Thursday, April 05, 2007
Monkey On My Back?
I'm taking a break from cleaning the barn. I'm exhausted and I still have about 40% of it left to do. It's not that the pressure washing itself is all that hard. It's really not. It's just that I have to move everything on top of the cages, put bunnies in carriers, moving the ones with litters and nest boxes into other cages, and remove manure from under the cages so it doesn't become a heavy, soggy mess. Whew!
So I've been doing a whole heck of a lot of shuffling rabbits back and forth. I try to keep my mothers and litters as comfortable as possible, letting the juniors and bucks sit in the carriers.
While transferring one litter of 8-week-old kits, I got myself into quite a fix. I was taking two kits at a time to a cage on another row. I put the first kit in with no problem, then turned my hand out for the second one to jump the 2 inches onto the cage floor.
But instead of doing what 99% of all other kits in the same situation would do, he turned, ran up my arm, and got onto my back. Now I realize that I didn't help the situation by instinctively bending over so he wouldn't fall. Now I'm standing in my barn, bent over like the Hunch Back of Notre Dame, hoping no one walks in and finds me in this ridiculous situation.
Why, I don't know, because I knew right then I was going to tell you all about it anyway.
So now the little fellow decides to start running around on my back. It tickled, in a sort of painful way, as his little nails pricked my back, up and down, side to side.
I tried reaching over my shoulder. No go. I tried getting him down to my waist so I could grab him. He wouldn't cooperate. I might have been tempted to dump him in the floor, but he's a broken black. I just couldn't do that!
So I sort of crab walked my way to my work table, figuring that if I put my shoulder down near the table, this time, he would do the right thing and take the tiny 2-inch plunge to safety. And for a moment, it seemed that it would work. He came over to that shoulder and started down.
Then at the last second, he turned, ran down my other arm, and plopped on the floor!
Lucky for me, he was a little stunned and didn't go anywhere. This time, I scooped him up in both hands and placed him squarely on the wire of his temporary cage - safe and sound.
Well, folks say that I'm easy to talk to. And I'm told that for someone who does place nationally, I'm extremely approachable. After all, how could a person like me become uppity when all a new person would have to say to bring me back to earth is, "Hey, aren't you the one with the rabbit stuck on your back?"
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry “Home Of Grand Champions”
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design ¶ 11:50 AM
So I've been doing a whole heck of a lot of shuffling rabbits back and forth. I try to keep my mothers and litters as comfortable as possible, letting the juniors and bucks sit in the carriers.
While transferring one litter of 8-week-old kits, I got myself into quite a fix. I was taking two kits at a time to a cage on another row. I put the first kit in with no problem, then turned my hand out for the second one to jump the 2 inches onto the cage floor.
But instead of doing what 99% of all other kits in the same situation would do, he turned, ran up my arm, and got onto my back. Now I realize that I didn't help the situation by instinctively bending over so he wouldn't fall. Now I'm standing in my barn, bent over like the Hunch Back of Notre Dame, hoping no one walks in and finds me in this ridiculous situation.
Why, I don't know, because I knew right then I was going to tell you all about it anyway.
So now the little fellow decides to start running around on my back. It tickled, in a sort of painful way, as his little nails pricked my back, up and down, side to side.
I tried reaching over my shoulder. No go. I tried getting him down to my waist so I could grab him. He wouldn't cooperate. I might have been tempted to dump him in the floor, but he's a broken black. I just couldn't do that!
So I sort of crab walked my way to my work table, figuring that if I put my shoulder down near the table, this time, he would do the right thing and take the tiny 2-inch plunge to safety. And for a moment, it seemed that it would work. He came over to that shoulder and started down.
Then at the last second, he turned, ran down my other arm, and plopped on the floor!
Lucky for me, he was a little stunned and didn't go anywhere. This time, I scooped him up in both hands and placed him squarely on the wire of his temporary cage - safe and sound.
Well, folks say that I'm easy to talk to. And I'm told that for someone who does place nationally, I'm extremely approachable. After all, how could a person like me become uppity when all a new person would have to say to bring me back to earth is, "Hey, aren't you the one with the rabbit stuck on your back?"
Laurie Stroupe
The Nature Trail Rabbitry “Home Of Grand Champions”
Precious Pet Rabbits
Affordable Web Site Design ¶ 11:50 AM
