Rabbit Testing?

When people think of the animals that we test things on they normally don't think that rabbit's get tested on to. I don't know if I'm for or against animal testing, but when I hear or see things about rabbits getting tortured by testing, it's sad. Millions of rabbits get slaughtered every year for their meat and fur. Which is actually how I got my first rabbit, she was bought at a Meat Market that sells rabbits around Easter time for some peoples Easter Dinner. I didn't even think Bay City had places here that sold rabbits solely for that purpose. There's a test called a Draize Test, where caustic substances are placed in the eyes of conscious rabbits to avoid damage to sensitive eye tissues on humans. Which is very painful for rabbits, they often scream and/or break there backs or necks to try to escape the restraints. There's another test called the Lethal Dosage (LD) test to determine the amount of a substance that can kill a predetermined ratio of animals. The poisonous substances are injected or put through stomach tubes, until half of the rabbits die. Some of these tests are pointless anyways because sometimes they don't determine health standards for humans, only how much that animal, rabbits in this case, can handle. Regulatory agencies do not require animal testing on cosmetics. Non-animal testing has been thouroughly demonstrated, so why put all these helpless animals through hell?www.leapingbunny.org This is a site where you can go that shows you where you can buy products that aren't tested on animals

The funnest thing to do..

Did I forget to mention I dress my rabbits up? Well, I do. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people that goes all out and buys designer clothes for their pets. All though my rabbits do have a more intricate wardrobe than some people I know. I pick up dog clothes from the dollar store or when some are on sale. I've never spent more than five dollars on one item. Except that time I insisted Buster needed a red leather spiked collar..then she turned out to be a girl.
Anyways, Halloween is no exception for me to dress them up. Last year Buster was a bumble bee (with wings and the whole deal) and Spotz was a lobster. I got thier costumes for around three dollars a piece, originally sixteen dollars at PetSmart. I decided while I have a few minutes in between classes I would go to PetSmart's website and look at a few costumes. I have to buy "dog costumes" because they don't sell "rabbit costumes", but they fit just the same.
Now that I'm older I don't find to much excitement in dressing up for Halloween. Dressing up my rabbits is excitement enough.

Ahahaha. I've decided that I HAVE to get this costume for Spotz. It's the cutest, funniest costume I've came across. Now I haven't came across one for Buster on the website. There isn't a wide selection of ones for girl pets out there.
I'm definitely going to go to PetSmart within the next few days to purchase that basketball player costume and I'm sure I'll find one for Buster. I'll be posting pics of them in there costumes next time.

Life is never dull.

Sunday is usually my only day off without school or work. So I tend to stay out late the night before, 4 or 5 am. Which means I don't wake up until after 12 or 1 pm. I enjoy being able to do this since it seems all my life consists of is running to school or work these days. My mother comes barging in my room a little after nine a.m. on sunday yelling about something. Of course she knew I just went to sleep a few hours before, but doesn't seem to care.
This next part may seem a little gross, but it's a big part of the story.
After I fully open my eyes and am able to partly digest what she is saying. I realize that she discovered her dog has a tapeworm. Which means more than likely my rabbit Buster has one, because they play together. They also spend a lot of time outside in the same area. So if one of them came in contact with another's feces, there's no doubt they both have it. I didn't even know a rabbit could get a tapeworm, considering there digestive systems can't handle much.
My mother is like an expert on this now. Seeing as she takes the dog out at six something in the morning, and came in my room at nine. She's been researching this topic for a few hours, I'm sure.
We don't know if the dog or rabbit got it first. They both spend a fair amount of time outside, and come in close contact with each other. They could have picked it up from fleas that ate a tapeworm egg, tapeworm eggs in the grass, anything.
Of course, I scheduled an appointment with Buster's vet, so they can determine if she has a tapeworm. Which is hard to determine. Who knew that a rabbit that cost six dollars that was being sold for someone to buy as part of there easter dinner, would be such a big part of my life and cost so much to take care of?

hmm...

I am already running out of things to say about rabbits. Last night however I put buster outside to run around. I put her in the dogs kennel, because he wasn't in there. She usually can never get out because it has four feet tall fencing. So after I locked her in there I left to run to the store, knowing I would be back in twenty minutes. Well I got a call from my mother while I was gone. Saying that Buster had got out. She somehow figured out how to flip the latch over on the gate because the door was open and she was gone. My mother was waiting outside in the backyard for her to come back and trying to look for her. Both of these things are pretty hard considering it was getting dark out and when do rabbits run away and come back? When I got home though, my mother had buster in her cage in the house. She said that right after she got off the phone with me Buster came running through the backyard and was trying to hide underneath her hutch. Which is her big wooden outside cage that she stays in, in the summer. Somehow my mom got ahold of her. She was only gone for about fifteen minutes. I don't know where she went, but she seems okay now. I'm just surprised she came back. I don't know what I would do without these rabbits sometimes..

Boy or Girl?

If you have paid close attention to my previous blogs. Which I'm sure you haven't. You might have noticed my rabbit buster is a girl. Ideally, I wouldn't name a girl Buster.
When my boyfriend bought me the rabbit, he told me it was a boy. I didn't know anything about rabbit's at the time so I believed him and had picked out the name Buster.
Well, when Buster was about ten months old, I started seeing a lump on her neck. The only thing that came to my mind, was that it's a goiter. Goiter's are tumors that appear on the neck and become cancerous. Rabbit's typically die from these. Since there so hard to remove, rabbit's can die from the surgery of trying to remove them. I, of course, freaked out. So I scheduled an appointment with a vet immediately.
Since she's such a big rabbit and all black it's hard to tell what sex she is. The vet informed me that she was a girl though. So the lump on her neck is a dulap. Which are what female rabbit's get. It's a fat sac that there body can live off of when they get pregnant and are nursing. So they don't die, from the toll it all takes on there bodies.
I, of course, was relieved but at the same time wish I would have known before. I told Johie she was a girl. He said he just assumed because she was black. I guess neither of us knew anything about rabbits.

I didn't Know What To Do..

Summer '10, she was still a bunny.

Like I do once every two months, I was going to take my rabbits to get their nails clipped. One of my rabbits is about 15 pounds and pure black so it's very hard to see even where to cut the nail. The other one just scratches. So I take them to Bruno's Pet Parlor. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Brunos-pet-parlor/180683555276689
My mom told me about that place because thats where she takes her dog. If they can handle her dog, they can definitely handle my rabbits. I've been going there since last spring, it's close to my house and reasonable. Even though, i've been going there it's always an adventure. Since one is 15 pounds and the other one is only 5 (Spotz). If Spotz comes anywhere near buster she does not hesitate to attack him. It happened before, by accident. I didn't know the other one got it. It's not pretty.
Well I took Spotz in first to get his nails clipped. Then I put him back in the car and went to grab Buster. Then I went to put buster back in the car and grab money to pay the lady. Well I couldn't find Spotz ANYWHERE in my car. I had parked right across the street from the place so I left my passenger window half way open. Or my car becomes a hot box, no lie. He always sits in the passanger seat. I figured since it looked like no one was really around and he would be to scared to jump out it was okay. I didn't know what to do, I started calling out his name. Looking around on the street. I had no idea what could of happened to him. My heart dropped.
So I sat on the curb and decided I was going to call my mom and maybe she would know what to do. I left my passenger door open as I was sitting on the curb in front of it. Just as I was about to dial, Spotz poked his head out from under the seat. He had been laying under the seat the whole time! I had looked under there to. I didn't even know he could fit under there. I felt like maybe I had over-reacted about the situation, but he was no where to be seen. What else was I supposed to think?

Spotz.

All though I was satisfied with my rabbit Buster. I wanted another one.

My mother and I went to the Bay County fair one day and they were selling rabbits for ten dollars a piece. Which was definitely cheap for the breed they were, Netherland Dwarf, and one other breed to. I had to have one. They were so cute and little! Even though they were seven weeks old. Surprisingly, my mother said I could get one. Since I did have a few spare cages at home, and they were so little. Neither of us had enough money on us though. Since we had already gone through the fair and spent ours. The fair was going to be there almost a week longer though. So we decided we would come back the next day. They said they had like 6 left to sell. So we told the lady we would be back the next day for one. I already knew which one I wanted.
Well, change of plans. I decided I was going to ride bikes down to the fair with Johie. I was going to pay for the rabbit and then just have my mom pick it up later on that night. So I could walk around the fair and I wouldn't have to worry about riding my bike back home with a bunny on hand. Johie and I didn't know one of the bridges was closed that we were going to go over to get to the fair. So we had to take a different way.
I knew we weren't going to get there till night fall. So I called my mother and told her what was going on and asked if she could just go pick up the rabbit now and pay for it. I told her which one to get. She did.
We finally made it to the fair, which was a blast like always. But all I could think about was getting home to my new baby bunny! He was so little I felt like I had to be so delicate when holding him. I decided on the name Spotz, because of his spots, obviously. My mom came home with one I hadn't picked out though. I told her to get a different one. But she didn't listen. I wouldn't trade him for anything now. He is the silliest, most fun rabbit to be around.