the best part about homecomings
January 29, 2008 l 2 Comments
Is being greeted by the cats.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel a swell of pride to know that I’m the only family member who has a welcoming committee. They come running and chirruping from all corners of the house, circle my legs a few times, and run off again. We’re so happy you’re home!
Yeah, it’s tough being loved.
bunny fun on YouTube
January 28, 2008 l 4 Comments
If this doesn’t make you smile, I don’t know what will.
a cat is always on the wrong side of any door
January 25, 2008 l 1 Comment
PJ has this thing about closed doors.
Our home is an open-concept ranch; the only doors are to the outside, the bathroom, and our bedrooms. The cats can run from one end of the house to the other at breakneck speed as much as their little hearts desire, which is great for them but not so great for houseguests. To me, the cats’ activity has become just more background noise, but it turns out that four cats can make a lot of noise at three in the morning, and in the midst of a sound sleep, no one really appreciates a herd of felines racing over their prone bodies.
But I digress…
Even with all of this open space, PJ remains deeply bothered in the presence of a closed door. He’ll sit at the end of the hallway and howl because the kids have their doors closed. He’ll push, paw, and even body slam the bathroom door, as though shocked that we would have the audacity to lock him out. We generally ignore him, because the doors need to stay closed to conserve heat. But we’ve seemed to reach a consensus on my parents’ bedroom.
The routine goes like this: PJ eats breakfast, and then sits patiently outside their bedroom. If we look over, he pointedly stares at the door or he stands up, stretches so that his paws gently touch the doorknob, and looks back at us. Can you see that I’d like to get in?
So we let him in and he stays there for most of the day, snoozing on my parents’ bed. He comes out when either Mom or Dad arrives home in the late afternoon and he rejoins the rest of the household.
Eat. Sleep. Repeat.
Cats are so strange.
Rex update
January 22, 2008 l 2 Comments
He had his re-check with the vet today; this time he saw Dr. G, head honcho and premier bunny vet. Dr. G examined his fur, his patches of bald, wrinkly skin, and just said Hmmmmm… In addition to looking like he lost a fight with the lawn mower, Rex’s skin is flaky. Very, VERY flaky. As in, he-doesn’t-quite-look-like-a-black-rabbit flaky. It’s rather disconcerting.
Dr. G did several skin scrapes and plucked some fur. After examining the samples, he said there still weren’t any mites evident, but recommended the second Ivermectin injection just as a precaution. He also sent away some samples for a fungal culture; we won’t know the results for another four weeks.
While this could just be an extraordinarily strange molt, the vet feels that we should be proactive. “Normally I wouldn’t be too paranoid,” he said, gently covering Rex’s ears and lowering his voice. “But Rex is getting to that age where it’s good to be a little paranoid.” That age, indeed. Rex has white whiskers on his nose and white fur growing on his ears. My boy is getting old.
Dr. G *also* put Rex on ten days of antibiotics. I’m generally very wary of diagnosing them without a specific cause, but he really is an extremely knowledgeable vet, and I have never had reason to second-guess him. I dunno…
I’m just glad that Rex is still a very happy, very relaxed little bunny, and hopefully things will continue to clear up.
Rex the no-longer-bald-but-still somewhat-odd-looking rabbit
January 19, 2008 l 2 Comments
I only wish that I had a camera handy to show you the, er, progress that’s been made with Rex’s fur. But I suppose sharing another humiliating photo with the world might just be too much for the little guy.
The good: he’s no longer nekkid.
The bad: he’s still losing fur.
The ugly: try to imagine patches of very short, new fur interspersed with the much longer original fur now coming out in tufts, and mottled with a few remaining bald spots.
It seems that the growth of the new fur has triggered yet another molt; rather than just replacing what was lost to the mites, the new fur is replacing everything. Rex remains, thankfully, in a remarkably good mood, eating and sleeping and eating some more, paying no mind to the fact that he looks like Frankenbunny’s monster.
Everything remains right in his world so long as I keep a steady supply of fresh parsely. It’s a tough life.
