Dance like no one's watching

Came across this old photo of Patience and realised how clean and chubby she was back in 2004.  Bought in Dec 1997, Patience is 11 years old and currently a little grubby looking.  Was searching online for the best way to wash her (to minimise further “weight loss”) and I guess the gentlest way would be to clean her a soapy towel, followed by a couple of wipe-downs using a wet cloth.  I used to thoroughly wash her under a running tap but I guess that’s really not a good idea.

This is a more recent photo of Patience… can see the difference hor?  Thinner & grubbier.  Sigh.  Think I need to do the same with Muah Chee.  His fur’s getting a little clumpy and greyish… hope we’ll have some good hot weather soon!

While searching for information on washing soft toys, it suddenly occurred to me that my real bunnies are getting on in age too.  Horlicks & Peanut are about 3 years 10 months old, Coffee is about 3 years 8 months and Pinky will turn 3 years old on 16 Jan 2009!  Feel kind of sad ‘cos they’re pretty matured now… which means they may move on to bunny heaven anytime.  

The lifespan of an un-neutered rabbit is about 5-6 years.  Neutered bunnies may live up to 10-12 years and most websites indicate the lifespan of a Holland Lop to be about 7-10 years.  That means that Horlicks, being un-neutered may have a shorter lifespan than Pinky…

While Horlicks is still full of energy and jumping everywhere, I noticed that she has lost some weight and that reminds me of my longest surviving bunny, June.  June was a local white rabbit and lived till close to 7 years old.  Towards the last 2 years, she gradually lost weight… it was as though she peaked around age 4-5 and then slowly lost weight and eventually died of a tooth infection that developed into a mouth sore.

Pinky has lost some weight recently too… but that’s ‘cos I’ve been confiscating the pellets my dad gives him.  I let him eat his fill during dinner and then I swop the pellets with hay later in the night.  This might’ve resulted in Horlicks having less pellets to eat too since he’ll steal her food but more hay never did any bunny any harm.

I guess it’s evident that I dote on Horlicks and Pinky a lot more than Peanut and Coffee… and that’s because I’ve always liked lop ear rabbits.  I’m not ashamed to admit that Peanut and Coffee weren’t my first choice of bunnies – in fact, I was coerced into buying Coffee… well, my ex-bf and I happened to be buying pet food at Serangoon North Ave 1 when he saw Coffee.  He thought Coffee was really cute so he wanted to buy Coffee.  I refused to initially ‘cos I already had Bazhang, Muah Chee, Pepsi & Coke then… but my ex-bf said if I didn’t buy Coffee, he will buy him and rear it himself. 

I knew a rabbit would die in his hands and he was so adamant about it but I couldn’t allow a rabbit to be killed that way (he’s hardly home so I was worried any rabbit living in his flat would die of hunger, thirst, heat, etc).  Thus, I was forced to buy Coffee to prevent him from being killed.

As for Peanut, Pepsi turned out to be a very aggressive rabbit, attacking Coke non-stop (yes, I realise the irony of the names) so I was forced to return her to the pet shop.  I couldn’t get a refund for her and so the pet shop asked me to select another bunny instead… and I went for Peanut ‘cos I thought being the same breed as Coffee, she would be good company for him.

Hence, I admit that most of the photos I take of Coffee & Peanut are out of sympathy or due to a sense of duty… to try to be “fair” to them ‘cos I give most of my attention to Horlicks and Pinky.  (E.g. I pat Horlicks and Pinky daily but I only pat Peanut & Coffee maybe once a week?  And even then it’s for a really really short while only).

Sigh.  I’ve been praying that the 4 bunnies will live long, healthy lives.  God has shown Himself to be very faithful and I believe He knows best for the bunnies too.  So when you remember, do say a little pray for them… that they’ll live happy lives and healthy lives and may they live till a really ripe old age.  (15 years would be really great). 

May the Lord bless the bunnies.