Random Musings => Miscellany => Where The Wild Things Are => Topic started by: sam on 26 June, 2019, 06:28:32 pm
Title: The Essential Chompsky
Post by: sam on 26 June, 2019, 06:28:32 pm
After a search yielded a paucity of references to the humble rabbit, I’ve decided to start a thread about mine. This is Oreo, aka Chompsky, because rabbits, like cats, are allowed more than one name.
(https://i.imgur.com/wWMccXz.gif)
A full introduction to this leporidae domesticus can be found here. (http://prettygoodbritain.com/wp/?p=7663) That’s an illustrated copy of the story I wrote for a newspaper in the States, where ‘rabbit lady’ strikes more fear (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6ff68dXFsc) into a small beating heart than ‘cat lady’ [link NSFC = Not Safe For Chompsky].
(https://i.imgur.com/00f18IT.jpg)
Then again, these creatures are primarily regarded as bottom of the food chain pretty much everywhere except for a Japanese Bunny Cafe. (https://thetravelsisters.com/rabbit-cafe-bunny-cafe-tokyo-japan/)
(https://i.imgur.com/rlC6OyW.jpg)
As a house of vegetarians, rabbit was never going to be on the menu anyway.
(https://i.imgur.com/CmRgA1H.jpg)
to be continued
Title: Re: The Essential Chompsky
Post by: andrewc on 26 June, 2019, 09:39:55 pm
If you have adequate garden space then rabbits are nice, affectionate pets. Sometimes too affectionate as one of our cats found out ! :jurek:
Title: Re: The Essential Chompsky
Post by: sam on 26 June, 2019, 11:13:43 pm
Myxomatosis and RHD (https://www.woah.org/fileadmin/Home/eng/Animal_Health_in_the_World/docs/pdf/Disease_cards/RHD.pdf) are endemic in the area. Although he gets his shots every year, he stays inside, as even vaccinated animals can fall ill.
We’ve spent the past month watching a bumper crop of wild rabbits (http://prettygoodbritain.com/rabbits.html) – our first in a few years – flourish, and then succumb right outside our windows.
(https://i.imgur.com/mYe2vaC.jpg) RIP
Then there are the foxes, and giant swooping birds (sorry not knowledgable about those dino descendents, a proper name would be nice), and planes, which may not have predatory intent but can still make him rigid with fear… all in all far too dicey. Though I suppose he could get used to some of the scary stuff just as he did after his first sighting of a fully grown sheep, which positively electrified him. Fortunately he's got plenty of room to run around.
I’ve read lots of stories about rabbits living with cats, sometimes terrorising them!
Title: Re: The Essential Chompsky
Post by: andrewc on 26 June, 2019, 11:47:07 pm
Ah, you are a lot more rural than we were in suburban Liverpool so more dangers. If he's got the run of the house then that's fine. Snowy had a small hutch in the back yard, he could only run free in the garden when there was someone around, and with both parents working & my sister & I at school that was only a few hours per day in the summer evenings. He was brought into the house often though.
Title: Re: The Essential Chompsky
Post by: sam on 28 June, 2019, 04:20:32 am
You can’t always tell when a rabbit is sleeping.
(https://i.imgur.com/olMA9IZ.jpg) Click for special night vision photography (https://i.imgur.com/i6DPIUo.jpg)
I don’t just mean their schedule, which is as odd in its own way (crepuscular) as mine (whenever), if a tad more structured.
They can kip with their eyes open. Sometimes it’s pretty obvious he’s in dreamland, assuming rabbits dream. Other times, well, who knows.
I just got back from a ride down here in Kipling country. That’s Rudyard, (https://www.visitengland.com/experience/how-did-leopard-get-his-spots-visit-rudyard-kiplings-home) not Mr, which Google informs me is Yorkshire.
(https://i.imgur.com/7OOkttw.jpg) Ey up, palm oil
It’s a shame to miss scenery always so easy on the eyes, but the tradeoff for peaceful roads is worth it.
(https://i.imgur.com/WAYSVZ6.jpg) We both dislike flash. Meet the sculptor. (https://www.victoriaatkinson.co.uk/kiplingproject)
I’ve got to be careful when coming home from night rides, because depending what time I get back, I risk waking Chompsky and summoning him far too early for his breakfast of chef-prepared greens with starter of unappealing but nutritious pellets (hay is always available and not especially worth getting up early for). Rabbits sleep on a hair-trigger as it is…
If he does dream:
(https://i.imgur.com/vN6Hj61.jpg)
PS. Too late, he’s up. He was very happy to be served his croutons, but the salad will be a while.
Title: Re: The Essential Chompsky
Post by: sam on 07 July, 2019, 08:01:32 pm
The hunter finds his prey, his keen ears having detected the kitchen door opening.
(https://i.imgur.com/x5inFJb.jpg)
Fleet of foot, he advances on the unsuspecting greens.
(https://i.imgur.com/w22Awsj.jpg)
Ignoring the high pitched screams of the basil, coriander, carrot tops, mint, watercress and curly kale, he satisfies his terrible hunger.
(https://i.imgur.com/AHYyLAH.jpg)
Sweet peppers are a delicacy traditionally hand fed afterwards as a reward for his prowess.
(https://i.imgur.com/dj3bTDH.jpg)
How can he enjoy nature's finest bounty, and yet also go gaga over this?
From what we’ve seen in pet shops and online, some rabbits practically live on nuggets, which were more or less invented to fatten them for slaughter. Too much is a recipe for disaster. He's allowed them because we figure they have nutrients he might be missing out on, as he can't forage like his wild cousins. In other words, the nuggets are akin to this:
(https://i.imgur.com/UHBcU2x.jpg)
Then there’s the hay. We re-upped his supply last week, £4.25 for a bale, which should last 3-4 months. Hay is important for digestive health to keep everything moving along nicely, and also to provide the right grinding action so his teeth don't grow too long.
Hay gets everywhere, but that’s for another post.
He doesn’t just chow down on food:
(https://i.imgur.com/P0dhhbQ.jpg)
Fortunately not all that (https://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Rosewood-Boredom-Breaker-Cardboard-Tubes/308593011?from=search¶m=small%20animal%20tube) goes down the hatch.
Under his chair (http://prettygoodbritain.com/wp/?p=4684), planning the next hunt.
(https://i.imgur.com/WhYkhfL.jpg)
Maybe next time...
(https://i.imgur.com/Hmfvjcv.jpg)
Title: Re: The Essential Chompsky
Post by: sam on 13 July, 2019, 04:38:40 pm
This thread could use some videos.
The first is of a wild rabbit I befriended B.C. [Before Chompsky]. He seemed less skittish than most. After reading The Language of Lagormorphs (http://language.rabbitspeak.com/) and other expert or otherwise guides, I took to hunching down as close as he would let me and fake-grooming myself. (Sorry no video.) It’s possible he also warmed to me because I left carrots out for him. Unfortunately I had failed to get the memo that carrots are too sugary to be healthy.
At one point he came right up to the front door, like Mr Toad (https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=128.msg2409002#msg2409002).
The second was shot from our hallway/hide, and shows a mum just after she’s arrived at the burrow and rung a silent dinner bell. The kits then have a few minutes to slake their thirst #hilarious before she rushes off again at the 2:17 mark, unwilling to stick around for fear she'll attract predators.
Lastly we have the subject of this thread, who was apparently surveilled by a drone with gyroscopic failure. Rotten Tomatoes says it could use a trim, but the finale seemed worth saving.
Your post reminds me of when we had a dog when I was young, also a food source should we get snowed in for a long while and not be quite ready for a DinnerDoner Donner party.
Title: What fresh hell is this?
Post by: sam on 29 January, 2022, 01:54:20 pm
Someone is getting his nails trimmed soon. I wish we could do it, because leaving the house is stressful for him, but in 6 years I've never managed more than a few of the more prominent ones when he's distracted by dinner.
Around this time last year:
(https://prettygoodbritain.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/trim1.jpg) Wondering if he's about to lose that hand
(https://prettygoodbritain.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/andout.jpg) The definition of unceremonious
(https://prettygoodbritain.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/trim3.jpg) What fresh hell is this?
(https://prettygoodbritain.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/trimclose.jpg) The bunnicure begins
I was reminded of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Lepus, a film which I have unfortunately seen. Regularly turns up in the list of worst films ever made.
I can't believe I've never heard of this. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKipF7WrGgk)