Nummy's Story

[Nummy]

:happyrabbit:Well for starters I have always wanted to have a rabbit for a pet. I had not been looking to get one the time when Nummy and I found eachother. It was one fateful day at the vet office. I was acompanying my mother who was having a pet looked after, when a young man came through the doors with a rabbit in a box. I was listening to the man explain Nummy's situation and the reason for his visit. It didn't sound good.

Nummy was left out in the cold before someone had got to him :shock:, that and he had ear mites that covered both his ears. His eyes were bulging out of his head and he looked so stressed out. The man had told the vet that the rabbit did not belong to him and he could not care for him. I believe that it was because I had run a rescue with my mother, that the vet thought to ask me if I had a open spot. The man offered to pay all the vet bills to fix up Nummy and I could take him home. Of course I gladly took him in.

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So I get Nummy home, the only place I can set him up in at the moment is a big walk in closet with a light. It was a pretty good sized pen. I lined it with some towels, gave him a bowl of water, and left him to settle in for a while. He was so scared and curious at the same time. I decided to crawl behind the gate and try to pet him a bit. This is when the thumping occured. Boy was I surprised at this since it was my first time seeing it happen. The noise alone made me jump everytime he did this. The ear mites were driving him crazy and he would constantly shake his head to rid himself of the problem. I would gently try to pick out the stuff that was loose, but he looked so unconfortable.

A few days would pass and so would his ear mites. Nummy was starting to really come around. He seemed really friendly, and always lowered his head for a rub. We were bonding through this whole prosess and I was really becoming fond of this special animal.

He was an amazing sight to see when he would do his little jump in the air, My husband and I would say "he is doing a Stewart" (If anyone watches mad tv you will know who I am talking about) It would make me laugh at how cute he would look getting so happy like that. Nummy and I were getting really close, but Nummy was starting to have "more than friends" feelings for me, and every time I would come by his cage he would grunt and run circles around my legs. I knew it was time for him to have a replacement lover . I bought him his very own girlfriend...

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It was love at first sight :inlove::inlove:

 

[Nummy]

I was so glad to see that Nummy and his new girlfirend were working out, I could finally pet him without having him crawl up my arm.Now I was begining to see some of Nummy's quirks. First of all he did not like walking on any slippery type of surfaces. I guess his previous owners must have had carpet or something. This was not good considering we lived in a home with all hardwood floors. I had to make a path of old sheets or blankets in a room for him to run in. He still to this day refuses to walk on hardwood, but at least we have some carpet in our new home.

It was so adorrable when I brought him with me to my aunts place when I had to house sit, her house was fully carpeted. He went nuts with the space he had :biggrin2:. It was so cute. I am still amazed with how high he can get sometimes. Nummy is a real pleasure to watch when he is experiencing bunny "bliss".

Nummy is such a good boy, except for the whole peeing in bed thing... I wish he would stop with that. He has only chewed through one cord the whole time I have had him, it was a phone cord :grumpy:. He is otherwise very well behaved and stays out of trouble. That reminds me of summer time one year, it was a hot Ontario summer day. I was outside staring a fire with my husband, Nummy was in my bedroom. My patio door was open with just the screen. I left the TV on for Nummy while I was outside. I looked inside and to my surprise there was Nummy all spralled out on the middle of my bed watching TV! It was so cute. He looked so content it made me soglad knowing he was happy now here with me.

He trusts me so much. I swear this rabbit will let me do almost anything to him. Except catch him when it is bedtime:bunnydance:He will let me touch him anywhere. When we are at the vets he crawls up my body to hold him tight,and he come to me when he is scared. He seems to know that I have helped him and that I can be trusted. He is so sweet he has even licked the tears off my cheeks when I was crying. I love this rabbit.:hearts I never knew how attached to him I would get.

 

[Nummy]

:bambiandthumperEach day that passed I watched Nummy go from being a sacred stressed out rabbit, to one that had full confidence in himslef again. It was nice to see that he was becoming confortable with his surroundings and the people he lived among. Heis always so curious to learn something new or to try to eat something new. I have learned one thing though, Nummy is very fussy at what he will eat!

I am new at this whole owning a rabbit thing, so for me it has been a learning experience. I have only had guinea pigs, hamsters and a dog. I have learned that rabbits are a unique animal that can not really be compared to anything. Yes some may say it is kinda like having a cat, or maybe even like having a guinea pig. But from my experience it has not been that at all. At least Not Nummy. He is like nothing I have had the pleasure of owning. To be honest if I had to pic favorites it would be Nummy :biggrin2:. I never knew how attentive and interesting having a rabbit was. Like I said before I am new at this. It amazes me that he doesn't go out of his way to be a bad bunny... I have heard the many stories of bunnies who chew up the place and get into all kinds of trouble. I think Nummy is just content with his surroundings and he is just not board enough to chew up my walls. Maybe a few books though.

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One thing that I can't seems to get Nummy to do is poop in the litter box alone.... he does go in in to have a pee and stuff, but he still finds it nessesary to poop on everything. Now he even pees outside his box too. I wish I could get him to just go in one place. He has really mucked up that carpet. (Good thing it is old).


I sometimes think that Nummy's life before me was much different. I don't think he was given the attention he deserves. For example... Nummy does not like to cuddle on my lap, he won't come up on the couch for a rub. If he does jump on the couch I am lucky if I can get him to stay to get any rubs. Our type of cuddles consists of me coming to him mostly, I will sit on the floor with him and he will come rub his chin on me a bit, then lower his head for some love.:love:He will lick my fingers and sometimes my face too if I lean in for a kiss :kiss1:. I accept the way things are though, and I never force him to do anything. I let him decide how things will be. He has never bitten me yet....that reminds me though of this time when I had moved his pen to a new area. He had not been around the house cat (my room mate has a few pets too), so Nummy was thumping everytime the cat would come in the room. Anyway, I had come over to give Nummy a treat, and he did try to bite me! Except it was not a hard bite, just rested his teeth on me really. It scared me though since I didn't know what to expect. The main thing though is he is not a biter, he is a very good boy unless he is scared which is to be expected.

Life for the most part was good. Until one day Nummy had stopped eating. I realized that this was not like Nummy. I never had this problem till now and from my experience with guinea pigs, when they stop eating it usually means death is on the way. I was horrified and of course like many other people, I turned to the internet for some information. Of course the internet sometimes seems to only give the bad news on everything before any good, so I was panicing thinking my animal was going to die soon. I called the vet in a hurry and rushed Nummy in to see a vet.

The vet thouroughly examined Nummy. The first thing they checked was Nummy's teeth. Sure enough the vet discovered that Nummy had spurs on his molars. So they took them off for him and told me that Nummy would require regular visits for up keep. So this was the start to a new problem for us.When I got Nummy home he seemed to perk up a bit now that the spur was gone. I was glad that it wasn't something worse like some of the stuff I found on the internet. The vet urged me to feed Nummy hay for his bad little teeth but Nummy had not shown any interest in it at any time I had put it down. That lead me to believe that his previous owners did not give it to him as a baby or maybe none ever. How was I supposed to get him to eat hay now that he is a mature rabbit?? Well to be honest, he still won't eat it. He will move it around but thats it.

 

[Fancy77]

WOW he started off life kinda rough. I am happy to hear he is doing so well. I doesnt take much for them to steal out hearts. It is funny how much he loves that bear, lol Now u probably wont have to worry about getting him a bun gf he has one that doesnt cost anything LMAO

 

[hartleybun]

now that is one bun who knows he's now living in 5 star luxury! glad he's feeling better and settling in

 

[Nummy]

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It makes me sad to think of his rough start, but I know he is a happy little guy now. He probably has never looked back. And yes he loves that teddy :inlove:I have often considered getting Nummy a mate but... I just think it would be alot to have to neuter him . He is so old now being around 6-8 years old. I keep Nummy company though. He is always out and about with me. I never make him sit in his pen too long, and we enjoy hanging out together. I wish he could be out 24/7 but I have a little dog that would want to eat all the rabbit food.

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This is Daisy A.K.A. "Doodles" She is a Chihuahua mix than loves all the critters. (and the food) Nummy really seems to like Daisy, they like to give a sniff here and there. Nummy even puts his head down for Daisy to rub him. It is priceless.So needless to say Nummy is certainly entertained and has gentlefriends.

Nummy still refuses to touch any hay so I give him greens regularly. It never seems to cause him any upset. The seasons changed as they do and this was when I experienced a rabbit molt. To be honest I didn't know rabbits even had a molting time.During this time Nummy was grooming excessivly.Then he stopped eating again. :shock:So I call up the vet thinking it is his teeth again. I get him inonly to find out his teeth were not bad and they suggested pappya enzyme through the molt along with brushing. I had to force feed him too which was not fun. I was wraping him up in a"rabbitburrito" and feeding like this. He was so upset, and I felt for him. He eventually did go back to his regular diet, but I sure hoped this was not going to happen again.

I got online again and tried to learn as much as I could about GI Stasis. I have since then been trying to do all that I havelearned as prevention. I still find that I have many questions about this problem because as it turns out Nummy seems to be prone to it.Now I don't worry as much when he gets stasis, but sometimes it lasts so long it freaks me right out.

 

[Wabbitdad12]

Great start to your blog!

He is one lucky rabbit to have found a terric slave like you. He is a very cute bun and so is your pup!

 

[Nummy]

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That is a picture of what Nummy looked like on Sunday. Hecurrently has stasis we are trying to battle. This episode has been lasting the longest I have ever seen him go through. It has been very frustrating and has kept me up for many nights with worry. He is like having a child! OnMonday he started feeling better and ate all on his own.

Things started to get better again, and he was consistant all day and through that night aswell. Tuesday he did pretty good too, he ate all day on his own. That changed that night again to not interestedand fewer trips to the dish. So here we go again with this dreadful condition he has. It must be the lack of hay or something. I give him a diet that consists of 1/4 cup of his pellets, loads of greens as much as he wants, hay is given but he won't eat it and he gets grass sometimes. I just recently learned he could eat the grass all the time. :foreheadsmack:But this is a learning process for me too. Nummy is my 1st and only rabbit, so I never know what to expect.

 

[Fancy77]

WOW this must me like a roller coaster ride for you.

 

[Nummy]

It sure is, but it is all worth it to have Nummy. We have our little bumps in the road, but it usually is never something we don't get over in the end. I think that the more I learn the better off we both are.

Nummy's teeth are in bad shape too I was told by the vet that alot of his teeth were rotten. Some of them had already fallen out or were ready to fall out. I had brought Nummy for regular trips to the dentist, but it always stressed him out getting his teeth done.

Eventually as time went by I started to notice that Nummy was sneezing. I have read up on causes on sneezing but the outcome is usually never good it seems. I worried about it and called the vet. Nummy was given some antibiotics for it and sent home. 2 weeks had gone by and Nummy was still sneezing. I made a note that he had not been sneezing up anything, but his nose was runny and he would have sneezing fits that would last a minute or so. I asked the vet if his teeth were the cause. So it was time to get an xray. It revealed that Nummy in fact had a tooth root growing into his sinuses. The vet went along and booked him for extraction. So they took 3 teeth out and one tooth did break the vet said it was pretty rotten. He said he took out the tooth that was bothering his sinuses. Nummy still sneezes from time to time but it is getting better. This tooth extraction happened On the 5th of Jan 2010. I hope Nummy won't need more teeth removed but you never know with these guys.

As I sit here and type this Nummy has decided to eat something, thisis good news!! Let's hope he keeps it up.

Other than histeeth and hisbouts of GIStasis, Nummy is a healthy happy little guy. He seems to get stasisaround 3-4 times a year.It doesn't always last long so it is managable most times. The rest of the time he is running around doing binky's for mum and dad!

 

[Fancy77]

U r such a good owner, and very devoted to his ongoing health issues....KUDOS!!!!

 

[Nummy]

Things are looking better this week. Nummy seems to be back on his normal diet at the moment. I am so glad that he is doing better. He had been sleeping out in my living room for a few days while he was sick, it always seems to cheer him up when he can sleep over :biggrin2:. He is back in his pen though for now, he is usually in his pen through the day so he can sleep, then he comes out at night when he is all nice and rested and ready to binky around the house. I can't wait till the winter is over so we can sit outside again and listen to the birds. I think Nummy has only really enjoyed being outside since he moved in with me. He was a little nervous at first, but he soon started to enjoy the warmth of the sun on his coat, and he was really happy about munching on some natural grass. :bunnydance:

 

[Fancy77]

yeah!!!!

 

[Nummy]

:wave:Hello again, its seems to be another good day so far. Nummy seemed energetic and full of life this morning. I have been thinking about letting him be a free rabbit (except when I leave for long intervals). I figure since he is so well behaved when it comes to chewing things up, that he should be allowed to be outside of the pen all the time. The problem is that he will have a pee or poop where ever he wants. Even on the bed sometimes which is really not welcome! :grumpy:I wish I could get him to use his litter box more consistently. He uses it sometimes, but he usually will go in random areas. I guess I am not sure how to litter train a mature rabbit. I often wonder if it is supposed to be like litter training a cat, but then again it is natural for the cat to use the litter it is instinct right? So is it instinct for a rabbit to go in the litter too??? Nonetheless, I do wish to have him out freely without the mess. He does have a good sized pen though, so I don't have to feel bad about him being in it.

It is so cute that Nummy gets along with all the other animals that live in my home. Daisy and him get along very well, but I think Daisy only hangs out so she can eat his food. I also have had a few hamsters during the time that Nummy has been with me. We have a wonderful hamster named Dot at the moment, Nummy seems to think she is someone to play with. I will let he out in her ball and he will start doing the binky dance and chin her :hug:It is adroable.

Dot is such a funny hamster too, she has quite the personality. I call her name and she will stand up like that to answer back lol. I just got her not too long ago, It has only been a few months since she moved in. She loves her little home too. It makes me happy that she likes her home and her short life with us.

Too cute!!! I took this pic while she was having her meal in her bowl. Sorry for the grainy pics, my camera died just after the holidays and I haven't replaced it yet. I am using my portable web cam. I will post better pics as soon as I can get a new camera.

Nummy,Daisy and Dot are my pets here, then we have a few others too that my roomate has. We have a cute cat here named Cookie, Nummy and Cookie seemed to not get along for the longest time. If she was in the same room as he was he would thump until she left. He is used to seeing her now so the thumping has stopped thank God!!! Recently Cookie decided to take a opportunity to meet Nummy face to face one day when I had the baby gate down. Well Nummy was a perfect gentelman and Cookie thought it would be a good idea to wack Nummy a couple of times on the head. She has no claws so I wasn't to concerned but I watched them closely. Nothing more happened that day. The next day the cat came back... she decided to smell Nummy's lips insted of slap him around this time. I think they have made a truce :biggrin2:.

 

[hln917]

This is such a wonderful story about Nummy. I'm so glad that Nummy is feeling better and that he came to live with you. I canonly imagine the stress you're both going thru with his health.

 

[Nummy]

Thank you Helen . Nummy is doing much better this week. I tried to get him some cat grass the other day at the grocery store but they didn't have any. I really wish I could find some so that Nummy could have a bit. I did buy some new hay though, it has marigolds in it.... Nummy hasen't tried it yet that I can tell, but the hamster seemed interested. There is no snow on the ground here, and I can see the grass but I don't think he would like that grass or not, it kinda looks like hay right now.

Last night I had Nummy out all night. He was in really high spirits, he was running around doing binky's and loving on his teddy. I was so pleased to see him this happy again. It seems like it has been a long time since he has felt so good. I am glad he feels better. Recently I opened up another room for Nummy to run in, he seems real happy about being able to explore the new room, and climb up on everything. He likes to run to the other room to get away from Dot hitting him with her ball.

She hates it when I make too much noise while she sleeps!:nonono:If I keep her up she gets revenge on me when it's time for me to get some zzz's.

I often wish I could get Nummy to enjoy a cuddle on the couch, he sometimes jumps up on the bed looking for a cookie, and he will sometimes stop for a rub. He seems to prefer the floor as his place to relax rather than a soft bed or couch.

I don't mind sometimes sitting on the floor with him, but I just shake the treat bag if I want him to come up to wherever I am at. It was 3am before I put Nummy to bed last night, it was cute that he tried to run away from me so I couldn't put him to bed. He knows all the tell tale signs that bed time is coming. His things start to dissapear from the room and he starts trying to make sure he didn't miss out on checking things out. Then it is off to bed for the night.

I have been trying to get Nummy to eat his new timothy hay pellets, I give him some at bedtime because I know he will have nothing else really to eat at some point, and may try some. This morning I could see that he ate around the new food. I wish he would just try it!! He is just so fussy.

 

[Wabbitdad12]

My bunny's know that first I come in and fill bottles, then food dishes then its treat time. When I come back they go nutsfor their treats, they know the routine.

 

[juliew19673]

LOL! Love the bun/cat hate,love story.. my bun is MUCH younger than my cat (he's 2.5 and she is 21.5 ); She - the cat hated the bunny, and he tried so hard to make friends, now she and he have worked out a "working relationship" she stopped hitting him everytime he tried to get a groom from her, and he realized he couldn't "run at her" whenever he wished..

Really laughed out loud at your mix of pets.. Very cute.

 

[Nummy]

Thanks again!! :biggrin2:I think pets just naturally make us want to laugh, I know mine always keep me smiling doing something cute.

It's another great day here, and Nummy is still eating. I think it might be safe to say things are back to normal. My roomate wakes up earlier than me in the morning and says she has been giving Nummy timothy hay pellets for breakfeast, and she says she has witnesed him eating them. So maybe him starving enough to eat them is the way to do it. I did give him some of his old food too, but I really want him to eat the new stuff. I still can't find any cat grass, and I know Nummy isn't interested in the timothy hay even if it has marigolds! I did notice that Nummy's coat feels really dry though. He is shedding too abit. I also noticedthat he has some dandruff aswell. He lets me pull off some of those dandruff tags and pull out some of his loose hair, but I am starting to think I should give him more pappya enzyme for the hair ingestion. I did some reading too on dutch rabbits and it said their lifespan was around 5 & up. I sure hope Nummy lives a long time as I think he is already over 5 years old. He seem like he will live a long life, I think he lives on because he is one happy rabbit!

The hamster was being a terror last night!!! She is certainly not deprived at all, but she acts like she is! Last night she got up around 12:00am. I am used to her wanting to do a hour walk around this time. I let her out for a bit, likely for longer than a hour and put her back to bed. She has decided that she is going to make lots of chewing noises while I sleep. She rattles the cage all night long! I am forced to sleep with ear plugs!

I have considered moving her cage, but I worry it may spook her. She is a scared hamster, if I change anything in her cage it freaks her out. I try to avoid that though so I don't know what she will think if I change the location of her cage. I might just be forced to wear the ear plugs for now.

 

[Violet23]

You are such a good and dedicated bunny slave, its awesome to see that Nummy is so well taken care of And the other pets are hilarious! and adorable