A Busy Week

I’m sorry I haven’t blogged in a while. Things have been pretty hectic. Last week we opened our show, and I’ve been doing two shows a day. Sally is doing just fine. I don’t feel like we’ve made a great deal of progress this past week, which is frustrating, but these things are all about patient. She’s currently sitting in my lap not moving. She’s angry and scared. I’ve been trying to hold Sally a little every day to try and get her used to it, but I don’t think it’s working. Some bunnies just won’t ever be ok with being held. But I’ll give it a little more time and see. I don’t know why Sally is so scared all of the time. It makes me wonder if she was abused when she was younger. This poor baby needs someone to trust. She hasn’t quite gotten there with me yet, but hopefully we’ll see a breakthrough soon. Le sigh.

Anyways, I’ll try to update more often, but thank you all for your support! Sally has such personality, and she just needs someone who will be patient and kind to her. 

 

 

Here’s a picture of her hiding under pillows for your amusement. 

 

Sally goes NOM NOM NOM

So I was in the shower yesterday when I heard a strange noise. I wondered at first if it was my neighbors, but then it hit me that I had forgotten to move the gate back so that Sally couldn’t get to where I was. I took a peak out, and sure enough, Sally had hopped her way over to my polka dot luggage bag to munch down and have herself a little gnawing exercise. bad bad bad Sally!
Rabbits LOVE to use their teeth, so I’m very fortunate that it wasn’t some electrical cord or something that she got her paws on. That bunny. I sure won’t forget again! I rather enjoyed that bag.

Today when I got home from rehearsal, I noticed Sally had not eaten all of her pellets. I had a slight panic attack because Sally is a pig and always eats all her food up quickly. I thought maybe she had gas, and gas causes bunnies digestive systems to stop and they could die within 24 hours. So I ran to the fridge and grabbed a nibble of Sally’s favorite green: Cabbage. I dashed on into her cage and asked her if she wanted it. She almost bit off my finger trying to eat it. We’re good.

Sally does NOT like the door stop peg in my hallway though. After she bumped into it, she ran off into her box and thumped.

Bunny bunny bunny bunny

 

 

 

P.S. Video of her knocking over the tower will come tomorrow. I apologize.

Green is her Favorite Color

Today I’ve got a video for all of you. For the first time, Sally let me pet her without cowering away or freezing. When I walked in the room, instead of running to hide in her box in case I was some terrifying predator, she hopped OUT of her box to see what I had to offer.
She’s still not completely comfortable yet. She didn’t dare come all the way in the living room today, but she DID peak into the living room earlier before bolting back to her hideout in the closet.

I’ll post a video of her knocking over her toy tower tomorrow.

Frustration comes before progress

Yesterday I picked Sally up and put her on my bed just to see what she would think. I kinda figured she would be unhappy being away from her safe haven (box), and boy was I right. She sniffed around and then tried to bury herself underneath one of the pillows. Every time I tried to touch her she’d freeze. I suppose she thinks if she freezes, I won’t know she’s there. Well, needless to say, it’s probably a little too soon to put her on my bed. Like I said before, Sally is teaching me patience as much as I’m teaching her to be more sociable. So when I got home from rehearsal today, I went and spent a lot of time in Sally’s cage. I took her house out of the cage so she’d be forced to face me. Usually she hides away in her box and even takes a little nap. She’s comfortable with me being in there just as long as she’s got that box to hide in. At first, all she did was panic and search for her box. But then finally she started to sniff me. After about an hour and a half, she plopped down beside me for a rest. I then tried to stroke her little head, and she did NOT appreciate that. For some reason, Sally associates the human touch with bad bad bad. So I went and grabbed a little slice of apple and a third of the greens that she gets every night. She ate the apple right out of my hand and then demanded more. I put the cilantro all over my legs, and with a lot of caution, she came up and put her little paws on me. I fed her by hand a few times until she was super calm, and then I started petting her once or twice each time I would feed her some cilantro. This seemed to help her associate being petted with getting to eat. I think I’ll do this every day until she stops thinking that being petted by a human is bad.

Also, her box is in my living room. I have it in here to kind of convince her to come visit me in the living room finally. Well, I was right. She has left the safe haven of her cage to come explore and find her sacred box. She just hopped herself all the way in this living room and is now hiding away in her box. Good steps, good steps.

Yesterday= Frustrating
Today= progress

Vacation

I decided to head to Winfield this weekend to visit my mother for her birthday. I could have taken Sally back to Linda’s house, but my friend Sarah really wanted to babysit, and I thought it would be good for Sally to get more one on one time. Sally was used to Sarah already because she got a visit from her both days Sally was at my apartment. We refer to Sarah as Sally’s grandma. I’ve been getting updates via heytell (a walkie talky like app on iphone) and so far, it seems as though Sally is having a great time. Grandma Sarah says she even got the courage to come out of her cage and explore their living room. She ate her serving of fruit right out of Zach’s hand. This is goooooood. I’m so proud of miss honey bunny.

I can’t wait to pick her back up tomorrow! Hopefully the travel to and from Sarah’s house won’t set us back a step. She won’t be moving from my apartment for a good long time after this. Maybe the grandparents were good for sweet Sally and she’ll be ready to explore MY living room. Fingers crossed!

 

 

 

 

Home from rehearsal

Sally ate just fine this morning, which is awesome. She thumped a lot while I was getting ready, which means she was trying to tell me that she was NOT happy, but she’ll be ok once she gets used to her surroundings. When I got home from rehearsal, before I opened the door to her room, I kept saying, “Please don’t be dead please don’t be dead.” When I opened the door, Sally was chilling on her carpet. She saw me and BOLTED to her cardboard box. It took her a second to come out and play with her tiny basket. She tossed it twice and then ran back into her box. I left the cage open and stayed in the living room, hoping she might finally get the courage to come out of her cage and the closet and join me in the living room. It didn’t happen. I went to check on her while ago and she was hanging out in her box. I thought she was on edge and scared while I was sitting there trying to coax her out, but then she suddenly flopped down and rolled over on her back and went to sleep. She didn’t come out of her box, but the fact that she was relaxed enough to flop down and sleep with me sitting so near her is a good sign. We’re making sweet bunny progress!

Oh I forgot to mention that last night she and I digressed, and it was totally my fault. She was getting a little more comfortable with me and then I got a little bit too impatient and tried to see if she’d let me pick her up. Well, that wasn’t a good idea. She was angry at me for the rest of the night. So we’re back to stage one. These things must happen slowly. Looks like Sally will be teaching ME patience.

Sally moves in with me

Sweet Sally moved in today, and I’ll be fostering her for a little while. Basically what will happen is I will keep Sally for a little while and teach her to not be afraid. Sally is currently under the Alabama EARS society, and she needs a permanent home. Many people are interested in adopting her because she’s so darn cute, but she’s not all that sociable just yet. She’ll get there! She’s a little bit of a scaredy cat right now, but she’s such a wonderful bunny! She’s very playful and curious, and she doesn’t bite. She DOES box (she literally boxes your hand), but hopefully she’ll calm down on that once she gets more comfortable. I have her in my huge walk in closet right now in a nice big exercise cage. I currently have her cage open so she can hop on out of the closet and come join me in the living room, but she hasn’t quite gotten to that point yet. She comes close, then she dashes back to her cardboard box inside her cage. Overall, I have a feeling that this precious baby and I will get along just fine.