Bunnies' new summer home

Now that the weather's finally turned warm and spring-like, the sanctuary bunnies Kris and Kringle were moved to their rabbit run outside where they can enjoy fresh air and a little exercise. This year, they have a brand new, beautiful rabbit hutch to enjoy.

Kris

 Kringle

I photographed them within half an hour of their introduction to this new space. Kris hopped up into the hutch readily enough, but decided to take further exploring slowly. Kringle was soon exploring underneath and, before long, emerged from there to excitedly scamper and hop around the run.

As with last year, the FIV cats were fascinated by their new neighbors. Baxter was once again among the first to check them out, but this year it was Arnie who decided to conduct the first full inspection. He was thorough.

Arnie

... very thorough.

Later on, we caught him trying reaching his paw as far through the fence as he could. Whether he was trying to touch one of the bunnies or just steal their treats was unclear. Either way, Kris and Kringle are too used to cats hanging around their cage to pay this cheeky one any mind.

Mini update: Kris the demon bunny

When I first met white & black cutie Kris back in December, she was a new arrival at the sanctuary and something of an unknown quantity. She has since turned out to be quite the feisty girl.

Invade her space and she'll respond with aggressive grunting and lunging. Attempts to remove the cage divider separating her from our other rabbit, Kringle, have so far resulted in Kris just being a big meanie. Even with the divider in place, she's been known on at least one occasion to steal his bedding, grabbing a corner of his blanket and pulling the whole thing over to her side.

Never having heard of bunny aggression outside of Monty Python and the Holy Grail and its Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog, Kris's conviction that I would be easily cowed by her huffing, puffing and swatting certainly caught my attention. Gaye showed me how to safely get close enough to pet Kris by reaching up and over to approach her head from above. This done, she quietly submits to being stroked for as long as you care to do so.

She also responds well to treats... unless all you've got to offer is her usual bowl of rabbit kibble. My attempts to do anything with that bowl, including fill it, just get it angrily smacked out of my hand.

I'm told that her aggressive tendencies may have something to do with the fact that she was only spayed shortly before coming to us. There's been some hope that once her hormones have completely stabilized she'll settle down a bit.

If that isn't enough to tame the demon bunny, we'll just have to work on winning her over like we do with our crankier feline new arrivals (Grizzy or Gunther anyone?) and slowly teach her to trust us.

For tips on taming aggressive bunnies, check out these articles:
http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/agressive.shtml
http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/aggression.html

It's good information to know, as ignorance that rabbits can even exhibit this kind of behavior and a poor understanding of how to help them stop it is one reason the animals get surrendered to shelters once they've matured from cute little babies into more challenging young adults.

Kris

Our lone bunny Kringle is alone no longer. He has now been joined by a new arrival from the No. 5 Rd. shelter: Kris.

Kris is a big girl compared to Kringle, who's on the smallish side like his former companion, Amy. Kris is also pretty bouncy compared to Kringle's quieter brand of curiosity when it comes to receiving visitors. And she's the first of the rabbits I've seen actively - and quite enthusiastically - playing with the toys in her cage.

Kringle

Wait, that's not a cat!

The cat sanctuary is in fact home to 800-900 cats plus one rabbit. I first introduced Kringle in the blog back in March, a guest appearance in the post on Buddy, a tabby fond of sitting by the rabbit cage.

Kringle was brought from the No. 5 Rd. shelter at the beginning of the year as a companion to Amy. We lost Amy to a tumor a little while back, something which Kringle appeared to sense the existence of before anyone else could tell - he'd taken up licking her forehead near the spot where the tumor turned out to be with such vigor that he wore all the fur off!

Now Kringle's on his own. His cage, formerly in the doublewide, has been moved outside for the summer where he can enjoy warm summer breezes and be put in the path of sanctuary visitors who'll give him some love.

Buddy (with guest appearance by Amy & Kringle)

Buddy was surrendered to RAPS in November of 2009. The sign on the cage he was in while acclimatizing to the sanctuary described him as "VERY SWEET!" but also noted the reason for his surrender: it seems the boy was a pee-er.

Buddy has adjusted nicely to life at the sanctuary. These days, one of his favorite spots is on the ledge in front of the cage where our two non-feline residents, rabbits Amy and Kringle, live. Not sure if Buddy's figured out that this spot puts him at a perfect height for receiving cuddles from any humans in the vicinity, or if he just likes hangin' with the bunnies. Given his obvious pleasure whenever a volunteer or visitor stops to say hello, I'm suspecting it's the former.

Then again, those bunnies are just so darned cute that some cats will take advantage of an open door at feeding time to try and climb right in their cage with them... just to hang out.