Not-So-Skinny Minnie

First, let's talk about Craigslist and my compulsive need to type in Rabbit or Bunny in the pet section at least three times this last year.  I do this to torture myself, I guess.  There are a few listings and most of them have the cruelest, most ignorant, flippant, "don'tgiveashit" reasons why the rabbits are being rehomed.  There are breeders on there, too.  I even found "will trade white rabbit for bird or reptile". This rabbit was pictured with what was obviously it's bond mate.  There is NO love on CL where rabbits are concerned.  Or, that is unfair, so I should say very little love. Very little.

The other morning I was cleaning the bunny pen and was just enjoying the smell of hay and the panicky way they go nuts when things are TOO clean, like when litter gets changed.  They are so funny.  "MY STUFF!!!". It must be because they are such superior creatures that they feel even their poo is precious.  LOL. Bunnies... OK, so I was relaxed and just enjoying how calming and fun rabbits are to have around and that it would be cool to have another bunny or two to make it MORE cool. For some stupid reason I go to Craigslist.  I came away utterly disgusted and sad and angry and crying. I did see one bunny that struck me to my little heart.  She was a brown and white lop and looked so much like Betsy, and Benji, and Rutherford, just a few rabbits that I adore on several rabbit blogs (one of the only kind of blogs worth reading, IMHO).  She looked so lonely in that sad chicken coop-ish looking hutch with the wire bottom.  I knew she was left outside in this terrible Oklahoma Summer heat.  I thought of her all morning.  Then I did it, I emailed the people to ask if she was still available for "rehoming".  I was tense and pissy all afternoon and night.  No call, text or email. I thought my heart was going to break.  Then I got a call from them! She was available and they lived in a neighborhood about four miles away. 

I knew she was outside. Her hutch was a big one, but with a wire bottom and way out back behind an out building.  I knew she was all alone back there, and lonely.  She was outside in a hutch, all furry and floofy in this awful heat.  But these people had a husky dog that was inside in the cool house. 

They are not bad people. NOT AT ALL. They just have "rabbititis ignorantesis" and just treated her like most non-rabbit people treat rabbits. 

She was originally a classroom pet but got too big to keep in the classroom.

She was being fed alfalfa hay

Her water was less than fresh

She was being fed leftovers

She was exposed to stagnant water which breeds mosquitoes

I could sort of go on...

So I get her home and we immediately come into my room,which is dark and cool, and I stick her hot little body if front of my fan.  It took about an hour for her very hot ears to stop radiating heat and cool down. 

Then she had some Gerber Blueberry Puffs and I took her into the dining room with the other bunnies. Fun times...

They actually got on OK.  She is not spayed and neither is my Meany Girl so there was a few incidences of the Humping Challenge.  No biting, no fighting, no growling or boxing. Nothing dramatic.  A few warning thumps.  She immediately took over the potty box and used it and used it and used it... She loved it and would not get out. Then all three would sit in it and dig dig dig.

I built another pen out of closet cubes and put a nice run on the floor, a blanket, a hidey box, water, orchard hay and oats, a ball, paper balls, and I gave her the big potty box and gave the little buns a new smaller box.  She has been arranging the cardboard squares around, rubbing her chin on the edges, pushing the hay into piles she likes, the doing it aaaahhhhlll over again. She loves that potty box and she has not had an out of potty box potty moment yet. She did not have one at the other place, just a wire bottom hutch with hay thrown in , so I think she likes having her very own box. Her box and their box are bumped up together with the wire pen in between.  They are still grooming and nosing each other through the bars.  I think once the two girls are spayed, they will make a fun little trio.  Of course, Minnie is about three times bigger than the other two!! She is fatttt fatt fat! Alfalfa hay and leftovers will do that to you I guess.  But she is pooping nice normal big poops and eating Tim and Orchard hay happily. 

I am so relieved to have her home.  IF I CAN EVER FIND MY DUMB CAMERA I will post pics. 
Oh and Simon the lab was all casual cuddly with her on my bed, like it is totally natural for big labs to snuggle with the fat bunnies, like in nature...LOL. It was cute. They act like they have known each other their whole lives.

And she is a nose bumper! So cute.

Nose Bumps, EveryBunn!
Brandi, Fatty Bun, Meany Girl Bun, and now Skinny Minnie Bun!!!!! who is not so skinny and definitely not minnie!