been able tofind a lock or a latch or door that she could not open. She's been as escape artist since she was a baby - could climb and jump out of the X-pen at 3 months old. Even today the only way I trust that she will not be able to escape whatever she is in is to close the door to the room she is in.
Her favorite spot in her room is sitting in her window sill checking out the activity happening on the street - or just taking a nap. She waits for us to get home in her window. When she hears the door open, she jumps down and waits at her door for us to come say hi.
When she's not sitting in the window, she searches the house for anice patch of sunlight to take a nap.
Misty has free run of the entire house when we are home. When we are not home - she stays in her room. We were renovating our house for a few months, and I didn'ttrust her enough to leave her out because I know she is thinking up mischeif to try when we're not around... I still don't trust her not to think of things I have not been able to anticipate...
I call her Princess Misty because she is spoiled rotten. She gets her own way with anything she wants to do - and is pretty much the boss around the house.
Her favorite thing to do it tear up cardboard - any piece of cardboard in the house is fair game and she does a good job of it. She loves LOVES boxes. As I write this she is sitting IN this box tearing a front door.
This is her box castle - I threw it out a few days ago, I don't think she's too happy with me. I wanted my dining room back...
She's my little Princess
So Misty is happy and all is well, but we feel so guilty when we leave the house in the morning and when we go out all day on the weekends. Neil decided we needed a friend for Misty. So we decided to go to a Rabbit Show and meet some breeders.
One Holland breeder I was in contact with had a baby that would be ready to go at the show, so she brought him along to show me and see if I wanted him.
Neil and I walked into the show and saw him across the room - we took one look at the baby and fell instantly in love.
So we adopted him from the breeder and took him home. We named him Charlie - after Charles Lindbergh because he had such crazy long airplane ears.
Instant chaos started. Misty could smell him in the house - he was in quarantine for 2 weeks. Misty become very very needy. Would not stop jumping all over me wanting cuddles. I loved it, but it changed really fast. I made the mistake of letting Misty see me holding Charlie.
She went nuts. I'm talking PSYCHO. She was attacking me like I was her worst enemy. Biting, clawing, jumping, hissing. I have never seen her like that in all the time we've had her. I was genuinly afraid of her. She gave Neil a good gash on his hand.
We changed clothes between petting Charlie and seeing Misty - it didn't help. She KNEW we were petting another bunny, and we needed to be punished. It got so bad that I could not be in the same room with her. If I was sitting on the sofa, she would run at me from across the room and jump at my face, claws ready for scratching and teeth bared.
She was so stressed out over him being in the house that Neil and I - on day 2 of having Charlie - made a tough decision. We had to take him back to the breeder. The whole point of getting Charlie was to make Misty happy. She was so good with Cookie, I just could not believe she was so agressive.
The breeder had someone else interested in him but we had to take him back to her that day.... so we did.
We second guessed returning him the entire way and almost turned back when we got to her house, but we kept thinking of Misty and we were afraid she would never go back to her super affectionate self. It was hardest on me because Misty and I are bonded and it upset me so much to see her like that.
When we returned home, I kept thinking that I should have just gave it more time. Neil and I were just not emotionally prepared for Misty's reaction. I put Chalie's toys in Misty's room, I put his litter in her room and forced her to smell his scent to see what she would do.
Over the course of the next 2 days, she got a little calmer and mostly returned to normal. Neil and I still could not get Charlie out of our minds and we regretted taking him back every day.
So 4 days later I called the breeder and asked if she still had Charlie.
SHE DID! She was going to take him to the new people that morning, but it was raining and she felt lazy, so she still had him.
I told her to keep him, I was coming to get him. So another long drive out to see the breeder, Neil and I got Charlie back, and a huge weight was lifted off my heart.
Misty hated him and hated having him in the house, but I was the boss, and I was going to make it work - and I prepared myself better emotionally for them never getting along.
Charlie was the sweetest bun. Very shy when we first got him, but very quickly figured out that petting was where it was at, and was soon begging for cuddles.
Charlie has gotten so much bigger since we got him - he is already almost the same weight as Misty. Every day I look at him and he's bigger than the day before.
For a long time, it was hard with Misty. At first, I still could not be in the same room with her, but I worked with her every day to re-establish our bond. I spent a lot of time with her, kept a happy face when she would bite the hell out of my hand. I suffered quite a bit of agression, but once she figured out that Charlie wasn't leaving, she calmed down.
Once we let Charlie in the same room with Misty (him in the cage and her with free run), she spent the whole time attacking the cage bars. There was pure agression - she could not stand having him around.
We set up the X-Pen around Charlie's NIC cage, so that she could not reach him through the bars and we left him in the Living Room - part of Misty's territory. She would try to get to him through the bars, but because she could not, eventually, after fighting with it for a while, she would get bored and go do her own thing.
We left that setup for a month or so. Every day she got bored trying to attack him a little faster until eventually she just came down, gave him a dirty look and went to tear up a box in the dining room.
Then we went to the vet because Charlie had worms in his poo!! They both got put in separate carriers, face to face in the back seat. When we got to the vet, they sat in the waiting room face to face in their carriers. They both got their checkups - Charlie had pinworms and Coccidia, so both he and Misty are currently on meds. I can't think of how we came down with either seeing that he never leaves the living room - and Misty has never been sick...
Either way, I got them home from the vet and Misty went over and flopped beside Charlie's cage. FLOPPED! This had never happened before.
I tentitively took the X-Pen away from around Charlie's NIC cage and lo and behold... Misty went over to Charlie and put her head down on the floor for Charlie to groom her.
So as it stands, I am waiting patiently to get Charlie neuterd so that I can takethe next step in bonding and hopefully get Charlie out of the middle of my living room and up into Misty's room with her. Both he and Misty have been getting along better. She does not groom him ever, but she does ask him to groom her every time she sees him. He pulls her fur and is getting a bit nippy now that he is in his teenage years.
So - that's our story for now!
_______________________
:bunnydance:Misty
:brown-bunnyCharlie
and me (Nadia the slave).
opcorn2
