Day 15, Day 16, Day 17, Day 18, Day 19, Day 20, Day 21
Day 15 – Sunday, 19th
Just another day. Bunnies more comfortable with each other. Nothing happened that was worth reporting, and as they say: No news is good news!
Day 16 – Monday, 20th
I put Buttons out for the morning, he was looking for Lunar and Maple. He searched each pipe and hiding spot. Once I put Maple in the pen, Buttons found her and was relieved. His body language was like, “Oh, there you are, my day can start now.”
I then put Lunar in the pen and Buttons went up to him and sniffed his head. After two seconds Lunar realised and jumped away, not far, but away.
Buttons then found Maple and pushed his forehead against hers. This is a bunny apology. But she didn’t accept it, she gave him a dirty look and bounced away.
Buttons was in Maple’s bad books.
Day 17 – Tuesday, 21st
I put the bunnies outside, but the wind started blowing about 65km gusts, so the bunnies were bright back inside within 10 minutes. Enough time to clean their litter boxes and vacuum their pens.
Maple and Lunar spent most of the day under their blue blanket. Maple got bored at about 9pm and started digging in the litter box. She is very noisy when she wants attention.
Day 18 – Wednesday, 22nd
I put the bunnies out at 7am. After being locked inside all day yesterday, they needed to expend energy. It had rained over night and the grass was wet.
Maple did sausage binkies, where instead of being compact and kick the legs out, she was long and sleek. Lunar ran around like a nutter, darting from place to place, running through the tunnels. Buttons did his favourite thing, stand up with a straight back like a meerkat and watch the neighbour’s house. But because it was too early in the morning, there wasn’t much action going on there. Buttons didn’t care, he still stood there and watched.
At about midday, the sky was strange. It was grey, but in alternating dark and light horizontal stripes. Within 5 minutes it poured down. I had to rush to get the bunnies beds inside, and set them up enough to bring them indoors.
Buttons was the first to come inside. Today, he didn’t run away from me, he just let me pick him up and carry him inside. He was soaked and relieved to be inside.
Maple was next, she came straight up to me. Lunar ran away a little, then realised it was incredibly wet then he stopped and let me pick him up.
All bunnies were wet, but not enough to warrant a towel rub. They spent the rest of the day inside. Maple and Lunar hid under the blue blanket, and Buttons fell asleep like a sausage in his pen.
Happy 6 month birthday Maple and Lunar!
Day 19 – Thursday, 23rd
It was a good thing that the bunnies had a break from each other a bit over the past couple of days. They were actually looking forward to being together this morning.
Buttons our saviour.
Our neighbour had a friend visit. The friend’s dog, a staffy, raced out of the car and headed down the nature strip towards our gate. It had no idea about the rabbits, but it sniffed the gate for fox scent. As soon as the bunnies saw the dog’s movement in the distance, they became meerkats and had a good look. Once the dog came over to sniff the gate, Lunar and Maple raced over to hide behind Buttons. Buttons puffed his chest out and sat really straight on his back legs. His ears were pointing forwards, listening to the dog… watching its movement. The Little Ones crouched down and stayed still as Buttons protected them from the dog. The dog had no idea about the bunnies, and returned back to the neighbour’s house as happily as it arrived. Buttons had saved the Little Ones. He was now their protector.
Since them Maple hasn’t left his side. She followed him around everywhere. The two of them sit in the Eglu and eat hay together. Lunar wants to get closer to Buttons, but he is still a little timid.
The gate was about 15 metres away from the bunny pen.
Day 20 – Friday, 24th
Buttons gingerly comes up for pats during the day now. He has obviously watched Maple and Lunar rush up for pats… He clearly is starting to copy the Little Ones. It’s really cute to see him change and learn how to be a bunny.
We assume that it’s because he wasn’t handled much in his first few weeks of life, as this helps the bunny kit become used to the human smell and get used to being handled. While Maple and Lunar were handled a lot before I got them when they were 5 weeks old, then handled frequently each day, whether it’s patting or picking up and cuddling.
Maple groomed Buttons!
My phone was on charge this afternoon and I missed plenty of great photo opportunities. Like Maple and Buttons laying down together in the Eglu, Buttons zoomying around and binkying over the top of Maple, and the pièce de résistance: Maple groomed Buttons’ back!
Lunar is still like the third wheel, but he is getting much better around Buttons. He isn’t running as far away now. Buttons isn’t chasing him any more, Buttons just hops towards him and Lunar darts away. Buttons isn’t being mean anymore towards the Little Ones, he just does his thing and Lunar stays out if his way.
Day 21 – Saturday, 25th
I had to rush to my sister’s house because my niece had a major computer issue, so I don’t really have anything to write about for today.