Category: bunny

One of the things that seems to throw people most about Noe (after the “How did you train her to use a litter box?” question) is the fact that she’s fixed. Even people who own neutered dogs and cats are apparently weirded out by this. Which is odd- she’s a decent-sized animal, so it’s not like neutering a gerbil or something… which could be a technical challenge, I guess.

Female rabbits can live upwards of 10 years- if you get them fixed. Being r-selected critters, they’ve evolved to breed fast and furiously- they live fast and die young. For females, this exciting lifestyle also means various types of uterine cancer at a young age. Though rabbits in the wild generally don’t have to worry about this since they’ve probably been nommed by a raptor or something already.

So no babies for Noe. Besides, that would take everyone’s attention away from her…

As an older rabbit- she just turned 8- Noe spends a lot of time sleeping. She has a few favorite spots: under the tables, in front of the kitchen, on the bathroom floor next to her feeding station, etc. Being under the table probably helps her feel secure, and by being in the kitchen she can keep an eye on the refrigerator- very important.

Another spot has been more of a problem. Since rabbits are territorial, we’ve had conflicts in the past over the bed. Clearly, the bed is the humans’ space, so she has to assert herself by sprawling on it. Sometimes when we’re in bed, she’ll jump up and scratch at us to get us to move over, or even nip if she’s feeling ornery. It was actually much worse before she was fixed- she would pee on the bed to mark her territory- every day! Truly a dark and stinky period in the human-bunny relationship…

Nowadays, she has her “own” bed, in the guest room/office, so this is less of an issue:

Unfortunately, it disturbs her now when we have overnight guests. Her usual method of torment is just to wake people up at the crack of dawn by shredding newspaper or climbing on them, so at least she’s matured from her wild adolescent days. Eventually, she gets bored and hops off to bother us, because we’re the ones who feed her. All we have to worry about for the most part is shed fur, the occasional stray poo (pretty odorless and about the size of a Kix cereal), and the rare savaging of a pillow.

Apparently this Friday is the day we talk about bunny poo, as well…

In the grand blogging tradition, I’d like to inaugurate my (hopefully) weekly pet blogging. Meet our pet rabbit, Terpsinoe- Noe for short (also known as She-who-will-not-be-named; The lidless eye, unblinking; Demon beast):

Rabbits do not deal with heat well, and in the summer we run our a/c to keep the apartment at about 82-85 degrees, which is a bit warm for her. So she gets her friend, the blue ice, to snuggle up against.