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I can’t resist sharing some of the stories people included with their photos for the calendar. From commentor Aaron:
Do I have the bunny for you!
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This is Joey. He is a rescue rabbit who has been living with us for 6 happy years. He was rescued from a shelter; his brother abused him, so he was a bit scarred up when we got him, but he’s healed completely and he loves people and dogs now, though he is still wary of other rabbits. He certainly knows how cute he is, and he is utterly fearless to a fault. Joey loves salad, hay, and balloon juice.
Raven
Eeeeeeeeeh, What’s up doc?
Larime the Gimp
Hey, everyone.
I’m trying to get my writing career off the ground and have a project at Kickstarter. If you have 2:30 minutes, I’d appreciate it if you’d give the video a click and consider helping me get it off the ground. The Update post fills you in on why I’m doing this and who I am.
Much appreciated!
SiubhanDuinne
BUNNEH!!
R-Jud
My kid fell in love with a friend’s pet rabbit a few days ago and it’s now all she thinks about. When you ask her if she wants a snack, or whatever, she says, “No. Want to see the wabbit, please?” Showing her this photo spread would probably cause a full-on toddler freakout.
Sarah Proud and Tall
So much cuteness it hurts.
chowkster
Here’s a thought experiment on Donald Trump moderating the R debate-
What if The Donald gets into an argument with one or all of the candidates during the debate (not entirely implausible, given the size of his ego) and declares, in the national media , “I have had enough with the Republicans. I am running myself.”? Will a frustrated Republican party get behind Trump?
WereBear
What a cute bunny!
SiubhanDuinne
@chowkster:
There’s not enough popcorn in the world. . . .
WereBear
@Larime the Gimp: Facebooked your link. Many fantasy fans among my friends, good luck!
Larime the Gimp
@WereBear: Thank you so much!
Hillary Rettig
what a wonderful thing to wake up to!
Hillary Rettig
@Larime – that project looks great! I’ve gotta run (what am I even doing here right now?!) but Liked it, and will watch the movie.
I raised funds to publish my own new book The 7 Secrets of the Prolific on IndieGogo. The fundraiser is long over, but here is the page:
http://www.indiegogo.com/Preorder-Hillary-Rettigs-The-Seven-Secrets-of-the-Prolific-and-save
Are you indie publishing? If so we should compare notes. Email me at hillaryrettig at yah00 dot com if you want.
OK, really gotta run now……………
Steeplejack
I don’t know if people here have seen this: Iowa college student Zach Wahls speaks about family.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack:
Saw it the other day — can’t remember where (I think a Facebook friend posted it). Very powerful.
Soonergrunt
@Hillary Rettig: That’s what I was thinking. What a nice way to start the day. Thanks, Anne Laurie!
Felonious Wench
Had a bunneh who lived through my 20s. Got him when I was 19, he lived until I was 32. Met my husband, married him, graduated college, built my career, had 2 kids, he was still there.
One night, when I was traveling, husband woke up and the bunneh was laying on my pillow next to him, fast asleep. He called the next morning and said “Varmint wants you home now.”
I loved that little monster to pieces.
Amir Khalid
@chowkster:
My own reaction when The Donald was announced as debate moderator was, WTF? It’s as if the Republican party weren’t planning on the debate, or the candidates, being taken seriously. And yes, I too can easily imagine handbags* between His Combover and, say, Newt Gingrich.
Whoever tunes in to this debate is in for a rich, tasty Jumbo Economy helping of unserious blowhardy goodness. But I have to watch my diet for medical reasons, and must content myself with the Grauniad’s live-blog.
(* British football slang: a flaring of temper between two or more players, often accompanied by an exchange of words, or even less-than-friendly physical contact. Think of a pair of ticked-off grannies swatting at each other with their purses.)
Josie
Awwww. I’ve never had a bunny, and now I want one.
handsmile
All on a single thread: the power of cuteness (bunnies!) and the power of human dignity (Zach Wahls).
Thank you very much, Steeplejack, for that posting that inspiring clip.
What an auspicious way to begin this week!
Legalize
Do “pet” rabbits hangout with their people like cats and dogs do?
Jerzy Russian
@Legalize:
Yes, some of them do. Also, most rabbits are easily trained to use a litter box.
Kristine
@Felonious Wench: Ohhhhh, bunny.
Everyone’s bunnies. Nice way to start the day.
jayjaybear
@Legalize:
Yes, to a fairly large extent. There are differences that stem from rabbits being a prey species rather than a predator like cats and dogs, but rabbits are actually rather cat-like in their habits. They’re fastidious…they’ll train to a litter-box quickly and they frequently wash themselves like cats (there’s not a lot that’s cuter than a rabbit trying to wash its whiskers and ears). They’ll play, too. My mother’s houserabbit, back when they were both alive, would race around and around my mother’s feet like it was the Indy 500.
They also have some of the less salutary feline attributes, like a near-infinite ability to hold a grudge and creative biological ways to drive the point home. I’ve had any number of articles of clothing sprayed after falling off a chair or hanger. And intact males will spray to mark territory.
Like a cat or dog, you should have a rabbit fixed. It should keep males from spraying and females from having uterine troubles (our vet told us something about intact females who WEREN’T mated having medical problems with their uterus or something in there).
haenck
@jayjaybear:
Luckily, Joey is fixed, so we have not experienced any spraying. But he has been known to give me the the cold shoulder after I take him to the vet to have his toenails trimmed.
Quinne
I just have one word: SQUEEEEEE!
khead
I’m sure Joey wouldn’t appreciate it, but I just want to grab those ears!
Redshift
Sounds like an awesome bunny!
Paul in KY
That’s a really cute rabbit.
Paul in KY
@R-Jud: Go ahead & show it. You know you want to.
JR in WV
Joey is really cute, at our Vets one of the young women has a small enclosure for her pet rabbit so she can bring him to work, a little bigger than Joey. All the girls pick him up to love on him.
That’s how they get adoptees ready to go home with someone, they put them out in the office area, and the girls socialize them for a couple of weeks before they’re offered.
Our Vets is wonderful. One of our puppies was rescued by another client from the end of a chain, and wound up spending 9 months there being healed of heartworm and wounds from nose to tip of tail. No charge, just love her when you get her home. We had to teach her to bark, even.
I wanted to write a small bio of Harvey, our current oldest cat at 17. He’s small, 8 lbs at his fighting weight, alley-cat class. A co-worker convinced me to adopt/rescue him from her yard, as the landlady was about to call Animal Control on him.
He was orange, and pretty shy. Gretchen got him onto her lap, and petted him for a long time, and then dropped him into the cardboard box. When I let him out of the box in the house, he jetted down into the basement, and we didn’t lay eyes on him for 2 or 3 weeks.
We knew he was down there, because he was eating the food, drinking, and using the litter box. Since he was invisible, I named him Harvey, after the Pooka. Once he showed up, we took him to the Vets, where they removed a kitten collar – it was a miracle he could swallow!
He felt safest and cuddly in bed – I believe he was a little girl’s kitty friend, who was thrown away when they moved away. So Sad. He still likes to sleep between us, or beside us, and under the covers is just fine. So glad Gretchen cared enough to talk to me about him!
Though the smallest cat we’ve ever had, he was a fighter, and stood up for his own meal against all comers. Alley cat from the west side, what a guy. Loud purr.
He’s 17, and his last trip to the Vets I learned that he had kidney trouble. They gave me a new diet for Harvey, and he Hates it. I’m putting chicken broth on it, stirring it up, spoon feeding him 6 or 8 times a day. He’s lost weight, which is bad for a fly-weight.
Maybe he’s adjusting to it, he does a little better now than in the start. If he just gains a little weight…
I know his time is really short now – the kitty age chart only goes to 15, so he’s off the chart again.
We also have a neighbor dog, Gidget, who visits every day when her people go to work. So there’s plenty of company.
It’s hard when they get so old; they’re so fragile. I try hard not to wait too long, but it’s a hard decision.
Mnemosyne
@JR in WV:
There’s a steroid cream you can get from your vet that can help his appetite — you rub a little dab on his ear, so it’s not too traumatic for anyone. And if they tell you that you need to start giving him subcutaneous (sub-q) fluids, it’s not as bad as it sounds. Our Boris’ kidneys failed thanks to being poisoned by goddamned Chinese melamine in his cat food, but we got several good months with him by administering fluids. It’s probably easiest with two people to do it, though.
ETA: Also, too, the vet we had when our other cat Natasha had cancer gave us really good advice: as long as their basic functions are still working (eating, drinking, peeing and pooping) and they want to be around you, then they still have decent quality of life. If they lose one of those functions and/or they start hiding or are obviously in pain, that’s when you need to plan that trip to the vet. Some vets will actually come to your house now to do the shot — you should ask and see.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
BUNNEH! X2
Also, too, kudos on photo #1, of Joey from a low angle looking like Bunneh Sphynx. Now that’s a tiny photographer.
nalbar
You know you’re supposed to eat them, right? They are food.
Seeing pictures of one reminds me of my childhood, when once a year my dad would take me into the backyard and I would hold the rabbits by their legs while he hit them with a club, and then butchered them with a kitchen knife. One after another after another after……for what seemed hours.
Or walking next to a truck at night, and shooting the ones that where caught in the headlights. It’s as much hunting as shooting wolves from a helicopter.
My mouth is actually watering.
.
Paul in KY
@JR in WV: God bless Harvey. Just love on him & he’ll let you know when it’s time to go.
When he does do that, to the vet pretty immediately (IMO).
Paul in KY
@nalbar: Interesting story. Do like to eat rabbit as well, but maybe this thread was not the place for those comments ;-)
harlana
bunneh-bunneh-bunneh!
=D
harlana
@Paul in KY: bashing-bunny-brains in stories is not zactly my cup of tea, but the fact that the comment was intended for shock value only is not lost on me or any others here, I’m sure, we are an intelligent lot.
cckids
@nalbar: You know, you are an evil fuckstick. DIAF.
harlana
@cckids: don’t feed it – i can abide all trolls except animal cruelty trolls and thus shall deny it it’s necessary nourishment
nalbar
@Paul in KY: I know Paul, I know. I just could not help myself. I don’t think I wanted to hurt (at least I hope not), but more get people thinking about how pictures trigger memories from youth, and what is cute to some, is simply a meal to those who are hungry. My wife grew up on a dairy farm (in Los Angeles of all places), I grew up on an ‘urban’ farm, both experiences had a tendency to smooth out ‘cute’ images when it comes to food.
.
Mnemosyne
@nalbar:
That reminded me of John Cheese’s list at Cracked.com of 5 Ways to Avoid Your Terrible Parents’ Mistakes. Scroll down to #3, read the turkey story, and realize that you had a really fucked-up childhood before you ruin your own kids.
nalbar
@Mnemosyne:
WOW!
Incredible link, I cannot thank you enough. You talk about hitting home (heh).
And yes, I had a few of those turkey moments, not to mention ‘sack of potato’ moments.
I laughed with a tear in my eye.
.
Hillary Rettig
@JR – best wishes to you and Harvey, that was a lovely story.
Paul in KY
@nalbar: You got the wimmens all ready to bash your brains in!
Paul in KY
@harlana: Wasn’t trying to comment on BJers perceived intelligence when I posted back to the bunny killer.