Kings Canyon Veterinary Foundation: Piddles: October Update

Enjoy the following update into the life of Piddles

...an Extraordinary Rabbit!

written by S. Jebb

PART ONE: Click Here

PART TWO: October 2014

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Just an update on little Piddles...October 16th she was 2 months old. It has been fast and curious for her. And yes it is official, she's a girl! She was 1lb 3 oz. The vet said she is in much better health than most of the rabbits she sees. (Dr. LeBeuf who sees our other animals, does not treat rabbits, so Piddles goes to another Vet) She has outgrown so many houses. Her store bought house has already been remodeled once and it is just about to start it's second renovation. This one will most likely become an indoor nighttime house. If my husband does what he wants, the bottom floor will be 4 x 8' and will be a 3 story! Which will include real grass and read sand, along with her potty box. It will of course have a race track and will be mobile so we can move it. Plenty of tubes, hammocks and other things to play on.

In wanting to learn more about rabbits we've picked up 2 books. The first one was about raising rabbits for fur and meat. I have to tell you that Piddles wanted nothing to do with it! She said she was too cute for that nonsense. I have to admit I was a little surprised too, that so many people do eat rabbit. The second book is really about domestic rabbits. Some of it she disagreed with as well. Such as the part about climbing. Piddles loves going up and down ramps along with climbing onto the backs of chairs. She also loves obstacles, which the book said we would have to train her on. No way, she figured it out on her own. We moved the ramp in an effort to keep her curious and playful. Her favorite thing to climb is actually inside the reclining sofa chairs. They have pockets in them for housing the workings. But she says the pockets are quite comfortable. We raised 10 Borzoi and currently have 4 cats, and I will admit I never expected to have a rabbit running around the living room. So I can tell you it's true...she pretty much potty trained herself once we put the kitty litter in her house. She does on occasion leave a few drops behind, but not very often. Now on the other hand, she can leave an amazing amount of little piles everywhere. I know this is for marking territory, but really 4 or 5 at a time!? Thank goodness they are dry and easily picked up. She plays in the living room for 1+ hour every morning and a little longer in the evening. Wow, can she kick up her heels doing happy dances. She loves to jump from place to place to clear obstacles. I think in some way she is getting even with the cats for pulling her out of her nest. She loves to race full speed to their bed, scratch it and then rolls like crazy. This has now become what we call the Piddle Roll.

Another thing the book said was for them to have a water bottle. Nope, she said no way. At least that is what we think she was telling us, because she always managed to get it off her house. She likes a full bowl of water. We are trying to figure out how to make a small fountain similar to the Drinkwell the cats use. Can't wait to see how this turns out.

The book also said she wouldn't like the wind. We thought this might be the case on the windy day we had a few weeks ago. Nope, we have a fan pointed at her house and we find her on the her patio all stretched out and tummy toward the fan.

What a life for a rabbit. But then again, she is Princess Piddles.

ps: As I'm writing this I can see her and I love watching her groom herself. She is very particular about getting her face and ears clean.