The Parker Report - June 5, 2015 - 3rd Installment

June 5, 2015 - Here's the 3rd Installment of The Parker Report and what Parker's been up to this week...

He's been a busy boy.  Earlier in the week I gave him a small empty oatmeal container to play with. He had fun chewing it and tossing it around.  The funniest thing to watch was when he tried to hop and carry it in his mouth at the same time.  It was a little too long and he kept tripping on it.  He finally gave up trying to carry it across the room.

As you most likely know, this week was also a full moon.  This made Parker a bit hyper at bedtime and two nights in a row he was fighting with the side of his X-pen, biting the sides and moving it.  Brad went downstairs and let him out to run off some steam.  

The third night was kind of warm in the house so we opened the windows after dinner to get a cross breeze going through the bottom floor.  I think this kind of pepped up Parker so he was more active while we were still up.  I think he went up and down the stairs at least eight times.  He likes to go up now and explore the upstairs hallway.  We close the doors to the bedrooms and office so he can't go in there.  Sometimes he even lays down to take a nap in the upstairs hallway.  I think he likes it because it's quiet and a little darker.  Anyway, this extra activity and fresh air was enough to tire him out so he went to sleep without a problem that night.  (I always sleep better after going to the beach for the day with all the fresh air so it's probably the same thing.)

Last night was a different story however...

We went to bed about 10:00 after getting Parker to go to his pen.  (We try to get him to go in on his own without picking him up, so we don't have to have a fight or chase.  Then if he goes in nicely, we put a very tiny bit of alfalfa in his bowl as a "thank you" treat.)  He went in there this time without too much trouble, but then (shortly after Brad was already asleep) I heard the banging around downstairs again.  This time I went down since Brad's been doing it and I know he needs the rest for work.  Parker was frantically chomping at the X-pen sides and cardboard that Brad had against the side (to try to keep him from chewing on the metal.)  I was frustrated because you can't stop a bunny when he's like that, so I just let him out in hopes that he would do a speed run and run off his excess energy.  He went out, but only hopped around the living room and occasionally laid down on the floor to relax.  This went on for hours.  He wasn't chewing on the baseboard or furniture at this point and just seemed to want to be out of his pen so I figured as long as he was being good I could lay down on the futon and get some rest.  I started getting uncomfortable on the futon because it's not very cushy so I went into the family room and laid on the sofa.  At 3:00 am I gave up and decided to go upstairs to my own bed to try to get some sleep.  I put the baby gate in front of our bedroom door so he couldn't come in but we would be able to hear him if he got into mischief.  (We have an airbed and don't want him to chew on the air tubes connected to the motor under the bed.)  I figured I'd just take my chances on him taking some nibbles on things downstairs because right now he was sleeping.  I woke up at 6:00 am and went down to feed him and he was just sitting on the mat next to the X-pen.  Since I was still dead-tired I gave him his breakfast and went back upstairs and got back into bed.  Brad got up a while later and he said when he came out of the bedroom Parker was waiting in the upstairs hallway outside of our room.  He didn't find any chew damage so we got lucky.  I'm hoping he get's better with going to bed at night because today I'm suffering from extreme sleep deprivation and I had to go run a couple of errands.  Not good when you have to drive.  We got so spoiled with Harley (once we figured out that he would sleep in this one spot he chose)  because he would just put himself to sleep in his spot around 10 pm each night and the only thing he ever chewed on was the charging cord for Brad's laptop computers.  (That was Brad's own fault for leaving them dangling.)

Parker started a new thing with Brad this morning.  He said he was laying on the floor playing "kisses & nuzzles" with Parker and when he turned over on his stomach, Parker hopped on his back, playing "Hop on Pop".  I saw him do it the second time and got out the camera a second too late so I didn't get a picture.