Week 12: Famous Last Word - House Rabbit Primer 4/4

(Week 9: The Basics, I)

(Week 10: The Basics, II)

(Week 11: The Hazards)

A Primer to the Domestic House Rabbit: My Best Success Story and the Whole Point of Doing a Four Week Long Rabbit Primer

1. Cadbury, the Church Rabbit
2. What has been done: the "Make Mine Chocolate" campaign and the house rabbit memes
3. What needs to be done: education, education, education

Cadbury, the Church Rabbit

Early 2001.  While I was living down in Jacksonville, Florida, I remember my sister and I playing outside of church when we saw a rabbit down the street.  We told our mom about it and she passed it off as just us mistaking a wild rabbit for a domestic one.

Sure enough though, next week, our pastor came up to my mom and said, "There's a rabbit at the front of the church.  If we catch him, will you take him?"

He knew that we already had rabbits and that we would take care of him.  My mom agreed and not five minutes later, over half the congregation was outside trying to herd this one rabbit towards the corner of the fence.

There's something to be said about watching a grown man try to reach for a rabbit and then quickly back off when that rabbit charges back.

You see, we weren't sure how long Cadbury was out running around that neighborhood (which was always filled with stray dogs and cats, so it's amazing he hadn't been killed).  What we were sure of was that he was out there long enough for him to get mean.

This rabbit would get spittin' mad just by you walking by his cage; we used to call him Caddy Baddy.  Even after his neuter, he was still aggressive.

I've always worked well with the hard case rabbits - and that all started here.  I found that if I just sat with him, he would calm down (I didn't know about gazing - a rabbit's way of bonding, where they just sit and look at each other (or at you) - at the time; frankly, I was sort of just winging it).

I didn't try to hold him and kiss him, I simply sat there.  Occasionally, I would reach over and scratch his head  - carefully (I let him see my hand, but I didn't put it near his mouth).  When rabbits try to bite something coming in from above, they have to tip their heads back, which can be awkward for them, so they also try to circle around.  So the goal was to start scratching his forehead before he started in on circling.

Caddy, for all his fury, couldn't fight against a good head scratch.

But I didn't push it.  This is important.  You can't push yourself on a rabbit.  This is true for all critters with a bad past - you have to take things at their pace, not yours.  Rushing through a healing process can be just as damaging.

Anyway, after five/six seconds head of scratches, then I'd lean back and go back to my book or drawing or whatever.  And he'd go back to glaring or turning away from me - giving me the butt - as he pointedly groomed himself and ignored my presence.

I repeated these sessions about two or three times a day, every day.

It wasn't long before he stopped trying to bite my hand, and not much longer after that he stopped growling at everyone who walked by.  His ears didn't go flat anymore when he saw me coming to feed him (I was the only one at this point who could reach into his cage to grab his food bowl).

He still had moments where he would revert back to his old self, but as weeks turned to months and our sessions continued - those moments became fewer and farther between.

And as the months turned to years, Caddy and I became inseparable.  We would take naps together and spent countless afternoons watching TV together as we shared an apple or banana or carrot.  It even got to the point where I could use him as a pillow!

Caddy passed away in my arms in 2006.  He was one of the best rabbits I've ever had the pleasure of living with.

Cadbury, 2005

What has been done: the "Make Mine Chocolate" campaign and the house rabbit memes

The MMC campaign began in 2002 at a Columbus, Ohio rabbit shelter.  It partners with various organizations to spread awareness about the plight of Easter rabbits.

Their Facebook page offers many different types of promotional material that can be printed off and distributed within businesses (or anywhere, really).

One of the many types of posters available for download

I would be remiss if I didn't mention Sadie Lovington Nibblesworth's Home for Wayward Rabbits and Tea Parlor who are the creators of these fabulous memes:

What needs to be done: education, education, education

So, what is the point of all of this?  It's simple: education! Spreading the word!

A few years back, Subaru released a commercial that showed a woman and young child releasing a domestic rabbit into the woods where it was "adopted" by a wild rabbit.  The ad was almost immediately pulled after the backlash by bunny activists and you can't even find it online.

The commercial helped to perpetuate the myth that domestic rabbits are fully capable of taking care of themselves in "the wild."  I know several rabbits who would disagree with this...

Stella disagrees with certain people's life choices.

Sidebar:

It's not just the domestic house rabbit that is misunderstood - wild rabbits are too.  If you see a nest of baby wild rabbits - leave it alone! 

Also be aware that it is illegal in the state of Oklahoma to have a wild rabbit in your possession.  If you find one that is injured, you need to immediately take it to Wildcare.  I know there are a lot of well-intentioned people out there, but a lot of the times they do more harm than good.

Leave the babies alone.

One of my main goals for this primer - is that, even if you only glance at it, that you retain something that can influence you to speak up if you hear someone talk about getting a rabbit. Whether it's one of those funny memes or the bloody picture of a torn open hand.

And as always, remember: adopt, don't shop.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this!

Bye!

Tech Tip: Weather Widget

For this week's tech tip, I added the weather widget.  I noticed it on a few other blogs, so I thought I could be like the other cool kids and add one to mine, too!

My favorite weather is during summer - I love being out at the lake with an ice cold beer whenever it's 80-plus degrees and the sun's shining and there ain't a single cloud in the sky.  My least favorite weather is anything below 70 - that's just horrid!

My friend and I down at Arbuckle Lake earlier this year after all of that crazy
rain - a lot of the picnic tables were flooded.  It was great!

Extra Reading Diary: Eskimo Folk Tales

This is my extra reading diary.  It’s from the Eskimo Folk Tales unit.

A high-content wolfdog.

The Giant Dog

I loved this story for a couple of reasons.

The first reason – the giant dog reminds me of White Fang, the titular character in the book by Jack London.  While White Fang was the biggest dog (well, wolfdog hybrid), he was definitely the fiercest.  Part of this was due to his time in a dog fighting ring when he was owned by a man named Beauty Smith. 

The scene where Giant Dog kills three dogs reminds me of the scene in White Fang where, after being rescued from Beauty by Weedon Scott and White Fang’s hanging out with Weedon back down in Cali, White Fang is set upon by a pack of town dogs.  White Fang knew that Weedon didn’t want him fighting other dogs, so he just tried to outrun them; the town dogs would nip and bite at him as he followed Weedon’s carriage.

Well, one day, Weedon stops the carriage after hearing some guys at the saloon encouraging the dogs to attack White Fang.  Weedon climbs out of the carriage and tells White Fang to “eat ‘em up.”   

White Fang doesn’t have to be told twice.

He kills two dogs in quick succession (silently, without growling or snarling) and chases a third one into a field and kills it there.

The second reason I love this story is the last line: “And that is all I know about the Giant Dog.”  My last folklore class we talked about how Native American stories were just being voice recorded over at Sam Noble – when someone noticed that they were missing out on a speaker’s hand gestures. 

The hand gestures were a version of Plains sign language – which was used when different tribes that didn’t share a language encountered each other on, well, the Plains.  So now, both audio and visual taping is used when Natives come in to share stories.

I watched and listened a lot of the stories ended like this – with “this is all I know” or “and that is the end.”

Storytelling for Week 12: Changeling Rookies

Author's Note

Yay for more weird magical stuff happening in sports!

This is a retelling of "Brewery of Eggshells" in the Celtic Fairy Tails unit.  And it's yet another storytelling with a hockey twist, this time featuring rookie changelings.  I'm going to bring back characters from Week 6's storytelling; most notably Sasha.  If you don't feel like clicking on the link, all you really need to know is that Sasha is the captain (but not real life captain) of the Wilkes-Barre Penguins (the AHL affiliate of the Pittsburgh Penguins).

Prior to the events in "The Boy in the Hockey Helmet."  So, if you're in a shippy mood, you can read this as pre-slash.  (If you don't know what this means, nevermind.)

This story has multiple POVs and multiple timelines which will both be divided by "-x-"; "-" will indicate a change in scenery/setting but still within the established POV/timeline.  Cast of characters at the bottom.

Fun Facts (because that sounds better than Terminology):

1. Sophomore Year: a player who is in their second year in a league; still a rookie
2. Sasha is the Russian diminutive for Alexander; Zhenya is the diminutive of Evgeni which is in turn the Russian equivalent of Eugene; Seryozha is the diminutive for Sergei.  Links will take you to the pronunciations (Sasha is pronounced just like it's written).
3. The Superleague is the prior incarnation of the KHL (Kontinental Hockey League, formed in 2006) which is made up of various European leagues, most notably filled with Russians, Finns, and Swedes who couldn't make it in the NHL; along those same lines, not as prestigious as the NHL.  A lot of KHL players are paid higher salaries than NHLers, though they may not be as highly skilled - a lot of times, it comes down to patriotism.  Or blackmail. Just ask Evgeni Malkin.
4. Prior to the events in "The Boy in the Hockey Helmet."  So, if you're in a shippy mood, you can read this as pre-slash.  (If you don't know what this means, ignore it and don't ask questions.)
5. This is Mike Johnston - he's the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins.  And this is Jim Rutherford, the GM.
6. When someone in hockey has "soft hands" it means they're great at controlling the puck - a useful thing in a game of inches and bounces.

"Sasha" - Alexander Mogilny

-z-

Once, back when Sasha was still young, still only having just broken into the Superleague, he had watched his captain, Seryozha, sputter and curse low under his breath, glaring at a rookie, Zhenya, next to Sasha’s stall.

It had taken only a few minutes into practice before Sasha had seen the changes in Zhenya that his captain had seen.

But Sasha didn’t ask questions, he just kept his head down – keeping one eye on Zhenya and the other on Seryozha.

-x-

Little Nicky is wonderful in practice until he isn’t.  Until he’s fumbling around, talking in a language no one on the team has ever heard – effectively ruling out Russian, Czech, German, Swedish, and Canadian French – muttering as he pulls his gear on.

“What do you think?” Archie asks, leaning deep into his stall, projecting as much nonchalance as he was able to.

“I don’t know,” Sasha answers truthfully, pretending – just as Archie was – that he wasn’t as bothered by the goings on as he actually was.  It’s hockey, he tries to tell himself at first, magical shit happens all the time.

-x-

It had started off with a simple voice change – Zhenya’s voice was always light, bordering on squeaky.  So when it suddenly deepened, sounding like a he’d spent the night screaming, Sasha had just assumed that puberty had finally settled in (Zhenya had been all of 17 when he’d been swallowed into the Superleague, a fast skater with soft hands and a hard shot wasn't about to be allowed to slip off to North America).

On the ice, Sasha watched as Seryozha circled Zhenya occasionally, his sharp eyes that saw every open (or about to open) passing lane during a game turned on Zhenya as if he were a particularly tough defenseman to figure out.

Sometimes Zhenya ignored him; sometimes Zhenya snarled out a curse that was quickly followed by a rough shove.  Sasha tried once to step between them, but Seryozha had carefully corralled him away.

-x-

Despite what Sasha often tells him, Nicky is not little.  He’s long and lanky, all stringy muscle that he probably won’t grow into.

So when he takes to looming over Sasha, Sasha finds it harder to pretend that nothing’s wrong.

-

“What is it, little Nicky?” Sasha asks.

Not-Nicky doesn’t answer, just stares at him with blank eyes that only occasionally flicker with something like rage.  Sasha tries to control the feeling of indignation welling in his chest – this creature had no business messing with his teammates, much less one of his favorite rookies.

“I know what you are,” he says.

“I doubt it,” Not-Nicky says, then slowly and deliberately, he moves away.

A breath Sasha hadn’t realized he’d been holding whooshes out of him, leaving him to slump against the wall of his stall.  He waits until the rest of the locker room is empty before he pulls out his cell phone – dialing a number he hasn’t called in a long time.

-x-

Whatever happened between them happened off-ice and away from the arena.  All Sasha knew was that Zhenya’s deep voice was high again, that his quick temper had been soothed.

Zhenya was also loathe to wander too far from Seryozha except during a game, the coaches figuring out they had to physically shove Zhenya into position during practice – Seryozha chuckling all the while.

-x-

Sasha hangs up with a promise to call Seryozha once it was over (and more often than once a month).  He leans forward, puts his head in his hands, and thinks about what he has to do.

-

It’s easier than he’d thought it’d be to get Not-Nicky willingly into his truck.  He sits quiet in the passenger seat, doesn’t even look at Sasha as Sasha drives.

It takes two hours to get to Pennsylvania’s Grand Canyon.

Pine Creek Gorge, a.k.a. The Pennsylvania Grand Canyon, in autumn

“Do you know why we’re here?” Sasha asks, walking Not-Nicky to the edge and praying that security wouldn’t find them until this was over.

“You can’t kill me,” Not-Nicky says.

“No,” Sasha whispers – but then his hand lashes out, grabs Nicky by the collar and swings him around so that Not-Nicky’s feet were slipping at the edge.  “But I can make it look close.”

His words are chased away by a shriek on a sudden gust of wind.

“Don’t you hurt that boy,” screams an old woman – her face was twisted, her fingers gnarled as she scrambled up the steep sides of the gorge.

“Give me back my boy,” Sasha yells, pushing Not-Nicky still further backwards – the changeling’s arms windmilling as he tries to keep his balance.

“He’s right behind you,” the old woman screams again as she reaches them – taking Not-Nicky into her arms and pressing him against her chest, cooing softly.

Sasha whirls around – sees his Nicky standing there, his eyes wide and his face pale.

“God,” Sasha whispers, but then he’s rushing forward and wrapping Nicky into a hug.  And Nicky hugs him back just as tightly.

-z-

End.

-z-

"Nicky" and "Not-Nicky" - Marc-Andre Fleury

"Seryozha" - Sergei Federov

"Zhenya" - Evgeni Malkin

Story source: Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892).

Reading Diary B: Celtic Fairy Tales

I really enjoyed Brewery of Eggshells because changelings are something that has always fascinated me.

Matter of fact – the show of the gods: Supernatural – did an episode about changelings titled The Kids Are Alright.  However, there were no eggshells involved – instead they described the changeling as feeding off of the mother’s synovial fluids.

(Sidebar: synovial fluids are just joint fluids.)

In Supernatural, the changeling’s true form is reflected in a mirror – showing off their large, mouths filled with multiple circular rows and of teeth.  Their faces also appear stretched and their eyes seem to disappear completely.

They are created by a mother changeling, who replaces the human children with her own so that her children can feed off the human mothers.

 

Changeling

But, in folklore the changelings are children of fairies, trolls, elves, or – as seen in the story – goblins who are left with human parents.  Not totally unlike cuckoo birds – who lay eggs in the nests of other birds (and those birds actually raise the cuckoo chick which is just crazy).

While the woman was able to determine if the children were changelings by boiling some potage inside an egg, Supernatural has Sam and Dean, the two main characters who are brothers, set the changeling mother on fire.  Because, as the old internet adage goes – fire is the best way to unwant something.

 

Demotivational Posters, ftw.

After the woman in the tale threw the children into the river (and Sam and Dean kill the changeling mother – thus killing the changeling children) the human children returned to their mother.

Reading Dairy A: Celtic Fairy Tales

I’m enjoying the first half of the Celtic fairy tales unit, but that last story, Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree, is an absolute delight!  But two of the big reasons: the second wife and the ending.

I love the there wasn’t any jealousy between the Gold-Tree and the second wife (who I’m just going to refer to her here on out as SW).  I feel like in a lot of other stories, there would have been a lot of fighting and maybe SW would have tried to trick Gold-Tree into leaving the Prince.  But the Irish are too chill to be playing games like that.

And the Prince is, of course, just jumps on the chance to have two wives, bless his heart.  From the little bit here, though, it seems like he genuinely loves them both. 

I absolutely loved SW’s big moment – when Silver-Tree shows up to kill her daughter and SW steps in and tricks her into drinking the poison.

That’s just so beautiful to me.

The second thing I love a lot about this story is the way it ended: “I left them there.”  One of favorite books of all time, Hannibal by Thomas Harris, ends about exactly like that.

We’ll withdraw now, while they are dancing on the terrace—the wise Barney has already left town and we must follow his example.  For either of them to discover us would be fatal.

We can only learn so much and live.

In the novel, Clarice and Hannibal run away to Buenos Aires.  Barney, the orderly who took care of Hannibal during his time in a mental facility for the criminally insane, sees them only from afar before he quickly gets away.  Not that Hannibal was going to kill him, Barney had been polite and courteous to him, never making things harder than they had to be, but Barney hadn’t wanted to risk anything.

While I always enjoy the hard-won defeat of a villain, sometimes I find myself rooting for the villain.  And when they get the win, I think it’s pretty great.

After the new Hannibal show started airing on NBC a few years back, I remember reading this Tumblr post.  It’s still pretty relevant and makes me chuckle every time I think about it!

Bless fandom.