Rooney and Ronaldo (Mutt)

No, not a post about football at all, but two rabbits we have been looking after this week. Rooney is the dark rabbit and Ronaldo (re-named Mutt by his owners) is the lighter of the two.
Rooney likes to tear paper (maybe it is Chelsea on the sports pages upsetting him?) but is generally quite a friendly chap, as is Mutt, but at night Mutt likes to stamp if left outdoors, so we have been bringing him in and he is fine.
As you can see from the photos, they like to spray, but this is because they are un-neutered boys and are just marking their territory.
They are going home tomorrow.

October already?

So, here we are in October , and it only seems like last week that we were full to the brim with rabbits and guinea pigs for the Summer.
We have had a few quiet weeks recently, although we did have Tweety canary and Shandy hamster for a week. They are owned by an elderly couple and were actually fine to look after and a change from the usual.
We also have been looking after Lola and Henry. Lola is a head-tilt rabbit and became quite poorly recently, but we have been quite amazed at her progress over the last few days and she is back to hopping around her cage like normal. She has been helped enormously by having her partner Henry by her side throughout this time and he is always on hand to give her a wash and make sure she is being treated well. He also lets her have first go at any food available before coming in to clear up what is left. We are sure it won't be long before she can return to her foster parents, Sam and Phillipe.

Valentino

Valentino our french lop is slowly taking over our home although we are trying to restrict him to certain areas of the house but as you can see from the photo he is quite determined to have his way and is currently going through his KEVIN stage and this involved doing what he wants, when he wants to do it and sometimes, yes we do give in but we are hoping once he settles in more he will understand that he cant always have his own way. He usually comes out in the morning for an hours playtime in the kitchen area and as we were going out today this was cancelled. He decided that he would throw all his toys, chew his bed, trash his litter tray and thoroughly wreck his house so we gave in and let him out and then of course he was a happy chappie but I am sure in the long run we will suffer.

Poppy and Oscar Romance

We are pleased to announce that both Poppy and Oscar have decided that life with each other is better than living on their own and after a day out at Wind whistle Warren today and having all the normal distractions i.e. dogs running around, lots of other rabbits, ducks and chickens, this seemed to encourage their friendship to develop. Neutral territory is always the best area to use when bonding rabbits and the more distractions the better and more successful the bonding. Along with the car ride to and from the rescue this has now enabled us to put the bunnies together in a large playpen area and we hope that they will now develop their friendship further. Its still early days but we did catch Poppy giving Oscar a big face wash earlier this evening which was a very good sign.

Windwhistle Warren residents.

Windwhistle Warren

As most of you may know both Sharon and myself help out occasionally at Windwhistle Warren, and that was where we spent this afternoon. A lot of you will have got your rabbits or guinea pigs from here and realise what a sterling job is done by Alice, taking in all the waifs and strays as she does.
We just went for a few hours to help clean out a few hutches and put some of the rabbits out in runs for their exercise. Most of the time Alice does this on her own, and with anywhere between 60 and 80 rabbits and guinea pigs in residence at one time this is a huge undertaking.
She does get some volunteers to help out at the weekend but the rest of the time is is down to her. W.W. is a registered charity and relies on donations to be able to function.
Please go to their website to get an up to date look at what is going on and to see which animals are up for re-homing.
The next post is just some pictures of those animals currently at the Rescue, although not necessarily up for re-home.

Ins and Outs

Oscar and Poppy are due to go home tomorrow after a week of bonding. They are much better together now than when they came to us, but still have the odd scuffle, over food mainly. We have seen some good signs though that they will become good friends with a bit of perseverance. It is possible that they will have to be fed separately for a while until they realise there is enough food for the both of them to share.

Marvyn and Stevie rat went home last evening, and we will miss them a lot. They were very playful and inquisitive and were very friendly once you had gained their trust. Marvyn especially liked to have his head scratched, and would shut his eyes, purr and grind his teeth in pleasure.
They spent the evenings either running around in the hall or on the sofas in the lounge, and apart from one little 'accident' were fine and did all their toilet on their tray in the cage.
Their owners shave assured us they will be returning in the future and we look forward to seeing them again.

Parker is with us for one more day before he goes home tomorrow. He is very friendly and has enjoyed spending lots of time out in his run, playing with the tunnel we have given him. He is getting on a bit now, but is still up for his food and loves his cabbage and especially his porridge oats.