What an exciting week. My ears decided to droop together - at the same time! That never happens. In fact I've suffered some awful rejection regarding my sticky-uppy ears. Obviously Rita teases me about it. But even Dr Brian, our vet, the man who saved my life, thought my ears looked silly. He didn't want a picture of me for his website. I hate my ears! But that was all by the by because all of a sudden I looked like this:
Gorgeous. Perfectly symmetrical! How do you like that Rita? Want me on your website now Dr? Well, you couldn't afford me now! I won't get out of my hutch for less than ten carrot-tops and a cabbage!
Of course, my lop-eared glory lasted about five minutes until this happened:
Larry and I were most amused to find out about a place in England called... Bunny!
We were less impressed by the content of the village's website. Makes the place look boring! Where are the visual reminders of Bunny's lagomorphic roots? What about a statue of the great leader Flopsy, who founded the settlement in AD43? Where are the photographs of giant rabbit footprints - the only remaining evidence of Herman the Great and his magnificent thumpers? No... this village is rabbity in name alone!
Got us thinking though: how many other places in the world have bunnyish names? Once we've got a list together perhaps we'll take the Larry and Rita show off on tour?
Phew! Yesterday was the hottest day of summer so far and today isn't too far off. I don't want to be like those annoying people who complain all winter about the cold and then moan about it being 'too hot' when the sun finally decides to shine. But you try wearing a rabbit fur coat and living out in the sun all day!
Air conditioning was invented for days like these but much of London isn't equipped to deal with heat. Isn't it strange how the people here are always surprised when it's hot in the summer. It can't be that rare, can it?
Larry and I have different ways of dealing with the heatwave. I like to lie down under the hutch for most of the day (keeping out of the rays helps prevent bunburn). Larry hops about and then drinks lots of cool water. I was on my loptop again just now and I found these top tips for helping out rabbits in the heat. If you're a rabbit, show them to your human today!
Encephalitozoonosis - or What Made Me Ill, by Larry
Hello again from Larry. Last night was the first time I didn't have to take my medicine. I was excited and enjoyed exploring the house and being interested in things. Yesterday I left you dangling over a cliff, and my little brain fighting off a nasty parasite. Let's pick up the story:
The morning after we went to the vet's I was in a terrible state. My eyes were twitching, my head was tilting and I was completely off my food. I've always been smaller than Rita but today she seemed like a giant compared to me. Rebecca collected me from the hutch and I sat on her lap while she gave me my first dose of medicine. Next, to make me eat, she put a syringe in my mouth and squirted in mashed up carrot! Normally I'd hate that because everybody knows that carrots are meant to be crunchy, but today I didn't have the energy to put up a fuss. She also squirted water in my mouth which was good because my wonky head made reaching the drinking spout very difficult!
The parasite that was in my brain was called Encephalitozoon Cuniculi, or E Cuniculi for short. I didn't like having it in my brain. The medicine that I took was called Panacur. It is a 'wormer' and it kills the parasite. I had to take it every day for one month. As you can imagine, it didn't taste very nice and I often tried to get away. Jared and Rebecca wrapped me in a towel to stop me from struggling. Look at me! I look ridiculous!
Well, as bad as it tasted, the Panacur seemed to start doing the trick quite quickly, because a day later my eyes had stopped twitching and I was a bit more comfortable. Unfortunately because my head was droopy it made my eye very sore and I had to have human eye drops. But I quite enjoyed that.
Over the next two weeks I was fed and watered by syringe every three hours during the day. But after a week I was able to eat some things by myself again. At one point I ate a whole celery stick! My tilting head improved and I began to be comfortable walking around by myself. Things were much better and Dr B was very pleased with my progress.
Now I am a very different rabbit. I'll always have a slight tilt in my head to remind me of my brush with death, but hopefully the parasite won't come back and I'll be fighting fit for a long time to come. I'm just lucky that Jared, Rebecca and Rita are here to look after me!
Here's a blogger who's mad about bunnies. Larry and I think there should be more rabbits on the internet. Larry says he thinks rabbits are better than dogs, cats and lizards. I said most people don't think lizards are better than rabbits, but dogs and cats are very popular pets, and we just have to live with that.
By the way, how about Larry's cliffhanger? I can't wait to find out what happened next, but I'm not surprised to find out he's a bit wrong in the head.
Hello! Larry here. Last night I went to see Dr Bryan for a final check-up. With any luck (paws crossed) I'd get the all clear and be able to stop taking my medicine. I was very nervous when we went into the surgery, but Dr Bryan had a big smile on his face. He said 'I am very pleased with you Larry'.
He said that most rabbits like me don't survive.
Some of you might be thinking: 'But Larry! We didn't know you were ill! We would've sent you a card and a bunch of carrots if we'd known!'. In truth, I didn't feel like talking about it much at the time. But if you'd like to know the full story, read on:
Thirty days ago, I think it was a Friday, I woke up and my head really hurt and I didn't know where I was. I couldn't see properly out of my eyes because I couldn't control them. It was like they had the shivers, darting back and forth at a mad rate.
Jared came to say hello. When he opened the door to our hutch I thought about jumping out and playing in the yard. I poked my head through the door but decided to stay inside - I was just too dizzy. Jared helpfully picked me up and put me down on the ground, but the space really freaked me out and all I could do was wander round in circles.
Jared said: 'What's the matter, Larry?'. He put me back in the hutch. I was very sad. Luckily Rita decided to stay and gave me a comforting lick.
I tried to stay calm and sat really still, because if I tried to move I tended to fall over, which was embarrassing. Jared patted me on the head occasionally. All I wanted was for my head to stop spinning. Later that day, Jared put me and Rita in a box. It smelt very familiar, because I think it was the box that we lived in on the way from the Pet Shop to our new home. That time I felt very scared, but this time I thought we would probably be going somewhere nice. Rita didn't agree. She was very annoyed about being put in the box, and her scrabbling around didn't do my headache any good.
As it turned out, we ended up at the vets, which is where animals go when they are poorly. A man (Dr Bryan) picked me up and looked in my eyes and put me on a thing and picked me up and held my head and made me eat something horrible. Then he said something to Jared that I didn't understand. I was very confused. It hadn't been a good day. We went home and I tried to get some sleep.
I wasn't alone, though. Because apparently there was a parasite and it was EATING MY BRAIN.
Sorry for the scary ending, but I thought I'd leave it on a 'cliffhanger' to get you all excited and wanting to read the next instalment. Sorry again if anyone was shocked.
All good things must come to an end. The end of a carrot. The end of a stick of celery. The end of my back feet (eventually). The same thing goes for holidays. Jared and Rebecca came over this weekend to pick us up. I hate being picked up, especially to be plonked in a cat basket and driven back home to gloomy London!
We've had a very nice time. The place in Birmingham is called Edgbaston. It is well-to-do and leafy. We liked nothing more than frolicking in the grass and sitting in the summer house when the sunshine got too much. Here are some pictures of the aforementioned frolicking. My face looks funny in one of them because I am eating a dandelion shoot.
Now I'm sure you wouldn't blame me for trying to make a break for it into the glorious freedom of the flower bed. It was exhilarating! Alas, Jared and Rebecca really wanted me home and I was captured. Larry didn't seem that bothered but he's not much of a revolutionary. He's happy to do what he's told.
By the way - he's off to see the doctor tonight. Wish him luck!
Hello everyone. This is Larry. I thought you might like to see a video of me and Rita in action. Having fun in Birmingham, but missing the old Hutch, and Jared and Rebecca. See you soon Larry
Hello! Rita here again. We've got lots to tell you about our short lives, so I thought we better get on with it. The first thing is we're on holiday! I bet you didn't think Rabbits went on holiday, but Larry and I do. For our holiday this year we are in a place called Birmingham. Here is a postcard from Birmingham:
Now, as well as people saying 'yowl this' and 'yowl that', there are plenty of posh things in Birmingham too. We live in the lop of luxury. Plenty of grass to eat, loads of room to run around and play, and the fresh air is doing wonders for Larry's health. (Oops - that's a whole other story!)
We've been guests of Rebecca's mum and dad, and bunny, do they know how to treat a rabbit! No stinking yard for us here - we're staying in the summer house! And I bet they wouldn't up and leave us in the company of strangers whilst they swan off on holiday alone. No. I'm not looking forward to coming back!
Rita here. As the brains of the operation it's only fair I get to have the first post on my new blog 'Larry and Rita's Bunny Business'. Welcome, one and all!
This site was my idea. I jumped on my Loptop, did some burrowing around and decided to start a blog all about mine and Larry's lives in this crazy city they call London.
Larry thinks the internet is something you put over your hutch to stop ants getting in. I say to him 'Larry! It's internet, not antinet, you big fluffball!'. If some of Larry's posts don't make sense, go easy on him, because he's not the brightest rabbit in the hutch. I am!
Anyways, we hope you enjoy this blog, and we'll try and update it whenever we're not eating or being busy sitting still. Bye!
I'm Rita and that's Larry on the right. We are a pair of dwarf lop-eared rabbits 'coming at ya' from Hackney in East London.
What can I tell you? Larry is smaller than me and I am bigger than Larry. I like carrots and celery and expensive imported hay. Larry likes to lick anything and everything. He's a real licker. Our 'owners' are Jared and Rebecca. Larry loves them to bits. I think they're ok.
