Hurricane Irene Delivered a House- Rabbit- to- Be

Last night, my husband and I drove to another part of our small state to attend a rock and roll fundraiser to help feed homeless Vietnam Vets. It was a fundraiser run by a couple who are very good friends of ours.  My friend Sandy, the better half of that couple, asked me to bring some jewelry to sell there to help raise more money for their cause, when I offered to provide a couple of items for door prizes. She said bring some to sell and make a little sign explaining the jewelry and why it was there.

This is Grumbellina, but not the photo used on the sign.

Well, my sign had a picture of my black and white lop named Grumbellina, the words "Bunny Burrow Boutique" and an explanation of how a percentage of the sales were going to the fundraiser.

Grumbellina's picture attracted the attention of one lady who came over and looked at the jewelry. This lady eventually started telling me very enthusiastically about her house rabbit.  This is where Hurricane Irene (2011) comes in.

Hurricane Irene did lots of damage along the east coast of the United States in 2011. It was compared to potentially having the devastation of the Hurricane of '38 (this is before they started naming hurricanes).  Well, this lady and her husband, that I met last night, were "battoning down the hatches" in preparation for the hurricane.  They prepared a spot in their barn as a safe place to stay to ride out the hurricane because they were afraid that a very huge old tree with very huge and heavy branches was hanging over their house. They figured they would feel safer and more secure in their barn.

While early in the storm, the lady ran into the house to check something, deciding it would be better to be sure if something was in place before the storm began to approach at it's fullest strength.  The lady heard a little scratching at her back door and thought that perhaps something had already hit the house, and figured she move it. When she opened the door and looked down, she saw a soaked weary looking fawn colored lop ear rabbit.  She immediately opened the outer door and picked him up and wrapped him in a towel. She knew a little about rabbits because she had one as a girl.

The lady grabbed some more towels and decided to run back to the barn before the storm started to get worse as she heard the wind and rain getting louder against her house. When safely back in the barn she sat near a little heater with the rabbit and tried to dry off the limp little guy.  She actually had a cage, bowl and water bottle in the barn she used to nurse a baby squirrel many years before. She cleaned the cage the best she could under the circumstances and put the little boy bunny in it. They gave the bunny some hay they had and some water. Although not enthusiastically, he nibbled and drank a little water. The lady and her husband didn't quite know what to do with the bunny.

After the storm passed, their house had no major damage. They went in but left the bunny in the cage in the barn. They put signs up in front of their house and in the community hoping to find his owners.  After research on rabbit care and taking care of him for a few weeks, the couple became very fond of him and decided to keep him. He stayed in the barn a little longer while the weather become colder.

They brought him in the house, did more research, rabbit-proofed the house, put out litter boxes, "fenced off" areas that were his to play in and built him a NIC bunny condo. The husband named him Rabbit (affectionately called "Rabbi T".). He started eating well and became very active.

The bunny loves to play with toys-tubes filled with hay  are his favorite.  Rabbit loves to do "nose bonks", do Bunny 500s, binkies and sometimes challenges the wife (the more dominant of the human couple to Rabbit). He gets 5 hours of play and runaround time and sounds like one very happy rabbit.

The glow of enthusiasm the husband (who eventually joined us in conversation) and wife had while talking just warmed my heart, thoughts and dreams that night and today.  I exchanged e-mail addresses so we can talk bunnies and share photos of our fur kids.

The lady feels that Bunny was probably dumped right before the hurricane, which disgusted us both. But the joy the couple emanated showed that they were very glad that Hurricane Irene blew the little bunny their way. I hope that I get to meet Rabbit some time.  If that bunny didn't make it to that back porch and the lady go to her house and open the back door, then he most likely wouldn't have survived the storm. That bunny had bunny angels watching out for him and that couple!




Please check out the Bunny Burrow Boutique. There are many pieces of jewelry there, some of which are rabbit themed. Each purchase made at the Bunny Burrow Boutique donates $1.00 to a rabbit rescue or rabbit welfare organization.  For the month of May 2012, donations go to the Gainesville Rabbit Rescue in Florida.



Rabbit Slippers has a new e-mail address rabbitslippersblog@gmail.com if you want to e-mail any ideas, suggestions, comments, concerns or share anything. 

Please follow Rabbit Slippers Blog on Twitter, too, @RabbitSlipprs . 

Please "like" Rabbit Slippers Blog on Face Book to keep up with the latest postings & events.

You can also sign up by e-mail notices at the top right of the page. (Your privacy is important to Rabbit Slippers).

You can also follow through Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs, both located in the right side bar.

Check out the new Etsy shop "Bunny Burrow Boutique" with handmade rabbit-themed and other jewelry, art and the occasional vintage item! Here's the link: Bunny Burrow Boutique  Please also "like" the Bunny Burrow Boutique Facebook page too! Some of the money also goes to rabbit rescues and non-profit organizations! Thanks for checking us out. Also, just for reading Rabbit Slippers Blog,  you can use the coupon code: "RABBITSLIPPERS1" at checkout to get a 20% discount off your purchase  until the end of day May 31st, 2012.                                                        

Please visit the Rabbit Hop Shop at the following link (Rabbit Hop Shoppe link) for rabbit themed items and gifts!  Please also "like" the Rabbit Hop Shoppe Facebook page. Thanks!

Contest for Free Shopping Spree in Bunny Burrow Boutique

Would you like to have a chance to pick out some items at a store and not have to open your wallet to carry the items out? I'm not talking about anything illegal in this case!

Instead I am talking about a contest to pick out items that total up to $30.00 worth of merchandise!  Here is your chance to shop at the Bunny Burrow Boutique and not have to pay a thing!

The contest starts  May 15th, 2012 and ends midnight at end of day of May 26th, 2012.

You can enter a number of different ways.Each thing you do counts as entries. In other words, you can enter more than once! Please click on the Raffle Copter widget below. Please be a little patient, the widget may take a few moments to load.




a Rafflecopter giveaway




Rafflecopter is new to Rabbit Slippers. If you have any issues with the widget, please let me know by contacting me at: CLICK HERE.  I want this to be an easy and pleasurable experience for you.

Hope you have fun and good luck!

Also, remember for each item purchased at the Bunny Burrow Boutique in the month of May 2012, one dollar ($1.00) will go to Gainesville Rabbit Rescue.  So if, for example, someone purchases three items, then $3.00 will go to Gainesville Rabbit Rescue in Florida! Thanks! 
Rabbit Slippers has a new e-mail address rabbitslippersblog@gmail.com if you want to e-mail any ideas, suggestions, comments, concerns or share anything. 

Please follow Rabbit Slippers Blog on Twitter, too, @RabbitSlipprs . 

Please "like" Rabbit Slippers Blog on Face Book to keep up with the latest postings & events.

You can also sign up by e-mail notices at the top right of the page. (Your privacy is important to Rabbit Slippers).

You can also follow through Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs, both located in the right side bar.

Check out the new Etsy shop "Bunny Burrow Boutique" with handmade rabbit-themed and other jewelry, art and the occasional vintage item! Here's the link: Bunny Burrow Boutique  Please also "like" the Bunny Burrow Boutique Facebook page too! Some of the money also goes to rabbit rescues and non-profit organizations! Thanks for checking us out. Also, just for reading Rabbit Slippers Blog,  you can use the coupon code: "RABBITSLIPPERS1" at checkout to get a 20% discount off your purchase  until the end of day May 31st, 2012.                                                        

Please visit the Rabbit Hop Shop at the following link (Rabbit Hop Shoppe link) for rabbit themed items and gifts!  Please also "like" the Rabbit Hop Shoppe Facebook page. Thanks!

Ten Reasons To Be Owned By a Bunny

Listening to a person who has bunnies in their home,  someone who hasn't had the pleasure or exposure to them will perhaps say that bunnies are overrated or that a rabbit lover is full of it somehow.  There are people that just don't get it. Some just need to understand more and learn a bit more to understand, and then there are others who will just never get it. That is okay. We all have our likes and dislikes. It makes our world interesting. They may be a dog, cat or perhaps a reptile or ferret person, among the many enthusiasms that people demonstrate for animals. As long as they don't hurt animals, even someone who doesn't like animals is okay in my book.

But in getting back to the bunnies, they are a creature that takes more time to get to know and vice versa. They take their time to get to know us.  Taking that time is a worthwhile pursuit. There are other places you can find out about that process.  If you wish to try that that pursuit though, here are some reasons why to inspire you in no certain order. You can look up some more in-depth information on most of these, by looking around at www.rabbit.org .

1) They generally are quiet. Once you get to know them, they have their noises they make and ways of communicating which will amaze you, but they are quiet and great if you get tired of the world of noise that seeps into our lives and takes away much of our calm.


2) They use litter boxes! No trips to use a pooper scooper in the snow at 5AM like you might have to do with canine friends. Of course they most likely will need a little training with it, but being instinctively clean animals, they usually learn quickly. Sometimes, they even will show us how they want to use the litter box (es?). Bunnies have some different needs though with it, so look up the right way. 


3) They are social! Rabbits are social with each other and with us. It takes time for us to get to know them and vice versa. The thing about bunnies is that they take their time. Actually they teach us much about the right way to invest in relationships, instead of going too quickly.  If you have had other types of animals in your life, it is a good idea to learn about bunnies first.  They are not aloof like cats, but they are as outgoing as dogs.  They like to make sure they can trust us.
They love to play with each other (if there is more than one bun in your household) and they like to play with us. In fact it is recommended that if we can't spend much time with bunnies, that we get them a bunny pal. They will socialize with other animals in a household also, but one needs to approach that with knowledge (research) and some caution.
They can become depressed without interaction or at the loss of a pal.


4) They are entertaining! Bunnies provide much entertainment, just as much as I think we may provide to them!  Their antics of running Bunny 500s, binkying, nose bonks, etc. are classic. Their individual personalities and relationships with us are something else! The begging looks when they smell something they love to eat, watching them play around tossing things that seem meaningless to us, ways to get our attention. Their interactions with each other and with us are often funny as hell.  They often draw us in.  Do something they don't like, such as give attention to another bunny or a significant other human and see how quickly you might get the cold shoulder!  I used to be fascinated by one bunny I had that was a peace making mediator. He would get in between two others in disagreement, lick them both, and do whatever magic he did and the bunnies would all get along. He did this constantly- and with different bunnies!  I never saw another do that. I don't have cable TV- besides checking out something I really don't want to miss on the internet, I just either interact with or play with the bunnies!


5) They all have very different personalities. When I first had to interact with a bunny, Snowflake was a very huge white bunny donated to us in the nursing home I worked at. When I first started researching how to take care of a bunny, he started to follow me around the place and would hop up next to me when I sat down.  He got me hooked on bunnies. When I brought home Grumble Bunny, she was aloof and rascally, but fiercely loyal and loving.  I've had fraidy buns, the peace maker, the cuddler, the Gandhi, the sex maniac (even after neutering), the Gray Widow Maker (she was extremely domineering if left to have her way), the comedians, the athletes, the brooder, the Cowardly Lionhead...etc. I've had a lot of rabbits and probably always will.  They all interact differently with us and each other.  I haven't had other animals while I've had bunnies, but I've seen them interact very differently with different types of animals in other's households. They just only have to take time to get to know us and vice versa.


6) They teach us a lot of important things about life. From my bunnies, I have learned an incredible amount about life. They teach about different types of love, patience, loyalty, persistence, consistency, balance in life to be healthy (diet, leisure, work, exercise, etc.), well being, taking time for ourselves just through interactions and everyday life. They also have made me learn indirectly about how nature works-such as about organics and mother nature vs. all the things mankind does artificially to alter and often harm things.


7) You can fertilize your garden or lawn with their bunny berries. Bunny manure is from vegetarian sources. It doesn't have the harmful bacteria such as e.coli that comes from many other animals, which needs to be cured.  Bunny berries, as a friend of mine affectionately call them, can go right in the garden. You don't have to worry about if they are acidic or alkaline. They are safe for everything! My friend showed me an experiment in his garden of the same types of veggies grown with bunny berries and the same but without bunny berries. The bunny berry gardens had bigger, healthier more colorful veggies!
Bunny Berries are also a big ingredient often used with vermicomposting. Vermicomposting is composting with worms. The worms take in what is left for them and leave out much more nutritious soil product for our gardens to grow in.  The burrowing of the worms also aerates the soil and breaks it apart for water & air flow and roots to grow. Much better for making nutrients available for our crops and plants.


8) They are interactive!  They respond to us and each other in different ways! Body language (lots of great stuff out there on the internet about it), noises and antics. Tooth click purring is one of the greatest compliments from a bunny when being petted.  They steal toys and food from each other, tease each other, cuddle and groom each other.  Certain looks, a noise, a grunt, running around and looking at us, a nose bonk (sort of like playing friendly game of tag) make us react in certain ways. They learn some of our words, their names. It's like a little community within my own home!  They respond to all types of things with each other and us. They seek us out for comfort and we seek them out for the same, all though what is being comforted is probably different. They love to play.


9) We learn about eating healthier. Between seeing how the balance of a diet is so important, taking in organic food, and eating more greens, veggies than other types of food, I have been forced to learn about the benefits of this lifestyle as opposed to the junk we can take in.  Bunnies can become diabetic or have life threatening illnesses (GI Stasis for example) or have issues of all different types from eating an inbalanced diet. Also, they can have neurological problems from pesticides or be poisoned from them or have other issues.  Keeping it simple, clean, natural and healthy is the way to go. We don't need to interfere as much as we do with what mother nature does for us!  Buying them stuff in the produce department also forces me to look for myself there more as well!


10) They are great listeners!  Bunnies, with those long ears, often at attention of the environment when we aren't aware, are some of the best listeners.  One lady in a nursing home I worked at used to come talk to Snowflake, the big white bunny, everyday. She talked about how she outlived her abusive husband and the things he would do to her. Snowflake listened everyday and always responded with love and acceptance. We complain about work, or something that gets on our nerves to them. They quiet us down or they may act frightened. So for them to listen we learn to ground ourselves a bit, quiet down and talk to them in a civilized tone. They may try to take our mind off things by inviting us to play or pet them. The bunnies often relax people when I bring them to visit the nursing homes.


We gain so much from our bunnies and they gain so much from us. People often say that they own a pet. I truly think they own us by the time they are in our homes and hearts!


Rabbit Slippers has a new e-mail address rabbitslippersblog@gmail.com if you want to e-mail any ideas, suggestions, comments, concerns or share anything. 

Please follow Rabbit Slippers Blog on Twitter, too, @RabbitSlipprs . 

Please "like" Rabbit Slippers Blog on Face Book to keep up with the latest postings & events.

You can also sign up by e-mail notices at the top right of the page. (Your privacy is important to Rabbit Slippers).

You can also follow through Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs, both located in the right side bar.

Check out the new Etsy shop "Bunny Burrow Boutique" with handmade rabbit-themed and other jewelry, art and the occasional vintage item! Here's the link: Bunny Burrow Boutique  Please also "like" the Bunny Burrow Boutique Facebook page too! Some of the money also goes to rabbit rescues and non-profit organizations! Thanks for checking us out. Also, just for reading Rabbit Slippers Blog,  you can use the coupon code: "RABBITSLIPPERS1" at checkout to get a 20% discount off your purchase  until the end of day May 31st, 2012.                                                        

Please visit the Rabbit Hop Shop at the following link (Rabbit Hop Shoppe link) for rabbit themed items and gifts!  Please also "like" the Rabbit Hop Shoppe Facebook page. Thanks!

Bunny Burrow Boutique Purchases Support Gainesville Rabbit Rescue

Hi There,

Excited here to tell you that Gainesville Rabbit Rescue is the designated recipient of donations for the month of May at the Etsy shop, The Bunny Burrow Boutique.  The shop continues listing new items for sale and being new is still evolving and growing! Bunny Burrow Boutique's commitment to helping rabbit rescues and rabbit welfare organizations (such as the House Rabbit Society) is very important to us.

To top it off, for every purchase made at Bunny Burrow Boutique, a donation of one dollar ($1.00) will be made to Gainesville Rabbit Rescue until the end of day on May 31st, 2012. This organization rescues bunnies full-time 24/7/365.

Gainesville Rabbit Rescue was heard of nationwide last year around this time of year when a rabbit breeder was threatening to gas her bunnies because she couldn't afford to be in the business anymore. I couldn't find any news stories on Google (I will update this when I do), but there was one link that mentions Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue in Louisiana (another great rescue). They were alongside Gainesville Rabbit Rescue with many other rescue volunteers from other states coming to help out the bunnies. Here is the link I have for now...(click here). Here is Gainesville Rabbit Rescue's website (click here) and Facebook page (click here).

Please stop by the Bunny Burrow Boutique. There are rabbit-themed jewelry items, but it's not limited to that! There are nature and animal themed items and just some nice pieces that would appeal to anyone. Please also "like" us on Facebook. By the way, there is free shipping for any purchase also.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Rabbit Slippers has a new e-mail address rabbitslippersblog@gmail.com if you want to e-mail any ideas, suggestions, comments, concerns or share anything. 

Please follow Rabbit Slippers Blog on Twitter, too, @RabbitSlipprs . 

Please "like" Rabbit Slippers Blog on Face Book to keep up with the latest postings & events.

You can also sign up by e-mail notices at the top right of the page. (Your privacy is important to Rabbit Slippers).

You can also follow through Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs, both located in the right side bar.

Check out the new Etsy shop "Bunny Burrow Boutique" with handmade rabbit-themed and other jewelry, art and the occasional vintage item! Here's the link: Bunny Burrow Boutique  Please also "like" the Bunny Burrow Boutique Facebook page too! Some of the money also goes to rabbit rescues and non-profit organizations! Thanks for checking us out. Also, just for reading Rabbit Slippers Blog,  you can use the coupon code: "RABBITSLIPPERS1" at checkout to get a 20% discount off your purchase  until the end of day May 31st, 2012.                                                        

Please visit the Rabbit Hop Shop at the following link (Rabbit Hop Shoppe link) for rabbit themed items and gifts!  Please also "like" the Rabbit Hop Shoppe Facebook page. Thanks!

A Few Days Left: Help Sweet Binks Rabbit Rescue

Hello, Thanks for stopping by. Just wanted to let you know that there's just a few days left until the end of the month. Sweet Binks is the designated recipient for donations from purchases made at Bunny Burrow Boutique on Etsy. The last day of this month (April 2012) is the last day that donations from purchases will go to them. Thank you for stopping by.

For every purchase made at Bunny Burrow Boutique, a donation of one dollar ($1.00) will be made to Sweet Binks Rabbit Rescue until the end of day on Sunday, April 30th, 2012. This organization rescues bunnies full-time 24/7/365. Sweet Binks is also the House Rabbit Society Chapter for the state of Rhode Island. Sweet Binks has been been known to me for over 10 years and their love for helping people with their bunnies has reached out all over the world on Etherbun (mentioned in the link below). They are run solely on volunteer power! You can get further info on Sweet Binks Rabbit Rescue at the following link: (where you can also get direct links to Sweet Binks web links):  Interview with Pam from Sweet Binks Rabbit Rescue: http://rabbitslippers.blogspot.com/2011/10/binkying-at-sweet-binks.html

Sweet Binks Facebook page right now states that they are putting on a new roof they needed, getting new flooring and have a lot of vet's bills. They make sure their bunnies are taken care of!  I have always admired the work they do!

Please stop by the Bunny Burrow Boutique. There are rabbit-themed jewelry items, but it's not limited to that! There are nature and animal themed items and just some nice pieces that would appeal to anyone. Please also "like" us on Facebook. By the way, there is free shipping for any purchase also.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Rabbit Slippers has a new e-mail address rabbitslippersblog@gmail.com if you want to e-mail any ideas, suggestions, comments, concerns or share anything. 

Please follow Rabbit Slippers Blog on Twitter, too, @RabbitSlipprs . 

Please "like" Rabbit Slippers Blog on Face Book to keep up with the latest postings & events.

You can also sign up by e-mail notices at the top right of the page. (Your privacy is important to Rabbit Slippers).

You can also follow through Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs, both located in the right side bar.

Check out the new Etsy shop "Bunny Burrow Boutique" with handmade rabbit-themed and other jewelry, art and the occasional vintage item! Here's the link: Bunny Burrow Boutique  Please also "like" the Bunny Burrow Boutique Facebook page too! Some of the money also goes to rabbit rescues and non-profit organizations! Thanks for checking us out. Also, just for reading Rabbit Slippers Blog,  you can use the coupon code: "RABBITSLIPPERS1" at checkout to get a 20% discount off your purchase  until the end of day April 30th, 2012.                                                        

Please visit the Rabbit Hop Shop at the following link (Rabbit Hop Shoppe link) for rabbit themed items and gifts!  Please also "like" the Rabbit Hop Shoppe Facebook page. Thanks!

Bunny Over the Moon Earring Contest Winner

Hello there,

I am pleased to announce the winner of the Bunny Over the Moon Earring Contest. 

The winner has won a pair of silver pierced earrings that have a Bunny Jumping In the Moonlight!

Darling rabbits are jumping in front of beautiful crescent moon. They have silver plated French hooks. First, I want to thank everyone who participated in this contest. Thank you for entering. There will be another contest coming very soon.


May I have a drum roll please?

 Got to build up that suspense right?

And the winner is......

The prize goes to Mindi BunnyPaws (her Facebook name).


Mindi, Congratulations! Your prize will be sent out in tomorrow's mail.

Also, please remember any purchases at Bunny Burrow Boutique (click here for link) you make right now, until April 30th, will help Sweet Binks Rabbit Rescue.  One dollar from each item purchased will be donated to Sweet Binks Rabbit Rescue.




Also, there is another contest for Bunny Burrow Boutique going on at this link (click here). The prize there is a $25.00 gift card to pick out what you would like at the Bunny Burrow Boutique.
Rabbit Slippers has a new e-mail address rabbitslippersblog@gmail.com if you want to e-mail any ideas, suggestions, comments, concerns or share anything. 

Please follow Rabbit Slippers Blog on Twitter, too, @RabbitSlipprs . 

Please "like" Rabbit Slippers Blog on Face Book to keep up with the latest postings & events.

You can also sign up by e-mail notices at the top right of the page. (Your privacy is important to Rabbit Slippers).

You can also follow through Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs, both located in the right side bar.

Check out the new Etsy shop "Bunny Burrow Boutique" with handmade rabbit-themed and other jewelry, art and the occasional vintage item! Here's the link: Bunny Burrow Boutique  Please also "like" the Bunny Burrow Boutique Facebook page too! Some of the money also goes to rabbit rescues and non-profit organizations! Thanks for checking us out. Also, just for reading Rabbit Slippers Blog,  you can use the coupon code: "RABBITSLIPPERS1" at checkout to get a 20% discount off your purchase  until the end of day April 30th, 2012.                                                        

Please visit the Rabbit Hop Shop at the following link (Rabbit Hop Shoppe link) for rabbit themed items and gifts!  Please also "like" the Rabbit Hop Shoppe Facebook page. Thanks!

Connecting to Earth Day: Rabbits are Great Teachers

Okay, ever since I was a little kid I was concerned about the environment.  It was the day and age of the dawning of the awareness of taking care of our planet and the messages were everywhere. Even in the suburbs, I can remember my dad burning trash in a metal barrel in the backyard. They weren't the only ones that did it, everyone did in the neighborhood-it was a common practice. I was real small then and didn't have a full awareness of why, it's more like it just "was". At some point I recall my dad mentioning the big word "pollution" and that trash burning became "against the law" (in my young head I imagined the police hauling my dad off to jail for burning trash in the backyard).

I also remember (perhaps it was on Earth Day) in the early 1970s helping my older teen cousins, who were probably about 4-6 years older than me (their parents forced me on them when I was a guest at their house for a few nights), clean up around and in a stream in their community.  I was thrilled! It was like what we were learning about in school and like the public service messages and news on television. I was too young to have done something like that with the young adults on my own, but it gave me an opportunity to be like the "hippies" and "students" I always heard about cleaning up areas in the environment. On TV, I heard about fish coming back to rivers that were once polluted with trash and chemicals. Oh how I long for television with more positive messages like that.

Now, what does all this have to do with my rabbits? I am sure you are asking that by now. Well,  I loved Richard Nixon telling us to conserve oil and gas, etc. (although I didn't understand the politics about it at the time).  I always took part in campaigns to help the environment through my years, but it was my rabbits that taught me so much more and almost the zen of the interconnectedness of it all! I have had other pets over the years, but the rabbits taught me how it all works.

 

First part focused on that these little animals were prey animals and that their whole psychological make up was different than mine, dogs or cats. Rabbits are on almost every animal's food chain. They are given those special ears, fast hopping legs and eyes on the sides of their head for a reason. It all helps them get away from their enemies. It is also why they have so many babies, it is a method of making sure their species survives.

It's a compliment when you earn a rabbit's trust. Rabbits are very social and the relationship is very mutually rewarding, but it all has to be earned and the rabbit is the boss. Rabbits teach us to be slow, patient and to pay attention to the subtleties of their behavior and environment around them. It's part of the zen they teach us. Their vulnerability as being a prey animal also helps us become protective of them.

Then as we learn about their diet and feeding them, we learn about chemicals, pesticides, and all that may come to harm them. They are herbivores- vegetarian! I'm the one on the block that goes out in my backyard ( I avoid the front yard because of the fumes from cars on our highly trafficked street near the center of town. I don't want my rabbits ingesting that residue) and encourages the dandelions to grow! I harvest them too, before the lawn is mowed.  I've had rabbits longer than I've had my own lawn and knew they would be sharing that lawn and yard with me. I have never used chemicals on it.  

As you can see, they get to munch on some long grass!

When they are outside in the pen with my supervision, they fertilize my lawn as well as eat at the all-you-can-eat salad bar consisting of the weeds (what most men consider trash is a bun's treasure!) and grass out there. Those bunnies have created some highly sought after fertilizer. One thing I learned is that because they are vegetarian and the way their specific digestive system works, their manure can be used straight from the rabbit to the garden. No time to let it season is required! Most other animals have certain bacterias (such as e.coli) and other things in their manure that would make it unhealthy either for the garden or for us unless it's seasoned over time. There are so many subtleties that the long earred ones make me pay attention to.

At first learning all these things might make some things seem nerve-wracking, but every time I learn something from these buns, it makes me feel closer to the earth, nature, the buns and myself. Having grown gardens for them and myself has taught me about the cycles of the earth. Composting and using their "bunny berries" in the garden has shown me how the old and used becomes the new and nurturing.  It even shows the reason for mold, certain bacterias and insects (such as houseflies). In their own way, without describing the process (I'm getting long here as it is), these things that annoy us help break down the old veggie cuttings and the like into soil full of nutrients!  I still hate mold, certain bacteria and houseflies but I know why they are here. (As an aside, to annoy you more about flies, did you know that they are part of the pollenization process to everyone's favorite weed to hate- poison ivy?).

Even animals & birds help mother nature spread the wealth with keeping the growth of plants on earth. They might eat seeds or get them stuck in their fur and then inadvertently drop them in their travels. The seeds they eat, when coming out the other end then may come out with their own fertilizer attached.  It's all part of the cycles. The bees pollinate, as  well as the wind.  Very interesting. Many of us have lost touch with the original meaning of the birds and the bees- but that's what it's about. The bunnies, the birds and the bees.

When we put toxic things on our earth, in its other inhabitants and in ourselves, we hurt a part of the earth. The bunnies have taught me about all different things. Ideas of weeds (weeds and their roots often grow more where the soil is bad and help keep the soil together instead of being loose to be blown or washed away by erosion) and some things being bad and chemicals (fertilizers, pesticides, additives to food and most other aspects of our lives), as well as processing/altering things (food-removing and breaking down the healthy parts of food, GMO foods, etc.)being considered good all changes when you have rabbits and really get to know them.

I could write a lot about all this, but I think it would be too much. I've written a lot already. We need to take care of our Mother Earth! She's where all our quality of life comes from. What we put in is what we get out. I think I might start adding topics to this blog that address this as part of a commitment to help with living better in harmony with this world. Every time I look up stuff or research more, it will not only help me to keep my commitment but may help others too. We are all in this together.

Please share all your thoughts and ideas on this. My bunnies have helped me want to protect and preserve our earth more, for it's better for them. 

If you have bunnies, how have they affected your thinking about life? Have they changed the way you think??? I often think of them as a special gift from God to be cherished for all they have taught me.

Rabbit Slippers has a new e-mail address rabbitslippersblog@gmail.com if you want to e-mail any ideas, suggestions, comments, concerns or share anything. 

Please follow Rabbit Slippers Blog on Twitter, too, @RabbitSlipprs . 

Please "like" Rabbit Slippers Blog on Face Book to keep up with the latest postings & events.

You can also sign up by e-mail notices at the top right of the page. (Your privacy is important to Rabbit Slippers).

You can also follow through Google Friend Connect or Networked Blogs, both located in the right side bar.

Check out the new Etsy shop "Bunny Burrow Boutique" with handmade rabbit-themed and other jewelry, art and the occasional vintage item! Here's the link: Bunny Burrow Boutique  Please also "like" the Bunny Burrow Boutique Facebook page too! Some of the money also goes to rabbit rescues and non-profit organizations! Thanks for checking us out. Also, just for reading Rabbit Slippers Blog,  you can use the coupon code: "RABBITSLIPPERS1" at checkout to get a 20% discount off your purchase  until the end of day April 30th, 2012.                                                        

Please visit the Rabbit Hop Shop at the following link (Rabbit Hop Shoppe link) for rabbit themed items and gifts!  Please also "like" the Rabbit Hop Shoppe Facebook page. Thanks!