My baby is now a TEEN

Last Sunday, I went with my friend Julie to pick up some rabbits for the sanctuary she had built.  She's wanted to have a rabbit colony for quite some time, and now that she's retired, she was ready for the rabbits.  Introducing rabbits is dicey--they can be quite violent with one another, despite their cute, innocent bunny appearance.  The hope was that introducing them in the back of a car (a neutral environment) while returning from Oshkosh (a shared slightly traumatic experience) would help bond them without the fights.

We were planning to pick up two groups of rabbits from two different locations, for a total of eight rabbits.  We picked up four from the first stop and three from the second.  The car trip was surprisingly successful.  They happily split into two groups--timid and not timid--and munched hay and were generally adorable.

The next step was to get them all in their new living space (inside with outdoor access) and hope the peace continued.  We hung out with them for quite a while, watching them get settled in and making sure they were getting along.  Things seemed pretty stable when I left to come back to my babies and chores at home.  It didn't remain that way, though, and by the next day, she had to pull two of the girls out of the colony area, and upstairs into their own private room, as they were instigating some violent battles with the others.

We had some additions to our crew this week also.  I've been watching for parakeets for a while, as poor Simran has been sad and lonely since our Sagan didn't pull through his respiratory illness.  I don't go to pet stores, and I wouldn't buy an animal any more than I would buy a human, so I have been watching rescues/humane societies and feeling horrible that I couldn't find a friend for Simi.  This week, we found four parakeets at DCHS.  One was an adult female who was seized from a violent home.  She was depressed and lethargic there, but healthy.  I would estimate that she is over five years old.  There were also three boys--bonded, about 2-3 years old (my estimate), whose human had died.

Fortunately, parakeets are much easier to introduce than rabbits.  They love to have friends of their own kind and are generally thrilled to meet new friends and share their space.  We named the little girl (very light blue/white) Sajni, and the boys are Dawkins & Hitchens (the blue, though I'm working on learning to tell them apart) and PZ (green).  All five of them are the best of friends now, and the bird room sounds so much happier than it did before they came.  They settled right in and seem perfectly at home and happy, and I am so relieved Simran has friends.  Birds absolutely hate being alone, and though she had cockatiels, doves, and the lovebird from hell, it's just not the same as other parakeets.  I feel very strongly that keeping a bird as a singleton (on a long term basis) is cruel and abusive to the bird.

L turned 13 this week, so when she campaigned to adopt a lonely little rat, we couldn't say no (because she has the space and does a really good job with the rats she has).  She's been watching a group of three baby sister rats who came into DCHS a couple of months ago.  They were dumbo rats and were very precious.  She was very sad to see then that two of the three sisters (the "cuter", non-white girls) had been adopted out, leaving the less desirable (to shallow assholes) girl alone.  Rats also bond deeply, mourn the loss of friends/family, and are miserable without others of their kind.  This little remaining girl was faring particularly poorly.  She wasn't eating, was lethargic, and just not thriving.

She came home with us, and we put her in a large cage (temporarily) alone, because she's very tiny and very timid, and it would not be a good idea to throw her in with the other rats unsupervised at this point.  She was still not eating well and was quite lethargic.  Then we introduced her to each of the girls, one at a time.  The boys are currently 3 times her size and love her, but they are a little intimidating to her at this point.  She immediately perked up when we put her with Flower.  She started eating, running around, playing, and acting like a normal young rat.  That poor baby was just heartbroken and lonely.  She is so happy to have sisters again!  She came with the name, Star, and L has decided to keep that name.

I'm unhappy to say I am unwell today.  I have a cold and am feeling pretty nasty right now.  I'm hoping it's just a few-day cold, and not the two-week flu (?) that Mark has had.  I was really thinking I would miss this one, too, but no luck.  So far the worst of it is that I'm not breathing well enough to get through a workout.  I worked out last night and knew I was coming down with it, and I couldn't breath well, felt light-headed, and got ridiculously hot, so I'm not going to try it today.  It makes me very unhappy to miss it, and I'm going to have to find a way to get through it tomorrow, because I'm not missing another day for this rotten virus!