Goodbye Ashley, Hello....Punky Muffin??

As I mentioned in my earlier post, our female rabbit Ashley died recently. Above is one of the last photos I have of her, taken just a few weeks ago. While it may seem harsh to 'replace' her straight away, her death left her mate, Rocco all alone and for an elderly gentleman like him - he's seven which is about the human equivalent of an 80 year old - that's not a good thing. He needs somebunny to snuggle up to when it's cold, to take turns grooming, and to smooth down his fluffy ears on windy days. Also he may be old but by God, he knows how to show the girls a good time and isn't past (ahem) proving it. Being de-sexed is apparently no impediment to a horny old bugger like Rocco. Perhaps the fact that he was 'done' late in life - at three years old - has something to do with this.

Anyway, I digress. Liesbeth from the rabbit rescue centre Opvang Franky in Eindhoven has years of experience in matchmaking lonely bunnies and had a few lovely ladies in mind for our Adventurous Male Of Advanced Years. The final choice was a simply beautiful, sleek girlie named Arabica who had been brought to the centre by a family who could no longer keep her because they were moving. She is 18 months old, about Roccos size without all that hair, and has a pert set of uppy ears in contrast to his loppy ones. He was immediately smitten. After spending a couple of hours together separated by nothing but a huge generaton gap and some chicken wire, it seemed they would be likely to bond.

You can't just chuck strange rabbits in together; they need to be carefully bonded or will fight viciously. I can vividly remember the fairly grim experience I had trying to bond former bunnies Flopsy and Coco, a drawn out process that took 7 long weeks and saw us divide our apartment at that time in two with a roll of wire. I was more than 8 months pregnant by the time they finally decided they could share a cage without killing each other and my main mode of keeping fit was heaving my huge belly over the wire divider with the aid of two strategically placed chairs every time I needed to cross the room.

I haven't had to go through the bonding process since then; all of my bunnies who have passed away have thoughtfully done so while in someone else's care. Each time Liesbeth has managed to find new mates and have them neatly bonded by the time I returned from New Zealand or Singapore or where ever we were at the time. Now however, it's up to me. Arabica is now living in a cage, sniffing noses with Rocco but not yet free to frolic with him until she is speyed next week (which will make her less territorial and easier to bond as well as protecting her from uterine cancer) and they are on good terms. In the mean time I've been putting her cage on the lawn with the door open, trying to tempt her to come out for some exercise and grass. Until this afternoon she didn't dare poke more than a cautious nose out, so eventually I got sick of waiting, picked her up, and sat her on the grass. To be honest I don't think she's ever been on grass before, she lolloped around like it was tickling her feet, practically tip-toeing. It was the funniest sight. Finally after about 20 minutes of circling the perimeter and getting her bearings she decided this was SERIOUS FUN and starting racing around the lawn at top speed, flicking her ears and bouncing side to side like she was going through a slalom course. I would show you a photo but she was going too fast to photograph.

Meanwhile she has been renamed; the kids were so upset about Ashley dying I told them they could name the new bunny. Having vetoed Carl's vote (Transformer), we had settled on Punky Muffin, which both boys think is perfect. Punky for short.