Counting down

Mom is eagerly counting down the hours until it is officially July 18th, and I will be officially 8 years old!

Mom says that means I will officially be a senior citizen. She's making all sorts of jokes about Medicare and AARP and false teeth, to which I say, HA. HA. HA. Very funny. She should be thanking her lucky stars that I decided to stick around this long. We've been together for four years now! It's been the best four years of Mom's life, and she'd do well to remember that!

Really I can't complain. Sure, there were some hairy situations in the past, like when I decided to snack on the electric lamp cord and nearly set fire to my jaw. Or the time that I ate half of Mom's house plant, and she had to call Poison Control. But mostly it has been four years of sunshine and happiness. What else would you expect from Frederic the Great?

Tomorrow will mark another milestone too. My faithful mate Kenzie will turn five. She doesn't look a day over three. She's come a long way since she first arrived here, overweight and covered with unsightly stains. Now she's sleek and svelte and glowing white, a real beauty. Mom can't remember a time when it wasn't the three of us, the three amigos (or the three Stooges, whichever you prefer).

Mom has to go to that horrible dungeon place she calls "work" tomorrow, but she's promised us a huge birthday salad when she gets home, and she saved us the biggest, fattest, juiciest cherry of the bunch! We love cherries. I like to gobble mine down and then groom Kenzie, leaving big red lip marks all over her snowy white fur. Mom thinks that is adorable. Mom thinks most things we do are adorable, which, really, they are.

A couple of gimps

That's what Mom says she has. Just because the vet told her I have arthritis, and Kenzie has possible nerve damage. So heartless.

 I have to start taking glucosamine, and I say good luck to Mom with that. She has no idea how she's going to sweet talk me into ingesting anything medicinal.

As for Kenzie, the vet says she probably has residual spinal damage from when she was heartlessly thrown over a fence before she was rescued, and she may continue to have periods of lameness like last night. 

So Mom is worried about us both, although she cracks silly jokes about getting us each matching miniature Hoverrounds. She is relieved that we are both now safely at home, in one piece. 

I was a good boy today and endured the very invasive physical exam like a champ. Kenzie showed her displeasure by peeing all over the floor. We each got a cherry half for our bravery. 

Mysterious malady

Here's the scary story about last night. Kenzie was snoozing away in the bedroom as usual. She woke up and headed for our pen where I was eating dinner, when suddenly her legs seemed to give out on her. She writhed around for a few minutes trying to get her balance, to no avail. Finally she dragged herself by her front paws into the hidey box where she huddled miserablyl, chattering her teeth.

Mom was having fits, panicking, thinking her baby was having a seizure and dying before her eyes! She threw us both into the carrier and drove like a mad woman to the emergency vet, which is a place we've never had to visit before, so she had no idea if the vet was even competent to take care of rabbits. 

By the time we got to the clinic, maybe a half hour after the "attack", Kenzie was hopping around like normal, none the worse for wear. She didn't even seem unduly stressed out. She gobbled down the treat Mom gave her. The vet basically said, she's fine now, might as well take her home. Didn't take any X-rays or run any tests. 

Mom was of course relieved that Kenzie was back to normal, but terrified it will happen again. We have an appointment this afternoon with our regular, wonderful and competent vet, so maybe she'll be able to shed some light on what happened. Have any of you got any ideas what might have happened? 

Home sweet home

What an exciting vacation we had! It started off slowly, with lots of lounging beneath the Pickup Truck Cabana and foraging for dandelions. Mom parked herself by the pond with a good book (at least the part I tasted was good!) and watched the birds and butterflies float by. It was blissful.

Kenzie and I enjoyed having the garage all to ourselves. Grandpa's allergic, you see, so we couldn't go in the house. We didn't mind. The garage is huge, with all sorts of interesting cubbyholes to explore, and a cool cement floor to keep us feeling refreshed in the stifling summer heat. We even had a visit from a pair of curious chipmunks, who slithered inside through the tiny crack on the side of the garage door! They weren't too happy to see us, or Mom, and promptly fled. Mom barricaded the crack so they couldn't come back. She was afraid they would expose us to rabies, or fleas, or exotic chipmunk diseases. Mom tends to be a worry wart.

Did I mention the stifling summer heat? On Wednesday it was 96 in the shade. Grandpa's allergies notwithstanding, Mom couldn't leave us outside to bake. She brought us into the back bedroom and turned on the AC for us. She set us up with litter boxes and burrow boxes and our favorite fleece pad, and we lounged the day away in climate-controlled comfort. We even got to spend the night in there! We pretended we were stranded on a desert island adrift in a sea of molten lava. It was great fun.

The back bedroom has all manner of intriguing cabinets and lots of exposed wood, but wouldn't you know, Mom watched us like a hawk and we didn't get so much as a tiny nibble. Even so, I had a grand time exploring and sliding back and forth on the shiny parquet floor. Kenzie did not care for that floor. She preferred to stay on the area rug where there was traction.

Well, now we are back in our own home, with all of our favorite belongings right where we left them. Mom is already planning our next getaway. She starts school this fall and wants to get another vacation in before classes begin. She misses the pond and the big old swing. I miss the fresh clover and mini roses. Kenzie misses hiding under the truck, just out of Mom's reach at bedtime!

Counting down...

...the days until vacation! Once again, we will be setting out for the wonderland that is Granny and Grandpa's house, for a fun-filled yet relaxing week of blissful inactivity. Kenzie and I will lounge in the Garage beneath the Pickup Truck Cabana, while Mom whiles away the afternoon on the swing by the pond, sipping lemonade and swatting at bees.  Delicious salads of fresh dandelion and clover await us, with a strawberry garnish and maybe even a carrot top or two!

Mom has already started a packing list. She says it would be easier to travel with triplet toddlers than it is to haul all of our bunny stuff back and forth. She says the term "high maintenance" comes to mind. I think that's grossly unfair. Just because I refuse to travel without my burrow box, two kinds of hay, special water crock, hay ball, litterboxes and cuddle blankie...

Mom herself packs light. A pair of old sweat pants and a couple tee shirts, a ratty nightgown and a pair of socks in case it gets chilly at night, and she's set for the week. The most strenuous activity she has planned for herself is scooping out ice cream. Mom is by nature a slothful creature, never more so than when she is camped out in the sunshine fanning herself with a Birds and Blooms magazine. She claims that Kenzie and I are lazy...well, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, let me tell you!

Hoppy happy meal

Mom points out that it's been over a month since my last blog. I can't help it that I am a busy bunny, constantly in demand. I haven't forgotten my adoring public, all five of them. Here's the latest scoop:

Mom finished another assignment, this one about seniors and technology. She had to interview old people about their views toward computers and such. Not as much fun as frat boys, but she got a decent article out of it, meaning we'll be able to buy groceries this week.

Speaking of food, Mom likes to eat, and wants to keep on doing it, so she needs more of an income than the newspaper or her cleaning job can provide. So Mom dragged herself down to the local McDonald's and put in her application. They hired her on the spot, gave her a hideous uniform and told her to show up next Monday morning bright and early.

Mom is not happy about this. She did not expect to reach a certain age and find herself flipping burgers for a living alongside pimply-faced adolescent boys. She tries to look on the bright side. McDonald's provides a generous employee discount. So Mom can stock up on Big Macs and fries, and save a lot of money at the grocery store. Too bad Mom doesn't like Big Macs. She can stand the filet-o-fish, without tartar sauce and cheese. Or the hamburger, with extra onions and no ketchup (and to think Mom calls US finicky eaters...).

So now Mom officially has three jobs, and as you may well imagine, this cuts drastically into our Quality Bunny Time. She promises to spend her every waking non-working moment with us, and we think that's only right. What could possibly be more important than Kenzie's chin scratch or my forehead rub? Mom promises that we'll still have our annual June vacation, just the three of us. We're going to hold her to it.

Boy, oh boys

Mom's latest assignment went off without a hitch. Well, that's not entirely true. She had to interview a bunch of frat boys, remember? First the batteries in her tape recorder died, then her pen froze (it was COLD) and she had to keep borrowing lighters to heat it so she could take notes. Lucky for her there were a lot of smokers in the area.

The frat boys were all quite friendly and helpful, and Mom got some great material. But she didn't remember the cardinal rule, which is "go before you go". She had to use the bathroom at the frat house. Mom's skin is still crawling. 30 guys and one toilet? You can imagine the carnage. She didn't remember the second rule either, which is "pack your paper". There wasn't a shred of toilet tissue to be found. Live and learn, the hard way.

Her next job also involves college students, but these ones will be cleaner (she hopes) and it will be much warmer (she hopes) and she will come prepared (still hoping). There's a big charity walk-a-thon on Sunday and Mom has to explore the scene and take pictures. It comforts her to know that we'll be snug and safe at home, waiting eagerly for her return, regardless of how many misadventures she has along the way.