Thinking of getting a rabbit? a few tips from yours truly

Why does my bunny do that?

Have you ever wondered why your bunny thumps his back feet when you walk into the bunny barn? Or why is your little doe furiously scratching the wire on her cage floor just as you are trying to drift off to sleep?
It might help you to know a little bit about why wild bunnies do what they do and see how it relates to your domestic friend. Just a note however, serious inquiry into the every day lives of rabbits has not been extensively studied since the late 1960s.
Those studies and others can be accessed on line but it is tough finding any current information.
The European rabbit lives from woodland to grassland to desert. All domestic rabbits descend for the European rabbit. In the wild these animals often live in colonies, burrowing underground in a series of tunnels called warrens. Normally the warren is made up of a buck, his main wife, (they often share the same little nest even with her young in it) and his other wives.
Because rabbits are the primary food source for many many carnivoures (and it is true, rabbit meat does taste like chicken!) rabbits are very wary. They have developed excellent wide vision and they constantly scan their surroundings especially up! Even domestic rabbits who have no reason to fear owls and hawks keep a sharp eye upward.This is why many people swear their house rabbit is watching TV or listening to the radio!
Rabbits have very strong hind legs and thump the ground to assert dominance over other rabbits or call the attention of other rabbits in the colony. When your rabbit thumps when you come in the barn he may be warning the other rabbits, announcing your presence, or trying to let you know he is in charge.
Rabbits also sit up on their hind legs and stretch up to get a better view of possible danger. This natural abilty can be encouraged if you wish to teach your bunny tricks.
In the wild the rabbits nails are naturally kept short because of all their digging, especially does who dig out their nesting places. If you have a rabbit that digs and digs in her wire cage, do her a kindness and get her something to dig, even if it is a box of shavings, torn newspaper, etc.
Wild mother bunnies cannot protect their young and are careful not go near their nesting places except for once or twice a day to nurse.Their milk then is one of the richest in the animal kingdom. The milk needs to hold the babies from 12-24 hours at a time. This is one of the biggest reasons it is so difficult to keep wild baby kits alive if they are found. Neither infant formula nor calf replacer milk is rich enough for the needs of rabbits.
Rabbits can be seen in early morning and early evening. This is because they are crepuscular. However if there is a bright moonlit night they also hop about. This last sentence is perfectly clear to anyone who shares a bedroom with a bunny. If light is available they hop around, rattle their feed crocks, and entertain themselves all while you try to slumber.
They also use moonlit nights to help them locate possible mates and many show breeders use this time of the month to breed their own animals with documented increased fertility rates.
In the wild although bunnies live in proximity to each other in warrens they are really rather solitary creatures and prefer to sleep alone. (the exception being the herd buck and doe.) Many people often buy 2 bunnies at once, for example a sister pair, so their rabbit will not be lonely. Certainly this can work out. But more often than not once the rabbits reach sexual maturity (at around 6 months for Netherlands) the ladies begin to squabble like true sisters, pulling hair, and preventing one from eating.
It is best to house your bunny in its own place. This is not to say they are not social, rabbits in the wild certainly share their lives with other creatures of the meadow. Your rabbit might love to clean your cats ears, or snuggle up to your four year old or your dog. (We had a beagle who loved to nap with our house bunny!)
But they prefer their own space and this should be respected. Just as a note, no rabbit should ever be left outside its safe cage unattended. The best dog or cat can have instinct take over should your bunny begin to hop, with disasterous results.
One other tip that might help you understand your bunny's psychology. In the wild no creature ever picks up a rabbit for a good reason. A bunny who allows himself to be picked up is a dead bunny, someones' take out meal.
Therefore no matter how tame and lovable your rabbit is, no matter how much he loves to be with you- Removing your bunny or returning your bunny to his cage is frought with peril for him.
Do not be angry or feel rejected if his instinct is to hide at the back of the cage or kick out his legs in effort to get away. Reach in with confidence and pull/scoop him if possible using 2 hands, one for his bottom, and one near his head/shoulder area and snuggle him close to your body. Many breeders carry their animal in the football hold so that he does not have to even see that he is 4 feet off the ground. When returning your bunny put him hindquarters first into the cage. He will grow to recognize his house and if you put him in head first he may shove with his back legs and begin to struggle in an effort to get to safety and you or he can be hurt. Always teach your child to put away his rabbit bottom first.
Hope this insight into the lives of rabbits helps you to undertand yours a little better.

Innocents and Batman

   The other day Joe came up with a great idea. If I was willing to drop he and his buddies off at the movie theater, the boys could watch, from 6-12 a bunch of previous Batman stuff,and then the latest movie would start at midnight! Don started to shake his head no. After all Joe is an early to bed, early to ride kin of guy. He figured Joe would be snoring long before the Dark Knight made his appearance.
    But I readily agreed to let them go and to provide transportation. Turning to Donnie I said with a grin, "what could be safer than a movie theater full of geeks?"
   15 however is that funny age when your body may have manly proportions(not Joe but his 2 buddies are 6 feet with deep rumbly voices)but you still think like a little kid. In spite of my repeated reminders to get tickets ahead of time they dilly dallied too long and sure enough the midnight showing was sold out.
  In the end they slept over our house, insisting we pay for OnDemand os they could watch the Batman movies leading up to this new one. They were up al hours, chatting with the big kids, playing video games, and watching Batman. Corey even made them an after midnight meal.
    This morning I came upstairs to find teenage bodies sprawled all over the living room, sound asleep. The kitten and dogs lay snoring happily amidst the kids. But as I climbed over these young boy-men I could to help but think of the parents out in Colorado. They trusted their children to be safe at a movie premiere. What must be going through their hearts and minds this morning?
  Later as I was obseesively scouring the internet for news, for explanations, for clarity about how these things could happen, I came across a blog written by one of the victims. She had escaped a massacre up in a Canadian mall food court, one minute before a gunman opened fire. Yet that that premonition, that warning of something wrong did not keep her from harm last night after she convinced her boyfriend to attend the movie with her.
    I have nothing deep or revealing or comforting to add. I just feel overwhelmed by the horror and pain and the senselessness of it all.
  It makes sweating the small stuff seem silly. I did drop the boys off a little while ago at our safe suburban mall. There was indeed increased security. The boys of course are all blissfully unaware of it all as they eagerly discuss their movie expectations. I am glad for them. This is how it should be, 15 year old boys and their silly geeky arguments about the best Joker or the most implausible Batman special effect. If only the 15 years old in Colorado could still have that same innocence.

The MTEL from Hell

   Well I shall know in one month if I passed my math MTEL on the second try .I have heard nightmarish tales of people having to take it 4-5 times.
    Last time I studied on my own for weeks plus I had daily 7th grade math during my middle school student teaching. It was not enough however. This time in addition to my own studying I accepted sn offer of tutoring from my nephew who teaches high school math.
    Periodically during our study sessions I would mention my genius IQ,or the fact that I had already passed 6 other MTELS, on my first try! I felt it important that he know his aunt was not an idiot, since my math skills gave no hint of that.
     I discovered a few things about myself. One is that after an hour of strict concentration on math my brain gets fuzzy. After 2 hours my head aches. After 3, I have to lay down as if I had just run a marathon.
    I would post silly little update stati (is that the plural of statuses? It looks righter!!!!! It looks more correct.) I would joke with my FB readers and many many offered support and encouragement. Still as the test loomed ever nearer I had worked myself into an unhealthy and unproductive state of terror.
    Because in spite of learning (and re learning) a tremendous amount of math, there was still no guarentee I would know which equation to address which word problem. Obviously the more anxious I got the harder it was to solve any problem. This of course made me more tenses and well it is clear to see the vicious cycle.
    Breaking that cycle and remaining calm enough to be clearheaded enough might have been my biggest accomplishment. It is a 2 hour test and it took me longer than that to finish. 3 or 4 of the multiple choices I had to guess as I had no idea. I could not even narrow the multiple coices down. But otherwise I felt like I could find the answers and equations and theories they sought in their tricky questions. I think. I am not sure.
   Worse case scenario and I fail then I do not graduate until May (instead of December.) If this is the case I will pursue extra classes to get my Initial licence in both Moderate Disabilities and 1-6, elementary ed. So that is not horrible.
    The horrible is having to continue to study and possibly take the test another coupla times.
After the test (btw not airconditioned) I staggered out into the blazing sun trying ot find the van. Don was waiting and as a treat he drove us to the Attleboro Zoo. Walking around there would have been perfection itself. Naturally they were closed! But we walked along the outside park and just tried to readjust.Ifelt drained, totally wiped out. I had expected joy or at least relief. Instead I was exhausted and unsure.
    We walked around and Don treated me to dinner. Then we simply went home for a dip in the pool and a garden fire. Taking care of the goats, and picking the snap peas was soothing and now, 5 hours after the test my headache is finally gone. I wish I could have written some profound blog about the experience, but my brain cells are too strained to cooperate.
    People face all sorts of challenges in their lives. Mine today may seem foolish or simple to some. But from here, today felt fraught and overwhelming and very very hard.  To be able to just sit in the garden as night fell and listen to the peepers and the kids laughing, well tonight was a pretty good reward for all the day's effort.
  

Today as I studied math for 6 hours...

   I am taking the math MTELS again Saturday and so I have been studying like mad. I have even convinced my poor nephew (a high school math teacher) to tutor me.
   Today I told the family I was spending all day doing nothing but studying. I would run no errands, cook no meals, wash anyone's anything. I marked the date on the calendar weeks ago. Here is what else had to happen today.
Julie ride to work 8:30.
Cookie dropped off at groomers 9.
Nikki driver ed 9:30. (They will pick her up and drop her off.)
Nikki to work at 12.
Joe gets picked up at 12 in East Bridgewater.
Julie picked up from work 12:30.
Tim bike to work at 2.
Goats exercised 2-2:30. (I did this!)
Joe orthodontist at 3.
Pick up Cookie at groomers at 3. (I did this too!)
Julie to second job at 3:30
Corey work at 4
Yon to work at 5.
Catch goats who got loose and fix gate at 5:30. (I of course did this!)
Pick Nikki up from work at 7:15.
Pick Julie up from work at 7:30.
Drive Yon and Corey home from work at 9.
   Donnie always wondered why I complained about being in the car so much when he was at work. As he drove here there and everywhere, I reminded him I use to have to strap 2 or 3 kids into car seats for all the drop offs and pick ups back in the day.

Yon's stumble

   We had  lovely last day with our Ohio family. My sister and I were able to sneak out to lunch together. We had a wonderful cookout on the shore of Lake Erie and had some intense matches of volleyball and tether ball.We ate and played with our Ohio friends and horsed around in the lake. It was clearly an all around great day.
     There was only one slight mishap which really turned out to be nothing more than scrapes and bruises, but it reminded me of the awesome responsibility I have since my parents death.
  As various family members were driving or walking back from the little park on the shores of Erie, to my sister's house, some of the kids started running.
   Soon, as it so often happens in families, it became a competition with Joe well in the lead, followed by Yon and trailed by Nikki. In a great burst of speed Nikki raced ahead of Yon and as he tried to go from road to lawn he tripped and fell with a spectacular jarring thud.
   Every adult in the caravan of vehicles saw it happen and I leaped out of the van before Donnie had it in park. Yon was shaken up and scraped and bleeding but it was soon apparent that he would be fine. Walking him into the house Marge quietly asked what was needed and she got the vans first aid kit after her band aids proved too small. I carefully washed and disinfected the 3 scrapes on his knee, the 3 wicked looking torn knuckles on his right hand and the wicked  bleeding right elbow. He kept flexing his left hand which he used to help break his fall Marge made sure Chrissy got him ice before she whisked off to Walmart for big band aids.
   When Yon is physically hurt he gets shocky and sometimes he has trouble assessing where his pain is localised. As I asked him about his injuries and washed and bandaged him up I tried to keep my own mind from jumping to wrong conclusions. For instance his left hand looked swollen and was clearly sore. But in reality his strong healthy left limbs are much larger than his slight atrophied right side. His poor knuckles were so bruised because he fell directly on them with all his weight since he cannot fully straighten his right arm.
   THAT is the scary part. He is a grown man almost 40 now, athletic and strong. But he also hasa disability which makes him vulnerable to falls and then vulnerable to confusion over his hurts. I remember thinking that my mother overreacted after a Special Olympics bike race mishap sent him to the hospital with a broken tooth and facial scrapes and a hard knock to his head. After that accident she was too nervous to let him ride competitively or for pleasure.
    But trying to assess and help him tonight I once again realise the worries my mother faced in caring for him. I have for all intents and purposes become mom for him. Now we were lucky because first he was not seriously injured and second Marge's dear friend is a male ER nurse and so if something needed to be done medically I would know right who to bring him too.
   But still.....as I got him some Motrin and settled him on the couch with a nice cup of tea... I found my mind racing with what ifs....something I normally do not do after a crisis. For the rest of my life, he will always be my responsibility and that is just fine. I am glad to be able to do that as a tribute to our wonderful parents. Just sometimes, like tonight, I feel the weight of it all.  Luckily this time I had my sister with me to carry some of the weight.
    Tomorrow I will re clean all the cuts and re bandage my brother before we head over to Niagara Falls. Yon is looking forward to the boat ride and  although we will all miss our Ohio loved ones, it is time to go home.

A Great Lake

Today I got to swim in one of the Great Lakes, Lake Erie to be precise- a waterway named by the Iroquois. Standing alongside the lake these last 3 days was such a sensational experience. As far as the eye can see straight out, it is just water. It is not an ocean, it is simply a lake. But you cannot see the opposite shore.( BTW the opposite shore happens to be Canada!)

Today I had the chance to swim in it. We had just left a cookout, which had charming people and delicious food. But there was no air-conditioning and the only water was a small child’s wading pool. All the ladies took turns ‘watching’ the small children. But really we sat with our feet in the pool and didn’t let the kids splash us!

The cookout was lovely but at 94 degrees, I was melting not relaxing, so back to my sisters we went. The plan had been to borrow her friend’s pool but the kids were all eager to head for the lake so that is where we swam.

It took me a few moments to get out there since it is VERY rocky. But about 15 feet off shore is a lovely sandbar (the sand is black so I am hoping it is some sort of volcanic sand and not pollution sand.) There were waves and a funny although not bad watery smell. But, the water is not salty. Your mind simply expects it to be. It is not like you drink the ocean but when you dive under the waves and then surface, the water beading on your lips is salty.

So your mind keeps telling you, you are in the ocean, your senses send off the same message. But Lake Erie, the smallest of the great lakes is a vast fresh water lake, NOT AN OCEAN.

It seems silly to keep repeating that, I am aware. But I do not know how else to get across the constant shock to the system it is to realize again and again it is a lake, not the ocean.

My sister says during the winter the Lake actually roars and I cannot even imagine that. Sometimes, too, there are rogue waves, like inland tsunamis. Can you even imagine that? This morning, apparently remnants of last nights torrential rains and winds sent waves crashing to the shore and some of the kids body surfed.. By the time we went this evening however it was relatively calm.

Tomorrow we are going to spend the day at the Lakeside having a cookout, playing volleyball at the little park their ‘association’ owns, and swimming in Erie. I wonder if it will feel normal the second ti,e swimming or if it will still trick my body and mind?

I had to spend a little time researching the Great Lakes. We learned ALL about them in the 4^th grade and I can still sing the Eirie Canal song. I found that part of history and geography fascinating and absorbed all that I could. But, that part of our country is never mentioned again in school and except for a resurgence of interest when Gordon Lighfoot’s song came out about the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald (Lake Gitchigumi, not Erie…..Superior) I have never even heard mention of the Great Lakes. I remember Superior’s Indian name and that the 5 lakes’ first initials spell HOMES. I know they all connect although I swear you have to portage out around Niagara Falls? Don’t quote me on that, as they may have found a modern solution to that challenge. I know Lake Michigan (again an Indian name) is the only one totally in the USA, the other 4 lakes share a border with Canada. I even know a little about salt mines and possible fracking and the connections to earthquakes. Although I do not think they frack for salt, I am sure that is done for natural gas. See I am not really spot on with my Great Lakes facts.

You would think we would teach more about our country and not have it peak in 4^th grade. While I can still say all fifty nifty United States in ABC order courtesy of 4^th grade, even the brightest of 9 years olds can only absorb so much about our country.

So today on the 4^th of July as we celebrate the birth of our nation, I vow to get my geek on and deepen my knowledge about this great country of ours. And how better the begin than a further exploration of our Great Lakes.

Ohio storms

Sitting around my sister's cozy living room, the 13 of us are a bit crowded, but considering the TREMENDOUS downpours and thunder and lightning action, its not half bad! Don tightened up all 5 tents and they handled tonight's deluge much better than this afternoons monsoon.
    I nearly had a heart attack when the town's emergency alarms went off. It turns out they 'somehow' were triggered at the power plant. The local police were annoyed that residentskept calling them and tying up their lines. But the alarms went off for almost 15 minutes! Plus the clouds were gathering in very threatening formations so there was some confusion. Was the power plant a threat? Or a tornado?
    This sort of thing of course plays into my darkest fears! All that is needed to make this trip complete would be for them to warn of fresh water sharks in Lake Erie!
 But it truly is lovely to chat with Marge and be with my little neices.  Even got a compliment from my CHEF brotherinlaw. Of course he might have simply been relieved not to have to cook.
   Some of us went to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Tomorrow and the next day we have cookouts. On Thursday I am even making at weight watcher meeting, although tonight's trapped by storms meant lots of naughty eating! Ah well, it is still an adventure and more awaits. On Friday I take my kids for a ride on Maid of the Mist and show them Niagara Falls. We always have an adventure whereever we go, and while I wish more of our adventures were DRYER, they are nevertheless unforgetable.