No lamb, no garden, no immaculate conception but there IS something about me.

1.27.2012

My rabbit is more popular than I am.


I worked as a licensed veterinary technician for 5 years before my current job (I've been in veterinary medicine for 10 years) and somehow made it out with only one cat. If you ask anyone in the veterinary profession this is virtually unheard of. Veterinarians and their support staff tend to collect pets the way I collect Anthropologie plates: they always cost too much, you never know how they've gotten in your house, you always need more room for them and yet you love every single one. I think that I've been limited to one cat for a long time because mine is a special feline. Although she loves and adores me she would probably try to consume your heart should you ever try to touch her, even if she rubs against your leg first. It is an unwritten rule that if Trixie comes up to you in my house, you act like you would if a T Rex were to approach you: don't breath, move or blink and hopefully she will go away soon. She's been through a lot in her life so I cut her some slack especially since when my college house burned down when I was 23 and I lost my whole tangible life besides Trixie and the clothes I was wearing that day I realized what was really important (shout out, as always, to my amazing friend Talia who was able to save her while I was at work and oblivious to the fact that my life was literally going up in smoke).

Fast forward to May of this year...I wandered into a pet store with the intent of showing my ex chinchillas because I'd wanted one for a while. It was a small store so there were no chinchillas but I saw a very small cage sitting on the floor with two little rabbits. One was small and white with a dusting of grey and the other was bigger, fully white and kept bullying the smaller one. I walked up to the cage and the grey and white one ran up to me, stood on its hind legs and started frantically licking my hand. Weird for a rabbit, right? I took it out of the cage and as soon as I held it my heart melted into a disgusting puddle on the floor. Somehow in the 10 years of having one cat I've been able to resist any other 4 legged pet in my life but there was something about this little rabbit that made me have to have it. I named it Archimedes right then and there, Archie for short, and it was purchased for me as what I maintain was the greatest gift I've ever been given (even though to date the cheapest thing about it was the $39.95 price tag).

Archie's car ride home!

I keep saying "it" because I was convinced it was a male. Well, guess what? SHE'S NOT! And I payed to have her spayed which cost 10 times what she did so I would know! At first I was upset because I really wanted a boy although now I'm happy to have two girls. Honestly, I'm not sure it would have made much of a difference either way. She was only 8 weeks old when I got her and a whopping 300 grams. She used to fit in her litter pan (that is half the size of the one she uses now) completely stretched out!

So little!


Archie (more commonly referred to as "the bun") has proven herself to be an awesome little rabbit with a great personality. She is pretty small, I think she tops the scale at 3.5lb now, but she can still hold her own against Trixie (who pretends she hates her but does in fact love her). She is super sweet and loves to lick and groom both Trixie and I. She's hilarious because she knows exactly what she shouldn't be doing but just can't seem to help herself. For example yesterday when I got home from work I opened her cage and she came running out, happy with freedom. A few minutes later I noticed a bunch of bits of black plastic on the floor which lead to my tv/internet cable that she had obviously had some sort of vendetta against the night before. Without saying anything I just started taping it with the electrical tape that I always have handy now while she ran back into her cage, hid in the corner and watched me. She refused to come out until I convinced her to with a yogurt drop and then she licked my hand for 2 minutes. She KNOWS wires are off limits but she just can't help herself (I'd like to take this time to have a moment of silence for my tv HDMI cable, Wii sensor cable, MacBookPro power cord, 3 of my 6 surround sound speaker cables and the power cable to my tv.........................................) It appears that to the bun, wires are as irresistible as vanilla cupcakes with vanilla frosting are to me (or that frosting with the little tiny multicolored chips).

When she was young, shortly after severing several cables in the span of 30 seconds (bunny proofing happened a few days later)

So in a nutshell, she's a pretty awesome pet with a pretty good fan base on my facebook, mainly because she's just so darn cute. I had no idea how much personality an animal who is pretty much everyone else on the food chain's idea of a buffet could have and I am officially a crazy bunny lady. Oh well, there could be worse thing, right? RIGHT??

Cue gratuitous bunny picture spam:











Further proof of my craziness: After she was spayed she hated the hard plastic ecollar I was sent home with and refused to eat (something very dangerous for rabbits as they can suffer from GI Stasis) so I hand sewed her a soft collar which worked much better.

Crazy, I tell ya.
Now on to the point of this entire post: the bun is a big girl now and is ready to move from her lame-o 30"x30" Tractor Supply store wire cage and into a penthouse fix for a bunny princess. I am ridiculously undecided on which hutch I want to get her but I've narrow it down to two:



1) The dark, two story hutch is great. Lots of room to run and play, a portion of the lower level is wire which is great because he water bottle leaks and she refuses to use any other, and the upper floor has a lot of room. Downside: it looks a little Silence of the Lambs to me. I don't know why. Also, the reviews say the wood is a little flimsy.

2) I like the open layout on the bottom of the light hutch and it looks a lot better made but I hate the color of it.

I'm very torn about which one will be best but I am giving myself until tomorrow to figure it out. Then I am going to order it and not look back because my girl needs some fancy digs. Am I right or am I right?


2 comments:

  1. The light wood one... looks nice and girly.

    The dark one is kinda creepy looking I agree! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh and the bunny is super duper cute btw

    ReplyDelete