Judging from the state of her teeth, they’re fully grown and also they’re not pure white.  That says that she’s not as young as 3-4 months.  What her exact age is, we’ll never know.

We do know that she’s a healthy 4.5 pounds.  We’re going to keep her for a month and monitor her weight just to make sure she is indeed fully grown.  If she doesn’t gain much weight in the next month, then she’ll be all set to get spayed in March.  Until then, Coco will enjoy her time in her new condo eating lots of hay and fresh veggies.  She’ll be living the bunny high life.

Bunny’s got back.

She’s enjoying her first night in her new home and her dinner.

I’ve got a new bunny.  It’s a baby (possibly Flemish) and we’re not sure if it’s a boy or girl yet.  Tentatively it’s named Snickerdoodle.  I’m looking to rename it Coco Chanel if it’s a girl and I’m still drawing a blank if it’s a boy.

Here’s its story as told by the woman who rescued the bunny, Emily:

To be frank, she had been owned by some … people who got sick of her and let her “escape” outside in early December.  It took the landlord a couple weeks to coax her into a Have-A-Heart trap.  She came to me on Dec. 19th.

I’m so glad Emily took care of her for a month and she traveled all the way from Vermont to Massachusetts today.  She’s healthy and already she’s exploring her new condo.  She’s sharing the top bunk of Bunji’s condo, which was built to be modular so that it can house anywhere from 1 to 4 buns if necessary.

She’ll be taken to the vet next week for a checkup and sexing.  When she gets older, she will need to be spayed but she needs to get bigger first.

For the time being, I have moved the bunny webcam to monitor her.  Once I get my new webcam, it will be placed back on Ginger and Juju so everyone gets equal air time.

In the past, before Massachusetts passed this law, people could only leave money outright to a person they trust to take care of their pet with no assurance that the money will be used for the care of the pet.  Money left to the pet directly was not allowed.

You might all remember the story of Leona Helmsley who left $12 Million in a trust for her dog.  Well, even though in the near future, Massachusetts will allow pet trusts, excessive money left to a pet will still not be allowed.  A judge will still have the power to lower the amount that’s in the trust to a reasonable amount to care for the animal.

For more information about pet trusts or trusts in general, visit my other blog:

Boston Estate Planning Blog

When Bunji came back from her bonding, Joey and I decided to spruce up her living situation since she won’t be living with Ginger and Juju.  Up to this point, Bunji has been confined to an X-pen.  Ginger and Juju also lives in a pen but theirs is HUGE.  So one day, Joey  and I built Bunji her own condo.

That is a NIC condo 8 cubes across, 2 cubes deep, and 4 cubes high.  It has ledges and split levels on the 2nd floor.  It is currently one big condo, but can be easily partitioned into 2 condos or 4 separate condos.  It is built to be modular so that if there’s a rescue or fostor bunny, we can easily house them.

On the other side of the basement is where Ginger and Juju live.  We won a Leith Petwerks Vacation Villa at the House Rabbit Network’s Flatbread Fundraiser.  We decided to give it to Juju to play with.  Ginger, even though she’s really too heavy and big to be in the Villa, has also taken a liking to it.

You might notice that he’s got a busted leg in the picture.  Hopsie is about 9 years old and in bunny years, that’s pretty old.  He’s got arthritis in his hind quarters which makes him not able to move his back legs as much.  This also creates a problem for his bathroom habits so that’s why he’s on puppy training pads.  Despite being on the training pads, he still has trouble moving about when he pees or poops so he also requires nightly butt baths.  We basically take him, and run his butt under the facet to clean him out.  He doesn’t seem to like it and in fact, he bit me tonight but at least he’s clean for the day.

Due to his medical conditions, we’ve got to feed him gloucosamine to help his arthritis (which we put in a banana) and also syringe feed him meloxicam.

All the bunnies get their veggies and we call it a night.

They’ve been living next to each other for a few months in the basement.  They’ve been right next to each other so they’re sorta comfortable with each other’s scent and they know they’re neighbors.  However, I still didn’t know how they would respond when they were all thrown into a pen together.

Juju (Black and white dutch) immediately got dominated by Bunji.  He was already submissive to Ginger (the Flemish Giant) so I wasn’t surprised.  The battle is really between Bunji and Ginger.  Who will rule the roost?  From the looks of it the first day, they’re still working it out but I’ve got my bets on Ginger.  Size matters.

I think she is very happy with Piglet, since they snuggle a lot, pretty much whenever they’re not eating or running around.  She stopped snorting shortly after they bonded, and she doesn’t attack hands anymore, which is really good.  I think it’s a sign that she’s gotten more comfortable around here, and is more comfortable being petted and handled.  Tai and I make a point of gently approaching her and gently petting her, since she does sometimes still get freaked out by sudden movements or sudden loud sounds.

I don’t think they’ve exactly established a dominance in their relationship yet– they seem to take turns being dominant.  It’s funny how some of her behavior has rubbed off on Piglet, though, since he seems to have a little more “pick up and go” than he used to.  It’s also really funny how Bao Bao likes to snatch food from our hands when we offer vegetables, and how if we set things down for them to eat, she’ll grab the food and run off with it, forcing Piglet to chase her.

To see if Bunji would bond well with Ginger and Juju, we’ve moved Bunji’s pen right next to Ginger and Juju’s.  We want to see how to interact when they can see each other and also to get them acclimated to each other’s presence.

Tonight, the first night, they seem very interested in each other.  I don’t see any hostility in any of their behaviors but definitely a lot of curiosity.

I’ll be keeping a close watch on them through the webcam (http://houserabbitblog.wordpress.com/bunnycam/). Ginger and Juju’s pen is closer to the camera and bunji is the pen that’s further away.

Bunji is doing quite well.  She is obviously in some discomfort but I can still tell that she’s still her playful self.  She’s not eating as much as usual but that’s to be expected.  As long as she’s eating a little and going to the bathroom, it’s all good.

Once she heals from the operation, she’ll be ready to be adopted to a loving home.