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Pet rabbits save Tucson family.
Two pet rabbits alerted their owners to a kitchen fire one night in Tucson. Nicole Ochotorena, her husband, and their three children were all asleep when the fire broke out. The rabbits stomped their feet in their cage, waking the owners up. The smoke alarms did not go off.
“My bunnies are my lifesavers,” Ochotorena said. “They saved my life and they saved my kids.”
Learn more at myfoxchicago.com.
Well, sort of. There aren’t any ferocious beasts of Monty Python caliber, but rabbits are being blamed for munched-on wires in the Denver Airport parking lot.
Dexter Meyer had parked his new Volkswagen Jetta in the airport parking lot while away on a nine day vacation. Upon his return, Meyer was greeted with blinking lights when he started his car. A trip to the dealership found that wires had been chewed through. The mechanic suggested a rabbit was the culprit because he had seen a few cars brought in from the airport with chewed wires.
The airport has a fence around the lot, but apparently the rabbits are too sneaky to be kept out by it. If those wild rabbits are anything like our two troublemakers wires are too tempting to not be chomped.
For more visit Denver’s 9 News.
From NY Daily News:
It wasn’t love at first sight for Phyllis and Irving, nor was there fur flying – a good sign when it comes to bunny speed-dating.
Irving, a New Zealand white, eagerly tried to sniff “Filli” as the lop-mix hopped around the exercise pen during their two-minute exchange. Four weeks later, the love bunnies started living together in a Manhattan apartment.
Rabbit Rescue & Rehab, the New York House Rabbit Society Chapter, holds “speed dating” sessions for single buns. Owners of solo rabbits who think their pet may like a companion can set up meetings in a neutral location with available rabbits up for adoption. (Note: All the rabbits have been spayed or neutered!) If the fur doesn’t fly, chances are there will be a suitable match.
Read the full article here: NY Daily News.
If you have a single, spayed/neutered bunny, you can set up “speed dating” sessions with a rabbit rescue near you. Check out Petfinder.com to find local shelters.
Although it may sound like a plot point in a comic book, there is actually radioactive rabbit poop in Hanford, Washington. As it happens 50 million gallons of liquid waste laced with radioactive salts were dumped in a radioactive reservation in Hanford more than 40 years ago. The dumping area is home to many jackrabbits. The rabbits’ warrens abut some of the dumping sites and the rabbits often lick the radioactive salt.
Recent stimulus money has aided the clean-up of the rabbit poop, which has trace amounts of radioactivity. Previously, large swaths of earth were dug out and disposed of to rid the area of the radioactive poop. Now, a helicopter is used to spot and map the piles of poop for crews to come in and clean up.
For more, visit the Seattle Post Inquisitor.
Ollie Parris visited Beech Tree Bunnies, a rescue in Leicester, and came home with two guinea pigs. He also came home with an idea; Ollie wanted to help the rescue. So Ollie took to the streets on his bike for a sponsored ride.
Ollie rode for two miles while his father jogged behind. He raised 217 pounds for the rescue.
His parents are very proud of what he has achieved.
Beech Tree Bunnies was formed six years ago and relies on donations to care for its current group of 30 bunnies and 10 guinea pigs. Visit the rescue at their website, www.beechtreebunnies.co.uk.
Okay, it might not be an actual, living, breathing bunny, but it means the world to 3 year old Sophia Ottaway. Her mother has been placing fliers all over Hobart, Tasmania seeking out Cryie, Sophia’s stuffed bunny. Cryie is one of a trio of rabbits that accompany Sophia everywhere she goes. The other rabbits are Roughy and Smiley.
Cryie fell out of a pram while the mother was walking her children to meet their father for lunch. Upon discovering her bunny was gone, Sophia said ‘Mum, I have lost my rabbit,’ and started to cry.
A retracing of their steps turned up nothing, so her mother took to the streets with fliers.
A reward has been offered for Cryie’s return.
For additional information: http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2009/02/25/57551_tasmania-news.html
This Beatrix Potter watercolor recently sold for a £289,250, a record for a book illustration. The Rabbit’s Christmas Party was painted by Potter in the 1890s and was sold to a private collector.
Additional Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7513296.stm
Well, even though rabbits are the third most popular pet, and there’s certainly a strong rabbit owner community that has developed, I guess the world isn’t ready for bunnies on buses.
I came across this entertaining article from the UK’s The Independent which describes the author’s experience while riding the bus.
“I was sitting on a bus yesterday when a woman came down the stairs clutching a rabbit on a lead. The woman was delicate-looking and rather beautiful, and on the spectrum of eccentricities, I’d say she was in the zone of colourful characters rather than rum coves. Nevertheless, the rabbit was wearing a pink lead and a pink bow in its fur, and as she staggered down the steps with it, all the other passengers sized her up, decided she was probably a dangerous oddball, and did what British people do in such a scenario – they pretended she wasn’t there. I watched with interest because, apart from the fact that the rabbit wasn’t a dog, there was nothing odd in her behaviour at all. I found myself admiring the self-confidence of someone who was prepared to be branded “weird” and damn well wasn’t going to apologise for it.”
I can’t say I would ever bring Coco or Cosette on a bus with me just on a leash. I think I’d spend the whole time trying frantically to keep Cosette from bolting out of my arms and attempting to wriggle free of the harness. And she’d probably pee on my seat out of spite. (She’s used that tactic before.)
Melanie Lapich, from New South Wales, Australia, recently lost her two pet bunnies to Myxomatosis. When the vet had initially diagnosed the rabbits, Melanie did her best to treat their symptoms. But soon, the lumps on the skin, swollen, oozing eyelids, labored breathing, and lack of appetite became too severe, and the rabbits had to be put to sleep.
So Melanie is on a quest to legalize the vaccine for Myxomatosis in Australia. Currently, the vaccine is in use in the UK. (See My House Rabbit Myxomatosis vaccination article here.) Since Australia has a major ecological issue with wild European rabbits destroying native plantlife and crowding out native wildlife, the Australian government has so far refused to legalize the vaccine for domestic rabbits in fear that resistance to the disease may eventually spread to wild rabbit populations.
But for pet owners like Melanie, it means there is little hope for prevention of this incurable disease for their pets. If you would like to sign the petition to legalize the vaccine, go here: www.gopetition.com.au/petitions/make-myxomatosis-vaccine-legal.html
For more information: www.myxomatosis-vaccine.com
In Gujaret, central India, fossil hunters have unearthed small ankle bones from a 53 million-year-old lagomorph. Lagomorpha is an order comprising of rabbits, hares and pikas.
This study is significant because it shows that lagomorphs had already begun to diversify during the Eocene Epoch. This diversity in mammals has been attributed by scientists to the global warming that had occurred 2 million years earlier.
For more info: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7253518.stm
