Category: bunny

Dignified rabbits have a mighty dewlap.

As modeled by Noe:

The sun does not set over the Bunnish Empire.

Why, you might ask, are so many of Noe’s photos taken of her napping? She’s not an exceptionally lazy rabbit…

It’s just that whenever she’s not napping, she’s constantly on the go.

Extreme bunny close-up!

(Must bunnies don’t have crinkled whiskers like this- it’s a breed-related trait.)

This week, Noe got a festive Halloween-themed orchard grass wreath from Bunny Bytes.

She was all excited about it until she realized that we’d also bought some bunny biscuits. Yan made the mistake of feeding her one and letting her see the bag, which he put onto the small table (which she can easily climb onto) while she ate.

Next, it was all “OMG, I know you have more, I saw the bag, where is it, I saw it, I want it, is it up on the couch, it’s not on the couch, is it under the couch, I want it, it was on the table, why can’t I go on the table, it must be on the table, it’s not on the table, where did it go, I know I saw it, you are freaking me out you guys, where is the bag, I WANT IT, BUNNY BISCUIT!” (with crazy nose-twitching)

Now she’s resting on the porch, cooling off.

Noe sometimes helps Yan prepare for class. She is particularly fond of Landau’s Mechanics.

At least, she is fond of the way it tastes.

She’s fickle, though: the other day, Yan left his new copy of Goldstein’s Mechanics on the floor for literally two minutes. Now Goldstein also has a big chunk nibbled off the cover.

I missed last week’s post, but never fear, Noe is doing fine. Her latest hobby is nibbling on Yan’s students’ homework while he’s grading. Little brat. She ignores my students’ homework- I guess she prefers calculus to the essay format.

We did have her vet exam last week, and her arthritis is a bit worse than it was last year (not unexpectedly). Unfortunately, she’s starting to get cataracts, so her vision’s getting worse. This hasn’t really affected her getting around, but we’ve been noticing that she’s more easily startled than she used to be. So that’s a bummer, and a reminder that she’s getting older. But the rest of the exam was mostly fine.

We may have to start feeding her more pellets or alfalfa, because she’s lost some muscle tone. It seems to be in the area around her arthritis, along her spine. Maybe giving her a bit more protein will help with that. She’s now a bit over 9 years old, so definitely in the elderly pet stage of life.

Noe’s taking a trip to the vet today for her semi-annual checkup. So, here’s a photo of a wild Maryland bunny we saw a few weeks ago while walking to the Metro:

Can’t see it? Well, it was pretty well-camouflaged. And not too fazed by us stopping to stare at it. It just looked at us for a bit, then went back to munching away. Here’s a close-up:

Noe, May 2003:

The main visible difference between teen rabbit and elderly rabbit seems to be a bit of chub around the middle and looser skin. She hasn’t gotten grey fur, though- I wonder if old rabbits actually do.

The green on her paws is from newsprint.

Now back to work for me.

Noe is a well-traveled bunny, not that she necessarily appreciates it. Here she is in Kona, circa 2003.

Shedding bunnies are just plain scruffy-looking.

“You don’t look so great in the morning yourself, you know.”

This week, we had to cut Noe’s nails. They were getting really long, as seen in the photo below.

Nail-trimming time is highly traumatic for all involved. While we have a procedure, Noe starts hyperventilating as soon as she is being held in the nail-trimming position. She will also randomly kick and squirm during the experience. It’s hard not to stress her our further when she’s doing that. While I’ve only ever nicked her quick twice and drawn blood in ~9 years, it’s stressful for us, too.

We’ve settled on doing her front paws one day, and her back paws the next. While this drags out the drama, it lets her calm down between (apparently) torture sessions. It’s hard to say which set is easier- she only has 8 nails in back (10 in front), but the back nails are much thicker and darker.

We’ve seen a rabbit nail-trimming demonstration in which one person held the rabbit in their lap, said something like “If you lean them back slightly they will just relax and rest gently against you,” and proceeded to gently snip at the nails with little reaction from the rabbit. Our speculation used to be that that rabbit was drugged or something. But I’ve helped my aunt cut her rabbit’s nails, and he actually did relax and lean against her! So the issue seems to be that Noe has a bad attitude. Oh yes, she also behaves when the vet trims her nails- so it is apparently a bad attitude toward us.