Maneuvering Through the Urban Jungle

Reggie has been living with us for almost a month now. He is comfortable in his room (my former creativity room) and loves to stay in there the majority of the time. The rest of the family will come in to hang out. Fiona and he seemed to have formed a friendship. I have seen them chase each other and the other morning, he was still in his pen and she was lying on the outside of it sharing space. I tried to take a photo of that, but unfortunately, I got distracted trying to capture Oski’s Sun cat essence and by the time I gave up (he just wouldn’t sit still) I saw Fiona move to the kitchen. I just got this new digital camera and I am still trying to learn how to use it, even though it is pretty simple.

As I have gotten to know Reggie better, I realize that he has a very strong personality and if he was in a Warren, he would be the top bunny. I think that is partially why Oski doesn’t seem to bug him the same way he did Rexy. Nothing seems to faze Reggie. Even in the first couple of weeks, when I would guide him away from something I still needed to bunny proof there was a day of two where he would snort at me—a rabbit’s way of showing annoyance. I knew if I was too forceful for him he might start being aggressive with me, so I would talk to him sweetly and then guide him where I wanted. One day he was so hyper, jumping on everything, running through the house as if someone lit his paw on fire that he was running erratically through the house. I finally put him back in his cage.

The next day, while he was still in his cage, I had a heart to heart talk with him. I explained to him that he needs to listen to me. That my only intention is to keep him safe. I told him we love the fact that he loves to run around and explore. We want him to feel comfortable in our home. We are so happy that he decided to live with us. I love his energy and the way he loves to jump into the air and move his head from side to side to let us know how happy he is—but I am his mom and I am here to keep him safe, and if I tell him to move away from something it is only to keep him safe—so it is important to listen to me and his dad. The next time I let him out, he was more subdued and he stopped snorting at me.

But almost a month later and he is comfortable with us. He is finally letting me know that he does like me. I came in the room after David let him out and said enthusiastically, “hey Reggie, it’s good to see you—it’s me your mom” when he heard my voice I saw his energy perk up. Because rabbits don’t have the best eye sight, I started waving my hand vigorously and said “it’s me your mom, I am right here.” With that he ran out of his cage and came right up to me. Because I know sudden movements can cause him to bolt, out of instinct, I let him come up to me to find me then I reached down slowly and scratched the top of his head. I love it that he likes me. Sometimes I think animals are wary of me because my energy is more present than most people. I know they can hear me so I focus my intent on connecting with them on a soul level. For some animals with trust issues sometimes being that present makes them uncertain.

So I like to let them make the first move-eventually, they will realize I am an ok human and from that point forward, we get along great. So the 4-legged kids are getting along fine—they are all finding their niche and the stress of bunny proofing the house, recognizing where to bunny proof, the most efficient way to bunny proof—that’s been taken care for the most part, but as with everything in life, it is important to be flexible to any changes that could come up. One day Reggie may find an unexplored place that I didn’t know was there and then back to finding yet another thing to bunny proof, but it is worth it when I see how happy he is, watching him leap in the air, kicking his back feet from side to side—coming up to me, standing up on his hind legs and resting his front paws on my leg to say “hi mom”. Looking at his little bulldog shaped face with the floppy ears. It’s just part of the process of our way of Maneuvering in the urban jungle that is our home.

Our Happy Family-New Bunny in the house

His name: Reggie M. Rabbit (M stands for Mini-Lop)
Age: 8 Months old
Color: Black/White quilty coat
Likes: Carrots, bananas, apples, parsley, dandelion greens
Dislikes: Being cooped up in a small space, pushy humans, humans that don’t see his greatness.

We found Reggie at the Humane Society where my husband, David volunteers. He is a very nice, loveable—aren’t they all, spunky bunny. I love the mini-lop personality. They are charming, mischievous, daring and out spoken. They have been described as a canine in a rabbit suit. I have a friend who would scoff “He is a rabbit who has a certain personality, he is not a dog, you are being a classist!” And yes, I guess I was putting him in a box—because rabbits come in with all types of personality traits.

One of my rabbits, Asher, was very playful and gentle he would come when I called him and loved being with the cats in the family. He would sit on the couch with me as I watched TV or he would jump on my lap. Another rabbit, Heather Celeste, loved to spend a lot of time on her own. She would come up to me but preferred to sit in the same corner and sleep, but when she found something she enjoyed to chew on she would become very animated. And our 8 year old, Rex, who just passed—he was quiet, dignified and loved to sit and meditate. He loved spending a lot of time in his pen, but he had a favorite place in the cool hearth of the fireplace to lie on during the summer months. He didn’t like to be picked up but he would come up and greet me when I came home in the evening. I saw him as an intellectual who liked to ponder over the life of bunnies everywhere.

He like other species will connect with other like-minded beings to teach each other things they are learning to help their species evolve. That is why, if they have one life, where maybe they lived with a family that wasn’t sensitive to who they were, they could pass that info on when they die and come back in a place where they know they will be loved and respected.

The first rabbit I had when I was in my 20’s was named Phoebe. She was a grey agouti mini-lop with a determined personality. She could be aggressive when she wasn’t pleased with you or thought you didn’t take her seriously, but if she knew you respected her, she was gentle and patient. She loved her treats. When I would bring out the box of her favorite treat, she would run to me and enthusiastically move her head from side to side to show her excitement. She didn’t even mind that I liked her to sit up to grab it. She lived to be 7 years old. At the time the life span for a rabbit was 2 years old, now with all the new findings on nutrition and cage maintenance, Rabbits are living to be 7-10 years.

What attracted me to Reggie was not just because he was a mini-lop, but I saw something about him I recognized. It was intuitive, but I knew that he would fit in great with our big feline family. Cats and rabbits can be good pals. Since they are both non-confrontational, they seem to be very compatible. One day as I looking at his photo, I realized that he had the same expression as Phoebe. I realized that phoebe came back as Reggie! That is why I was picking up on his personality. I was excited to have her back.

When I was getting ready for Reggie to come to live with us, I was looking up the Mini-Lop to get any tips pertaining to his breed. I forget, that if I type cast him in a certain way, I am not being fair to his unique qualities and so it is no wonder I didn’t find anything. I need to learn from him about who he is. I have Rex who is one of my rabbit allies who will help me with any challenges along the way. I also have our friend Cathy who can answer questions about Reggie if I feel I am not hearing him clearly.

I have been communicating with our own feline and Lupine family for over 20 years. It helps that our 4-legged kids, as I call them, know that David and I are willing to honor their needs as long as it is not harmful to them or goes against the rules of the house. So they pretty much communicate to us through their thoughts, body language or vocalizations.

So David and the rest of the kids will help him to get comfortable in our home. All the kids are happy to have this highly spirited bunny living with us and when they saw Reggie come in, I could see that were excitement to have a bunny living with us again. They have been coming in to visit him in his temporary pen. In the days to come I will chronicle our experiences with Reggie and the antics that he and the rest of the family conspire together. I am sure they will keep us on our toes and who knows; maybe we will all create games to play together. What the start to a new and fun journey.

Our Happy Family--Life With Oski

For the first 5 years of Oski’s life, he might have thought his real name was “Oski-No” because everytime we turned around we had to tell oski to stop what he was doing. NO jumping on the bookcase….leave that cup alone, off that counter now….leave your sister alone…Oski no…Oski no…Oski no!

Oski had a way of looking at the world that didn’t agree with the humans and other beings in the house. Our animal communicator, Cathy says, that Oski looks through the world with rose colored glasses. He thinks its logical to jump on the counter, after all that is where the food is, why can’t he help himself? What difference does it make whether it is in his bowl or not, it will just dirty the bowl and then we will have to wash it? Besides we were going to give it to him anyway, he is really doing us a favor by helping himself.

Sometimes he jumps on the counter so we can really see him more clearly. And if we don’t know he is there, he will knock something off so he makes sure we see him. He knows we will always come running. Sure we may yell at him, but it got the job done. He always tries to make things as efficient as possible.

From Oski’s viewpoint, it is perfectly logical why he does what he does. So our job as his pet parents have been for the past 6 years is to teach him the rules of the house. It has been a rocky, chaotic journey but one that has been rewarding at the same time. We have learned patience, acceptance and developed a broader sense of humor. And Oski has learned to be more patient not as impulsive.

Oski is also a very stubborn young cat who is very smart and like most beings with a high IQ, he gets bored very easily and then will try to direct his energy in what ever is in the way. He really loves to chase things. He loves things that have fast movement and moves a long way. One of his favorite toys are plastic bag twist ties. We renamed them “Twisty-tie toys” for Oski’s benefit. If he starts prowling around the house, I know he is bored and needs something to do. I’ll ask him if he wants to play with his twisty tie toy and he stops what he is doing (even if he is trying to wrestle with one of his sisters) and will stand at attention waiting to see what direction I am going to slide the toy on the floor. Because we have more hardwood floors and linoleum than carpet, when I throw it, I can make it slide quite a distance and it makes a sound he loves, it makes him more motivated to run after it, pounce and capture it.

Sometimes he will pick it up with his claws and bat it around some more or sometimes he will pounce on it and then stop and look at me to say “do it again, Mommy!” so I will pick it up and move it to different rooms in the house. One of his favorite places is throwing it on the bed. He has the added challenge of trying to find it on the bed. Sometimes it goes underneath the covers. On few occasions, he will pick it up and carry it in his mouth and then drop it and play with it on his own.

As Cathy says he is all boy, he is very rambunctious and loud when he jumps off of things. It is as if to say he is here. Being that he was the runt of the litter he had to really make sure every one knew that fact. Sometimes he terrorizes the girls in the house. He can play a little too rough and there are times we have to intervene, but if at all possible we let them work it out. Because Oski is impulsive and a boundary taker, the girls do their best to show their displeasure. Moon, our 6 year old black short hair cat that has the face of an Egyptian goddess, will hiss at him. Sometimes it works, other times he is relentless and then we have to scoop him up and give him a time out in our bedroom, where he will take a nap.

Fiona, the baby of the family, has her own way. She is half the size of Oski. She is a very fluffy cat with a fur collar, very elegant, very dainty. But looks are deceiving. Most of the time, when Oski starts to become too much, she will run after him and with a single look, Oski seems to stop, in some cases she has been known to wrestle with him and throw him over and he stops. For her size, she is a very determined being in her own right. I admire her sense of self, her calm. She has this wide eyed look that seems to have an innocence-a trusting nature.

But even with all his boisterous behavior, there is another side to him. He loves to be cradled like a baby and loves the affection. When I get up in the morning, he will greet me in a certain cadence that says “Hi, mommy, I’m so glad you are up.” Then he will put his front paws up so I will pick him up. He purrs in a soothing, content rhythm and I will carry him around kissing him on the cheek or the head, telling him how wonderful he is. I love this ritual. I am very blessed that Oski and I have such a close relationship. He is a momma’s boy.

Teaching him the rules of the house has been a long, ongoing work in progress. He has been a slow learner. I believe that part of the challenge for Oski is that he seems to be easily distracted, so unless I have his total awareness, getting him to respond to my requests can take a few attempts. The way we got him to respond is teaching him to sit through the method of the clicker and treats. The clicker is a device that makes a very distinct noise, so distinct that most animals, dogs, cats, birds, rabbits, ect., will take notice. This method of training has been very effective for a lot of 4-legged kids.

Once we got his attention, we would say “sit down”. We would put a little pressure on his hind end to give him the idea to sit. Eventually he started sitting. And we would reward him by giving him a treat. Over time, he would sit even if he didn’t get a treat, we would give him a lot of praise. Oski is a pleaser so telling him what a good job he did worked too. Now when he is acting out and I say “Oski, sit down”, once I have his attention, he sits very politely. This has been a eye opening and wondrous journey. We have enjoyed every minute of being with Oski, teaching him the rules of the house and see how much he has grown and matured in the almost 7 years he has shared his life with us. There may have been times, where we felt, he would never get it, other times amazed at the progress he makes. And through all our experiences, it has been so worth it.