Monday, April 03, 2006

Monday Bunny Blogging

His lower lip slays me.



Bunnies are highly social, so conflict resolution is important. Rabbits have a whole system of behaviors to show when they're angry, when they're ready to make up, and when things are good again. If you misbehave, you're faced with insults and shunning. When you tick off a bunny, you're going to have to do your time on the poop list. Making up is your responsibility, but if you try it too soon, you're gonna get the bunny butt: the rabbit literally turns his back to you and you're left staring at a cute fuzzy tail. Sounds like a mild punishment, I know, but it will really hurt your feelings!

Since I'm unemployed, Bumble is used to me being around most of the time and doesn't like it when I leave for any length of time. On Saturday, I left at 6:30am and didn't return until around 7pm. Was he mad at me? He would not look at me. He would not look in my direction. If I tried to pet him, he yanked his head away. I made a peace offering: a yummy carrot treat. He took the treat, turned his back to me to eat it and then ran into his cardboard box to get away from me.

When I haven't misbehaved, Bumble and I are close. He follows me upstairs, downstairs, and from room to room. If he doesn't know where I am, he goes looking for me. We'd noticed he was slipping when he tried to go upstairs because he was launching himself off of linoleum. To fix the problem, we put a rug at the bottom of the stairs so his feet wouldn't slip. Every time he goes upstairs now, the rug gets kicked to the side and is messy, so we always know when he's gone upstairs.

When I left Saturday morning, he was eating and the dishwasher was making a racket, so I'm not sure he knew I was gone. My husband noticed later that the rug at the bottom of the stairs was kicked to the side. Bumble was looking for me Saturday and couldn't find me.

I deserved the bunny butt.

6 comments:

Kim said...

Thank God for Bumble Mondays. SE, what's this I hear about bunnies "claiming" humans by running around them in circles?
Have you heard about that>

spotted elephant said...

Yes. Apparently, bunnies don't distinguish between sexual and social behavior. So the running around the person in circles could mean "I want to have sex with you" or it could mean "Oh, I love you". Bumble's neutered, so it's love. Every time I get his food, he runs circles around my feet. Sometimes they do a figure 8 around and through your feet. It's hilarious.

And it's really sweet when you walk into the room and he does the circles around your feet.

hexy said...

Bambalam does the figure-8s to me as well. The only problem is that he's very small and very quick, so if I'm trying to walk I often nearly step on him. He also has a bad habit of trying to follow me into the bathroom whilst courting me.

When he's sulking, as long as it's not too serious, he'll sit on my lap with his head shoved under my arm. This is my single to shower him with love and attention and try to win his affection back. If I don't, he'll start nipping the back of my arm in indignation.

Big sulks, however... bunny butt.

Gotta love the little weirdos. *grin*

spotted elephant said...

Kat-No wonder. She wanted to go to Florida too!

Hexyhex-Forgive me for being jealous. He sits in your lap? Oh, the only time Bumble is voluntarily in my lap is if he's trying to steal my food.

And you're right-sometimes weirdo is the only word that fits. :)

hexy said...

At my old house, bam used to have the top drawer of my desk to lie in while i was on the computer. He discovered that trying to jump from the desk to my lap was really, really fun, even when it made me jump and yelp.

Since then, he's had no problem with hurling himself into my lap to sulk when he wants attention.

He also tends to consider humans as terrain and climb all over them.

spotted elephant said...

Ha! That's quite a way to get attention.

I get climbed on too, but he's on me temporarily-heading somewhere else.