The Parker Report - September 5, 2015 - 11th Installment

This is the Parker Report for the week ending September 5, 2015

We just returned from taking Parker on an outing to Petsmart in Pittsburg to visit with the ladies and bunnies from the Contra Costa Rabbit Rescue.  The first Saturday of each month they go there for adoption day and public education about house rabbits from 11:00 am to 3:00 pm.  Parker was in desperate need of a pedicure and they were just the people to do it for us since Parker is very squirmy with us and we can't seem to hold him for very long before he slips loose from our grasp.  Luckily, Amber was successful in neatening up his sharp little claws.  He also got to meet a female Himalayan mix rabbit that had different markings.  Instead of a dark nose like Parker's, she had a white nose and grey markings on the front of her face around the bottom of her eyes.  Since it's been very warm lately and Himalayans dark markings turn lighter in the heat and then dark in the cold weather, both of them have white ears now.  Parker usually has grey markings across the base of his ears, but we just noticed this week that even they're almost faded out.  The girl bunny sat outside the X-pen while Parker sniffed her from inside the pen.  They were both nice to each other. 

Unfortunately, the female wasn't spayed before they got her and there were thoughts that she may already be expecting babies.  That would be a bad surprise.  The Antioch shelter also sent over a mother rabbit with two of her babies that were about five weeks old.  They were tiny, maybe about five inches long.  Too young to be separated from their mother and the shelter should have known better than to think they could be adopted out at such a young age.  Brad and I held them.  At first Brad had both of them on his lap and then DeAnna handed me one of them.  I was very nervous since I had never held anything so tiny before and rabbits are pretty fragile anyway.  I don't know if it they were male or female.  The one I was holding explored my lap for a bit and then laid its head on my wrist and went to sleep for a bit before I sent him back to be with his mother.  It was a precious site.

The other reason we took Parker on an outing was to tire him out so he'll hopefully sleep tonight.  Last night (Friday) was terrible.  We went to bed around 10:00 pm and Brad had already fallen asleep before me as usual, and just as I was starting to relax, I heard that old familiar sound..."Chomp, chomp, chomp"...the sound of little teeth gnawing on baseboard.

So I got out of bed, threw on my shorts and walked out to the upstairs hallway to look over the ledge down into the living room.  Of course, he heard me and stopped what he was doing and just sat still next to the wall by the front door acting like he didn't do anything bad.  At that point, I walked downstairs and followed him over to the corner of the living room where he proceeded to munch on the baseboard there.  Each time I walked toward him to stop him, he would shake his head and ears back and forth (I think that's his bunny version of laughing at me) and run away from me.  It got to be a game for him because he knows he's quicker and me and I can't catch him so he thinks it's fun to taunt me like that.  After a few minutes of "chase the bunny" I guess he ran off enough energy to go to sleep and he went and stretched out on the tile floor between the bar stools by the entryway and finally relaxed.  

I went upstairs to get some sleep only to be awaken again around 5:40 am.  He was at it again...munch munch on the baseboard of the living room side wall this time.  I grabbed the throw blanket from the family room and laid down on the futon in the living room to babysit him again.  I closed my eyes for a minute and lost track of him.  Then I heard "scratch, scratch, scratch" coming from the family room.  I walked in there just in time to catch him taking off running from the top of the fireplace hearth (because he knows he's not supposed to be up there).  He had been scratching at the packing blanket we still had there to keep him away from the areas where we had to peel off the paint the week before when he was trying to chew it.  

It was close enough to 6:00 am (his usual feeding time), so I just went into the kitchen and got out his kibble and greens and he came running in to eat.  Usually after he eats he lays down for awhile.  Peace at last.  Brad got up a while later and I managed to go back to sleep.  I actually got into a REM cycle because I dreamed and didn't wake up until almost 8:30 am.  That's pretty late for me since I'm usually up by 6:30 am every day (because of "you-know-who").  Hopefully he won't be such a party animal tonight.  I even checked to see if it was a full moon last night because that sometimes makes animals extra active, but it was only about half a moon, so I don't know what his problem was.  For some reason he doesn't have the same sleep patterns as the "average" rabbit that's active mostly at dawn and dusk hours.  Hopefully he grows out of it...soon, so we can get some much needed rest.

When we got home from Petsmart today and let him out of his carrier, he went over to his "project" and chewed the cardboard by the futon before going under the futon to rest.  Hopefully not too much - we don't want him up all night again.

He just got up a little after 5:00 pm and Brad fed him dinner.

The other thing I did this week with him was rearrange his boxes in the living room.

Before, I had the upside down Costco grape juice box in the middle, with a long box at one end that I had cut holes in the sides and ends plus a smaller rectangular box at the other, with all of the holes lined up so he could go through all three.  He could also lay inside the grape juice box and look out the side opening toward the living room.  The long box was from one of our distributors that we order TV mounts from and Parker liked to hop on top lately and chew the cardboard on the top of it.  I was concerned that he would start chewing the tape that was holding the seams closed so I replaced that box with another strong Costco box that was just slightly shorter in height than the grape juice one.  We had another box from our last trip to Costco and it was just sitting in the family room for him, so I decided to place it upside down on top of the grape juice box.  It had two openings across from each other so he can hop on top of the other boxes and go through it or lay in the "second story room".  It actually took a whole day for him to discover it and then he had fun hopping up and going through it.  Then yesterday he got adventurous and went onto the roof of the second story.  Just then, Brad walked into the room and he hopped down from the top perch.  It wasn't any taller than our bed so I knew he wouldn't get hurt because he hops up and down off our beds all the time now (not that we like that!).

Well, I think that's all for this week's adventures.  Hopefully, we'll all sleep tonight!