Well, helloooo handsome!

Short post, no time to chat. Bunny doing well, has taken over the office. Now it's my boss, threatening to dock my pay if I don't keep the raisins flowing.

For those times when I said: "I wish it would snow more here"

Clearing off the car so I can go four wheelin.

Four wheeled sideways into front lawn:

Snow leopard on the loose:

Winter scene at the end of the street:

Smooshed: Snow 1, Car canopy 0. We moved the car just out of reach yesterday, thankfully. Car 1, Snow 0.

Snow + Bunny = This week

Ok, that title doesn't make all that much sense. But, we have snow and a bunny. They are not mixed, for which the bunny is glad. The snow is indifferent.

The bunny is now living in my office for over a week. It went from scaredy bunny to sweet love bunny in record time. Now it would like it if I spent all day every day patting it on the head. Just don't pick it up. It doesn't like to be picked up. Its new name may be Snufflufugus, because I think that's a funny name. The bunny doesn't care. The bunny does care about raisins and ESPECIALLY cookies. Snuffy Cow Print is a poop machine. Hop...doodle...hop...doodle...hop...doodle. If she went into the woods, she'd be able to find her way back for sure. Also, the bunny, who is as brilliant as Taylor predicted, is now using a litter box (for peeing at least). I wouldn't say it is exactly "box trained". It found two places to pee, so I put a box in one place and its food in the other (theory..it won't pee near the food). It worked. Well, initially the box failed. The bunny did fine, but the box failed. It went into its little box and peed...right over the edge onto the floor. This it did twice. But I braved record snow to get a bigger box, and we're now 100%. Today Snuffy Cow Print is excited because I gave her an early Xmas gift, a cardboard BOX. She loves the box. The box is DA BOMB! She wouldn't go to bed tonight because she wanted to PLAY IN THE BOX, and nibble it some.

Right after we "got" the bunny, I read a website about "Rabbit Speak". My conclusion from applying the lessons in the website with my observations of the rabbit...this rabbit HATES ME. This was cause for some concern. But after a week, Snuffy doesn't do those hateful rabbit speak things like ears back, running away, stomping hissing spitting biting screaming and breathing fire. It just does sweet happy bunny things now like ears up, using the litter box, and acting happy when I give her a box.

Ok, enough about the bunny. Some pictures from this week.

Me and my new bunny, at the beginning when the bunny was too scared to jump off my lap. Notice the ears are back, bunny speak for....I am NOT enjoying this but I'm too afraid to bite your finger off.

Scruffy, not at ALL pleased. Bunny is in HER territory.

Taylor and Pixel watch the snow.

Thomas Kincaid, eat yer cheeseball heart out.
Snow bird.
Snow tries to smoosh the "carport" and, in the process, my car.

Cat nap

More snow.

Garden gnomes in the snow.

Bunny Hunt, Day 6, Victory and for breakfast...BUNNY

pancakes. I didn't bother with the net hammock rig yesterday because it was raining and, the fun stops when somebody gets their eye rained in. Or something to that effect. So, with the help of the Havahart Company of Lititz, Pennsylvania, I set a proper trap last night under the trees and when I checked this morning, there was one Cow Print Bunny smashed into it. It barely fit, but fit it did. There are no "bunny in the trap" pictures. That would be unbecoming of a bunny.

Now the bunny is living in its new rabitat in my basement office. We put it in there, with its new bed box filled with special, ridiculously expensive "Timothy Hay" that looks like lawn clippings, and its new litter box filled with overpriced stove pellets. It is settling in pretty well, checking things out. Sorry, but there won't be much to tell about now that I've caught it. That's why Elmer never caught Bugs, and Wiley never caught Roadrunner. Once you catch em, the fun part is over. One mildly amusing thing happened. Cow Print has decided to pee in its bed and nest in the litter box. Whatever works.

I decided that the 24" high fencing isn't high enough to reliably contain a natural hopper, so I went out and got a higher fence. And made the pen include the fireplace, which you may be able to see has white board in the top. That's to stop the backdraft. When we have a fire in the living room fireplace, right above the office one, it backdrafts like crazy and fills the room with smoke. Not good hospitality. Hopefully Cow Print doesn't chew the duct tape.

See, already so much less dramatic. Somebody asked me: "Why are you making a big deal out of this rabbit?" Why? I'll tell you why. Otherwise, it goes like this: "A stray rabbit came into my yard, I trapped it, put it in a pen in my office and now it just sits in the corner and stares at me." See how much LESS FUN that is to read? I'm just SAYIN.

New favorite spot, the fireplace:

All this junk is going back.

Bunny Hunt, Day 5, brainy bunny

Taylor wants the laundry basket back. I went out and saw that the bunny (admittedly, I'm only assuming it was the bunny) has chewed the string apart. The bunny basket trap was a non starter.

Taylor sez: I think you're not gonna catch that bunny. Evidence shows that it's smarter.

Smarter than WHAT?

Bunny Hunt, Day 5, the continuing saga

I saw the bunny yesterday afternoon. I came home from errands, got out of the car, and it came right over to me. So I went in the house, got some food and prepared to try the "grab the rabbit" tactic. When I came out, that rabbit wouldn't come anywhere near me. Maybe I have a "tell". I think this bunny could have a future in tournament poker.

Today, I am going to make a net trap out of an old hammock. I have to figure out...should the net fall on the rabbit from above, or should I put it on the ground and have it lift up and "bag" the bunny?

Bunny Hunt, Day 4, noon

No bunny sighting so far today.

My friend DJ said the way to catch a rabbit is to grab it by the scruff of the neck. Sounds great, DJ, but I don't see any rabbits in YOUR house!

Meanwhile, Scruffy thinks the rabitat is for her and has been sleeping in the box.

Bunny Hunt, Day 3, late afternoon

You'll never believe what that darn bunny just did. Right in front of me, it went over to the trap, looked over its shoulder at me, then proceeded to reach under and PULL THE BOWL OUT. I'm remembering that Elmer Fudd and Wiley Coyote never caught their targets either.

Bunny Hunt, Day 3, early afternoon

New Trap

Baited

Lying in wait. Pixel helps keep the lookout.

Bunny Hunt, Day 3, later morning.

Damning evidence....

Look at me, I'm eating your bulb flower shoots right in FRONT OF YOU! bwa ha ha ha haaaaaaaaaa


Forensic evidence, crocus stubs with chew marks

Bunny Hunt, Day 3, late morning

Bunny with new net. This net is OBVIOUSLY bigger. See how much smaller the bunny is next to this net.


PostScript: The bunny won't come anywhere near the new net. My only conclusion is: Bunny's do NOT like blue.

I'm starting to feel like Wiley Coyote. I'll go back to ACME and get a bigger net that I can drop DOWN on the bunny while it's eating at its bowl. More soon....

Bunny Hunt, day 3, morning

Catching update: I got a bigger net yesterday. Taylor looked at it and said: "That's not bigger. It's just a different color." Oh. Well, maybe the bunny prefers silver and blue to all-black. I put the net out next to the bunny's food bowl (yes, I put out a food bowl for it a while ago). My hope is that Cow Print Bunny grows accustomed to the new blue and silver net and just puts itself in there for me.

Sighting update: I haven't seen the bunny this morning. I looked from three different windows and two doors, which is a statistically slightly less insignificant sample than just looking through the door.

Wascally Wabbit

Bunny in nature:

Bunny Hunter, totally UN natural:

Watch out bunny:

Destination Luxury:

Squatter:

Latest update: I almost caught the bunny. Almost... I need a bigger net.

SSShhhh, be veh wee Quiet

For the last two months, seems I've been adrift at sea in a turtled dinghy. But I'm back and now, and I'm hunting wabbits, cowpwint wabbits. My tulips asked me, with great desperation, to please PWEEZE catch this wabbit before spwing.

Here's the back story. Around spring of 2007, a domestic bunny appeared in the neighborhood. It is white with black spots and it's legal name (according to me) is "Cow Print Bunny". Cow print bunny has been free ranging over two full blocks for almost two years now, in and out of seasons, across years and definitely through the place where the wild things are (the neighbor's yard with the neighborhood kids). It eats pretty much anything, especially things you would rather NOT have eaten. Aside from eating everybody's gardens, it's a cute lawn ornament. And we all thought it was fine that a domestic wabbit went fwee wange. But then it made a crucial mistake....it moved into MY BACK YARD. My back yard has much flora on which a fwee wange wabbit can delectify. After two years of allowing the bunny to roam free as the wind (or not, I heard bunnies can't pass gas), I decided that alone on the range is no life for a lonely domestic rabbit. So I am going to adopt it. It has no IDEA how lucky it is about to become.

Today, during lunch hour, I got an indoor/outdoor exercise pen (aka: cage), a litter pan and litter pellets on the off chance the thing can be box trained, a small bag of grass for a large price (good grief), and some other bunny essentials. Oh, and a NET. Yep, I got a net from the fishin section of Target. They don't sell nets at Petco. At Petco, they assume you've already captured your furry companion.

Now, I'm waitin. Waitin for the wabbit. Because as soon as I was weady for it, it disappeared. But I'm gonna catch that wascally wabbit. And it's gonna live a luxurious life indoors where its new biggest concern will be boredom and the cat glaring at it.

And, I have just the right hat. I have a blue gingham Elmer Fudd hat. It's perfect. Wabbits LUV Elmer Fudd hats. At least I don't have a blunderbuss.

I'll keep you posted.