Well, Punkin's transition to the cube cage was a success!

We got him in April, and we've had him in the smaller cage (nighttime, and when no one's home) since then, because we are planning on painting, and I didnt want to put up the cube cage until we were done painting. Well, theyve been working me to death at work, and god only knows when we'll have a chance to paint. And finally, I was like "screw it, I'm putting the bigger cage back together". I felt so bad that he was stuck in this smaller cage at night. Plus it was virtually impossible to litterbox train him.

I kept the litterbox next to his small cage, always filled with hay, hoping he'd hop inside, eat and do his business. He got the eating part right, but never pottied inside.

If he'd been outside his cage for an hour or two, we'd put him back in the small cage for a few minutes to go potty, and this system seemed to work, but sometimes he'd have accidents. (except last weekend when he peed in our bed.. that was NO accident, but that's another story lol).

So yesterday, I set up the big cube cage, and put his water and food and toys in there, and scooped up some of his used litter and put it in the litterbox along with his hay. This morning, I woke up, and there was NO PEE on the floor of his cage, and the litterbox was filled with bunny poops! I mean, it was only the first night he was in the new cage.. who knows what I'll find tomorrow morning, but it's certainly a good sign!

I think he'll like the bigger cage during the times he has to be confined.

Well, the girls took the bunny outside for the first time. His former mommy said she'd let him out in the backyard last year, and she'd go back to get him a couple hours later, and that he loved running around. Yeah, no, that running around outdoors, unsupervised thing is not gonna happen around HERE. So we put on the ol' harness and lead, and took him to the backyard. He didnt care for it much. Then again, theres not alot TO our backyard. Open patio, covered patio, dirt. (Not even grass). Punkin was so scared to be out there.. he was shaking the whole time. And he didnt like getting his peeties dirty.. he kept trying to clean himself! After 10 minutes, I was like let's get him back in the house. We put him on the couch to take off his harness, and he peed. Good times.

Here he is, in all his Pink Harness Glory!

I just wanted to say that Chopper is absolutely wonderful.
Actually, I shouldnt even call him Chopper anymore.. I pretty much call him Punkin, or Punkin Pie all the time. And something is telling me that he's a girl. I'm not positive, but that's the vibe I'm getting lol.

Punkin is so loving.. lately he's been following me around like a puppy. Whatever room I go into, there he is, right next to me. And he's always bonking my foot, ankle or legs for some loves.

He HAS been kind of destructive.. chewing on my new sofa (ugh), chewing on my carpet (eh, its old anyway). He's still not potty trained. He pees on my sofa at least 3 times a week. And a few days ago he peed on my husband's blanket. (I told him "It just means he smelled you, and he wanted to mark the blanket with his own scent, because he LOVES you!") So today, I'm laying on the couch, and Punkin jumps up next to me, and I feel.. "the warmth". Yup. I was the next pee victim. I wasnt thrilled.. I had to shower and clean the couch. So John comes home, and I'm like "OMG BLAH BLAH BLAH AND HE PEED ON ME!" and he starts laughing and goes "but that means he LOVES you!.. that's my boy, I should take him out for a steak!" I'm like "..shut up" lol

lol and right this second, Punkin is doing the Bunny 500 in the living room, and keeps running up to my ankles and bonking me before running off again.. i love this little guy lol

I feel so BAD *insert sad face here* having to lock Chopper up in the cage when we're not home. But I have to remember that he's NOT Oreo, and he's NOT litterbox trained yet, and he still DOES get into mischief of one kind or another.

I still have him in that crappy small baby cage. We're supposed to paint the living room next weekend, and when we're all done, and everything is dry and back into place, I'll be able to rebuild the NIC condo, and hopefully then I can get him on track in becoming pottytrained, and even if he DOESNT have free run of the house, he'll have more room to putz around.

He really is a good boy, though. His favorite activity is finding ways to get inside my bedroom so he can lay under my bed. If laying under the bed was the ONLY thing he liked doing in there, I'd be fine with it, but he likes doing things like burrowing in piles of clean clothes, and sitting on a shelf in my bookcase and eating paper lol.

He's eating very well, loves his hay (which I suspect he didnt get in his previous home), and his poops look good (even though he thinks pooping down the hall near Katie's bedroom is the "in thing" to do).

Yup, adopting him was a very good decision, indeed : )

"hey, where's the cadbury eggs? I KNOW there were cadbury eggs here earlier.."

Chopper says:

( Oolong the Pancake Bunny got NOTHING on me! )

Well.. we got him!
Still can't decide if we want to call him "chopper" (ugh), or "peetie".. i'm pretty much calling him "honey bunny" lol... He's just a little bigger than Oreo, and his gray is more of a charcoal gray (I expected a light gray), with white in basically the same spots that Oreo had white. John lay down on the floor, and chopper lay down next to him. (everyone repeat after me.. "awwwwwwwww"). It's awesome to have another bunny in the house. I gotta go to the pet supply store tomorrow to get him some food (his previous owner gave us his old food.. the kind with the crap in it) and she also gave us a big bag of pine bedding (me: "throw that crap away"). (i'm using something called "healthy pet" a fluffy paper bedding, until i get the condo set back up)

I'm just so excited! He's exploring the house.. he's gonna get so much love from us!

Since our camera is crap, and wont take decent pictures inside the house at nighttime, even with the flash, i'll take some pics of him tomorrow and post them.

Every day for the past three weeks, John has mentioned wanting to get a new bunny. He even went to a pet store to look at the bunnies one day. We ALL miss Oreo. (But remembering all the fun stuff takes the sting of her death away.. such as when I'd come home from grocery shopping, and she'd stick her head into each bag looking for food.. one time, she pulled out a pear and started munching on it lol).

John wanted to buy one from a pet store (!), but I told him that it's so close to easter, that we should wait until after that, and get an unwanted easter bunny from the shelter. Then his buddy mentioned something the other day.. he's got this friend who has a bunny, who's looking to get rid of it, because she and her husband want to travel. Two days ago, John and his buddy went to this lady's house, and he really liked this bunny. He's gray, lop-eared, a little bigger than Oreo with big feetsies, a year old.. his name is Chopper. John said Chopper let him hold him. He said we'd really like this bunny, and should we adopt it? He got an definite YES from the rest of us.

He told his buddy yesterday, to call this lady, and tell her we'd like to have Chopper, and his buddy goes "how soon do you want him?" and John goes "ASAP". I was kinda hoping we could hold off getting a new bunny until after we painted the living room, but obviously, if we get Chopper sooner than that, so be it.. we can deal.

So there's a really good chance that when I get home from work tonight around 7pm, there will be a new bunny in our house. I'm giving John a list of questions, such as "Is he neutered? Is he litterbox trained? What does he eat?" (the neutering is no problem, if hes not, we'll get it done sooner or later.. the litterbox training is no problem, I heard older bunnies are easier to train than babies... the food thing is no problem, but I'd like to get an idea of what he eats so his diet isnt drastically changed in one day).

I *might* have to change his name.. We probably shouldnt, but John has this old friend who's nickname is Chopper, and the guy's a total loser.. the girls want to call him "Peetie", because he supposedly has bigger feet (feetsies aka peeties) than Oreo had. I dont really care for the name Peetie, but it doesnt really matter, considering I'll probably call him "punkin pie" or "honey bunny" or something lol.

I'm so excited.. theres a gray bunny out there who's gonna get a LOT of love very very soon.. hopefully tonight!

I was hoping it would be years and years and years before I had to write this post, unfortunately, sometimes the things that bring us the greatest joy are taken from us way too soon.

I posted this in yesterdays bunnyowners community:


Hubby woke me up about 4:20 this morning.. he told me to come look at the bunny. Oreo was flopped over on the kitchen floor. She NEVER goes in the kitchen. She hates the linoleum in there. Then she started rolling. The uncontrollable rolling. I burst into tears and picked her up. She let me hold her. She hasnt let me hold her in over a year. Her head was tilted. Her eyes were darting back and forth. I knew it must be head tilt, or wry neck, or whatever it's called.

We put her in the baby bunny cage that she used to live in when we first got her. She'd just roll around uncontrollably in the cage. She looked so scared. She was probably thinking "MOMMY?? WHATS WRONG WITH ME???" I cried. My husband cried. She was perfectly fine last night when we went to bed!!

My daughters and I brought her to the vet the minute they opened. The vet said it *might* be an ear infection, but because of how suddenly and severely this condition came about, plus how she didnt have control of her eye movements, he said it was most likely a stroke, or a blood clot in the brain, or some other neurological problem.

We had no choice but to put her to sleep.

I've never cried this much before. I miss her so much I cant even handle it.

We love you so much Oreo. You'll always be in our hearts.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
one day later:
I find great comfort in talking about all the wonderful and silly things she did, with my husband and kids. I also find comfort in knowing we gave her a wonderful life, and in turn, she gave us so much happiness. The pain isnt as raw as it was yesterday. Still hurts, but Ive got so many wonderful memories of her : )

Well, we bunnysat Nick's bunny this week. It was really nice to have a second bunny around the house. Instead of getting him on Monday, they brought him over on Saturday, which was pretty cool, cuz we were all excited to have him visit.

He was in a cage, and like Katie told me, the other Oreo (I'm gonna call him "the little guy" or "the little bunny", cuz thats pretty much what i called him all week) never really gets let out of his cage at home so he can run around. We gave him plenty of time to run and jump and play and explore. What an energetic little hotot he is!!!! The little guy made OUR Oreo look like a lazy bump on a log lol.

Oreo was interested in the little guy, but when the he got too close to her, she'd lunge at him, so we pretty much kept them separated all week. If Oreo was sleeping in our room, we'd shut the door to let the little guy out. Same thing, if Oreo was laying down in her condo, we'd shut the door so she couldnt get to the little bunny. One time, however, Oreo's condo door was open, and the little bunny ran in there and started humping her. Oreo. Did. Not. Enjoy. This.
..of course, we all laughed, but we got the little guy outta her cage before Oreo tried to bite him or something.

When the little fella was in his cage, Oreo would come around and check him out.. they'd sniff (or sometimes lick) each other thru the bars. The little bunny was TOTALLY infatuated by Oreo though.. I felt bad she didnt fall in love with him lol.

Even though the little bunny wasnt neutered, he never once messed up our carpet or anything. I found a stray poop here and there, but thats it.. and absolutely no peeing except in his cage, which shocked me.. i totally expected a bunch of peeing from an intact male lol.

All in all, it was a nice week with another bunny to take care of. The little guy even sat on katies lap and let her pet him for a half hour at a time. Oreo hasnt let us do that for about a year now.

well anyhoo, heres a few pictures that i took:

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