happy hippie bunnies
December 30, 2006 l 1 Comment
the kitties enjoying Christmas
December 27, 2006 l 2 Comments
Make her stop biting me…
Oh, and did I mention that Rex has developed a taste for cat litter?
December 23, 2006 l 2 Comments
Yes, you read that right.
*blech*
The brand of choice in our multi-cat home is World’s Best, a corn based litter that clumps and absorbs odors far better than it’s silica counterparts. Not to mention the fact that it lasts longer and is biodegradable.
But corn is, apparently, a yummy food in any form. You can imagine my shock to see Rex sitting in the cats’ litterbox munching away like a kid in a candy store. I didn’t even realize he could jump over the fourteen inch high sides. Obviously, this behavior poses some serious health issues, both from the bacteria present in cat litter and also from the fact that clumping litter, when ingested in large quantities, has been known to swell and create blockages in pets’ stomachs. Oy. What’s a zookeeper to do?
Switch the cats back to the non-clumping, non-tasty, yet still environmentally friendly Feline Pine. At least for the two litterboxes that the bunnies have access too. Given our small house and the number of boxes it contains, moving them was not an option. The cats haven’t minded the switch at all, but Rex seems a tad…disappointed.
cross-posted from Rabbits Only:
So what does the Mighty Pea mean?
“Pea” was the nickname Dr. G gave her when she first got sick, something a little softer than Peanut (or her other nickname as Sir Poops-a-lot’s sidekick, the Mighty Crapper)
When she was sick she seemed so tiny and frail. I don’t know how many times I whispered into her ear, “S’okay, Pea”, “It’s alright, Pea”, “I know this stinks, Pea”.
To see her hop around now, the tilt is certainly dramatic, but you may not realize there was a time she couldn’t even walk without shaking and rolling over. It takes an incredible amount of muscular strength to hold your body upright when your brain tells you that you’re supposed to be sideways. First she learned to stand, then hop. It took her a good month before she could start to groom herself. And she absolutely did not want to leave the secure walls of their pen.
The first time she did walk out into the bedroom, she was very disoriented. She spun in circles, rolled over, and bumped into the gate more than once. With the way rabbits’ eyes function, her field of vision is the upper part of the walls and ceiling, and much like a blind rabbit she navigates on memory and scent. It was so brave of her to even attempt leaving her safe place that I said she was a “Mighty Pea”, small but resilient. The name stuck.
“This is where I eat.”
December 21, 2006 l 1 Comment
PJ is now out with the girls 24/7, except for at meal times. Things still get a little tense when they’re hungry. The girls have a carefully structured hierarchy that’s most evident when they’re eating: Scully first, then Miko, then Stephanie. Even then there’s the occasional spat when two cats want the same chunk of meat. Understandably, the girls are not receptive to a new, much larger and much stronger cat dominating the dinner plate.
Only once the kitties have eaten to their full and commenced the post-meal bathing do I let PJ out of Stephen’s room, where he eats. This morning the girls left a large portion of chicken neck uneaten, and I casually told PJ he could eat it if he liked. He picked up the neck and with it in his mouth walked out of the kitchen, down the hallway, and into Stephen’s room where he finished it off.
Such a well-trained boy.
