Monday, December 29, 2008

The Rainbow Bridge is a Lucky Place This Week

We were going to start telling a new story today, however our hearts are sad and our eyes are leaking because we have lost two dear bunny friends in the past week.


Hugo went to the Rainbow Bridge this morning after an illness. It looked like he was starting to get better, but we guess it was his time to cross. His dear friends Yowlyy and Miss Eve will need all of our thoughts to help them cope with his passing. Hugo was a beautiful white rabbit with wonderfully expressive eyes that were filled with wisdom and disapproval. Yet, if you check out their blog you’ll see lots of pictures of Miss Eve taking full advantage of his gentle nature! He didn't seem to mind when she sat on his head or squished him. He just seemed to love her even more! We’ll miss you Hugo.





Our other rabbit friend Gumpy left for the Rainbow Bridge on December 23rd. Gumpy had a sweet, innocent face and delighted in causing as many problems as possible for his mum and dad. There is a great picture on his blog of Gumpy and his ex-wife/best friend Myxi (who, much to everyone’s surprise, turned out to be a boy, so Gumpy decided Myxi could be his best friend instead of his wife) with their bodies completely inside a bag of pellets. All you can see are their little furry bottoms sticking out of the sack! Gumpy’s mum says that he passed away peacefully and quietly. We are sorry he had to go, but we bet he’s finding all kinds of ways to be “norty” on the other side of the bridge!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Let It Snow!

Deb & Freckles:

We’ve been pretty busy playing in the snow lately. Washington and Oregon have been having the biggest blizzard to hit our area in many, many years. News reports vary on just how long it’s been since we’ve seen so much snow (we’re talking feet instead of inches!), but it has been unique for our area. Unfortunately, there is a big problem with this year’s arctic blast:
  1. We don’t usually get this much snow, so our transportation departments don’t have enough equipment to handle it.

  2. It happened right before Christmas, so a lot of people haven’t been able to get to the stores to shop for gifts and food.

  3. Freckles has decided that she is NOT a snow bunny (as the pictures below where she’s wanting to go back inside will show.)

It’s snowing again as we type this, but it is supposed to change to freezing rain and then will start to warm up in the next few days. In the meantime, Deb’s sitting in her rocking chair watching it snow and enjoying a nice hot cup of chai tea, and Freckles stays cozy in her favorite box only coming out when there is the promise of food. She will eat a little fresh snow as long as she's in the mood and it is served to her on a plate INDOORS.

So, for your viewing pleasure, here are our pictures of the snow of 2008 in the Pacific Northwest:

Friday, December 12, 2008

A Taste For Rabbit

Freckles:

I wanted to share a really interesting book that I read recently. It has a terrible title if you're a rabbit, but the book is called A Taste for Rabbit by Linda Zuckerman (Arthur A. Levine Books). This book is a 2008 Oregon Book Award winner for Young Adult Literature.

Now, you might be thinking that this is a cookbook, but I assure you that even though the characters seem to manage quite a bit of eating during the course of the events in the book (in fact there were several times when I found myself drooling over the descriptions of things like apple turnovers or eggplant and dried tomato sandwiches), you won't be finding any recipes between it's covers. And just look at how scary that cover is! A fox bearing down on a poor little rabbit. BUT then look at the shape of the rabbit in the background. I think that's Quentin, the main character rabbit and one of the unlikely heroes of the book. The other hero is Harry, a fox, who at first you think is an obnoxious guy, but he's just being a fox. He comes to discover that he has many redeeming qualities, and you quite like him by the end.

This is the story of how Quentin and Harry, who come from two different directions and lifestyles, have to work together to stop the terrible things that are happening to the rabbits. There are bad guys and good guys and sometimes it's hard to tell who is bad or good -- but isn't that the way life usually goes? Anyway, it's scary and exciting and riveting (that means you can't put it down because you really, really want to find out what happens.)

It is a young adult book, but adults are going to find it interesting, too. There are some yucky and sad things that happen in it, so I wouldn't recommend it to younger children.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

The Rest of the Story

Deb:

I see that Freckles filled you in yesterday on her remodeling project which has taken over our living room. What she didn't share with you was the huge mess that she has been making while creating her masterpiece. The picture on the right is only a small amount of the clutter that litters our living room on a daily basis. She also conveniently seems to forgotten to mention the small hole she chewed in the carpet while inside her box.

It is pretty funny to see her with her box. When she isn't inside the box, or chewing on the outside of the box, she is resting in the nest of chewed cardboard pieces. She also makes the box travel across the room from the inside. We'll be sitting quietly in the living room reading or watching television, and all of a sudden the box starts moving and jumping up and down! This was quite unnerving the first time it happened, but we are getting used to seeing it tour the living room.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Remodeling Update

Freckles:

As you probably noticed, I took a week off to work on the remodel of my box. This has been quite the project. First of all, I love my box. It is roomy and tall and dark. When I'm inside, nobody can see me. However, the doorways were a bit small. During the first phase of the remodel, I enlarged both doorways.

To remind you of what my box originally looked like, here's a picture. See how small the doorway is? Obviously, something had to be done!

So, I planned and worked and chewed and ripped. And then I ripped and chewed and worked and planned some more! All that planning, working, chewing, and ripping paid off as my remodeling masterpiece began to take shape.

Here are the "after" pictures.


































There's still a lot more to do, but I'm well on my way to breaking through some peekholes on the sides! A bunny's work is never done!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Britney Spears & Jessica Simpson

Deb & Freckles:

Okay, this post has absolutely NOTHING to do with Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson -- or the Jonas Brothers or Ellen Degeneres or Rachel Ray or Martha Stewart or Oprah or Barack Obama or The Beatles.

This is a name-dropping post. We discovered from yesterday's entry about Clint Eastwood and his pet rabbit that if you mention a celebrity name, you get LOTS of hits on your blog. Clint Eastwood was a gold mine of hits! A lot of people searched out his name and found us. Some people even searched "Clint Eastwood + pet rabbit." We wondered why people would think to do that search!

This happened to us once before when we had a post related to house cleaning and bunny messes that mentioned Martha Stewart. We discovered all kinds of people visiting us (and some people still find that post from time to time when they are looking for Martha.)

So, we thought we'd drop a bunch of names to see if we got any hits from those celebrities. We'll let you know how it goes!

Oh, and we'd like to add rabbit, bunny, cat, kitten, dog, puppy, bird, hamster, snake, lizard, tarantula, and gerbil, just in case anyone is searching out celebrity pets!

Monday, December 8, 2008

A Celebrity Bunny Lover!

Deb:

Sunday's issue of Parade Magazine contained an article on Clint Eastwood that started with these words: "He’s sitting at home, stroking his pet rabbit." OMG -- Clint Eastwood has a pet rabbit! Who would have thought that Dirty Harry was a bunny lover? Well, live and learn.

This article led Freckles and I to ponder who else might be bunny lovers without our knowledge. Any ideas?