With Lilly passing away, and Norbert in the end stages of cancer, it has been somber around our house to say the least.  I tore down the two condos, put them in the garage, and then moved Norbert into my office since it is carpeted and would be easy for him to get around.

I started talking about going to a breeder to purchase a little Holland Lop after Norbert passed away.  I had decided I would only have one bunny going forward, since having two bunnies who hated each other like Norbert and Lilly had, was horrible to manage.  I  had also decided on a Holland Lop, since my first bunny, Duster, was a Holland Lop and was fabulous and friendly and outgoing, and I wanted that personality again.  Norbert and Lilly, who were both dwarfs, were great, but they were very standoffish.  They were fine being handled, and didn’t nip, bite, or try and get away, but you could tell they tolerated the handling, they didn’t enjoy it.  I loved them anyway, and let them have their space.  I always knew my next bunny, if there was a next bunny, would be a different breed and have a different personality.

Apparently, the “Animal Shelter Gods” heard me say “purchase” and “breeder” in the same sentence, because a week later BFJ called me from work (he is an animal control officer) saying, “you’ll never guess what I picked up stray today at the middle school”.  It turns out he had picked up a fairly young little lop, which had been running around in the bus lane.  Since I was heading out of town on business and would be passing by the shelter anyway, I offered to drop off a bag of bunny food, and take a “look”.

I arrived at the shelter and was soon standing in front of a cat cage in the clinic.  The cutest little black lop hopped to the front of the cage to check me out, took some food out of my hand, quickly decided I was no big deal, and then proceeded to dig in her litter box spewing the contents all over the place, after which she flopped out completely in the mostly empty box in utter adorableness.  Several things struck me:

1. She was completely unfazed at being in the shelter – amazing

2. She was very outgoing and friendly – yay!

3. She was young, probably just 4 months – yay!

I decided to take a few days to think about adopting her, but the short story is that two days later, BFJ dropped her off at my house after work, and since then it has been nothing but bunny love.

She is everything I wanted in a bunny, friendly, outgoing, and LOVES attention.  Her funny antics keep me laughing constantly.  The way she runs around in her corner of the living room jumping, playing, and shaking her little ears and doing happy little binky’s.

Even Ben is starting to understand the enchantment bunnies can have on you.  He thinks she’s funny too, and the fact she hops up right up to the side of the x-pen demanding pets from anyone who’s close enough to pet her, is giving him a different perspective of bunnydom.

For me, Zoe was just the shot of sunshine I needed, even though at the time I didn’t realize I needed it.

Welcome home Princess Zoe, our little ray of sunshine

So sweet Husband is seeing the new Star Trek Movie twice today.  It was about to be three, once with his developers, once with BFJ and myself, and then this evening with our nice friends from Unwired Nation at the Bob Bullock History Museum shindig.  Instead, I decided to work today and just go this evening,  and BFJ decided to go with Hubby and the developers, so now he is going only twice.

I am excited about seeing the movie today, and the party going on tonight at the Bob Bullock History Museum sounds like fun.  Yay Star Trek!

Yesterday was a LONG day!  It started with Emma Lou rolling in something disgusting in the backyard, and needing a bath.  Her bath culminated in all the dogs getting baths, which was not part of their Sunday plan, but it’d been a while.  Once all the dogs were bathed and glaring at me from under the covers of the bed, I started some dog laundry and ran to the grocery store to grab stuff for dinner.

Let me just tell you, 4 dogs, a bunny and a bird, means lots of laundry.  I washed all the dog beds, bunny beds, the birds bedding, and the cover that goes over the bird cage at night.  Then I lugged all the dog crates outside for a good scrub and air dry.  In between, I was running into the garage and bagging up the 20 pounds of duck necks I’d bought for the dogs as it was thawing out. (Can I just tell you I hate big frozen blocks of animals parts that I have to thaw and dig through?  YUCK!)  Once the crates were drying and most of the bedding was finished, I scrubbed out the bunny condo, collapsed it down, and moved it into the garage.  Then the dining room got vacuumed and mopped, all the dog beds were put back together, and the crates brought in from outside and put back.  Once that was done, my office where Norbert is now living, was vacuumed and his litter box cleaned, plus, I got him fed and medicated with both his antibiotic and pain meds.

Besides duck necks, I made veggie slop and thawed out a tube of beef organ blend, and got them partitioned into ice cube trays for easy small dog portioning day to day.  I thawed out a 20 pound tube of ground turkey, and got that reorganized into smaller portions, while also roasting a chicken for dinner, with spaghetti and a salad. I cleaned up the dinner mess, then fed the dogs, cleaned THAT mess up, and then FINALLY got a chance to read some of my new book.  Whew!

The good news?  All the dogs are clean and have clean beds to sleep in, my kitchen is clean, there is lots of frozen dog supplies accessible and ready for feeding, and I feel good that it’s all done.  Hopefully, next Sunday won’t be quite as busy.  Tonight?  The master bedroom and bathroom, and a continuation of laundry, except now it will be human laundry.