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

"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

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

   

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.

          

        

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.)

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

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

 
  

 

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

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

  

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