It has been disgusting weather for about 6 weeks. Humidity is between 80-98% each day, there is rain and wind, mist and constant dampness. Last night we had a thunder storm, well, our thunder is a few rumbles. But the lighting was amazing. It was horizontal across the sky. It lit the sky for around 3-4 seconds each flash. With it came about 3 gusts of 120km winds and about 5 minutes of heavy rain that flooded the ground.

The rabbits have been outside for about 3 days in the last 6 weeks. They are bored inside, but they are staying well behaved. But because they are sedentary, their digestion has changed, and that is not good. Buttons, has a stupid tummy anyway, but when Nova started getting a tummy upset I had to jump on it. Her tummy was bloated – I could tell because when she laid down on her tummy, it was like a flat water balloon. I had to give her some Gripe Water to move some of the gas. I gave her 0.5ml once, and even though it took about 15 minutes to start working, her behaviour changed a few hours later. She was more settled and she wanted to eat. That’s what I look for, the change from ignoring food, to eating everything. That’s when I know the Gripe Water is working.

Gripe Water is, for me, a better option for gas drops. I used Infacol with Buttons and other bunnies throughout time, but they hate the taste (fake orange) and takes about 30-40 minutes to start working. Infacol is made from synthetic (man-made) chemicals, while Gripe Water is made from herbs like ginger, dill and camomile, so automatically, bunnies like the flavour and they fall asleep in about 5-10 minutes (due to the camomile). By the time the bunny wakes up after about 10 minutes, the Gripe Water’s pain relief has kicked in and they were starting to feel better.

Luckily, the following morning was tolerable to put the bunnies outside for a couple of hours before it started raining and blowing a gale again. I covered their pen with the shade cloth to give them some protection from the elements if it started to rain before I could get to them. They were happy to be outside and frolicked, binkied and zoomed. Buttons ended up finding a comfy tunnel to sleep in and Nova sat on her chair.

When I went to collect them, Buttons was still in his pipe, but Nova was gone. I couldn’t find her anywhere in the pen. She wasn’t hiding in a tunnel, she wasn’t in her favourite corner… where was she?

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a tiny black rabbit-shaped blob hop around the yard, not far from her pen. She had somehow got out. We caught her after about 2 minutes, thanks to the special corner device I created ages ago.

Her behaviour wasn’t like she was happy to be out, it was as though she was surprised that her pen got bigger suddenly. She wasn’t scared, and didn’t run away from us, which was something we had discussed because she is very fast when she zoomies around.

I picked her up and gave her a cuddle. She was relieved to be carried around for a while before I put her inside in her pen. She settled down inside on the trampoline.

I had to study the pen to see where or how she got out. She hadn’t dug a hole, she hadn’t pushed through, she didn’t jump the fence… so how did she do it?

We then realised that the shade cloth had lowered in the wind and she much have climbed up onto it and hopped over the side of the fence.

I have to make sure that the shade cloth doesn’t collapse low enough to entice her again in the future.