Walter’s First NYC Vet Experience

I took Walter to meet his new veterinarian on Saturday. Dr. Anthony Pilny was listed as a recommended veterinarian on the NYC House Rabbit Society’s website, and as he was the closest vet to my apartment, I decided to check him out. Fortunately for me, he’s available on some Saturdays for appointments, which works out well for my schedule. I thought Dr. Pilny was great – he’s very knowledgeable about rabbits, took time to truly listen to my concerns, and really communicated with me about Walter’s health, behavior, and steps going forward. With pets, patient care is about not only the animal but the owners, and I thought Dr. Pilny was really tuned in to this.

Dr. Pilny said that Walter looks really good, aside from gaining a little too much weight. So now we’re on a bit of a diet – reducing his pellet intake from being not measured (but approximately 1 cup a day) down to half a cup a day. Walter will still get a heap of veggies and hay, and hopefully now that he’s able to run around the apartment, he’ll lose some weight rather quickly. We only need him to lose about a pound, so it shouldn’t be that hard.

While waiting to see the veterinarian, I met with a woman who works with the NYC HRS. She came in with two of her buns, and I was envious of how well they dealt with being picked up, cuddled, and otherwise handled. She offered to give me some tips if I stopped by the Petco on the Upper East Side, where she organizes rabbit adoption events, which I might just take her up on. She also tried to talk me into adopting a second rabbit, which I’m still on the fence about. I’m not sure my landlord would like it, seeing as I had to talk my way into getting just Walter into the apartment.

Does anyone else know of people or places in NYC that help rabbit owners learn how to handle their bunnies? I would love to meet with someone in my home who can show me how to work with Walter so that I can pick him up, trim his nails, get him into his travel carrier without chasing him around the room, etc.

Live, from New York!

Well it took a few months longer than I anticipated, but Walter and I are finally moved into our new apartment in New York City.  So far, Walter seems to be enjoying our new home, taking time to explore, finding his new favorite nap spot (underneath a console table), and taking advantage of his newfound freedom.

For the past few months, Walter has been locked up in a small playpen in my brother’s basement, which meant that he rarely got a chance to stretch his legs and hardly ever had any visitors. I felt badly about this arrangement, but my brother was giving us a free place to live until we found a permanent home, and I wasn’t going to let my rabbit be my source of complaint.

As a result of living in a suburb of New York, carless for the last month, Walter has not been to the veterinarian for many months. His nails are extremely long (I found the nail scissors, but of course he won’t let me trim them myself!) and he’s started showing signs of e. cuniculi again.  Argh!

I’ve noticed he’s been drinking excessive amounts of water (this could be due to the summer heat, though) and shaking his head a lot (this could be due to two flies who also live in my home).  I am hoping to get him to the vet next week; there is one just a few blocks from my apartment.

In the meantime, here’s five seconds of Walter jumping in celebration of the new living room rug:

  

(This is for you, Olivia, since you don’t believe he ever plays!)

Life in New York, Part I

Hello, there! It’s been a few months since I took a blogging break, and I figured today was a good day to update.  Walter and I are officially New Yorkers, though right now we’re camped out in the ‘burbs at my brother’s house.  This means that, since the house is not exactly rabbit-proofed, Walter has been relegated to the basement.  Of course he hates this.

When I first set up shop in my temporary home, Walter had a prime second floor location. But, as it’s summertime and the house has no air conditioning, the upstairs got way too warm for a rabbit.  So, down to the basement he went.  It’s much cooler, but it’s also darker and Walter hates that no one ever comes by to visit him.

He’s escaped the confines of his cage four times so far.  The first time, he was still upstairs.  I came home and found him hip-hopping around his bedroom, and figured I would just sit with him while he enjoyed a little bit of freedom.  This bedroom, however, has a set of stairs that leads directly to the attic.  I didn’t think much of it because I’ve never seen Walter try to climb stairs, but within a matter of minutes, Walter had hopped up the entire flight and started roaming around the finished attic.  Getting him back downstairs was a definite struggle, but not nearly as much of a challenge as getting him to accept his home within the rabbit jail.

The second time he escaped his jail, I was still in bed upstairs and heard some rustling down in the living room.  Assuming it was my sister-in-law walking around the house, I ignored it and continued sleeping in. (Unemployed people have no reason not to sleep until noon, right?) When I finally dragged myself out of bed and made it downstairs, I found Walter poking his silly rabbit nose out from behind the couch.  When I went to bed the night before, he was secured in the basement!  How did he get up there, and for how long had he been hopping around?!  I let him explore for a little bit and then took him back to the basement.

This was short-lived, however.  When my brother came home from work, I heard him shout up from the basement: “Uh, your rabbit is missing!”  Crap.  Walter had wedged himself under a large and unmovable cabinet.  Double crap.  I had to use a skinny flagpole to thwack him out of his hiding spot.  Neither of us were pleased.

The final time, I was not home, but my brother found him lurking around the basement, and I’m not entirely sure how he was able to get Walter back into his playpen/cage set-up.  After this time, I found some shoelaces and tied the playpen a lot more securely to the cage, and Walter hasn’t been able to escape since.

After these escape attempts and after having been kept in this rabbit jail for three weeks, I decided Walter needed some serious time to stretch his legs. I brought him out to the patio, which is enclosed save for a small entrance, which I blocked off with the playpen.  Walter loved it! He spent the next few hours running, jumping, eating leaves, and relaxing in the big concrete space.  At some point, I decided he should go out onto the lawn. This was a mistake.

After being startled by the neighbor’s dog, Walter darted from one end of the playpen to the other, breaking through the enclosure seam and out onto the open lawn.  Realizing that he now was a free rabbit, he froze.  I think he knew he didn’t want to run away anymore than I wanted to try to chase down a renegade rabbit.  In an unusual moment, Walter let me pick him up and place him back onto the patio, as I promised never to make him go out and enjoy nature ever again.

I guess I do have an urban bunny!

Bunny Blogger Break?

Hello bunny bloggers! As you can tell, the frequency of my blogging has really tapered off lately.  I will definitely be posting much less often now for a few reasons.  First, I just started grad school and as you can imagine, it's totally overwhelming on its own. Add a full-time job and an active social life, and it turns out that I just don't have enough hours in the week to blog!

Second, it seems like Walter and I have really hit our stride.  We've got our routine down pat, and aside from the occasional rabbit revenge for my lack of attention, Walter and I are getting along just fine.  He seems happy and comfortable in our digs here, though I've been trying to prepare him for another move this summer.  

That's right.  Another move.  My bunny and I are moving to the Big Apple! (Sidenote: I hate when people call it the Big Apple.)  More details to follow, but let's just hope I don't have too much trouble finding a nice studio apartment on the Upper East Side that is rabbit-friendly.

Walter has his annual check-up with the veterinarian this weekend and we'll get an update on his e. cuniculi, so I'm looking forward to that. He'll also get a long overdue nail trim, which my scratched-up skin will appreciate.  I can't seem to trim his nail myself! This rabbit has a mind of his own; he's definitely not going to stay still long enough for me to clip his nails.

Welp, that's about all the time I can spend blogging today - I have a rabbit staring me down:

Give me cheek rubs!

Why did you stop paying attention to me?!

PLAY WITH ME!

Gotta go!

Playtime and a New Friend

Walter made a new friend yesterday, in the form of a stuffed giraffe that I have. In lieu of getting a second rabbit, I’m determined for Walter to become BFF with a stuffed toy.  He’s already rejected Little Blue Bunny, he shows very little interest in Eeyore, and he only occasionally grooms Moley Lamb (a stuffed lamb that also looks like a mole).  So last night, I tried the giraffe, whose name is Woodrow.  It seemed successful! Within a few minutes, Walter was giving Woodrow a good sniffing and, subsequently, a good cleaning.  He didn’t freak out when I positioned Woodrow so that he was snuggling up next to him.  And when I “hopped” Woodrow around the room, Walter got pretty excited and showed off some hops of his own.

Woodrow!

To be fair, the excitement could have been more from Walter’s enjoyment of having me pay him a lot of attention.  This morning, he wanted my attention so badly that he cuddled with my shoe while I was trying to put it on my foot.  And then he followed me to the front door and tried to hop out into the hallway of my apartment building and come with me to work!

I don’t know what it is. It’s not like I’m never home or never trying to play with him.  Last night, I lured him out of hiding and we sat together for a long time, watching TV.  But, on a typical night, by the time he’s done hanging out by himself in his box fort, it’s time for me to go to bed!

Do you have a playtime schedule for your rabbit?  Do you ever find that your schedules are out of sync?

Scritch Scratch

Walter's been scratching at his face and ears a lot lately.  I've gotten much better about not projecting my hypochondriac neuroses onto my rabbit, but this has really grabbed my attention. Every few minutes, he stops running laps around the apartment to scratch at his cheeks and ears.  On top of that, he's been shaking his head a lot more than what's normal for him.  So, I think it's about time we go back to the vet. It's been a while and he needs to be retested for e. cuniculi anyway.

Other than that, Walter's been in a phenomenal mood lately!  I've never seen him run, jump, binky, or flop over for naptime so much before.  He's gotten much better about interacting with strangers, too. I had a friend over for dinner last night and Walter was very interested in her, even flopping on his side right next to her and letting her roll him around on the ground a bit.  Friendly rabbit!

Bunny Flop

The cutest thing my rabbit (any rabbit!) does is the “bunny flop.” Walter rarely does it, so I doubt I’ll ever catch it on camera, but it’s adorable. Basically, the rabbit starts sitting upright and then suddenly flops down on his side, curls into a small semi-circle, and then stretches back out in total relax-mode.

It always catches me by surprise, because one minute, Walter is sitting there looking at me, and the next minute, he’s nestled into a perfect napping position. It’s a sign of true rabbit comfort, I’ve read, since it puts the rabbit in a position in which he can’t be on high-alert for danger. His stomach is exposed, which is rare, and unless something is going on around him, his eyes are small slits while he sleeps.

Walter did the bunny flop twice this weekend. Once on Saturday evening after my mom and I got home from our adventures in DC. I was lying on the living room floor, petting Walter, when out of nowhere – FLOP! – right onto me. The next instance was on Sunday, when Walter was locked in his cage for a time out. He was sitting awkwardly halfway in his wooden cave when he suddenly flopped onto his side, ready for a good nap.

Hands down, it is my favorite rabbit movement (closely followed by the process of Walter washing his face and ears). I found a couple videos on You Tube of someone else’s rabbit doing the Bunny Flop, in case you aren’t sure what I’m talking about:

Now, in this video, picture me as that cat, because this is basically what happened with me and Walter on Saturday night:

Awww!