BunnyBlab, episode 4: Bringing a bunny home

DOWNLOAD OR LISTEN TO EPISODE 4

Paul and I talk about what supplies you need right off the bat, how much contact you should have with the bunny, and where you should let the bunny sleep those first few nights.

pic of bottle setup

Do you have a bottle setup that works? Send me your pix and tell me where you got the water bottle or bottle stopper from!

Here's a list of things you need on Day 1 when you bring your bunny home:

General supplies

• cage/condo/enclosure -- no wire floors, as they hurt a bunny's feet
  
• food dish
  
• water dish/bottle
  
• salad dish (if bunny is older than 12 weeks)
  
• litter box
  
• towels to lie in, dig in

Consumables

• food (kibble/pellets)
  
• hay
  
• salad (if bunny is older than 12 weeks)

Cleaning supplies

• paper towels
  
• spray bottle of vinegar
  
• spray bottle of water
  
• dustpan and small broom for cleaning up after your bunny

Feedback? Email me!

Episode 5 coming next week. Episode 5 is the first of a two-part series on what bunnies eat.

BunnyBlab, episode 3: So you've decided you want a bunny...

DOWNLOAD OR LISTEN TO EPISODE 3

In this episode, "So you've decided you want a bunny…" we'll talk about the factors involved in deciding how many bunnies to get, where to get them, and how to decide on the right bunny for you and your family.

Here are a few pix of each of my bunnies, past and present:

Amber giving 'tude

The most money shot I have of Amber

We cuddled for hours every day

Kayla's kinda screwy when she wants to be

My teeny tiny girl all stretched out (and still small)

A good side-by-side of the twins; it often takes people years

to tell them apart, and I always wonder why

This pic won Ariel a spot in a bunny calendar a few years back --

she is a beauty

He was irresistable from the beginning and has always

kept that adorable "bunnyality"

I knew he was my cuddlebunny

No cuddling session is complete without a

several-minute kissing session from my boy

Pea was always gorgeous, even when she was a cutie as a baby;

she nearly fit in this food dish when I got her, as you can see

This was taken on Pea's first day home

As a comparison shot, this was taken once Pea was full-grown

I think she has aspirations to be a model.

House Rabbit Society's page of chapters can help you locate a place to look for a bunny. HRS does not run shelters, but foster homes instead. The philosophy is that the best way to get a bunny used to living in a home is -- surprise! -- having them live in a home. It has worked out for thousands of house rabbits since 1988.

Send me any stories you have about choosing your bunnies and where you got them! I always love your stories.

Feedback? Email me or comment on this blog post. Episode 4 coming next week. The topic of that BunnyBlab is bringing a bunny home.

Pea's got a UTI

But it doesn't seem to be slowing her down or causing her much pain at all.

Of course, these things never happen at convenient times. I was getting ready to go away for 4 days to the Syndicate conference in NYC (GD, that suite was nice in the Roosevelt Hotel, eh, P?). She came down last Wednesday with gas -- she stopped eating and drinking. So I spent a few days giving her an exorbitant amount of belly rubs/massages and a Gas-X or two. Saturday night, she started eating again -- but only salads. "Something's up," says me. So I watch her like a hawk -- a very annoying hawk. She kept hanging out in litter boxes -- but the wet spot wasn't in a corner behind her, it was under her when she got up to run around. She was playing normally (nothing can stop that girl from playing), of course, but bunnies do when they're sick. In the wild, if bunnies show they're sick, they get picked off. So unless they're on death's door, they'll probably hide it.

Anyway, so I'm looking at staying home for four days to watch my maybe-sick baby girl or go to NYC and figure out how she can be taken care of in my absence. I chose the latter option. I called my vet and boarded her there for four days. They x-rayed, looking for sludge or a bladder stone. Of course, nothing. Then they did an urinalysis and found a UTI -- which, apparently, is relatively rare in rabbits (had to go for the alliteration there).

So she's got liquid antibiotics, which, of course, she kicked over tonight when I was giving her her first dose. Beautiful. So off to Wellesley I go tomorrow to pick more up. It tastes sweet, apparently, so once she tastes it she likes it. Apparently.

So that's been my fun. Oh, that and recording the second BunnyBlab episode about 12 times because the file kept getting blown away. Audacity not so fun when it breaks. Ugh.

Anyway, the moral is that the Pea is just fine... or she will be all ship shape when she's done these antibiotics in a week. As far as bunny problems go, this is about the least of them. This and, like, fingernails that are too long. Dealable. Not catastrophic, which seems to always be a possibility...

Stuffed

Having never really liked dolls but always stuffed animals, I appreciated when my good friend Amy sent me to KatiesKreations.net.

BunnyBlab, episode 2: How much does keeping a bunny cost?

DOWNLOAD OR LISTEN TO EPISODE 2

SHOW NOTES
One of the most important factors in getting a pet is figuring out how much they cost ahead of time. Episode 2 of BunnyBlab will get into some of the cost factors so that you can decide if a bunny fits your budget.

A few little somethings I mentioned in the Blab:

• The Massachusetts House Rabbit Society -- I know I'm biased now, but my twins are seriously good-looking bunnies. The MA HRS had a postcard section a few years back and had my girls up there for about 2 years after I adopted them. If you ask me, it's because they're so picturesque. One of the gems of the site now is the reader-submitted tips. Although you can spend some time taking the surveys on the homepage, too.
  
  
• In my discussion of bunny cages, I cited Leith Petwerks, the "makers of the Bunny Abode House Rabbit Condo and purveyor of house rabbit accessories." They do have a wicked good condo selection -- sturdy, roomy, multi-levelled. So if you'd rather buy than make -- and who could blame you?! -- I'd suggest Leith.
  
  
• Paul made me promise to post a pic of the condo I made, so here's a good one:
  
  
  

  The rare Pea-in-the-condo shot

  
  
  And here's Pea's cage, which, at one time, each of my 5 kids could call their own:
  
  
  
  
• Just a reminder to email me your stories about toys you've made yourself for your pets (doesn't have to be only bunnies).

Email me or comment on this blog post for this ep and tell me what you think of BunnyBlab! Episode 3 coming next week... The topic of that episode will be: So you've decided you want a bunny...now what?!

Ep 2

BunnyBlab episode 2 is coming... Rest assured. There were some technical glitches (file got blown away) this past week, but we'll get it figured out...

Hoppy Adoption Day, Girls!

On May 12, 2001, I adopted Ariel and Kayla, two black and white bunnies so tiny they stole my heart the second I lay eyes on them. Happy Adoption Day, girls! It's been 5 years of the most wonderfully behaved bunnies this bunny lover could imagine. It took a bit of time to get their trust, but slow and steady wins the race with these two shy and protective girls. I love ya, Twins!

When is a webcast not a webcast?

When it's a podcast in disguise.

I know what you're thinking: "Webcasts were sooooo 2003!" And I'm not one to argue with that. But, for reasons too complicated and boring to post here, I had to recruit a webcast speaker and then create, arrange, and record said webcast in about two weeks for the Expert Answer Center. Sometimes good ideas can't have better timing, and so it was with Fireside chat on Notes troubleshooting with Mat and Dana. You see, my buddy Mat is a Notes expert and I tap his brain frequently on my site (the EAC, not this one, although -- Hi, Mat!!! -- I'd love for him to comment, of course!). I know the Domino peops have loads of Notes troubleshooting questions, so it's a good match. He was on the EAC as a featured expert, but he had 40 extra questions there just wasn't time to get to. It's always a good time working with Mat, because:

1. we're buddies, so work is actually loads of fun,
   
2. the man knows his stuff and practically begs for more questions, and
   
3. his blog entries are not only educational (he actually teaches this stuff in his day job), but they're also very entertaining.

Not to mention his accent makes me just smile...

I have a few experts like this -- people I keep going back to because they provide truly terrific content, but also because they're just pleasures to work with.

At any rate, 40 extra questions and the need for a finished webcast in two weeks (they normally take about a month to arrange and record) led me to the idea of doing a Q&A webcast of some of the questions with the broadest reach. After all, there's always a Q&A part of the webcasts I produce and moderate, but what if there was no Big Talking Head PPT presentation? I'm learning every day about podcasts and what makes good ones, so the idea was to present the webcast as a podcast, just with a visual. The PPT, therefore, became the questions and an outline of the answers. Mat and I, over the course of a few early morning/late night -- Mat lives in Tasmania -- Skype conversations, came up with a workable format and he selected which questions would work the best. He also, god LOVE him!, came up with the PPT the last day before we recorded. Basically, it all worked like clockwork, which, if you've ever recorded a webcast, you know happens infrequently at best.

The title came from Mat, you creative Aussie, you! We were Skyping and he said the concept is more like a fireside chat than a webcast, so we decided to personalize the thing to come closer to the format. Anyway, I hardly ever brag about work, but sometimes I get proud of something. The webcast is probably the best one I've posted...

Thanks, too, to Jeff Kaplan of THINKstrategies, who, after we recorded our most recent webcast together in March (on SaaS), asked me if TT has ever done webcasts that were more fluid and less one speaker talking for 35-40 minutes. So, Jeff, thanks for the seed! Our next webcast together will be more interactive. I promise!

Come on, flying cars!

I really did think life would be more Jetsony when I was older... Maybe we're not that far away. Check out the first step to flying cars, care of China (seriously, who's surprised?!).

Podcast directory update

As if you care, but I'm up on iTunes and working wonderfully, as far as I can tell. I was up on Yahoo yesterday, but now I'm MIA. Oh well...

Hoping (or is it "hopping"?) to record another ep tonight, so stay tuned, you faithful...

iTunes update

So as I'm registering for other directories, I'm checking the iTunes status. Last night, I got an email from the nice (and seemingly overworked and backlogged) people at iTunes saying my podcast was approved and the link for it. Lo and behold, the link works... But when I looked in the category I thought I put it in (Family), no good. So that's my latest weird technical problem. I've had bunches of them this week. Maybe patience will pay off again and one day it'll just automagically appear. Here's hoping.

On a positive note, FeedBurner says I have 18 people subscribed to my feed. Which, when you realize it's not in the iTunes directory, is pretty damn good for 3 days. About 5 of them, though, are directories (at least, I think they're counted in that tally). According to my hosting stats, I've had 12 ppl download the MP3 of the first episode of BunnyBlab. So that's kinda nice... Keep 'em coming, is what I say!

Directories added:

• Podscope
  
• Podzinger

Some directories take a while to update... Podcast Alley was the only one who showed up right away.

Where -- oh where -- is iTunes?

So, I'm waiting for the Blab to pop up on iTunes (did you know that 72% of podcast access is through iTunes?!), PodcastAlley, and Yahoo Podcasts to get my RSS feed and approve BunnyBlab.

PodcastAlley won the race! I just checked and the Blab's up there! I'm so geekily excited...

It takes time with iTunes, so I've heard. And I'm patient. I'm sitting tight... Where IS IT already?! Okay, okay, I'm calm... That's three directories down and about 297 to go. ;-) Optimization, baby!

Just added PodcastingNews and PodcastPickle, too.

BunnyBlab, episode 1: What kinds of homes are best for bunnies

SHOW NOTES
It's here! We've finally done it!! (Thanks, P!!) BunnyBlab, the Podcast. Here's the podcast series page. Bookmark it or add us to your iTunes library (Podcasts --> Family --> BunnyBlab) to download each Blab automatically.

DOWNLOAD OR LISTEN TO EPISODE 1

Hopline.com's Bunny, it's cold outside -- Why you should never keep a domesticated bunny outside

Email me or comment on this post to tell me what you think of BunnyBlab! Episode 2 coming next week...

Now it all makes sense

The next post is why I changed the name of this blog from "Bunny Lovers Unite!" to "BunnyBlab" in February. If you're going to be blabbing, you may as well advertise that fact. ;-) (For those of you who know me, please don't take this opportunity to point out the obvious.)