So, Jacky, my English Lop, has been underweight since we rescued him a year ago. It seemed like no matter how much we fed him, he never put on weight. In the morning, each of the rabbits get bananas, one cup of pellets with a scoop of dry oatmeal; in the evening they get greens - cilantro, parsley, red-headed lettuce, green lettuce, and strawberry tops (if they're in season); and all day they have unlimited access to timothy hay; they also get raw pumpkin seeds once a week.
So all of this, and Jacky's never put on weight. We thought it was just because he was an older rabbit (we have no idea how old he is since he was found wandering a neighborhood) since his head is so big and blocky - which is typical of mature and older male rabbits, but a rabbit-savvy friend of ours said it was possible he wouldn't put on weight until he was neutered.
The only reason we weren't able to get Jacky neutered sooner was because we had another rabbit, Sammy, who was older, come down with cancer. He made it through the surgery to remove the cancer, but the vet said that if she missed even a little bit of it - it would come back. Unfortunately, the cancer did come back and he passed away. We believe he was around 9 (Sammy was also a rescue and we weren't sure how old he was when we got him) and he had been with me for 8 years.
So we were finally able to set up an appointment for his surgery this past August. And now, two months later, Jack has finally started to put more weight on. Going into surgery, Jack weighed 10.2 pounds, and he's now at 11.6. That pound may not seem like a lot, but it is on a rabbit!
Jack Bunny, personal photo
But Jack isn't the only one reaching important milestones. Khan and Sid both had their first ventures on a harness. Khan was only a little wary of the traffic (I live on a busy corner), but he wasn't bothered much. Sidney, who was found by the railroad tracks, didn't even blink at the three motorcycles that went by. They were both just happy to be allowed to dig wherever they wanted and for the time to stretch their legs.
Khan Noonien Singh, personal photo
Sidney Crosbun, personal photo
Because they are both still so young (Sid's probably about 7 months, and Khan is about 6 months), they have a lot of energy. Once the weather cools down (and stays cooled down), they'll be getting outside just about every day. I can't wait to see how they deal with snow!
For this extra reading diary, I’m looking at the Nigerian
unit’s “Why the Bat Flies by Night” because it was my favorite story. Because Batman.
There’s a sort of parallel that can be drawn here between Bruce
Wayne (Batman) as the bat of the story, and Jason Todd, as the bush rat. For those not familiar with Jason Todd: he
was the second Robin after Dick Grayson moves on to become Nightwing,
relocating to Blüdhaven, a city close to Gotham.
“Why the Bat Flies by Night” describes how the bat, jealous
of the bush rat, tricks him into boiling himself alive. The bush rat was always complimenting bat’s
super delicious stew and bat would always reply with: “I always boil myself in
the water, and my flesh is so sweet that the soup is good.” The bat even goes on to “demonstrate” just
how he does this – it’s all a trick, just sleight of hand.
But the bush rat believes it. And, when he gets home and tries it out
himself – the bush rat dies after jumping into a pot of boiling water. After the bush rat’s wife reports to the king,
the king issues a warrant for the bat’s arrest.
To avoid being caught, the bat hides himself by day… and flies only by
night.
Basically, this story breaks down into three parts: 1) the
Bat realizing his jealousy, 2) acting on that jealousy, and 3) the
consequences. Remember these for later.
Switching back to Bruce Wayne and Jason Todd.*
Bruce first meets a young Jason when Jason is trying to steal
the rims off of the Batmobile. Now, at
this point in his career, Batman is not a young man anymore – he’s envious of
Jason’s youth. But that’s all he’s
jealous of. Among other things, Jason is
angry. His tragic past is constantly on his mind and
it’s difficult for him to find any peace – often feeling a compulsory need to
be training or to be out patrolling Gotham.
Much like how Bruce had been in his younger days.
So Bruce takes Jason’s anger and points it at a target: the criminals
of Gotham. And like how war dogs of old
were simply pointed at the enemy when they were unleashed, Jason went where he
was pointed. But there were risks…
Jason Todd was brutally murdered by the Joker, Batman’s archnemesis
(and one of the few supervillains who has remained consistently terrifying
throughout each of his incarnations).
Now, calling back to the three parts of “Why the Bat Flies
by Night.”
Number one: the bat realizing his jealousy. Batman finds Jason and recognizes almost
immediately the talent, the anger, and the youth
that Jason has.
Number two: acting on that jealousy. While Bruce can’t trick Jason into killing
himself like what happened in the story, he instead adopts Jason. He trains Jason and directs Jason’s anger
away from any self-destructing tendencies and away from innocent people, and
towards the criminal populace of Gotham City.
Number three: the consequences. Jason Todd dies after being beaten bloody by
the Joker with a tire iron. But it doesn’t
end there (because comic books) and he’s resurrected in a Lazarus Pit –
effectively restoring him to life. However,
he doesn’t come back whole – he comes back worse. He comes back and, after learning that Batman
didn’t seek retribution against the Joker for his death, takes on the mantle of
the Red Hood.
Jensen Ackles portrayed Jason Todd/Red Hood in the animated film "Under the Red Hood" [x]
*For the purposes of this piece, I’m only going to talk
about post-Crisis Jason Todd. I’m also grossly generalizing a lot of what
happened in the comics. To my fellow
comic nerds who find their way here: I’m so sorry. As it is, I’m way over word count.
Author's Note
Hey, so I did my storytelling based on two animals from the Nigeria Unit: Dog and Leopard. It was mostly inspired by "Why Dead People Are Buried" where the Creator sends Dog to tell people that, because it saddens Him whenever humans die, that if they sprinkle wood ashes on their dead loved ones, they will live again. Dog gets distracted and fails to deliver the message.
I love to play with different storytelling styles, so this story is told in a non-linear narrative. There are two timelines that are being told at the same time here, and each "-x-" marks the switch between the timelines; a "-" is a scene break within the same time period.
I also changed the setting: modern times and Dog and Leopard are now playing hockey. I based them off of Seth Jones, an American defenseman for the Nashville Predators, and Evander Kane, a Canadian winger for the Winnipeg Jets.
Dog and Leopard were the last remnants of the Creator’s First Spirits,
His first Messengers; they had had been created long before the humans in the luscious forests
of Nigeria. The other First Spirits had died –
casualties of wars fought amongst themselves, and of the first waves of
European armies.
The Creator had created other spirits to replace His lost ones,
but His sadness in their had been imbued in them and they were weaker than
their predecessors. Dog and Leopard,
frustrated by this weakness, would leave Nigeria for long periods of time – venturing to surrounding countries before leaving Africa.
-x-
“Hey,” Leopard starts, skating up to Dog, “remember that
time you forgot to tell everyone that the Creator would bring their loved ones
back?”
"Make one mistake," Dog grumbles to himself, rolling his eyes before he turns and snarls at Leopard. Leopard
only ever brought up what happened hundreds of years ago when he knew that his
team was going to lose.
(Which is exactly what happens – the Predators win the game
easily and the Jets are chased off the ice of the booing of their home crowd.)
-x-
Europe held nothing but bitter memories for them. So they traveled east – to Russia, and then to China and
then down to Thailand and Vietnam. Then they
headed still further east, eventually finding themselves in California, which
was caught in the chaos of the gold rush.
-x-
After the game, Dog is walking out of the locker room when he
sees Leopard standing there, waiting for him.
“What do you want?” Dog asks with an exasperated sigh.
“Come on, old friend,” Leopard says, pushing away from the wall he
had been leaning against and jerking his head towards the entrance, “let me
show you around town. It’s been ages since we’ve had a chance to catch
up.”
“Everything okay out here?” asks Shea Weber, the captain of
Dog’s team, as he narrows his eyes at Leopard.
Shea doesn’t know what they are, doesn’t know their long
history of fighting to outdo each other; he doesn’t know how, despite their
differences, they could never really venture too far from each other.
“Fine,” Dog says, looking from
Leopard to Shea, “I’ll meet you guys
back at the hotel.”
Shea’s lips purse, but he doesn’t say anything else, just
nods and hesitantly walks away.
-x-
But California during the 1840s and 50s wasn’t the safest
place for two young (or least, young looking) black men. And Dog and Leopard soon learned that it was safest in northern
California, to avoid the southern areas where people from the Deep South states
had moved to mine for gold.
So they moved north – and then kept going until they found
themselves in Canada.
-x-
“How are you liking Winnipeg?” Dog asks, taking a sip of
beer.
“Cold,” Leopard answers with a huff of laughter, “but nothing I can't handle. When
the team isn’t losing and the fans like us, I enjoy it here.”
Dog smiles and nods. “I
feel the same about Nashville. And it's warmer, which is always a plus.”
A moment of quiet passes between them – it’s a hesitant
quiet. As if there was a question that
they both felt needed to be asked; but neither of them can quite bring themselves to
ask it.
-x-
In Canada, they lope through the expansive forests and flat,
seemingly unending prairie, allowing the decades to slowly pass them by, avoiding the humans when they can. That all changes when they stumble across a game of pond hockey and fall
in love with the sport.
-
Once the sounds of war have faded from the United States,
Dog finds himself compelled to travel south once again. Leopard stays behind in Canada, no matter how much Dog tries to persuade him.
-
“I’m thinking of trying out for a team,” Dog tells Leopard in a
letter. There are better ways of communication these days, but the feeling of sitting down and putting his thoughts to paper – with the sweet smell of ink in the air – is something that Dog never tires of.
“Tell me which one it is,” Leopards sends back, “and I’ll
make sure to be on another.”
-x-
“Do you miss home?” Dog asks
Leopard, just before he’s about to climb out of Leopard’s car to go into the
hotel.
“All the time,” Leopard answers
without hesitation. He tells Dog that he
still dreams of the old days, when all the First Spirits squabbled over things
that seem so petty now, when humans were only just discovering fire and just
learning how to build huts.
“Me, too,” Dog says, looking down
at his hands. “This summer, after this
season, I think it’ll be time to go back.”
“Yeah,” Leopard says, shoving at
Dog’s shoulder, “I think it’ll do us some good.”
-z-
End.
-z-
P.S. - as far as I know, the Jets have never booed their own team. However, it happened to the Oilers last season. It was very sad.
P.P.S. - During the Civil War, northern California was pro-Union, while southern California contained a lot of transplants from Confederate states and were loudly advocating secession from the Union. [source]
The second half of this unit was a bit more fun
because it showcased a few instances where Brer Rabbit isn’t always at the top
of his game. In the story “Old Mr.Rabbit, He’s a Good Fisherman,” when he gets stuck in the well, is pretty
funny. It reminds me of the time that Ty
got stuck in the clothes hamper.
Ty-ty got stuck. [personal photo]
“A Story about the Little Rabbits” reminds me about the
general chaos that usually surrounds young bunnies. In the story, the young rabbits are scooped
up by Mr. Fox who makes them perform various impossible tasks so that if they fail,
he has an excuse to eat them (a previous story had shown Brer Rabbit killing
and essentially torturing Mr. Wolf for trying to eat Brer Rabbit’s children). Real life young rabbits, though, will get
into this kind of trouble and the kind of tasks Mr. Fox has them preform aren’t
that much different than the ones they do all on their own.
They’re constantly getting out of their play pens to chew on
everything (breaking the stick up for Mr. Fox in the story), purposefully
tipping over water and food bowls (collecting water for Mr. Fox), and if
something is in their way they move it or tear it up (moving the wood for Mr.
Fox).
Ty-ty attempting to decimate the cork population. The lesson: no matter how big the rabbit, if they want to get at something - they WILL.
Many savvy rabbit people will find these antics annoyingly
endearing. However, many people do not
and young rabbits are quickly gotten rid of by their new owners – who may have
purchased them on a whim or for their child for Easter.
Khan and Sid were both approximately 4-5 months old when
they were abandoned. Ty-ty was only a
little older - probably around 6 months old. Young buns can be separated from their mothers at 8 weeks and
those bound for the pet trade are usually shipped off at this point. So, between the ages of 8 weeks to 4/5/6 months, Khan, Sid, and Ty had gone through significant upheaval in their lives.
Sidney, the day we brought him home. A friend had called us and said she spotted him by the railroad tracks - he was nothing but fluff, dirt, and bones.
Sidney, a month later, now clean and at a good weight.
Usually, and this is from my own observation with the rabbits I take in and the rabbits surrendered to Heartland, it seems like it only takes two or three months for owners to grow tired of a young rabbit's destructive behavior, the constant monitoring
they require, and cleaning out a cage. Rabbits
also start entering sexual maturity around four months old, and males can get
very aggressive and will even spray urine to mark their territory. Females entering maturity can become very
territorial and will guard their area aggressively.
This is why neutering and spaying rabbits is so important. Once the surgery is over, it takes around 40 days for hormones to level out. As a result of the surgery, rabbits will live much longer and happier lives.
One of the first books I owned was a Brer Rabbit book.
I vaguely remember the story about Brer Rabbit telling Brer Fox not to
throw him into the briar patch, but I can't remember if it was a tar baby that
Brer Rabbit had gotten stuck to or if it was something else.
I found reading the dialect of this unit difficult, so I listened to the
audio books and it was much easier. The
stories are much more enjoyable when you can understand what is happening.
I think I love Brer Rabbit because I see a lot of that
mischievousness and cunning in my own rabbits.
And I plan on shamelessly using this unit to show off more pictures of my rabbits.
When Ty-ty was still pretty young, he realized that he can
jump over just about everything. He had
the run of the kitchen and the laundry room, which are attached, and we had to
essentially blockade him inside the kitchen. At
one point we had wired together two baby gates so that they were stacked on top
of each other and he still managed to
jump over them. We finally got a break
when he started growing into his body and gaining his adult weight.
Khan on his harness for the first time just this past Saturday. [personal photo]
We let Khan out of his cage – a large dog crate with a
bedding box and a cardboard “fort” he can sleep in – every day and he always
makes it a point to climb to the highest points in the living room (so the back
of the couch and a stool near the gate that separate the dining room and living
room) and he “periscopes” – he stands on his hind legs and looks around.
Stella periscoping - she's trying to judge whether or not jumping the gate will be worth the effort. [personal photo]
