Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas!!



Merry Christmas Everyone!


   Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas Season!!

  Miss Duchess has been doing fine, I had a toy photo shoot with her earlier this week:







     I think it went pretty well considering she didn't want to have anything to do with the toys. I think these pictures show all her different shades of brown the best...And yes, that is her winter coat. There is nothing left to pluck, and her last plucking session was in November. Since when did "brown bunnies" not have patterns/designs?
    
   As you can see in the Christmas card picture, she's got all kinds of toys she'll get to chew on this Christmas.I figured she could do with a bit of spoiling since its her first Christmas that she'll get to "celebrate". I also couldn't help picking up a jumbo carrot for her at the produce store. (She will not get to eat it in one sitting.)

 After having two bunnygirls to spoil over the past five years its strange to only have one. I do have a bunny boyfriend in mind for Duchess, but nothing is certain yet.


  Hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas!!


                 Duchess's Slave

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Bags Delivered!! (WARNING!: Pictures of Destroyed Bags)

What started out like this...



Soon ended up like this:
Pictured is adoptable Kali (Bonded with Roger) sitting triumphantly over the remains of what once was a bag


 
As you can see, the adoptables definitely enjoyed the bags. There were several techniques displayed today. There was just plain destruction (Pictured above), as well as some who decided to just investigate:
Adoptable Boo checking it out





The Harlequin Girls thought the bags smelled nice, so why NOT give them a lick or two:

Adoptable Ivy: Do you think they're watching?




 Some bunnies were so excited by the sound of other bunnies tearing into bags, they sort of forgot their own (See video MHRR posted here)

  Even MHRR's newest Resident, HoneyBadger, had a 'strategy':


Goodies inside the bag? HoneyBadger don't care.


  We definitely enjoyed going over there and delivering the bags (And, of course, holding HoneyBadger). What better sound than 24 bunnies ripping into baggies full of goodies?


  Along with the bags we also delivered 47 homemade toys (Filled with alfalfa, a few pellets, and a Bunspace Store Banana Bunny Bite):

   

   
  Thanks so much to everyone who donated! We were even able to make some for the foster bunnies!! Without y'all we definitely wouldn't have been able to do this!



     Until Next post...

               Duchess's Slave


 P.S.
 Before anyone asks, HoneyBadger certainly has lived up to his name. He has quite a story, which you can read all about on his Facebook page.
  


Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Thursday's (hopefully) the Big Day!

 You think this is snoozing?  

   While we may have been "quiet" this past week, we've got big plans for the next coming days. Well, we hope.

   We're hoping to deliver baggies Thursday, if not then, then definitely next week. Also when we deliver the bags, there is a slight chance that I won't be the only rabbit on the car ride back...
 
   Until next post...

               Duchess

     

Friday, December 2, 2011

Mission: Not Impossible

The Reinforcements have Arrived

  Thanks to donations received last week, I was able to place two more orders to go towards the bags for the MHRR adoptables.

 
 Today, while Duchess was enjoying some run time, I got to work on the bags:

     
            This was turned into:

47 bags filled with delicious greenery for the adoptables.


                    
 First we have some timothy hay at the bottom, followed by apple&birch twigs with leaves, as well well as some homegrown rosemary twigs, dried carrot tops, and a pumpkin bunny bite. Some bags have homegrown lemon balm or black berry leaves.
  
 Haven't distributed the toys yet, still not quite done making all of them:


  Miss Duchess's speed-date is hopefully week after next, and that's when we'll deliver the bags.

 I've still got the "treat certificates" up on the clay bunnies site (link to your left) incase anyone would still like to donate for some more goodies for the bunnies!

 I'll leave you with picture of Duchess:

            
  
  Until next blog...
  
                 
                 Duchess's Slave

  

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

I Give You... The Sausage

 And you think you have a "puffy" bunny...

 This was taken in 2009 for Thanksgiving. Maisy had always been the lazy one. In this picture, it looks like I literally plopped her there.

 Thought that last picture wasn't convincing?

What can I say, she had curves?

    
 After years of just giving M&D pellets... That is why Duchess hardly gets any =D




 I was flipping through pictures today and just thought I'd share!

      Until next post,

                Duchess's Slave

Sunday, November 27, 2011

"Santa's" Little Helper...NOT!!


  Well last night I made the mistake of putting toys together in front of Duchess...

Somebun's gotta do quality check right? I mean this bag is all the way from August...So OLD!

  Apparently she felt the need to make sure that everything tastes like its supposed to. The Alfalfa is something I've had since August, so I didn't mind if she had a few bites of that...Just not in the bag. So I let her have clean-up duty:



 
Duchess here:

 The Slave is such a slob. I mean look at all this hay spilled! Although I have to say this was the best tasting clean up duty ever.

So while the Slave's got that whole thing going on, I've been trying to sneak into one of the bags that some more good stuff is in, like the one of each of the two kinds of twigs is in (Apple& birch...Smells SOOO good!) but she's been pretty good about keeping that away from me. She keeps telling me if I get into one of those bags, then that's yet another bag short for the bunnies.

Apparently only the bunnies at the rescue's main house will be getting baggies, since she hasn't gotten enough donations to also include the fostered bunnies. She's already pretty darn skimpy with the twig handing out, only two twigs per bag? *snorts* She's also putting in a few sprigs of rosemary (which I detest!) that's home grown and she's picking our lemon balm bush clean to try and cover just the bags for the bunnies at the main house. Can't I get any lemon balm around here?? Geesh.

   So as I was saying, she had clean up duty. Something she (obviously) enjoyed. Now while she did enjoy doing that, it didn't stop her from jumping on me everytime she heard a rustle of anything. Amazingly I did manage fill a good amount of toys despite her highness.

  This past Friday (Yep, Black Friday.) I went by Hobby Lobby and found a cute little stocking that'd be perfect for her:


 And then stitched her name at the top, a bit of a squeeze, but I managed (barely). By the way, the missing pom pom is in the stocking, I have yet to hot glue it back on.
 
  I still haven't found the time to work on the toy testing video, as things just keep popping up!

        Until next post...
 
                    Duchess's Slave

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Happy Thanksgiving!!




  Hope that everyone has had a Great Thanksgiving!

  This photo shoot could've gone better...But she managed to sit still for a second so I could snap a picture really quick =D

  Today I had Duchess outside where all the kids could visit her, I was a bit nervous since she's not used to people and last time she was around kids she kind of freaked out, but today...Hold on a second, she wants to tell it (Apparently I don't tell her stories good enough *sigh*)

  Duchess here:
 So I was minding my own buisiness in the outdoor cage when all the sudden I heard the voices of small slaves. Last time I encountered smaller slaves I just turned tail and ran to the opposite side of the run. Treats or no treats. So this time I wasn't planning on doing any different. So the Slave walks up and takes me out, and starts shakin' the pellet cup, well, I couldn't just leave those pellets there, so I hung around her. For some strange reason the small slaves actually sat down and were relatively quiet, and they had pellets!! Like I was going to run off and leave those poor pellets in the hands of the slaves? What were they going to do with them? So I thought I'd just stick around and get in a few quick pellets and hop away...But get this, there were around 4-5 of them, and they ALL had pellets. So I did my duty and ate all the pellets...And they kept giving me some!! It was great. Plus I got pets, so that was an extra bonus. So I was Ok with these small slaves, they gave me food, pets, they were fine, so I acted like my normal self around them. (Which is just hopping around, eating grass, hopping by one of them to see if they had food.) And the small slaves LOVED me, all because I was doing my normal thing! Plus they were picking grass and feeding it to me, and that was Ok too. I also met some of the other family memebers and they all kept telling me how soft I was (Of course!) so that was nice too. Then they all left, and then came back before they went home.
 The Slave gave me a carrot as a treat, and all cilantro for dinner (which is my favorite green). So I had a pretty good Thanksgiving.

 Duchess really surprised me with how well she behaved; all of the kids kept asking if they could hold her, but I didn't want that happening since Duchess can still be pretty iffy as far as holding goes. Overall it was a very nice Thanksgiving for us over here, even Duchess enjoyed herself.

 Hope that everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

        Until next post...

                Duchess's Slave

   

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

We Interupt this Blog with an Important Annoucement

The Early stages of Bagging...Here about 18 baggies have Birch twigs w/leaves in them, she wanted to snap a picture before she had used everything.

Duchess here again,

  First off, Toy Testing part 2 has been delayed due to a lazy I mean busy slave.
   
 While the slave is busy with preparing for Thanksgiving festivities tomorrow; I thought I'd hop by and give y'all a quick update on the Bags for Bunnies thing for the adoptables MHRR(Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue).

  Today we received the package of Natural Noms stuffs we ordered from the Bunspace store for the bunnies. With the donations we received we were able to get some Birch twigs with leaves, some Apple twigs with leaves, and some delicious Banana bites. So far we have filled 32 bags with the Birch twigs w/leaves, and 26 of those 32 have also been filled with the Apple twigs w/leaves. We're short about 13 Birch twigs and 19 apple twigs. We were trying to get around 45 bags filled, so we're short a filling a few bags. 
  
 Right now she's just dividing the twig stuff into bags, she has yet to put in the timothy hay, and she has started putting the stuff in the toys. In the toys she's going to put a lil alfalfa and a bunny bite, and a few pellets to give it more of a rattling sound. (I'm jealous!)She's also putting in two sprigs of homegrown Rosemary in each bag as well.
  
  If you want to see how you can help fill the rest of the bags, just visit the page we've got set up on my slaves site.

   Don't forget to hop by tomorrow evening to check out my Thanksgiving card!!

          Until my next post,

                     Duchess



P.S
Did you just say something about my so called "strange" shedding pattern?
*Slave closes mouth and looks in other direction*
I thought so.
          
        


Saturday, November 19, 2011

Toy Testing Part 1

                                                           
                 Get back here!
  Hello, Duchess here!
    Well the Slave is finally getting the ball rolling for the Bags for Bunnies thing for Magic Happens Rabbit Rescue. Which means...Toy testing! I don't mind in the least, after all, I get extra treats! (Which in my case is pellets, I like those just as much as any treat.)
  
   Last Friday the slaves approaches me with this cardboard tube with ends stuck on either side. She shakes it around a bit and puts it down, it immediately has my interest since I can hear those pellets shakin' around in there. So I then proceeded to go after it. I didn't get anywhere with it. She then took it away, poked a hole on the tube, and put it back down. NOW I could get somewhere with it!
 As seen in the picture I had to shove it around a bit before I could actually get treats; but I did get some pellets after I threw it around a bit and chewed on the hole to make it bigger. You can see below for a before/after picture:

 If anything I think I improved on its design, larger hole=Less effort=More time to harass the slaves for treats.
   The Slave also took it apart so you could see how its constructed easier:

 Now that its bunny approved, she gets to make 45 more like this. Although its more like 37 now since she's made some, not to mention the extra ones she yas yet to put together. Its a work in progress. She is also using wrapping paper "rolls" as the tubes, its somewhat flimsier, but they work just as well.
 As you can see, we have some finished ones, as well as some no-where near finished ones, as well as a box that needs to be
de-constructed.
 These are some of the toys that'll be put in the goodie bags for the adoptables at MHRR.(You can see how you can help here.)
 Now there will be a Toy Testing part 2 post narrated by yours truly. I've put the slave to work on a new video of me testing out this toy, the part thats taking forever is picking out the right music.
  
   Besides all of that, the Slave has felt it necessary to give me a title, (As if the name "Duchess" wasn't enough)and she decided to come up with some french phrase that's something like this: Duchess-Le Cochon Peu De Chocolat...Whatever it means, I'm sure it is a complete and total lie.
            Until the my next post,
                   Duchess
(Slave here: It means The Little Chocolate Pig. Trust me, it describes her perfectly.)

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Inspeeection!

                                                           Form Ranks!


  Today Part One of the putting together of bags for the MHRR bunnies. Well, part one consisted of buying the paper bags and working on the toy:
 

 
  The Toy is composed of a toilet paper roll with card board "caps" on either end. I cut through a circle through part of the card board caps so that way it would stay on, and cut slots in the sides of the tubes so to also ensure that it would stay on. Inside I'll be putting some kind of treat that'll shake around and make some noise.

 Still collecting donations, incase anyone is interested you can take a look here. We still have a lot of bags to fill!
 
  I've got plenty of Timothy hay to fill all the bags (I get it by the bale for her highness)so now its just a matter of making the "toys" and hoping we get enough donations to fill the baggies with other goodies besides hay and a few herbs!

  Duchess has been doing fine. She has been quite busy following everyone around and begging for food:
 
   I know that wasn't the last celery stick!

       
  She is also doing her part in putting together the bags (As seen in the first picture) by inspecting everything and making sure it is in order. Mostly she just gets to test the toy.


  I'll continue posting updates on how the bags are coming along and, of course, what Duchess has been up to.

              Until next post,

                  Duchess's Slave

Sunday, November 13, 2011

A Quick Annoucement Regarding Christmas...

 I just wanted to pop in and share this link.

 This year I want to do something special for Duchess's shelter, so this Christmas I'll be putting together paper bags full of hay,herbs and perhaps a homemade treat. If you visit the link you can see how you can make that bag even more special by purchasing a "treat certificate" and with the money from that I can order some special goodies to add to the paper bags for the bunnies. Just click on the link to read all about it!
 
 I'll probably post again Monday or Tuesday! Until then...
               
                Duchess's Slave

 
  

 

Friday, November 11, 2011

Happy Veterans Day!

Thank You!!

 While today may be Veterans day, I've heard more about it being 11-11-11!!
 
   On holidays like Memorial day and Veterans day, I like to take the time to watch at least one show about one of the wars. Its easy to forget who we owe our freedom to.
 Thank you to all of the veterans who have put/put themselves in harms way to keep us all safe. Thank you.

   Duchess's photo shoot went really well today, which really surprised me. She's a huge bundle of energy and she's always very antsy during photo shoots. Today she actually struck a few poses and held them for a while. She even stood up for me today:




  To attempt to keep her from attacking me for food (Her dinner was still 2 hours away...She is always hungry)instead of posing cute, I gave her some pumpkin in the middle of the photo shoot, which resulted in pictures like this:


 Aww!!

  
See you sleep like this...


...

 Those were just a few of the silly/cute ones, gotta keep a few up my sleeve for that Duchess calendar that will(never)happen.


 Hope y'all enjoyed the pictures!
    
       Until next post...
    
                   Duchess's Slave





Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Get Back Here...

Just stay still and I'll make this as quick as possible...




  The other day I ordered some toys off of the Bunspace store for the first time. This time around I got her a Willow ring (Its not just the slim branches wrapped around, willow leaves are also in there, and to top it all off there are 4 treats tied on it), I also got her a Yucca toss ring.



 We'll see how they look in a few days. The Willow Ring I'm only giving to her while she's out playing, since I know she'll demolish that in no time. The Yucca toy is her "cage toy", although it had a rough start after the first night. She must've thrown it in her water bowl and then picked it up and thrown it back out, because two of the yucca pieces are nice and wet. And they're still damp. So I'm just trying to get the darn thing to dry so it won't get moldy. But this does inform me that she actually did "play" with it some, even if it just meant moving it out of her way.
 
  She has been doing her normal bunny business, which consists of following people around for treats and looking as adorable as possible:

Please Mom, I want some more
  

Until next post...
                 
              Duchess's Slave


  

Friday, November 4, 2011

The Halloween Thief

The Halloween Thief 


 I know, Halloween is over, all of the candy has been eaten, and I still have a post title with "Halloween" in it.

 In my eagerness to post the Halloween blog I posted it a bit too soon...

  All week long Duchess has been going nuts over the candy wrappers, and we've been pretty good about keeping her away from them. Until Halloween. She usually isn't down during the weekend, so I usually have to double check the floor on Monday to make sure that there isn't any food crumbs. This Monday I didn't see anything, but as we all know bunnies will do anything to find food.
 
  As any normal Monday would go, I brought her downstairs and started fixing her breakfast; little did I know that I had missed a Cookies and Cream Hershey kiss that had rolled partly under the fridge. While Miss Duchess was making sure I was preparing her greens correctly, she also sniffed out the hidden Hershey kiss and snatched it out from under the fridge and as any bunny would, started to nom on it.

 I heard her almost as soon as she started nomming it,and luckily she had only gotten part of the tip. I then proceeded to pitch it in the trash and double check the floor again for candy/crumbs. I found nothing. She then recieved her breakfast and returned to her normal routine.

  Later on while I was in the living room, I heard her making some noise in the kitchen. Not that big a deal, considering she likes jumping on the chairs and knocking things off of them. So I didn't think much of it, since what was on the chairs was mostly newspaper. A few minutes later I did end up going in the kitchen, and what I found was very unexpected.

 The Halloween Thief (AKA Duchess) was sitting on the table snacking on yet another Hershey kiss. This one she was half way through, and she was definitely enjoying it. (Who knew that bunnies would love oreo bits in white chocolate?) Again I grabbed it from her and pitched it in the trash, she didn't even move from the spot, instead she bobbed her head up and down as if saying "Where'd my treat go?".

  Normally she'd run off and hide when she's caught, but apparently she didn't believe she was doing anything bad.

  Despite eating the chocolate and some foil, her bunny beans remained normal, and she is acting perfectly  normal. In order to prevent events like this from happening again, all of the chairs have been pushed closer to the table so she cannot hop from a chair to the table.
 
  While nothing happened to her after she ate chocolate, I do not recommend giving your rabbit chocolate under any circumstances. While a rabbit may not be affected by eating chocolate once (<--Does not mean they should get it once), over time it can certainly harm them. Treats like canned pumpkin and herbs such as oregano, tarragon, mint, etc. are much better suited for your bunnies digestive system. While most people who read this already know this, I just have to mention it for those who do not know.

   Until next post...

           Duchess's Slave
 

Monday, October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween!



Happy Halloween Everyone!


 I love her face in this picture!! She did snack on the pumpkin during this photo shoot. (He's missing a tooth for starters...Not that you'd be able to tell.) I was originally going to dress her up, but this picture came out cuter than her costume one so we went with this one instead.

 Photo shoots with Duchess are always interesting, she is very active and is always checking things out. It was a big transition for me since I was so used to taking pictures of Maisy&Daisy, who were photo shoot pros and were very...Calm.


 Well I hope that everyone enjoyed the card and has a safe and Happy Halloween!

       Until next post,
               
               Duchess's Slave

 

 

Saturday, October 29, 2011

*THUMP*

This is me, telling you, to put me on the bed. Now.

 That pose displayed above is her demanding pose. She looks up and pushes herself up with her front paws as much as she can without actually standing up, and jerks her head backwards a bit like "Hey, why am I not up there?".

 Duchess has developed a habit of thumping whenever she doesn't get her way. To her, this means a lot of things: Not being able to jump on the couch (She tries jumping when she's right next to it and miserably fails) or jump the bed, or whenever she doesn't get enough treats/food. She was also at one point where she was thumping every time she jumped onto my bed, although she has now resorted to a quieter way of jumping up there so that way she can surprise me in the morning.

 Its probably worst whenever she is visiting with family. She knows that if she thumps she will more than likely get her way, which has resulted in more than her fair share of treats =D 
 

  Duchess's first Halloween is coming up, which means Halloween card! I'll definitely be posting it here come Monday.

   Until next post...

               Duchess's Slave

 

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

You did WHAT?

You tried to recreate my favorite treat...Seriously?

  Yep, you guessed it. I did the ultimate evil of trying to (sort of) recreate her favorite treat. Not replace, but simply try to make something similar that I can whip up at home. All previous efforts have been..Disastrous. Large bunny cookies that are extremely soft in the middle. Only once did I make something that they wouldn't eat.
  
   Today I started a new can of Pumpkin for her highness (I get the large cans of Libby's canned Pumpkin and give it to her occasionally with some benebac) and I always have left overs that won't fit in the container. I do give her some, but I still have some left, so today I decided to try (once again) to make some bunny cookies for her. Over the years I've been mixing bunny cookie recipes from various websites, and I think I'm finally happy with how they turned out this time.
           
  
 
  So I ground up some of her pellets and mixed pumpkin, and some whole wheat flour (lots of flour!) and this time I rolled it out more like a dough and flipped it onto itself so it was doubled, and used a small circular cookie cutter instead of rolling them into balls like you would with cookies. This time I put a lil too much pumpkin so it was too wet and I used a ton of flour to even it out. Once I used up the "dough" I then stuck'em in the oven(preheated to 350 degrees) and left them in for around 30 minutes, turned off the oven when the timer beeped, and left them in for probably another 10 minutes. The cookies I ended up with are around 1 inch wide and the thickness varies from cookie to cookie. Meanwhile Duchess was happily licking the bowl I had used for mixing the ingredients.
   

  Once they were done, she didn't hesitate to nom the one I gave her. They were a bit hard and the bottoms a bit burned, but I plan on remedying this next time by dusting the bottoms of the "cookies" with flour. The one good thing about them being harder is that she gets to chew on it longer, and she loves chewing on things.

Hmm...Whats this?


Tastes like Pumpkin...

I'll need to try another one before I submit my review...


 
  Lucky for me she likes them, because she's got a nice large jar full of'em. And she still has her bunny bites from the Bunspace Store. Its a win-win.

    Until next post...

                 Duchess's Slave


                    

Monday, October 24, 2011

Movie Time!

Must...Get...Treat...

 I finally had time to put together another little video. Only this time the music is actually in sync with it the entire time. I think this was her favorite video to make since she got extra Pumpkin Bites (From the Bunspace Store). She goes nuts for them every time she hears them, after she gets one, she won't leave you alone till she's absolutely positively sure that you're "clean" of treats.  

  This time I wanted to incorperate other things that Duchess does, and not just her binky skills. Now its just a matter of finding another song so I can start work on her next video. 


  Duchess has been doing fine. She kept me up this morning by constantly jumping on my bed and digging. The way she digs, its loud and hard to get back to sleep. I don't mind too much since I know to counter this by holding her for a minute or two before putting her down. After two holding sessions she wasn't jumping on the bed again.



Now it's time for up to the minute news of what Duchess is doing: 

   She just ran down the hall, disppeared into a bedroom..And now she's checking out the living room. Now, she's back in the hall! Now its back to the bedroom...And repeat. Now I'm typing one-handed because she has jumped on the couch and flopped as soon as I started petting her.

  
  Well thats all for now! Until next post...

                    Duchess's Slave



Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The Many Shades of Chocolate

 Sorry for the delay in posting, Duchess has been keeping us on our toes with her chewing attempts.

Does this pattern make me look fat?


  Duchess is shedding big time right now, and as a result she is looking very...Streaky. When I first recieved Duchess, I thought "Oh, she'll be my first solid color bunny!" How wrong I was. Even when she wasn't shedding she had multiple tones. Now that she is shedding, well, you can see for yourself. The richer chocolate color is her spring color, and that milk chocolate color is her winter color, and then she's got a dark stripe outlining her winter coat. Her face is dark chocolate along with her paws and tail. She also has a tiny white dot on her side, which is very hard to see in pictures. Also for some reason, she has developed an odd dark chocolate marking on her back, and I don't think she had that with her spring coat, or if she did, it definitely wasn't as noticeable.


  As of late Duchess has been getting into all kinds of trouble, especially the chewing kind. She has already taken out two phone chargers, before we were able to bunny proof the cords, of course. She has also been working on decorating the floor. Apparently her litterbox was "too far away". Please. The place she chose was just as far as the litterbox. 
 

 When I had Maisy&Daisy, I was used to being given attention only because I had food, which was fine with me. Over the years I was finally given enough respect to be occasionally "groomed" by one of them, usually Daisy. Maisy would only "accidently" give me a lick. When it was just Daisy, she was definitely friendlier, but she was still reserved. Duchess is so different from them. She is always coming by for attention and sometimes she even has to have someone around to "perform" for. I even get licks from her occasionally.

 Right now I'm working on a new video of her, but I don't suspect it'll be done until next week.
   
       Until next post...

           Duchess's Slave