Rambo Rabbeet, i wish i knew you

House Rabbit Network says "Rabbits are susceptible to many human diseases and are masters at hiding illness. Their primary caretaker needs to be deeply attuned to their normal behavior and to pick up on subtle changes in behavior that signal illness. Seemingly minor symptoms can escalate into life-threatening emergencies in less than 24 hours."

the man and woman admit that they never came close to understanding Rabbeet in the one and a half years that he was with them. in all that time, he never got used to human contact beyond an occasional pat on the head. successfully trancing him was extremely rare and always deeply emotional.

it's not clear if this crankiness is because of the man and woman's inexperience or because he was abandoned or lost and spent an unknown amount of time fending for himself in the open before being found. my guess is both.

the man and woman rejoiced when Rabbeet took to Leafty when he arrived. but it was shortlived. six months later, Rabbeet decided to hate him and wouldn't let him near without throwing a fit with teeth and claws out. after that, he led a life of solitude and only half tolerated any further attempts at bonding by the woman, Leafty, us or new kittens. so Leafty moved on and bonded with Fruity and me and Rabbeet became the animal family outcast.

inexplicably, Rabbeet maintained his shining eyes, healthy coat of fur, robust appetite and bowel movements through it all, while Leafty is the one who has been plagued by chronic weepy eye, erratic eating habits and droppings that vary wildly in shapes, sizes and consistency. so if Rabbeet was sick, no one had a clue.

maybe he tried to reach out but no one listened. maybe, Rabbeet just decided that he has had it with the lot of us.

consoling Leafty

Bobby and Suede knock the utility room barrier down during one of their high speed chases and hapless Leafty wanders into the lair of Rambo Rabbeet.

he comes out with a bloody lip and less fur than usual but otherwise still in good spirits. Rosie stands guard nonetheless.

tis the season to be jolly

lucky thirteen. woman's friend's hamster sitter backs out at the last minute and her family is leaving for the holidays tomorrow. thanks to him, we have six fat juicy hamsters spending Christmas and New Year with the animal family. deck the halls! fa la la!

of course, the woman is no fun and puts the three hamster cages in the cage condo under the high security guardianship of Rambo Rabbeet.


did you know?
* In Iceland there are thirteen rather than twelve days in the Yuletide season. This may have descended from the old days, when a new day began not at midnight but at 6pm.
* Some eastern european congregations, called "Old Calendarists," still use the Julian calendar and honor the birth of Christ thirteen days later, on January 7.
* In Provence, the traditional Christmas meal is called le gros souper (the big supper). It ends with a ritual number of thirteen desserts symbolizing Christ and his 12 apostles.

a brimming, kindred holiday season, everyone!

rambo rabbeet

in a dark corner of the utility room sits the solitary one.

but for all our feline bravado, it gnaws me to admit that not one of us has learnt to hold our own against that miserable miniature furball. there's no safety in numbers either. the woman likes to tell and retell this humiliating story about the first time Bobby visits the cantankerous one. up until then, Fruity and i had quite forgotten him really and Rosie didn't as yet know of his existence.

but when Bobby goes snooping beyond the utility room barrier, we just had to follow because cats are no spectators when it comes to sports.

5 minutes in the utility room, rambo rabbeet charges us from his barricade and 4 cats leap in unison out of the utility room. the woman fell off her chair laughing.

in our defence, he is not your ordinary garden variety easter bunny but Raging Rambo Rabbeet. he engineers his own barricade. when they first moved the misanthropic one to the utility room, the man and woman were floored when they saw their hokey homemade rabbit hutches turned into a combat ready battlement when they checked back an hour later.

but us cats being cats, we never can resist sneaking yet another peek at the mean old bastard. from a safe vantage. (Bobby never quite learns.)

a family that plays together sticks together

fast friends. the kittens are now more or less free to roam in the main areas of the flat but they often visit their good friend Leafty in the utility room, to play and sometimes to curl up together to sleep. the woman prepares to move them all out of the utility room permanently to live with us. i can't wait.

after the chicken wires have gone up, the woman and man are having it good. fresh(er) air and retired whoudini felines. i continue my protest against captivity by constant caterwauling. unless the woman sits me on her lap for a good backrub.

after the next great migration, rabbeet will have the utility room all to himself. he is in the cage condo now and unlike any of the other animals in the house, absolutely enjoys it in there going about his own business. until the kittens start using his cage condo as a jungle gym. so he will be happy to get those pesky twits out of his fur soon. and into mine.

too something or other

Rabbeet and I would sooner be alone than have to oblige the other animals in the house. the man and woman accuses us of being too reclusive, too frigid. Rabbeet is worse (i judge too). he rejects the hands that feed him and that is, even to me, too depressing.

but gregariousness does not save the other animals or the humans from having their own labels. Tooty is too hyper, Fruity is too fat, the woman too zealous, the man too sardonic.

Leafty thinks he is perfect of course. he is cute, doesn't make any noise and plays well with others. but like any girl who finally finds her perfect guy discovers, somebody will find him too something or other.

personally, i find the albino rabbit too politically-correct, the sly bastard.

the break up

see this? it ain't happening no more. maybe because i changed the dynamics in the household, or young Leafty is growing up and doesn't want to be anyone's bitch no more. whatever it is, woman and man find the rabbits at each other tooth and claw when they come home one day. fur is flying but no blood.

after that, Leafty gets the cage condo. the grills however, does not keep the rabbits from scratching at each other. they also start a shit warfare around the perimeter of the cage. the woman has enough so Leafty and cage goes to the utility room.

the language of lagomorphs

Rabbeet is sterilised the next day. after a recuperation time-out, he is taken to visit Leafty. it is love at first sight.

Rabbeet starts to hang out outside Leafty's cage every waking minute and they start to bond. the first couple of times Leafty is let out of the cage however, Rabbeet displays dominance with aggression and mounting. it shocks the man and woman but they come to terms that that is what rabbits do. soon, the hierachy is established and the 2 bunnies are inseparable.

meet Rabbeet

i am situated in the utility room while i recuperate because as i discover, i am no. 5 in this animal family. besides the man and woman, the rest of the 3-rm apartment is playground to 2 dwarf bunnies, Rabbeet & Leafty. They roam free in the flat and particularly like it under the bed and a corner of the bathroom right next to the bowl where their constant butt resting has left a permanent brown stain on the tile. (eek) but the man and woman don't much care. it makes for opportune bunny bonding time when they do whatever it is they do in the toilet.

the 2 bunnies affectionately share everything and get up to some mad capers zipping around the house tripping up the man and woman and doing bunny hops on the turkish carpet.

the woman and the man found Rabbeet wandering next to a construction site on 08 Sep 2004 while walking home from Holland Village at 3am. they talked about getting a pet when they have more cash but there was Rabbeet hopping right onto their path and that decided it.

it's not easy trying to catch a rabbit in the dark and with no experience. after some clumsy failed attempts, the woman emptied her laptop bag onto the grass and upturned it onto the rabbit, scooping it up. she was on a roll and ran all the way back to the flat with a brown rabbit head bobbing up and down out of the laptop bag held chest high in front of her. the man followed behind with the laptop, mouse, mousepad, wires and several files in a desperate clutch wondering about the crazy world he just stepped into.

The next day, Rabbeet went to the vet. He had a mild case of scabies but was otherwise healthy.