Wabbits! | "The Bunny Cottage"

"The Bunny Cottage"

This is not the album template that Domino Notes gave me last night, but I shall try to make a go of it anyway. The featured item for this album is the "Bunny Cottage," a commercial 24x24x18 inch structure of reinforced cardboard which is arranged so that it has three different levels "indoors" for the rabbit, two floors with separate ramps between floors. ANd the rabbits do actually use the ramps between floors. It did not take Maddie long to climb to the third level of this "condominium" and sail off the roof as if she were Peter Pan. But, of course, the big question is, just how long can we expect this cardboard structure to last when the rabbits will doubtless eat (and whizz!) on it. Only time will tell, but I will be counting the days. In the meantime, I wonder whether this contortion will bring the picture up into this album:

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I don't believe it: it worked. Now I can add the next picture on that I have been dying to share: Dorcas and Jemimah on the lowest level of the condo, checking things out like two very scrupulous and careful potential homeowners:

You can see Dorcas in the background. As per the usual power plays amongst these rabbits, Dorcas waited until Maddie and Jemimah had cleared out before giving it her own particular inspection. In all the excitement of the new house, which can be used by cats or rabbits, say the manufacturers, Maddie was the first to make it to the top of the edifice, like some experienced stair or ramp climber. First we can see her derriere here through the window grille of the second floor:

And then she made the final ascent to the exposed courtyard of the third level:

Her ever-companionable Jemimah did not follow suit; rather she stood guard at another lower entrance to these palatial digs:

It took Dorcas a little more time to find the initiative to explore the house; somehow, when Jemimah and Maddie beat her to occupying it in the first place, she couldn't tip her hand and let them know truly how curious she was to explore it too. Instead, she took her time about the various entrances, and did not disrupt those already within:

and then entering gingerly --

And finally, just sizing things up for herself from outside:

So after this favorable introduction, the winds came and the clouds came and the thunder pealed and great was the threat of rain that surrounded the carboard house. It was moved out of the grazer pen onto the front porch and the rabbits were carried back into their safe and dry little lavender room.

And so the next day, when after the great peals of thunder had passed, the rabbits and the cottage were put back onto the grass. And, lo, but did they enjoy themselves! Jemimah was first to approach the cottage:

After entering through the front door, she seems to have determined that the best greens in the pen were indeed those to be found just inside the front door, something of a variation of Little Red Riding Hood's finding Baby Bear's porridge to be just right:

Then it came upon Maddie to likewise explore the house. First she took a long look at that funny extending walkway:

Then she hustled her way up onto the second floor, a floor that she has been known to frequent and to moon people through the grilles from:

Then she began to study that funny extending external ramp structure from within, until she finally hopped on it, down it and off of it:

And then, once again, the winds came and roared, and the thunder came and thundered, and the little house shook in anticipation of arrival of the storm, until it was removed again to the safety of the porch and the rabbits were once again placed beyond danger's hand in the safety of their Purple Room. . . .

Then one day the winds really raged, and the bunny cottage was brought indoors where the cats could investigate it. Berf noticed it first, especially the corrugated cardboard on the ramp to the second floor entry way. He immediately discerned that this was his toy for sharpening his claws:

I had hoped that the cats would play in the cottage as its designers proclaimed it a fit toy for cats as well as rabbits, but as is obvious from this photo of Tucker and the cottage, the cottage is just a tad too wee to accommodate a full-sized cat:

Berf, however, was not to be deterred, and declared himself king on the mountain, similarly unfazed by the fact that Mary still sat higher than he did on the loveseat:

Although ultimately the house was found by the cats not to be such a great toy, it did at least occasion the interest also of Emma and Piper:

It is now July, and the bunny cottage has been well-loved for about a month. It shows. Its floors sag in the center. Scott says that he may make a more permanent one out of plywood once it entirely dies. It is something like the velveteen rabbit, with the added dimenion of having a penthouse view that builds one's pride. Why, look at this recent of Jemimah: she climbed to the roof AFTER deliberately knocking over one of the new agility traffic cones and gnawing triumphantly on its base. She does not even deign, in her queenly and regal way, to so much as survey that portion of her realm that evidences her destructive and furor-filled havoc:

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