Hello. It's Belinda.
I hope you had a good Mother's Day last weekend.
Little Fang, the English and I wanted to do something extra nice for our roommate for Mother's Day. She's not our mother but she takes good care of us.
In my blog I wrote about a little experiment we were going to try.
We decided to be extra quiet and tidy all day. That was our gift.
Our roommate could take the whole day off. No need to sweep the floor. Or fuss with messes around our water bowls. In fact, she won't have to "handle" any type of rabbit mischief at all.
Little Fang was 100% on board. Her goal was to use only one pee pad all day. Sorry for the detail, but it’s the truth. She has some medical issues that are very personal and private. She can’t help it.
She goes through a lot of pee pads. They’re all over the floor of her exercise pen. My roommate has to “freshen up” the area throughout the day.
But last Sunday, Little Fang stayed on one pee pad for most of the morning. “If I don’t move, I won’t make a mess.”
That’s what she said to me. I felt terrible. Poor thing.
The English has a double pen next to Little Fang’s. It's more than enough room in my opinion. But he likes to push the bars outward with his face.
It makes a horrible scraping and clattering sound. Then our roommate has to arrange it back into a rectangle.
He’s always trying to get more “real estate” than he deserves. He gets to run loose upstairs every day too. Sometimes he even sleeps on the bedroom level. But usually he’s down on the bottom level whispering nonsense to Little Fang.
For Mother’s Day, the English said he would leave his pen alone. And to my shock, he actually did it.
My goal for the day was to keep my hay area and water bowl tidy. I tend to "go wild" when I'm extra hungry or thirsty.
Also I would not track hay crumbs through the house. My roommate finds hay pieces behind the couch, in the kitchen and sometimes in the corner of the dining room. Not that I dig in the carpet there.
So as far as my roommate was concerned, the three of us weren’t even home last Sunday. She didn’t have to do a thing all day except for the very bare minimum.
All I can say is it didn’t go as we expected.
It all started when she came downstairs late in the morning to check our water.
I was sitting politely under the utility sink. "Minding my business."
First she noticed my morning hay snack. Although I had eaten a nice breakfast of orchard hay, it looked like I hadn't touched it. That's how neat it was.
She gave me a “side look.”
Then she walked to Little Fang’s pen. She stared down at the pee pads.
She put her hands on her hips which is a bad sign.
Finally she turned toward The English. She made her way to his pen and pushed it in a few inches. Which wasn’t necessary for once.
The English didn’t move a muscle during all of this. Just lay on his side as if he were asleep.
She spun and squinted at me.
“Belinda! Are you sick?”
I froze. The question was so odd.
"There's something 'off' with all three of you," she said.
Then she hurried upstairs.
The next thing you know, she came back carrying her “first aid” box.
I know what’s inside that box. We all do.
Thermometer. Feeding syringes. Ointments and potions. Nail clippers. Fur grooming tools.
As soon as I saw that box, I raced to my hay pile. I started chewing so loud and fast you would think I was in some sort of hay contest.
Little Fang saw the box too. She spent the next five minutes running around her pen, having accidents.
The English bounced to his feet like a jack in the box. He stood on his back legs and pushed against the side of his pen with his front paws.
He looked ridiculous but he did not look sick.
So my roommate never even opened the first aid kit.
And we ended our "Roommate's Day Experiment."
It wasn't a bad plan. In fact, it was a good plan.
And that's the problem. We were too good.
Sincerely,
Belinda
Spokesrabbit, Small Pet Select
Inventor of the First Chew holiday
Word for 2025: "Ask"
Belinda@smallpetselect.com
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