Changes

10 day olds

         The babies are growing and changing daily.  From round-bellied wads of chewing gum, they have developed into furry little creatures.  Slowly they are becoming steadier on their feet, but still wobbly, and their eyes look about to open soon.  It takes everything in my power not to sit on the floor and play for hours.  Touching them is like running your fingers over butter without the oily residue.

          In comparison to cats and dogs, rabbit mothers seem to neglect their young.  They feed them only twice a day, usually at night, and otherwise ignore them.  This is actually for their protection from predators.  Clearly, there are none in my apartment, but Luli doesn't know that.  Yesterday morning, I witnessed a rare thing.  I opened the door to leave Luli some mint, only to find her standing in the nest box, nursing, covering all but one who was on his back and scrambling to get better situated.  To my relief, she didn't move. In her presence, the kits make excited peeps, like a chorus of excited little birds.

       Last night, I had a bit of a panic.  When I peeked in the nest, I counted only six babies.  I looked through all the hay in the nest, under the cupboard, behind a basket and the litter box, in Luli's cage, in short, everywhere.  No bunny.  As a last resort, I stuck my hand behind the sink stand and withdrew a sleeping bunny, curled up and getting a bit cold.  The nest itself is in a large cupboard with one door closed.  This adventurous little guy must have managed to crawl over his siblings or the hay, fall out of the box, crawl across the cupboard to fall onto the floor (it's about a 4 inch drop) waddle his way around the basket and cage to find a dark hiding space.  The walls of their new nest are much higher.

a baby

Baby in hand

 

Moving baby

 

The Crazy Rabbit Lady

         There are those, many of you and myself amongst them, who question my sanity.   



Clothilde





        As I was wandering around the Spice Bazaar about a month ago, I fell for the furball pictured above.  I have broken with my tradition of naming pets after ancient kings. Clothilde, however, does sound like a very noble medieval woman.  Viewed from certain angles, it is impossible to see her eyes.  She has grown into a curious and friendly young rabbit who runs to greet me, licks my feet, makes funny little grunting noises.  Her temperament will of course change during adolescence, but will then even out. 

         Three rabbits you say, well, that's a bit eccentric perhaps, but not completely crazy.  But it gets better.  Three days before buying Clothilde, I let Luli and Enkidu meet.  They did their deed.  Luli grew and grew.  Very early Sunday morning, she gave birth to seven.  At first I counted nine, but realized my mistake. 

          Rabbit kits are born blind, bald and deaf.  They look like chewed gum, all pink and fragile, and can fit in the palm of my hand. (Oddly, unless she is overly stressed, a rabbit mother will not reject her kits if they have human scent on them .) Some of them have grey skin where their fur will be darker.  Yesterday, they developed a fine, peach fuzz all over.  All of them will clearly have floppy ears, and their tails are disproportionately long because they're bald.   For such challenged creatures, they are quite active.  They blindly squirm their way into the middle of the ball formed by their own bodies to reach the warmest spot.  The blanket of Luli's floor covering them moves as if by itself.  Possibly the best part is their tiny squeek toy voices.

     You may ask, what will I do with seven more rabbits?  A few might already be claimed. otherwise, I have six weeks until they're weaned to figure it out. 



It's nearly impossible to get a clear picture of the nest.  This is the best I could do.