Rabbit Meat

Binkies in the Drawing Room is a weekly journal, filled with rabbits, binkies and the challenges that is the learning curve of raising a new pet.


WEEK FIVE

DAY ONE

Phew! Long week! So long I went straight into the other one without writing a word! Busy, busy with Christmas coming and trying to get everything done at work before the holidays start. Put Ra Ra's pics into my family desktop slideshow, got a little 'tabanca' every time I saw her little white face grace the screen. Tweeted how much I missed my 'binky' baby and went on with my work. Got home to realise, Ra Ra was just fine and probably wasn't missing me at all. Sigh. At least she's a happy rabbit!

DAY TWO

The one thing Ra Ra has yet to learn. Who's really in charge. She found out today after curiously jumping onto the one-seater to sniff the cushions and was promptly spotted by....THE QUEEN. Yes, I rushed to save her, and lightly dusted her off the cushions before she could feel the wrath but she had a scolding to get. Cornered by her majesty she was warned not to venture into such territory EVER again or, you guessed it, OFF WITH HER HEAD! The Queen brandished a warning finger on her little nose which Ra Ra took to be a rub on the head and closed her eyes to take it in. Poor soul, she doesn't know what she's getting herself into.

DAY THREE

A trip outside had Ra Ra sniffing all areas of the yard, nibbling bits of grass, that were to her liking anyway, and me following closely behind her. Our little adventure was cut short though as the neighbours dogs were out and about and I wasn't about to have any battle for my 'rabbit meat' because bet your bottom dollar I would WIN!

DAY FOUR

Ra Ra seems to be acting out. All three of my nieces and nephews were at home which meant she had to stay inside her cub most of the weekend. I thought the run outside would have helped despite how short it turned out to be, but to no avail. And how is she acting out, with poop. In the places she had long stopped doing her do in.

DAY FIVE

Ra Ra keeps ignoring her old newspapers meant for 'pooping' in the back hall and keeps loading off in the kitchen. As soon as I let her out! And there's only so long she can get away with that when the 'Queen' is the main inhabitant of such dwellings! And talk bout poop!! Eventually my mother says no more! Which means I have to start from scratch and re-train the rabbit, which in the end adds up to the same thing for Ra Ra, back in the cub!

DAY SIX

So I let out the rabbit IN MY ROOM to stretch her legs as my mother starts talking about putting the cub outside! And you know what the little monster...I mean sweetheart does!!
Specimen A. Evidence according to the little rabbit hairs on the bag next to the bites. And if you still can't believe it!
Exhibit B!
Caught in the ACT!!

DAY SEVEN

By now Ra Ra was in confinement! And she didn't like it but too bad! I wasn't starving her and at least I was providing her with little items to let off her frustration on. A small cover for a wicket basket, courtesy the Queen. Ra Ra's lucky the only threat she got was to be expelled from the inner kingdom. It's Christmas soon and the last thing she wants is for anyone to get any ideas to change the menu!


In case you were wondering:
Urban Dictionary: 'tabanca' - an extreme sadness and/or a depression following one's breakup or seperation from one's significant other.

Settled and Happy

Binkies in the Drawing Room is a weekly journal, filled with rabbits, binkies and the challenges that is the learning curve of raising a new pet.

WEEK FOUR

DAY ONE

I came home a bit late from work and the two of us sat outside her cub munching apples. She climbed up on me when hers was finished. Know how to beg already! House rabbit.

DAY TWO

Well, well. Ra Ra is becoming quite the settled little rabbit. After running around the drawing room and into the kitchen and out and behind the space-saver and back out into the drawing room again she 'binkied' her way back to the outer room and took a nibble of her goodies to re-energise herself for another dash around the rooms. I even took a nap and forget her out accidentally (in case my mother's reading this) and when I woke up, she was in her spot lounging behind the sofa, giving me her 'bored kitty' face. All the doors were closed so she didn't go out anywhere but I was more surprised at the fact that she didn't fill the whole house with poop!

DAY THREE

Ra Ra was not going to be bored today. While Saturdays are slow in my house, Sundays are full of pace, washing, cooking, cleaning, and the little rabbit took full advantage of me not having both of my eyes on her. So, outside she went! Twice! I found her flopping around in the mud!!! Bad Ra Ra! She did stay still long enough to let me clean her feet after I got her away from nibbling the grass though. She sniffed at the closed door several times during the day and finally decided it was a waste of her bunny time.

DAY FOUR

Given our little routine Ra Ra and I seem to be getting used to each others movements. I get up on mornings, let her out, and she lounges around the outer room until her suite is cleaned and ready for her, WITH room service! Once she's back in she munches away and goes to her second level for a mid-morning nap. She used to dash around her cub at the slightest movement near her cage but she understands now, 'I ain coming out again, until evening so I might as well relax!' She spends the day nibbling, sleeping, scratching her nails on the wood flooring underneath the paper, underneath the vinyl, that is UNDERNEATH the plastic in her cub. Yes, she rips it all up and I replace it again on evenings. She doesn't even budge if I happen to open the cub again before I leave on mornings to put in anything. By evening she's ready to run, and if I come on time, she's still lounging, if I'm late, she's shifting impatiently behind the wires waiting for me. And once she's out, it's Speed Racer around the house (or hide from my niece, it depends). I usually give her two hours then put her back in but once she's in, it's back to RelaxNation, see you in the morning!

DAY FIVE

My sister calls it the Hyatt spaces. The spots that Ra Ra loves to lounge in, her head flat to the side, mouth open, one eye vigilantly scoping out the area for any lurking babies. Behind the single seater couch, underneath the space-saver behind the full Lexicon Encyclopaedia series. Ahhhh. Nice and cool.

DAY SIX

I gave Ra Ra a piece of Bhaji today. A dark green veg. She nibbled some of it, and left the rest. Not too sure how she feels about that. We'll try again next week. Still not drinking any water. I hope her lounging is more about being utterly relaxed and happy and nothing to do with being lethargic from lack of water. Then again, when she starts to race, she races! No lethargy there at all.

DAY SEVEN

Ah, babies. Ra Ra seems as if she wants to play with my niece sometimes or at least sniff her feet but it's just down-right dangerous! They have a.. 'kinda' game they play. It's akin to 'hide and seek'. Ra Ra seems to not mind being chased quietly, once she isn't caught and almost strangled after ward. Apparently the only thing that my niece can do quietly and gently with the rabbit is feed her but it's only so long the rabbit will want to eat. Ah well, they do keep each other company during the day, so I hear. We'll see, if by next week (or next year) a quieter, less grabby relationship may arise, for all our sake.

Till next week. Enjoy this journey with your pet!

Invaders!

Binkies in the Drawing Room is a weekly journal, filled with rabbits, binkies and the challenges that is the learning curve of raising a new pet.

WEEK THREE

DAY ONE

"But look at how fat Ra Ra belly getting?!"

One after the other, the family 'considered' the bunny's growing roundness. She's not fat, she's pouffy! Healthy! (Hopefully) She doesn't even eat all the food I give her sometimes, just goes and lies flat down in a corner after eating. Ah, yes, here, in Trinidad, we call that 'macajuel time.'

She and the baby are getting along better not because the 'crazy bee' has stopped being so well...crazy, but because the smallest, my nephew has topped the list on being the #1 Dangerous Baby to Ra Ra's welfare which just makes my niece the better option. My nephew likes football and one of the colours in a football just happens to be, you guessed it, white! Let's just leave it at that. This week was turning out to be quite nice, if only it would have stayed so.

DAY TWO

Today, Ra Ra was out most of the day. It was the weekend and I was home so I gave her a freer reign. She spent the day moseying behind the arm chair where it was cool and eating the pieces of watermelon I slipped her. Then I noticed something. On my way to clean out her cub, I saw a leaf cutter ant, waltzing casually over the ground. I killed it and moved on. Then I saw one waltzing towards the door with a bit of leaf in it's mouth. Without thinking of where an ant could get a leaf inside a house with no plants again I just killed it and moved on. Then I saw one, taking it's tender time across the floor with one of Ra Ra's pellets onto it's back. 'Great, I wonder where you got that?'

Yes, all, the ants are invading. Sneaky little devils and once they find a spot, they leave a trail and the troops march in. I spent the majority of my Saturday, sweeping ants out of Ra Ra's cub and crushing with little satisfaction as they just kept coming back! And Ra Ra didn't seem to like the look of her intruders on her munchies so she snubbed her food the majority of the day. I didn't think it wise to spray the ants as it might just irritate Ra Ra and the ant powder was a no-go as well. What if she licked it and she got sick? I even tried stopping up the hole by the crack they were coming in by. They found their way around it. Eventually, by nightfall, I gave in and used a bait of crushed pellets strewn around the entrance of the hole on the outside of the house, hoping that that would occupy their little workers during the night long enough before they ventured inside for more.

DAY THREE

Today was a busier day. With washing and cleaning and cooking in the forefront Ra Ra spent more time in the cub, and the ants seemed to finally give it a rest. I kept sprinkling the bait outside until I could find a safer way to get rid of them. It would have been easier if I could have just found the nest. Some hot water woulda deal with them sweet! The same evening I caught her nibbling the Christmas tree. The fake Christmas tree! And the cords for the DVD player! She was given a time-out in her cub for that. The experts say you have to be stern with rabbits when they want to chew everything in sight, especially the things that can be potentially dangerous to them and you. By the days end, the ants didn't come back but then the rains had been falling heavily for most of the day. Is it possible for ants to drown? What, wishful thinking?

DAY FOUR

Bodi. A Caribbean vegetable that looks like a foot long string bean. I love it and so does the rabbit! It holds a lot of water as well so it's perfect for my water-hating baby! I did some more research on that and everything they had suggested I had already tried to get her to drink any water at all. So, I came to the conclusion that a rabbit that pee-ed that much MUST be getting enough water!! I guess I'll just leave her 'cover' bowl in there for if she ever decides to inspect the contents.

DAY FIVE

After pinpointing certain spots outside her cub that she liked to do her thing over the past weeks I laid paper down in the 'acceptable' spots (by acceptable I mean my mother wouldn't kill me for letting her pee there, threaten yes, actually kill, maybe not) and banning her from the other areas for the two weeks and by golly! (ha! I always wanted to say that!) it's working! She has virtually stopped 'doing her doo-doo' in the kitchen, even though she still runs through there every now and then and even in the front room which is mainly her space, well for now. She only does it in the spots I've put paper on, which is her cub and the back hall. Now there are still some hmm...'mishaps' but that's never going to be perfect.

DAY SIX

We've got a jumper! On the chair, on the outside table, and then binky all the way down! Ra Ra's been exploring and developing her agility. I tried to get a picture of it but 'blur'. Cause she's too fast! Speedy's (another nickname for her) been burning up the rubber on the vinyl floors, and loves to sleep behind the chair covers hanging over the drawing room couches, laid out flat on her side, her mouth open, ha! happy rabbit!

DAY SEVEN

I've started crumpling up paper, big wads of newspaper for her to play with. She rips them up, attacks them and then runs off like it will come after her. Normally I don't let her in my room but given the fact that she's gotten more control of her bowels or rather where she lets it down, I decided to let her browse through while I run in and out quickly. The new surroundings sent her crazy and in no time she was on my bed and in my CD's and on the clothes hamper! Phew! If she wasn't so bloody cute. Down, girl, down! Literally. Get off the books!

For next week, well, we'll see if we can get outside even though she is a bit of a scaredy-cat. I went looking for her nibblies on Sunday and when I came back my parents were frantic because they'd left the door open and she was no where to be found inside. Frankly, I knew she was inside, somewhere. I've been outside a lot of times and she's never followed me but just to be sure I checked the whole yard and around it but she was just sleeping in a corner by the couch (hidden by the chair covers!). Maybe when she's older I'll have to worry about her exploring outside territory and given the fact that MOST of our neighbours have dogs, that won't be funny. But I'll worry about that then. Until next week.

Clash of the Babies!

Binkies in the Drawing Room is a weekly journal, filled with rabbits, binkies and the challenges that is the learning curve of raising a new pet.

(Ra Ra's very first picture!)

WEEK TWO (18^th-24^th November 2011)

DAY ONE

I GOT A LICK! Now this is precisely why I don’t really care for dogs. The licking, urgh! But a rabbit’s lick…hmm, it’s okay. Small and quick, no fuss and a lot less gross and according to the experts it means, ‘I like you!’ which is good! This week I started out veeeery tired. I burned out the last week trying to give Ra Ra enough time to run on evenings and sometimes nights as I had to wait till everyone was asleep so as not to get too many protests. When I did this, cleaning up after her also meant that I had to cover a bigger area. Little sleep and up at five every morning equals a giant pain in the neck, literally! Quite simply Ra Ra was doing much better than me. Note to self: try to keep her playtime within a confined space. Please. As of now the only confined space is her cub. The only doors in my house are on bedrooms and bathrooms otherwise every room leads one into the other. Solution: Start the litter training!

DAY TWO

Today, despite being unable to turn my head properly I decided to clip Ra Ra’s nails, wrapped her in a cloth as the experts advised to keep her calm. Absolute waste of time. I barely got to cut her forelegs as it was. Ra Ra struggled without pause and when she did pause it was because I paused to give her a minute to calm herself! She almost wiggled and turned and kicked her way out of the cloth so many times that I just let her down after I did her forelegs. Her eyes were ready to bulge out of their little sockets and her heart was beating double time and given the fact that a rabbit’s normal heart beat is already clocking 130-325 beats per minute, you can imagine! At least I managed not to clip her nails too far that it would cause any bleeding. I don’t think either of us are looking forward to doing that again but I’m going to tackle those hind legs next week. Well, eventually.

DAY THREE

I’m still in a fix about how to vary her diet. She’s not drinking any water. In fact she just knocks the container over when I put it in so I stopped putting it altogether. I rinse out the water cress and other plants she eats and give them to her still dripping so she gets a bit more water in her system and she likes the cucumbers so I guess she’s getting enough. Have to research that tomorrow. Is it okay for rabbits to not physically drink water?

DAY FOUR

It’s not. Shucks! According to What Should I Feed my Bunny by Dana Krempels (http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/diet.html) rabbits can get enough water from the plants that they eat but without enough water they can get a serious stomach problem. They should drink an equivalent of at least the same amount that they eat every day. So I go home and examine Ra Ra from ears to cotton tail, I watch her race around the room and come to the conclusion that she’s not sick, yet. Putting back the same container with water is out of the question as we both know what she’ll do with it but I need to put some water in just so I know that if she needs extra water it’ll be within her reach. So I screw the top off a jar, it’s about ¾ of an inch high and about 4 inches wide, I fill it with water and put it next to her food bowl. I hope that for the most she’ll step into it on her way to nibble and notice it enough to take a lick and at least it’s not tall enough for her to knock over. I also add some patchouli to her diet. Just a little. See if she likes it.

DAY FIVE

Ra Ra still hasn’t touched her water but I have another problem and it’s in the form of a ‘crazy bee’. No, my rabbit hasn’t been afflicted with a troublesome flying pest but with a hyper screaming baby girl who loves to run behind her and push Ra Ra's bottom every time she stops like it’s a ‘GO’ button. I did remember reading somewhere in my first week that rabbits are not good pets for small children, especially the ones who go into ‘crazy bee’ mode every time they see what seems to them to be a moving stuffed animal! Unfortunately my smallest niece is still at that age where she hasn’t yet reached that stage of enlightenment to see animals as creatures that can be hurt like people. It’s just a game for her. Ra Ra runs, she chases. If the rabbit stops she shoves it to get it moving again. Ra Ra has taken to hiding under her cub when she’s out (by ‘she’ I mean my niece!) but that doesn’t stop my niece from bending down and shouting everywhere, ‘Ra Ra! Where are you?’ The poor animal’s scared stiff and most times when I clean out the cub (whereas she used to use that opportunity to frolic!) if the baby’s loose she just stays crouched by my feet the whole time or if spotted she hides and I don’t tell. Now I don’t mind keeping the two apart until ONE of them learns to listen, (don’t hit the rabbit means don’t hit the rabbit! The child’s a maniac!) but that means less ‘run around’ time for Ra Ra, especially since the other baby kicks a fit if she has to be banned from the area for a few minutes until I get Ra Ra's cub cleaned, and then I get the evil stare. Great!

DAY SIX

Ra Ra is not taking her confinement well. I’ve come home to see the newspaper I’ve lined along the bottom of her pen ripped with pieces of it scattered about. Another dilemma. The only time she gets out to really stretch her legs is when I clean her cub which is every morning and evening otherwise she has to stay inside for fear that the baby might squeeze her too tight or that she might just retaliate by nibbling her little toes or the little fingers that she keeps sticking into her cub. Sigh! And God forbid that she eats the paper in her chewing! And she keeps sitting down on top of the plants I put in for her to nibble. And then when they are limp, she doesn't care for them any more. Unfortunately for me, there is no 'hay' where I live which is the recommended main food for rabbits. I don't even know what it looks like! Is that the brown stuff that horses eat? Because the only people who have horses here in the Caribbean are special services, you know military, police. But bush! It's everywhere, and I've identified some safe plants that Ra Ra seems to like but what is with this sitting on the food! And then shunning the carrots and only eating the cucumbers and totally ignoring the water!

DAY SEVEN

Patchouli! Ra Ra loves it and it is now a full course in her meals and she is devouring it by the leaves! I stayed home sick today. So Ra Ra got a little ‘binky’ time, when the baby was asleep that is. My mother gave me the ‘you’re letting the rabbit run free in the house again’ eye but she let it slide. Speedy Gonzales made full use of the free time too, a little too enthusiastic though. She sped up a step and clean missed one of them and crashed into it instead. It’s times like this that I remember that my Ra Ra’s eyes aren’t the best with light but she was alright so I had me a little chuckle at her expense. Just shoke her head and kept going, bless her. Who knows when she’ll get this chance again. By days end after sitting on another bunch of water cress and 'rabbit meat' (I have yet to learn the right name for this) and then ignoring the limp leaves, I had a stroke of genius! Well, I'm sure it's common amoung other rabbit owners but I'm a new bee here! I tied them up! She may have to stretch a little to get to it but she's eating it now instead of sitting on it, peeing on it and then frowning on it when she's ready to nibble. My older niece called her out for eating the newspaper (I knew it) so I'll have to tackle that next week but in the meantime I'll try to keep her occupied with other things. Enjoy the pics of her below!

(this ones a natural!)

(getting down on her munchies!)

(the long awaited cub! the 'Pokemon poster' door as well, Ha!)

(Ra Ra sleeping with one eye open! One ear too!)

Just Like Alice...

Binkies in the Drawing Room is a weekly journal, filled with rabbits, binkies and the challenges that is the learning curve of raising a new pet.

WEEK ONE

DAY ONE

SO LET’s go back a few DAYS to last week FriDAY, FRIDAY EVENING to be exact. Coming home from work I built up all my gumption to do something I’ve been thinking on and off about for years. I was going to buy a rabbit. Why a rabbit? Why not a rabbit? I had upgraded from a hamster and downgraded from a cat (sorry kitties, still got nothing but love for you), but somehow a rabbit seemed feasible. I had pleasant childhood memories of cuddling rabbits a quarter my size in an outdoor cub that was big enough for me to sit on the end of at the entrance.

Every time I mentioned getting one again I was told of how hard it would be to build a cub and how nasty rabbit droppings were, but something told me, ‘your parents are saying that because they had to take care of them last time and they don’t want that hassle again, just get the damn rabbit and everything else will come’. Eventually, hopefully, yeah sure. So I walked into the pet store that I had checked several times before during the year and they always seemed to be ‘getting more rabbits soon’ (which I took as a sign). However as faith would have it, TODAY they had three pleasant looking bunnies.

There was no instant attraction, no eye ball to eye ball owner meets future pet and love at first sight. I saw the rabbits. Two white and a grey, walked the length of the store and looked at the hamsters, the budgies, the million and one fishes and then walked back. The grey slept lazily to the back of the cage, the larger white sniffed the air and went back to eating but the little white one propped up curiously on its hind legs and really took a long sniff at me. I guess you’re the one, I thought. The pet store clerk went in search of a box, grabbed the little one by the ears, I paid my grand 40TTD and I officially had a pet. My cousin came in to buy dog food and chuckled at my purchase. With a last warning from the clerk about the stench of little rabbits 'pee pee', I gently lugged the rabbit home.

Now given the fact that I basically live in an extended family and I hadn't told anyone that I was bringing home a new member, heck I made up my mind a half hour before!, there was relatively a lot of surprise. From blank stares to dropped jaws to giggles to just plain stop in their tracks, I got it all. Generally they were a good bunch about it, some even commenting that they thought we were eating turkey for Christmas this year not rabbit meat! I got little rabbit fed and in a box and went off to ponder my next move.

DAY TWO

By morning, I had woken up at 5 to clean out the box and refill the bowls with food. My Saturday morning was spent out but by the time I came back in and saw the bottom of babies box soaked and littered with droppings I knew I had to deal with this differently. So my father offered to build a cub for it the next day but I still had a problem. How could one little rabbit eat SO much. And where was I going to place the cub? Outside? Hell no! My brother had a bird he kept outside and an owl killed it one night though it was still inside the cage!

Further more, the store had no rabbit food, not that I liked that dry pellet stuff, forgive me but a rabbit should eat fresh. But where was I going to get so much fresh goodies? I didn't even know if it was a boy or a girl. I didn't even think to ask that! And as much as I hated the 1 by 2 box it was in there was nothing else to put my bunny in! And if I let it run loose I had to be running behind it with a scoop!

It was getting evident that I hadn't planned this out very well. And just in case you're wondering why I keep calling it 'it', it's because I hadn't even thought to give it a name yet! I don't even know how old it is!

By mid-day, I sorted most of my problems out. Got a name, Sarah (not my choice) my nieces. I prefer Ra Ra for short, courtesy Winnie the Pooh (watching tooo much baby shows!!). My father offered to build a cub the next day, and one of my nieces, figured out the sex for me, hence the female name.

DAY THREE

Ra Ra slept right outside my door. No, she does not sleep in my room. Not enough space with all my clutter. After being fed, I left the box open like a naive new parent and by the time I made two spins the baby was out of the box! And since my mother was having none of that, I had to keep the box covered.

'Scratch, scratch, scratch'. 'I wanna come out!' 'Scratch, scratch, scratch'.

Sorry baby, not now! Your mummy's having a nervous break down!

"Why didn't you just buy a bird?" a family member commented. That would be even worse! I can't take to keep a baby bunny locked up in a box you think I could keep a bird?! I read 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'! It's not pleasant!

So mum (bless her) decided to 'widen' the peep holes I created all over the box. It would do for now right? But by the end of the day my father hadn't even started to build the cub yet so I was forced to leave Ra Ra inside the box another night, placing my brothers old Pokemon poster on top for added weight so she wouldn't be tempted to jump out again. As I drifted off to sleep, I calculated a plan for the morning.

DAY FOUR

Escapeeee! I awoke, in fact my sister awoke to find Ra Ra sniffing around the house like she owned the place. She had used the added width of mum's holes and nibbled her way out during the night. I cut a piece of cardboard from a smaller box and tapped it over. I wondered if Alice's little white rabbit gave her this much trouble as mine. I cleaned the box, laid papers, threw in some chopped carrots, cucumbers and water grass, hoped that she would poop out any cardboard she may have ingested, and dashed off to work.

By mid-day I got a text from my mother, "yuh child escape again". Arghh! I had no intention of asking my mother to police Ra Ra, she was my responsibility but if I wasn't home it would make it increasingly hard to do so. And furthermore, I was feeling, what is it, separation anxiety. Thinking of her in that little cramped box, scratching and scratching the sides! So I decided to calm my nerves and read up everything I could on taking care of rabbits. I visited About.com, and took notes.

Ra Ra wasn't just a white rabbit but a red-eyed albino. Her eyes are more sensitive to light than other rabbits. I read everything on feeding, training (rabbits can be potty-trained ha!), understanding their behaviour and building an appropriate home. I sighed. If I'd realised that rabbits were so high maintenance... you wouldn't expect that from something so small. By the time I raced home, there was still no cub and another big hole she had chewed through on the next side of the box. So, I set about scrubbing down old wire and scoping out bits of wood to do it myself.

Given my struggling with the pliers my father finally basically told me to stop before I hurt myself and he would definitely build it tomorrow. I stopped, only because I wasn't getting anywhere, and I had planned that if he still hadn't done anything by the time I had called home during lunch the next day I was going to Amazon and order something appropriate. That night I stayed up till one, cooking, writing and letting Ra Ra 'binky' around the house to her little hearts content.

'Just making up for your prison time today,' I told her, 'but only because everyone's asleep'. I went through my notes. Rabbits can live for a long time, almost fifteen years if they are well taken care of. According to rabbit behaviour a lick means they like you (have yet to get one of those) but a chin rub means they're marking their territory (got lot's of those). And I think that's when I made up my mind that me and Ra Ra were in it for the long haul.

DAY FIVE

By now I had routine. Look, I am NOT a morning person AT ALL but it became clear that if I didn't get up earlier, I wouldn't make it out of the house on time (not that that's not always the case). So by 5:15 am, I rolled over and ten minutes after I was outside cleaning the box, and hoping it would the last time I would see the thing. I had taped plastic to the bottom inside as my mother suggested before I lined it with paper so it wasn't soaked through but it would only last so long.

Rabbit seemed to have accepted her small box, there was no more scratching, no more escapes reported by my mother that day, just a quiet rabbit, hopefully more content than sad! I put an extra bowl with food in the fridge for my mum to give her after lunch just in case. I kept up the rabbit research and as suggested located a vet nearby in case of emergencies.

So far she had only been eating carrots, water grass and cucumbers and a plant my parents called 'rabbit meat' which I have yet to fully identify in the clutter of green around my yard. But she seemed to like it. I researched what rabbits could and couldn't eat and decided to make use of the countryside for good quality grass and not just my yard. I also gave in and bought a small bag of rabbit feed from a garden store but decided only to give her two handfuls a day.

By the time I got home, the frame of a 3-4 ft by 2ft cub was standing upstairs. It WAS getting somewhere. I had drawn an example of what I wanted it to look like for my father but left the details up to him. Once it had an upper level half way across so Ra Ra could make use of as much space as possible (she is growing you know) I..we...would be happy. So, I cleaned out the box again and let her run around or rather run away from my nieces and when they finally went to sleep the two of us enjoyed some quiet time in the drawing room until I was ready to turn in.

'So if you can train a rabbit, you can just get that instead of a dog, except without the barking," my sister commented as she watched Ra Ra sprawled out next to me. Never was a dog person anyway.

DAY SIX

I have to get a hinge and a latch and that's it, Ra Ra house will be complete. So when I get home, my parents haul it downstairs, I dust it out, make sure their isn't any wire poking out inside but my fathers taken care of that, there isn't any and place her inside it. It looks fantastic!! I let her jump in an out, getting the feel of it and then I fix it up with newspaper (vinyl on top of wood underneath that) and then I put in food and put her in. She's not liking the upper level yet, and refuses to jump down, after 15 mins I have to take her off.

I make use of the Pokemon poster again to block the door for now. My father has run out of wood so the door will have to wait. As soon as I turn around she pushes down the poster. So I put a brick behind it this time. About a little less than half a foot of space is at the top. I walk back to the kitchen and turn around and see a flash of white streak across the drawing room! 'Ah!' Ra Ra refused to jump down less than a foot from the upper level in her cub but she jumped almost a foot and a half to get out?! I plop her back in and put a brick under the poster so it covers the whole entrance.

'You have to get used to it!' I say, 'if you're going to get potty trained this is how it's going to work!' Ra Ra is not happy. Next time I check in on her, she's turned over her food bowl and sat in the next corner with her back to the door. Not eating anything. Who knew rabbits could snub? By the end of the night she's nibbling and sniffing at the wiring. 'No binkies tonight,' I tell her, 'mummy's tired'. And tired I am! Who knew taking care of a rabbit was so hard! (My mums laughing at me!)

DAY SEVEN

I notice some of her stool is soft. It's nothing really, the research says. Given the consistency, it's normal. I'm not as yukked out as before about it though. I'm scraping up droppings, soaking up pee with old wash cloths, and stomaching food after. We have a way to go but she's generally a happy little rabbit. I'm thinking of getting her her own things, a brush, a nail clipper, a towel (not for bathing as they say it can be deadly with rabbits but for her own use) and maybe even a safe chew toy! Her diet has changed. Bugs Bunny lied. After a taste of the cucumbers and the apples as occasional treats, she's eating the carrots less. So next week I'll also work on varying her diet. This first week started as 'What the hell did I get myself into?!!' But it ended on a good note. A tired one, but a good one all the same.

NB: I'll try and leave some of the sites I visited this week for you all to check! And some pics of Ra Ra!