What do you think?

Hello there,
I have been trying to make the blog layout more pleasant to look at and perhaps a bit easier to navigate. At this moment, it is a work in progress, but I would love your feedback on how to not only make it look better, but give you more of what you would be interested in what you might like to see here or any ideas for improvement. Right now I am just starting to jazz it up a bit, but not go overboard. I welcome most anything you, the reader, would have to say. Please share in the comments what you think or tweet me at @CuddleLop.

This is a pretty short post today. Thanks for coming to read this blog. I hope you do enjoy your stays here. Please let me know would make your stay here most pleasant!
Thanks,
Mary Ellen

Some of my Favorite Things about my Companion Bunnies...

Hello there,

I appreciate your hopping over this way again. I think there are universal things that most people share and appreciate in living with pet bunnies.  Here are some of mine. I don't have photos for many, but I will share when I do have something. These are not in any particular order...

1) The wiggling nose....I can tell a lot now by their wiggling nose. One major one is that they are still a live when they are sleeping quite still. The speed of their nose shows how interested or alert they are to something near by! There is something about that constantly wiggling nose that even when they annoy me, it can charm my socks off. They don't really wiggle their nose at will, it is part of their breathing process.  I love how they reject me when they turn their nose up at me, disapprovingly, when I have on some type of lotion on my hands they don't like!

2) Nose/head bonks...I love to ignore those little buns and they like to ignore me as a game. They approach you, tap you with their head or nose and either take off like tagging you and you are "it" or they bonk you looking for petting, food, other attention.

3) What we call "tubes" in our house....Cardboard oatmeal canisters (the natural brownish gray kind with the label removed), purchased ones for bunnies or other tube shaped things they can fit themselves in.  One bunny we had named Rusty used to somehow always get herself caught in the oatmeal canisters.(She would chew off the ends). Her head and front paws would be hanging out one end of the canister and her tail and rear legs would be sticking out the end. She would kind of squeal in the female bunny sort of way when being chased by a male for some action. She wouldn't panic but would let us know we had to remove that dachshund-like body out of her tube. Usually this meant keeping her calm and getting the jaws of life (a pair of scissors). She usually had no problem sitting still while we got her out.


Other bunnies we had/have also have loved tubes. We've had prolific chewers and then the one English Lop who would sleep with and groom his tube, hump it, chase it and then chew it to smithereens. We kept a good supply of those on hand. One favorite thing we liked watching him do is putting it on his head and moving all around with it.

Tribble, a lionhead likes to chew his to smithereens and squeeze into them.

Tribble in one of his purchased Tubes.

Butterscotch in his Log with ear sticking out hole in the top!

Butterscotch, who is our infamous buzzing bunny about to be neutered, seems to feel very secure in his "log" which he somehow squeezes himself into when it's downtime in his cage. He likes to squeeze himself in and push his nose through his cage bars to observe what's going on around him. Strangely enough, he will only do it when the cage door is closed, not when its open or if he's out of the cage running around or resting.

Butterscotch in regular nestled into Log mode!

4) Playing bunnies in any form is wonderful. Love to see them run around, do binkies, play tag with me or each other (see nose bonks above), even tip their food dishes over when switched to "healthier diets". They are so interactive, loving, loyal and social. What is there not to love?
I have some more photos which I have to transfer to digital form and will update this for you and let you know!
I can come up with more and sometime I will, but I think I took up enough of your time for now and thank you for joining me.  If you have or ever had bunnies, please tell me what you love about them. Please follow this page and use the comments section below. I would love to hear what you have to say!

Thanks for stopping by!
Mary Ellen
http://www.zazzle.com/rabbithopshoppe

Lighting History Took Place at the Rabbit Hill Inn...a neat story

Tin Smith at Old Sturbridge Village

Hello there,
Thanks again for joining us. If this is your first time, welcome! Glad you are here! Hope your visit is enjoyable.

As many of you may know, my husband and I spent a wonderful and magical second honeymoon at the Rabbit Hill Inn in northeastern Vermont in August.  It has a great history which is briefly described on their website.  The story I am going to discuss is something I learned there, where they have a more involved history written out with many pictures  for the guests to look through in one of the very friendly and comfortable common rooms.

One of the stories goes to the effect of that when the ballroom was built in the mid 1800s, they were going to open it with a dance ball extravaganza.  It seems no expense was spared and beautiful chandeliers were ordered from Europe.  Within a certain time frame close to the grand opening of the ballroom with this lavish party that was supposed to take place, these expensive European-crafted chandeliers didn't seem like they were going to appear on time.  Well, going to Yankee ingenuity, they had chandeliers locally crafted from tin.  They were liked so much by the people who attended the ball that the owners decided to keep them. Kind of like the business phrase, "You snooze, you lose" for the imported lighting.

One of these tin chandeliers is still in existence today on the grounds. I was so intrigued by the story and being that guests are quite encouraged to explore the grounds, my husband and I set about to find it. Well, that we did, but I won't tell where-so if you have the opportunity to go to Rabbit Hill Inn, you can look for yourself. I do provide a picture and much more insight into it though here! I did some research on lighting from Old Sturbridge Village (a living history museum) in Massachusetts. The time period they portray reflects much of the time frames of the Rabbit Hill Inn history.  There is some neat stuff coming up here!

Here is the remaining tin chandelier that once hung with similar ones at Rabbit Hill Inn in the ballroom.

Rabbit Hill Inn ballroom chandelier

 You can click on these photos to see them larger. Of course these would have used candles  and probably would have had some type of rope or cord to lower and raise them for lighting the candles, as well as for adjusting the height of the chandelier for whatever practical purposes they would have had then.

Rabbit Hill Inn ballroom chandelier

The chandelier turned out more sophisticated looking than I thought it would be. I did think that the tin may have looked dull at the time though and wondered about it. Also, I had to realize that I was looking at it from the point of view of my lifetime and not what it would have looked like to the people who only knew candle light and simpler things.  Also, how many everyday common people would have been used to the multiple candles in a grand ballroom, which probably had other things to help set off the lighting such as a few mirrors. Candlelight adds such a nice aura to an occasion also! But at Sturbridge Village, I discovered more!

Reproduction chandelier crafted at Sturbridge Village tinshop.

In the tinsmith shop, I saw a chandelier there which was no where as elaborate as this chandelier .It was a reproduction which was crafted by the tinsmith.  It also wasn't shiny like the one at Rabbit Hill Inn.  Click on the picture above to see a bigger view.  I told the tinsmith about the Rabbit Hill chandelier story and he pointed out that tin is very shiny when new. See the lanterns in the picture below and how shiny they are!
Those are new! Imagine the Rabbit Hill chandeliers being that shiny new and having the candlelight reflect off of them! Must have been very pretty!

See how shiny these new lanterns are!

A View of the Tinshop

Just a bit more insight from a lighting history display at Old Sturbridge Village.
The person who started Old Sturbridge Village in the 1920s collected all types of lighting which is now on a display at the village. I included photos of some of the lighting that come from around the time period of Rabbit Hill Inn.  Also are some original tin chandeliers which definitely look they are not as well preserved as the one at Rabbit Hill Inn.  And last there is a photo of an image taken from what a ball would have looked like in Europe in that time frame. Click on any photo to see a larger view.

Other early lighting from similar time period made of wood and metal.

Early tin chandelier in center

A smaller tin authentic tin chandelier 

Last but not least, you can see an image of how lighting may looked if they used the fancy European chandeliers at Rabbit Hill Inn. The next photo is of an image they took from a ball taking place in Europe. You may find that the time period is somewhat different than at Rabbit Hill Inn and Old Sturbridge Village, but it gives the basic idea. I suggest that you click on this picture to see the detail better because there was some reflection on the image from my camera flash. If I can get back there I will take a better shot and post it here.

I'd like to thank you for joining me on this little journey through history. I love looking at things trying to see how things were through the eyes of the people, who lived the history, in their everyday lives.

Hope you are having a wonderful day. Please come back again. I would love your comments. If you can add to this in any way please feel free to let me know.  I want to make any posts like this accurate and more interesting.  If you like this blog, please feel free to follow it or share it!

Thank you,
Mary Ellen

Funny Bunny Little Med-Taking Miracle

Hello and Welcome,

Not too long ago I wrote about my little Bunny Tribble and his illness related to Hurricane Irene.(Part 1   and Part 2 in case you didn't read them. Well one of the issues with him was trying to get him to take his medicine. I dreaded it when the vet said his medication was oral. (I actually thought that giving him a shot would have been easier!). He is skittish, fast and a fighter!

Getting him to take in an oral syringe was not something he liked and something others liked. The good part was that he only had to take it once a day.

The big miracle was that at one point he appeared to be going toward death's door. I was so nervous that I'd lose the little guy who was only a year old. I have become extremely fond of him. It took about ten months before he wouldn't run away from our approach! He now comes up to us looking for affection.  When I woke up the next day, he was eating hay, some of his water was gone and he was "chowing down" on his food!

The "Funny Bunny Little Med-Taking Miracle" is coming up now. 

He was getting back his strength to fight us even more with the oral syringe feeding.  My husband and I had a system where he would hold the funny and was the "evil one" giving him the syringe in the mouth. We got good at it, but Tribble would have nothing to do with us after ward- for quite a while!  Well, the next to the last day of the med, I went up to Tribble and was waiting for my husband to get away from his computer (his mothership as I call it!), who was taking an extra long, long, long time.  I started to pet Tribble a little. He was receptive, but guarded.  He saw the syringe that I had already filled up and knew what was coming. The banana flavor scent was making his sensitive nose go hay-wire!  I kept calling my husband to come and was getting pretty mad.  I put the syringe up to Tribble's nose just to let him have a warning that was what was coming. Well, he surprised me!

He put his mouth on the syringe and started nibbling on the tip where the medication was going to come out. He wouldn't let up. I started pushing the syringe, a little, to get some medication in his mouth.  He just started taking it in and then would wait for more until I pushed more on the syringe. So we did this for the next few seconds until the med in the syringe was gone!!!  I was in such disbelief. Then, as if on cue, my husband walked in to "help" me.

Perhaps Tribble was just getting as impatient as I was waiting for my husband, wanting to get the med-taking hassle over instead of pro-longing it. I praised the little Lionhead bunny repeatedly, pet him and lavished him with affection which he seemed to want to soak up like a sponge.  I gave him some treats also.

I was hoping that I would get the same response the next night, but he went back to his old way of fighting me!  It was the last night, so at that point it didn't matter.

He was healthy again, eating like there was no tomorrow and seeking attention from us like normal!  That is what made it all so worthwhile, but that extra bit of trust he showed me that night made me feel so wonderful. 

I think they trust us more than they let on sometimes, but just want us to know that they are the boss and aren't going to let us think we have any power over them. Sometimes it is just the little things along the way of the journey that present themselves and make the journey more worthwhile than the destination.

Hope this helped bring a smile to your day.
Thanks for stopping by,
Mary Ellen

Please stop by the Rabbit Hop Shoppe!

Some favorite Bunny-filled commercials!

Hello,
I've been thinking about some of my favorite commercials with bunnies in them and figured I'd try to get a small video collection started here.  Let me know what you think and share your own favorites with me here too in the comments too! Thanks!

The Energizer Bunny

 Would you believe that this commercial was actually an answer to the Duracell Bunny commercial?

Duracell only continued their commercials in Europe when the Energizer Bunny took hold in America.

How about the Cadbury Bunny

The Sony Bravia commercial which I discovered after we bought our Sony Bravia TV. I was googling the TV name and this commercial came up.  What a pleasant surprise indeed!

Then there's this extremely adorable one for the New York Lottery!
Who can resist?

I think some of the bunnies are real and some are either CGI or mechanized. I am amazed at how this commercial came out.
Then here is one of  my all time favorites, The Visa Bunny Check Card Commercial.

There are some commercials with rabbits that I don't like, for example, i.e., a Subaru commercial where a mother is driving her daughter to dump their bunnies in the woods. I will not show that one. I believe they withdrew it for it drew a lot of complaints.
I'm not super fond of Bugs Bunny as a rabbit for some reason or the Trix Rabbit. To me, they don't represent rabbits, although the Energizer Bunny isn't real. I think Bugs and the Trix one are just connivers and that's the root of my dislike.
Well, one more for the road. Not a favorite, but just one more I thought of that I like.
The Nestle Quik Bunny

He's pretty cute, wouldn't you say!?
Which is your favorite? Post links to your favorites in the comments!
I may do this again as I think of or discover more I haven't thought of.
Tell me what you think! I want to hear your thoughts and opinions. Thanks.
Have a great day!
Mary Ellen
Visit the Rabbit Hop Shoppe!

Some of My Favorite Movies with Rabbits in them!

Hello there,

I thought that I would like to share about some of my favorite movies featuring rabbits. There are some I would like to see for future posts.

One of my favorites is “Miss. Potter”, which is about Beatrix Potter, who wrote the infamous Peter Cottontail books for children. Renee Zellwegger does a great job playing Miss Potter. The acting is done well. It starts from when Beatrix Potter was a little girl, who even had a pet rabbit in her house, in the movie. She would draw pictures of this rabbit and many other creatures. There are some great little pieces of animation which demonstrate young Beatrix Potter's vibrant imagination.

The movie goes on to explore Miss Potter's passion for writng and animals, as well as her struggles as a female writer trying to get published in the 19^th century in England. There is also some romance and triumph in this tale told, which is loosely based on her life. She became a staunch conservationist and protector of animal rights in the day. I didn't see it in the theater because at the time it only had a limited release, due to some idiot's decision thinking it wasn't going to make some money. This movie is a nice charming escape and I own it on DVD just so I can watch it whenever and as many times as I want. Here are a couple of links:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482546/  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Potter     and the movie trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMDMD7q101I

Another one, which you might not expect is “Amazing Grace”. This movie focuses on the British struggle to legislate anti-slavery laws, which is run by the man, John Wilburforce, who wrote the hymn for which the movie is named. His character's struggles and personality are quite interesting and inspirational. One thing that he did have was a fondness for animals, and like Beatrix Potter, he was a supporter of animal rights. He had several animals at his home, including one or two rabbits that lived in the house with him. The movie, in itself, is based on the true story and real people! An excellent high-caliber movie to watch! I also own this on DVD. Here are some links: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0454776/ 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Grace_(2006_film)  

and here's the trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6Cv5P9H9qU

I'll share one more for today, and save more for another post. Having just realized that this one, as well as the other two, takes place in England also! It is Wallace & Gromit: Curse Of The Were-Rabbit. It is a Claymation animation done in England based on two popular characters named Wallace and Gromit. The claymation is amazing and painstakingly done. Even in the age of CGI (Computer Graphic Imaging), this was done all by hand. The movie came out in 2005 and the work on the claymation began before 9/11 hit in 2001! The humor is entertaining for children and adults, without anything being offensive. I don't want to give any spoilers, the story will speak for itself. It is not a frightening story and is also very animal friendly. Also, have this one on DVD. Here are some links: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0312004/   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_%26_Gromit:_The_Curse_of_the_Were-Rabbit

and the trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrqRv0s5McU

Some movies I will talk about in future posts are: Harvey (the Harry Andersen version), The Night of the Lepus, Watership Down, (not sure if I'm forgetting any at the moment-I think I am).

I would like to see Hop!, Donnie Darko, Harvey (the Jimmy Stewart version) still and comment on them.

If you have any suggestions for movies for me to see or review, I would be very open to hearing from you in the comments section. Also, any comments you have about these movies or thoughts I would love to hear from you also!

Thanks for joining me today! Please follow this blog through e-mail, or follow through any other way which is available on this page. I don't mention the ways because if you are reading this page in the future of when this was written, then the information I provide might not be accurate.

See you soon!

Mary Ellen

Please visit the Rabbit Hop Shoppe for Holiday Shopping! 

 

Rabbit Hurricane-Stress Recovery

Hello,
Thanks for joining me here again today! I'm happy you're here. The electricity has come back to most people in our area of Connecticut, other areas are starting to be repaired, trees and their debris are getting cleared away and my rabbits are in generally back-to-normal shape after their stress induced illnesses of last week. It is nice to be moving back to normal.

Losing sleep over them is not easy, nor comforting.  Struggling with a very resistant bunny, like Tribble, when trying to give him medicine is not fun either. At one point he looked he was near death's door.  I asked for prayers among Twitter and Facebook friends, and I tried some short-distance reiki healing energy work with him. Some people may roll their eyes, but I find that there is really something to it. I said prayers myself for the little guy as well. It was painful to see him fighting so hard when trying to medicate him. His resistance was exhausting him all the more.
We had picked up pain meds from the vet, already to use, and Critcal Care food for force feeding.  Although I've done it before, usually force-feeding rabbits is not an easy task. I did arm myself by watching some instructional videos on YouTube. They didn't have these the last time I had to go through with this. I did learn some stuff that did even help making the medication time a bit easier as well. This one is a bit funny but gives the basic idea. I think it is good to have a good sense of the fragility of rabbits and be used to handling them before trying this using common sense.  Another video done by a vet's office I found was very well done and extremely helpful.

I think the prayers, constant petting and attention, getting some little bit of exercise time (to keep/get things moving in the digestive area) were helpful. Miraculously after going to the extra effort of obtaining the pain med and force-feeding materials the night before, Tribble was nibbling on hay when I woke up and I saw some of his water was gone in his water bottle. As I started watching him and giving him more affectionate attention in the beginning of the day, he seemed to be doing much better with eating, alertness and defacating more normally. He didn't appear to be in pain that day and more active, so I waited on giving pain meds and force feeding.  He didn't seem to need anything. No tooth grinding (loud and constant is usually a sign rabbits are in pain) like the days before. So under a constant watch, I withheld using the Critical Care/ force-feeding  and the pain meds. I didn't want to push stressing him out, as long as he was eating, drinking, pooping and more active closer to normal. I think I really was blessed and lucky to see this change.

After monitoring him for days on this status, he has just shown constant improvement. He is finishing up his antibiotic meds with as much fight as before, but is more co-operative once the tiny little syringe is in his mouth. I think it helps that it is banana flavored!

My shy, reserved little gentleman bunny is nearly back to his old self and I am extremely happy to share it with you! My other bunny Grumbellina, mentioned in my previous post in dealing with the hurricane stress illness is totally back-to-normal. I have put her on a new diet of Timothy pellets and Timothy hay and she has adjusted to that without any problems. It's just that vulture-like side she has in her!

Thank you so much for joining me and my bunnies here. I hope that the two video links I posted about force-feeding rabbits are helpful.

Hoping you have a wonderful day!
Til next time,
Mary Ellen
The Rabbit Hop Shop