We Are All About the Presents!

The sleigh is a nice start (bought from The Busy Bunny) but I suspect these two furry imps are wanting more.  Fortunately Santa will find that they have both been very good rabbits this year.  Cinnamon goes crazy over this sleigh. It looks a lot worse now than it was when I took this photo.

Naughty or nice?

"Santa" Cinnamon knows all about naughty--and nice, too. Here she is, being a good sport about wearing a Santa hat clearly designed for a cat. She got into it by chewing on the tail! That's my girl.

Main Course for a Rabbit's Thanksgiving

Don't be alarmed--the wine was for me, not Benjamin and Cinnamon (it was a nice pomegranate wine from Horton's Winery in Virginia, though.) As you can see, the Hoppy Vegan is a frustrated chef. Rabbits generally care little for presentation. Ten minutes after serving this, here is what the plate looked like-

Cinnamon decided to eat her share within her timothy bungalow.

What is wrong with this picture?

Why is Woodstock so happy about a fellow bird slaughtered to feed that blockhead Charlie Brown and his dog? Good grief!

That first Thanksgiving after I went vegetarian, I noticed for the first time that at the end of the classic "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving", when Woodstock and Snoopy are having their traditional Thanksgiving meal, that here is a bird chowing down on another bird! Avian cannabalism!

This scene  strikes me now as rather gruesome and yet all those years growing up, I never saw the strangeness in this idea of a bird happy about chowing down on a bird.  (yes, I know there are birds who are predators and eat meat, the owl, for instance, being the mortal enemy of my beloved rabbits). This is just more proof in how difficult it is to change one's perceptions of animals and how amazingly easy it is, once you do go vegetarian, to see little things like Woodstock's devouring turkey in a different light.

What I Am Thankful For

This was taken after Cinnamon came home from her emergency
vet stay last month, You can see how much Benjamin missed her.

These two beloved animal companions are my world since my human family are in Massachusetts. They get me through my saddest days and provide company when I need it most. I pray that I have both these lovely rabbits for a long time to come.

Of course I am so very grateful for my mom, who is my best friend and has seen me through some very sad and angry days these past two years.  She is my rock, the one person I know I can always count on 120% percent of the time.

I am grateful for my health, which has its quirks but my issues are either aging-related or the results of self-inflicted overeating.  Compared to thousands of others, I am very very lucky.

I am grateful for my wonderful condo. I live surrounded by trees and squirrels, for its peaceful oasis it provides me. I am grateful that I live in a progressive area where the environment means something and people strive to protect and preserve it.

I am grateful for friendships, classical music, jazz, New York City, Boston, all creatures great and small, Gardein products, sunrises and sunsets, wine, Daiya faux cheese,  the Boston Red Sox, the Washington Nationals, my local community center, the ability to laugh even when everything around me seems to be falling to crap (thank you, Reduced Shakespeare Company for that!)

Most of all, I am grateful for being alive. For still standing despite a broken (but healing!) heart. I give thanks for every breath I get.

So...what are you giving thanks for, this Thanksgiving?

A Special Anniversary

The first glance

A year ago this weekend, my widowed bunny Cinnamon met and fell head over heels over her second husbun, a sweet white lop-eared five year old boy named Boo, whose previous owner had passed away and who was living at BunnyLu rescue at the time these two bunnies met at the autumn open house.

As you all know, this darling blue-eyed bun was not destined to live with us long, passing away two months later, the day before New Year's Eve. Though Cinnamon has since found another true love in her grey rexy boy Benjamin, I still grieve and will always grieve for this beautiful bunny who helped this new divorcee get through some terrible months, especially the holidays.

I will always miss you, my darling Boo, or "ole Boo Eyes" as I used to call you. Though our time together was all too brief, you meant the world to me and got me up on many mornings when I just didn't want to function at all.  In many ways, you saved my life. I only wish I could have saved yours in return. 

Rest in peace, Madison

Madison went to the Bridge on 27 October 2012

There are rabbits and then there are rabbits. Madison was a very special bun, a double amputee who nevertheless lived her life with gusto with her beloved human, Randy Koga, who is a devoted rabbit rescuer in California who has saved so many rabbits at great expense and sacrifice to himself. Madison, though, was clearly his heart bunny, and the photos of her that he sent out to the world on social media won the hearts of hundreds of rabbit lovers around the country. We will all miss seeing you, sweet Madison, and no one will miss you more than your dad, Randy. But now you can be at peace, healthy, a whole bunny again, free to bink through heaven's grasses and frolic with all the rabbits we have loved and who have gone on before us. Rest in peace, sweet girl, and know that your life, your courage has inspired so many.