Noises Bunnies Make.

Gus and Betsy's Dad over at The Life and Time's of Bunnies posted the cutest video of him feeding his starving, abused, unloved, never catered to rabbits(*) and talked about noises bunnies make. After writing a two paragraph comment I decided to steal it for a blog post. That way G&B's Dad can't complain he hasn't heard from Sage's warren ;)

What? Revamping something he's already read doesn't count as a post?! Damnit!

Anyway - noises my little furry masters have made. :)

Scout, my little heartbun of epic proportions. (2lbs, 1lb of that being her fuzzy mane) made all sorts of noises. She giggled when she was happy or amused - or at least as close to it as bunny vocals can get. She cheeped, she chirped, she snored. The last she did quite loudly. Considering she had some sort of respiratory infection or another the entire time she owned me, the last isn't too surprising. She also snorted, thumped, loved to bang toys off things, or in short .. she was one noisy, but very happy and cute, rabbit.

Sage, my Dutch Diva, isn't particularly talkative. She's tooth purred for me once. I'm not even sure why. I was leaning off the bed, she was sitting at the end of it, watching me. I was talking the sort of nonsense things one talks to one's pet about. (Balancing your cheque book, the latest boyfriend, how the rain sounds like music on the roof..) She started making the oddest noise. Her ears were forward, she was sitting up, it couldn't be pain.. so I immediately dashed off an email to the Petbunny mailing list. Once they stopped laughing at me (again) I got "Your bunny is HAPPY, she loves you, she was tooth purring!"

She'll grunt if I interrupt her nap and it's not with treat in hand or child following me. She'll turn her tail towards me (the ultimate in bunny insult! 'You're not even a threat!') and close her eyes and go back to sleep. (Or at least try to) With a few grunts to let me know her dissatisfaction. She's also grunted while getting toweled down after her very rare butt baths. The rabbit LIKES swimming (She likes swimming and children - she's one damn odd bunny.) so I think she's just upset that she's been yanked out of the water and now the interfering monkey is not only holding her, but rubbing her ticklish private areas. Every so often when I walk past her napping room (She has two rooms, y'know.) she'll just grunt at me randomly. I think that's to remind me of my place in the pecking order. ("THE BOTTOM!")

Foster, the Foster bunny I had for less than twelve hours before he was adopted by a neighbour, never made a noise. He had a bit of a noisy gallop through Pat's trailer, and he certainly did the 'Dead Lop Flop' with the best of them, but that was it. He was one mellow dude.

Fric grunted, growled, lunged and bit. I donated blood to that rabbit when he was separated from his brother. He grunted if you touched him, he grunted loudly and regularly if you picked him up, he grunted when I passed by in the hallway and I didn't have a treat (even if it was a strand of hay!) for him. He was a diva. (Probably still is!)

Frac was a lover, not a fighter. He would tooth purr if you held him and rubbed the ends of his ears. That was it - no other noises, just happy little sighs if you held him in your arms and stroked him from noise to tail. Fortunately, his attention span for cuddles was about the same as my own.

Or to sum up - bunnies are pretty much all individuals, just like the monkey pets they keep. :) *Grunt, Grunt*

* - This is, of course, the BUNNY opinion and probably has absolutely nothing to do with reality.

She's no dumb bunny.

Yesterday I came in with dandelions for the beast who lives in the spare bedroom. I am not brave enough to enter the house without a treat for her highness. I put the dandelions down and continued on down the hallway to get changed. I was barely finished before I hear thumping and grunting coming from Sage's room.

"What the..?" I ask as I come back down the corridor.

There's a smudge of dandelion flower sitting under Miss Plushie Bunny's chin. There is no further sign of the dandelions that have apparently been inhaled. Sage is growling at Miss Plushie Bunny and thumps and looks at me.

OBVIOUSLY Miss Plushie Bunny stole all of Sage's dandelions.

So to pacify the poor, wronged, bunny, I had to go back out to the garden and get another one. (But just one, too much Dandy Candy wouldn't be good for her tummy!)

I'm pretty sure she stuck her tongue out at Miss Plushie Bunny when I wasn't looking.

Update from the furry farm.

Or at least, I'm pretty sure the tumbleweeds that go billowing past are fur.

Last week I decided that maybe Sage is lonely. So I brought Miss Plushie Bunny off her shelf and put her in the spare room with Sage. I was three steps down the hallway when Miss Plushie Bunny passed me.

"What are you trying to say, Sage?" I say with some facetiousness. She snorted. I'm fairly sure it was 'Humans are idiots.'

Well, this means war. So Miss Plushie Bunny goes back into the spare bedroom the next time I go past. Miss Plushie Bunny was back in the hallway on my trip back down. Since she was sitting, I took it to mean she hadn't been grabbed by an ear and flung out the door as per previous visit and just shoved out. Miss Plushie Bunny went back into the room.

I put her in the far corner from the door, which is Sage's least favourite corner of the room. There she sat for a couple of days. She didn't eat Sage's dandelions, she didn't use Sage's litterbox, she didn't even start any fights. Then she started moving around the room. Sometimes she's under the table, sometimes she's back in her corner, sometimes she's sitting beside Sage in her favourite lounging spot.

This morning I found her in the computer room, beside the food bowl. I guess she got hungry.

Sage has let me pet her nose four times in the last seven. Obviously Miss Plushie Bunny stole her sanity when she wasn't looking. Poor Sage.

Sage's Diary

If my bunny kept a journal, or a diary, it would read something like this..

Dear Diary,

The human sucks. Today she plucked me bald and then cut off my toes. She only gave me ONE papaya treat after the torture. I flicked her several times, thumped to make sure she was watching and then flicked a few more times for good measure.

I know where she sleeps. She's getting a soggy pillow tonight.

I'm not actually sure about the soggy pillow, but if you saw the LOOKS I kept getting.. Apparently it's MY fault she's middle-aged now and can no longer stomach as many sugary treats.

Bad human, no snuggles.

Snuggle Buns.

Day before yesterday I brought her in some dandelions. She presented (lowered her head) to be pet and let me pet her nose three times. I was truly honoured.

LAST night, she'd obviously completely lost her marbles. I went into "her" room to talk to her and she didn't even move away so I picked her up and cuddled her. I didn't get grunted at, she didn't try to struggle. I asked her if she was feeling alright. But no tempreture, no tummy distention, no yucky tail and she ate a papaya tablet with gusto.

So I carried her into the living room and lay down on the couch with her on my chest. This is NORMALLY when the mad scrambling begins and the bunny takes off like her tail is on fire. Nope, she just meatloafed and let me pet and stroke her for almost twenty minutes. In all honesty, I got sick of it before she did. I put her down on the ground and she hopped off behind the chair.

She's been there since. I thought this would be a great opportunity to pluck some of the fly away fur, figuring it would also get her to high tail it. She watched me for a bit plucking fur off her butt and then closed her eyes and seemingly went back to sleep.

There is rumour of tooth purrs during the snuggles, but she's denying it all.

P.S. Sage says, since she was such a snuggly Easter Bunny, I should tell Gus is the most handsome Easter Bunny she's ever seen. Betsy is one lucky doe, even if she is a no good, stinkin' lop. (SAGE! Lops are NOT bad.. Just because Sheeba.. Oh, nevermind.)