Volunteering........

Hanging out with rabbits on a near daily basis is many things, one of those being a learning opportunity. A few days ago I was gifted with the chance to see....and intervene in.....a bunny fight.

One of the baby boys dug under his outside enclosure and entered the enclosure occupied by Lucy and Elias. Elias (and Lucy too, I presume) objected and baby boy bunny and Elias went at it hot and heavy.....no screaming or yelling but lots of commotion in the area and fur flying in the air.

Spoilsport that I am, when I got into the enclosure I was able to scoop up baby boy and that was the end of the hubbub. Both of the combatants seemed well pleased to have somebody interrupt and baby boy struggled not at all....at least not until I carried him around for what he decided was too long and started to squirm. I placed him in a different enclosure and he was fine...in fact seemed a little proud of himself.

Elias, who is generally not the friendliest of fellows (and, to my mind, is sort of a bully and abuser) seemed somewhat stunned. OK, but rattled. He let me pet him a lot and pick him up and check for injury (which is generally not his demeanor). He appeared to be fine as did his opponent, nothing amiss except for some fur flying in the breeze.

A secret part of me is sort of glad Elias had some troubles....he appears to beat up on Lucy when he gets upset and that sort of stuff irritates me. Being upset provides no license to be mean to others....especially if they are not the cause of the upset. So maybe a little karma balancing went on here?

That same day gave me the chance to see what looked like sulking on the part of Gwendolyn. She was taken outside but instead of being allowed to roam free I placed her in an enclosure because some other bunny folk were roaming. Gwendolyn proceeded to get up under her shelter basket and just stayed there....unusual for her, she is usually active, alert and checking everything out. Later, when the earlier roamers were back inside, she was allowed to roam....whole demeanor change, she ran around...looked at things and looked happy as hell.

All us animals know what we like and don't like and all us animals get bothered when we do not get what we want. A big learning day for me, big excitement for baby boy and Lucy and Elias, big disappointment followed by pleasure for Gwendolyn.

Whew, volunteering is something else. You are missing out if you aren't doing it.