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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Bunnies, humidity and Benson

Benson, September morning, 2010

The remarkable run of humid, muggy, sort of yuck days finally ended here in central Oklahoma, this past Sunday brought a cool front and some version of fall weather.  I saw a notation in the newspaper that this past Monday night marked the lowest temperature the area has seen since May the 11th (about 4.5 months).

Cooler temperatures mark the onset of bunny weather. These animal folks do not thrive in warmer temperatures, once 85 degrees or so is reached their risk of heat stroke rises right along with the temperature/humidity ......so.....now begins the good times outside for the rabbits at Heartland Rabbit Rescue. Jeannie and Brad (and the volunteers) work at not only doing all the daily tasks that must be done for bunny care.......but also at setting up safe areas outside so each of the resident bunnies get the opportunity to spend time hopping, sniffing, running, digging or lallygagging.....in the great outdoors.
Fun times. Benson, the hermit rabbit, is not neglected when it is time for his neighborhood to migrate outside for some play time. Yesterday morning I took time to supervise him on a foray around the sanctuary grounds.  He took off once placed in the grass and made a tour half-way around the warren building and back.

He continues to be somewhat reclusive, but accepts handling without much fuss. Benson probably weighs around 2.5 lbs. I weigh (roughly) 80 times what he weighs.....my size is as much larger than Benson as a 16,000 lb creature would be to me (8 tons is a little larger than the largest elephants).  You or I would be a little intimidated, I suspect, if we were being handled by (or even in the vicinity of) some being 80 times bigger than we are.

Last week he actually did a small binky in his living area......which is pretty rare behavior for Benson.  Note that Benson's eye does not typically look quite as fierce at it appears to be in the photo, the morning sunlight caught it just at the right angle or maybe the inner Benson was just shining through.......

Here is a video of a cat person hanging out with a bunny person. The cat person is named Timothy and the bunny person is named Bunny. According to the info with the video, Bunny hopped up on the bed and lay down beside Timothy. As you can see, Timothy decided to provide some grooming. We humans aren't the only animals that can provide comfort and care to those who are different than ourselves.

If possible adopt from a local animal shelter, if you can't adopt, foster, if you can't foster, volunteer, if you can't volunteer, donate......do all of these things if you can.

Finally.....remember, it is almost impossible to eat the flesh of an animal or something produced by an animal without being responsible for suffering and death. Begin your journey toward a vegan lifestyle and you begin your journey toward not harming those who have not harmed you.

8 comments:

Krissa said...

Thanks for the update about Benson and Heartland. I hope Marshall and Midnight and everyone are enjoying the cool down too. I despise hot weather. It actually makes me physically sick and I do pretty bad once the temps start going over 70* (yes, 70) so I'm probably part bunny. :) .. What you wrote about the size difference between you and Benson is something I think about from time to time when I'm interacting with anyone that much smaller than me. That's another one of those things that's hard for me to wrap my brain around. Considering that our species overall hasn't given the little ones much reason to trust us, it's always an honor to be accepted by them.

Christina said...

That is a fantastic picture of Benson. I call him the "turtle" because of his little green igloo and I am happy to see him out and about enjoying himself. What a little sweetie he is.

Bunnies and Kitties always make me smile. I never saw a bun yet that didnt tell a kitty what to do.

veganelder said...

Thanks for commenting Krissa, yes all the hooved and pawed folks (and tennis shod folks too) are enjoying the cooler weather. The size thing is sort of strange if you think about it, Gracie Rae (one of the cat folks that live here) is about 20x smaller than me, that would be like me living with a being that weighed 4,000 lbs. Scary.

veganelder said...

Thanks Christina for commenting. Benson did make a nice pose didn't he? You may have to change his name, he seems to be spending more time out of his "shell" and motoring around in his living area. He did a hop/run all the way up to the first gate and back this morning. Pretty soon we will start to see the bulging muscles. :-)

I thought old Timothy looked pretty content to be doing the grooming.

Andrea said...

Glenn, I can't believe Benson did a binky!!!!! That makes me so happy it brought tears to my eyes. Thank you so very much for caring for our little hermit bun!

veganelder said...

Hey Andrea, thanks for commenting. Benson is a treat to be around, no thanks needed.

Bea Elliott said...

I've learned something new! A "binky" is that what you call it!?! Timothy and Bunny - Rehearsal for Peaceable Kingdom to come... Love it! <3

veganelder said...

Thanks Bea for commenting. Binky it is........