Happy New Year 2008, everybody, and welcome to my new weblog!
I am a houserabbit. I'm almost two years old. My heritage is from what humans call the Netherland Dwarf breed, and in my opinion it is a very lovely family to be part of. We are sweet, neat, petite and very spirited.
Right now I live with a human family in a big condo building right on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. But I didn't always live here.
You can see more of us if you visit our website, http://www.rabbittinparadise.com/ you can see all the things we do we make rabbit-themed jewelry, table art and loads of gift items, and there is even a lot of fine art for all of the collectors out there.
But now I want you to know a little more about me, after all, this is my weblog you know.
When I was a very little bunny, I lived with a different family; I don't remember much about it, except that I lived in a cage all day and I after the first few weeks of my life I hardly saw anyone at all. Then one day, I was taken away from my cage and put in a different one in an entirely different place. This place was unlike any other I had ever seen. There were several rabbits in several cages, I was aware of lots of dogs and cats, too (which didn't make me too happy) and there were several new humans around. I got rabbit pellets and water every day, but actually everyone left me pretty much alone. I lived like this for quite a while.
One day in midsummer, I was resting quietly and some humans came to look at my cage. They stayed for quite some time and I rather liked them. To show them I was happy to see them, I looked at them and then flopped right over on my side. One of the humans said to the other: "what a strong character - she's happy even though she is in the animal shelter!" And right away I knew we could be friends.
Then, someone came and put me in a little carrier and I found myself being taken out the door. As I left, a lady said to my new humans, "I"m so glad you took her, she didn't have much time left." I wasn't sure what that meant, but I didn't sound too good, so I was grateful.
The gratitude didn't last too long, however, because I found that I was expected to have to sit with and be petted by the humans. I wasn't too sure I liked that.
Then, instead of a cage they gave me my own little room with a litter box, a food dish and water dish. While it was rather nice, I really wanted to be out in the rest of the apartment, so I always found a way to get out and have fun for myself; there were lots of new things to learn about, lots of new fragrances, new sounds and - best of all - new foods to sample.
I quickly showed my humans that I was not too destructive, and I confined my chewing escapades to hay and to willow toys they gave me. I had never even seen an electrical cord until one accidentally fell right in front of my face one day, and that started a new interest. Too bad, because from that moment all the cords in the house were securely placed in thick pvc pipes, not that I know what those are.
So my illicit munching is no more, and I'm back to hay and willow balls. And I also get some rabbit pellets, which are nice. But the highlight of the day is when I get to eat at the same time as the humans, a dark leafy green salad. Curly endive is my all-time favorite. I like to think of it as lapine champagne, because it tickles my nose. And at 6:30 every evening, we have an especially big salad, and we also get treats: here in Hawaii, I get a little bit of fresh papaya or mango, and I also like a little apple or pear. I look forward to this time all day long, and I race around my humans right before the dish is presented to me just in case they forget that I'm here.
I hear a lot of talk about my human's previous rabbits: first there was Thumper, in a place called New Jersey. He apparently was very affectionate and extremely intelligent, and taught my humans all about rabbit behavior. He litter box trained himself, and lived in the country until the ripe old age of 12 or 13. Then there was a rabbit simply known as "The Bunny, " who lived with my humans in Manhattan for many years. Because the humans were involved in the classical performing arts, the Bunny was very sophisticated for a rabbit, and knew lots of musicians, actors, dancers, directors, film people. He, too lived for quite a long time. There were two pairs of rabbits, Rusty and Mrs. Rabbitt (who had a litter even after a fateful visit to the veterinarian, the kind of visit designed to prevent exactly this type of thing), Blueberry and Hollyberry; and the loveliest rabbit of all, Chrysse. Chrysse was a rabbit rescued after having been abandoned in a hutch and left alone; she was apparently a very grateful rabbit, soft, gentle and loving. I hear a lot about her.
And, of course, there was the famous Blackberry Rabbitt, whose story is told in C.J. Rabbitt's illustrated book, "The Tale of Rabbitt in Paradise." You can see more about all this on our above-mentioned website.
So, right away when I came to live with this human family (who conveniently have the last name Rabbitt, it saves a lot of confusion), I realized I had very big shoes to fill. But that was no problem, because if you look closely at my photographs, you'll see that I happily happen to have very large paws.
Tonight is New Year's Eve; you would expect that everyone in the house would be going out to celebrate, but that is not the case. Here where we live, it is customary for everyone to set off loads and loads of fireworks on New Year's Eve. So everyone in my family is going to stay home with me to make sure that, first, I'm not too scared by the all the noise, and second, the air doesn't get too thick with smoke to breathe. I have a feeling we are all going to have lots of extra special treats, especially since I've heard tell that the local store has started to stock dried fruits that have no added sugar or chemicals. I'm particularly interested in that!
Well, more about that in my next post.
Until then, best wishes to everyone for a healthy, prosperous and Happy New Year 2008!
