|
The Weary Ear |
Nicknames: King P.G. Fuzzball the First, Mr. P., Captain Grey Underpants, Captain Bunbossa, Captain P.G. - Terror of the High Seas, Pee-Jeepers, Perfect Gentleman, El Guapo Floppo, Attila the Bun, Chubby Cheekers P.G.'s Pro Wrestling Moniker: The Masticator Personality Traits: P.G. is litterbox trained. He is a very nice bunny, who licks the fingers of one particular family member when she is feeling sad. He does not like cats or mustard greens. He is the dominant bunny and likes his wife Reese; being scratched behind the ears; parsley; cilantro; mint; carrots; banana coins; apple; rabbit pellets; and travelling at high speed. We adopted P.G. in September 2002 from our local humane society. He was about four months old at the time. He is now older, wiser, and much mellower than when he was a "teenager." P.G. is a neutered male Dutch mix. We think he might be part Lop rabbit, because when he is tired, one of his ears flops all the way down. We call this his "weary ear." P.G. is a small rabbit, weighing only 4 1/2 pounds. P.G. didn't enjoy his car ride home from the humane society... he tried to chew his way out of his box, and also wet himself with fear. Once we arrived at home, we thought it would be best for him to have some quiet time in his new house. We opened the box and he hopped right into his condo. He promptly hurled himself onto his back and lay still as a stone. We were appalled... we thought he had dropped dead! It turned out that this was just the Happy Bunny Flop -- something rabbits do when they are feeling pretty darn terrific. If you are interested in learning more about rabbit body language, a web site called The Language of Lagomorphs is well worth a visit. After P.G. had lived with us for a month, we decided he needed a friend to keep him company during the day while we are gone. We took a trip to our local House Rabbit Society (HRS) chapter for some "dates" with female bunnies. Although rabbits are social animals and live in large groups in the wild, it can be difficult to introduce house rabbits to one another. They often fight when they first meet. Sure enough, P.G. didn't get along with the first rabbit he met. Luckily, he fell in love with Reese the moment he saw her. He was licking her ears in no time. It took a few days for him to adjust to her living in our house, but they have been bonded ever since. If you are interested in learning more about bonding rabbits, the HRS has some articles about it. We recently adopted two more rabbits, Owen and Gazelle. The experience demonstrated how hard it can be to bond rabbits. Although all four rabbits got along well outside of our home, once they came back here, P.G. became very territorial and kept trying to kill them. Since they outweigh him by a hefty margin, he definitely wasn't winning any battles, but he wouldn't give up the fight. Both pairs of rabbits now live separately in our house, and have different playtimes. |
