Hoppy Birthday, Mr. Mick!

Today is Mickey's 4th birthday, and we've already been doing some celebrating. He got his birthday present a few days early: a new throne. Two, actually, since I wasn't sure which style he would like. We're not tossing out his old throne because he still loves it (I actually caught him grooming it last night while he was out and about) but now when one throne is being washed, he has another one to lounge on instead of having to settle for an old towel or sheet.

As it turned out, it's a good thing I did buy two, because Throne #1 got rejected the very first time I offered it to him. I think it's because the sides are much higher than those on his regular throne; I thought that might be a plus so he would feel more secure, but apparently that is not the case. It's now sitting in my dining room on the off-chance that he might want to use it to relax on when he's out.

Last night, I sprinkled a few shredded carrots inside to see if I could tempt him to give it another try:

"Ooooh, what's this? Carrots on a cushion? What a novel idea...nomnomnom..."

" I'm supposed to eat the carrots while sitting on the cushion? Don't be absurd; anybun can tell that this is clearly a substandard cushion.
It's got a DOG BONE in the middle, for cryin' out loud!"

"The carrots were quite tasty, though--got any more?

Ooh, there's my treat toy--did you fill that up for me?"

Yes, his Rabbit IQ toy was filled with more shredded carrots as a birthday treat. You might remember this video:

I would have taken a more recent picture, but the boy came out and started playing "cover the treats as fast as Mick can uncover them", a game which His Majesty found surprisingly entertaining. He started flipping those covers so fast that the boy could barely keep up, and got so excited that the boy stopped playing because he thought he was upsetting Mick. Tired him out was more like it; I scooped up Mick for a calming snuggle and he relaxed against me immediately. A half-hour snuggle and he was ready to bop around again, so I set him down.

 

After a while, all the exertion caught up to the birthday bun...

 

 

...so it was back to his cage and the comfort of New Throne #2, which was far more to Mr. Mick's liking:

Throne #2 is just as plushy-soft as his original throne, but is larger and has no sides. You can just see the corner of the original in the lower left corner.

"Oh yes, this will do...mmmmm...zzzzzzzzz"

A belly full of shredded carrots and a nice cozy bed to sleep in, what more could a bunny want?

Spring Interlude

Thanks much to everyone for all the well-wishes. I had been so hoping to dodge allergy season, but it got me anyway. Feeling much better now, so I thought I would take a page from everyone's book and show off our outdoor pretties.

Unfortunately, not all of it is pretty. All that stupid snow we got decimated the rhododendron in front of our house:

We're hoping it'll come back, but it still breaks my heart to see it like this, especially when this is what it looked like two years ago:

Fortunately, the rhody in the backyard has not only survived, but thrived:



Because it's in the backyard, it blooms much later than the one in the front, which is good because the front yard one often ended up getting hit by the last frost of the winter just as it was blooming.

Hubby has both his gardens set up; this is his flower garden surrounding our waterfall pond:

Because it's a mix of wildflowers and nursery plants, it tends to look a little overgrown (it also looks like that because hubby isn't always diligent with garden maintenance, but we won't go into that). I found the perfect garden stone for it a couple of years ago:

Oh yes, it lives up to its name and then some... :)

This is his vegetable garden:



It's not very big, but that's how we like it. There's tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, radishes, lettuce and a few other things that I forget. He even added a couple of basil plants for Mr. Mick. We're just hoping the fershlugginer chipmunks will let us have some of it this year.

Back to the front yard: hubby found some lovely hanging baskets this year:

The perennials at the bottom surprised us by coming back quite strong, and hubby's added a couple more so that he won't have to worry about that space next year.

Milo the bunny statue has his annual batch of impatiens again:

He is an excellent gardener: yes, impatiens are hardy plants, but the ones that grow in his wheelbarrow always bloom biggest and best of all our plants.



And just in case you were looking for a certain spoiled rotten wabbit:

"Hmph...Like anyone comes here to look at plants..."



Mr. Mick's Musings

Hey all, Mickey here. Mum has been under the weather with something she calls "hay fever", so I've taken it upon myself to update you on things. (Personally, I don't get this hay fever thing--she's around my hay all the time with barely a sniffle, so why the problems now?)

Anyway, just to let you know, I am doing perfectly fine. Thanks much to everyone for being so concerned for my well-being; I do appreciate the sentiment, although I could have told you that there was nothing wrong--I just wanted a higher quality of meal, that's all. Honestly, would it kill Mum to make me a proper salad once in a while? I did finally convince her to add a pinch of shredded carrots to my breakfast greens, so all is good for now.

Like what you see? The Boy has been proving himself useful for once; he has taken on the job of being my official photographer for promotional purposes. The Bunspace.com calendar contest is under way and I am hoping to be chosen for the 2012 calendar. The money raised by the contest and calendar sales goes to benefit the House Rabbit Society , so it's very important stuff--and you know if I'm in there, there will be lots of calendars sold. Don't get me wrong, Mum takes some very nice pictures of me, but the Boy has this real fancy-schmancy camera and he really knows how to make me look good. All the pictures in this post were taken by him.

In other news, I have been getting to spend a lot of time in the living room lately. Mum said it's because the Yankees are playing on the West Coast right now, so the games have been on late at night during my exercise time. She can't watch the big TV and be on the computer, so I get to play in the living room while the game is on. (I don't know where this West Coast is, but if having the Yankees play there means I get to be in the living room, can they play there all the time?)

Last night, though, the game ended earlier than expected, so she had the nerve to shoo me out and put up the gates! I showed her, though; when she was busy on the computer, I did some snooping around and found a way to get up on top of my cage again. I even found the box where she keeps all my treats! I pulled everything out of the box--the dried dandelion blossoms, the dried apple slices, the dried papaya/pineapple bits--I tried to get at the treats inside, but I couldn't get the apple slices and dandelion bags open, and in my haste to get the papaya bits (that bag was open), I knocked the bag off the side of the cage. Mum heard the noise and came to investigate. She shooed me off the cage top and put me back in my cage, then started putting everything back. She freaked when she couldn't find the papaya bag, thinking I might have eaten them all (and trust me, I would have!) but then she found it and it was all good...well, for her it was--I wanted treats!

Well, that's pretty much what's been going on with me. Mum will probably have more to report when she's feeling better. I'm heading for the throne for a well-deserved nap now. This blogging stuff is so tiring...See ya later!