your guess is as good as mine

I’m working on a novel and love writing, other hobbies and interests include cyanotype, wet specimens, jewelry making and goldsmithing, ball jointed dolls, baking, historical fashion, the Minotaur, Ancient Greece, insects and herpetology. I have an Ancient Greek replica lyre that I need to get better at, and write I a lot of poetry. I recently took up knitting and am beginning my metal smithing journey in the near future. I enjoy ethically acquired oddities and bone collecting.

I’m vegan- I respect people’s choices to do what makes the most sense for them with their diet, but I will not interact with anything pro-animal consumption for my own sake.

I am pro-breed preservation and ethical breeding just as much as I am pro-rescue.

Animals:

Sylvie - Belgian hare 🌈

Elwood- Velveteen lop 🌈

Fion- Belgian hare

Marcus- Flemish giant mix

Baby- Green cheek conure

Falcor and Sweet Potato- Axolotls, 13 and 7 respectively

Mildred, Clarence, Clementine and Lilly- kitties

Gideon 🌈, Caspian and Penelope- Partner’s rabbits, New Zealand mix, Californian, and French lop mix

Enoki- Pastel butter ball python

Musa- Crested gecko

Mooncake- Leachianus gecko

Vietnamese mossy frog

Madagascar hissing cockroach colony

Land snails

Some mild scuffling ensued (just some humping and fur pulling, I only felt the need to separate them 1 time), but nothing serious, which is crazy and something I’m very unused to with rabbits lol. Even after the scuffling, they would lay down next to each other which is a really great sign that they like each other, they’re just deciding who’s going to be boss. Fion is a lot more receptive to humping and pretty unbothered by it, but since Marcus has limited mobility, it’s hard for him to do it, so Fion has a leg up on that one even though I don’t think he cares much about being dominant lol.

They’re currently set up in a pen in my bedroom on their “honeymoon” while they settle their hierarchy, and will get free roam access to my bedroom once they seem fully comfortable with one another :) probably a few days, or until they stop waking me up in the morning humping each other lol.

I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable bonding rabbits over the years and becoming familiar with what different behaviors mean and should look like.

•spaying/neutering, of course

•having a designated litter/mess corner

•using a larger litter box than seems necessary in this corner

•deep cleaning the space with an enzyme cleaner to remove scent/washing any blankets, rugs etc, but leaving the litter box a little dirty and putting poops into it, in the hopes of really highlighting where messes should go

•slowly expanding their pen environment to room environment rather than all at once, because with a lot of new territory, they’ll be more inclined to scent mark

•moving any poops back to the litter box and using vinegar to spray the area that they pooped to remove the scent

•shrinking down their environment when bad little manners persist, to help solidify “this is your territory”

•doing ALL feeding in the litter box- For a while, Fion would poop wherever he ate pellets, so I fed him his pellets in his box. I use the Rooly box with the enclosure, and I find having the large, flat surface of the litter box combined with an enclosed litter box has helped a lot. That one isn’t super doable without a lot of space, but increasing litter box size to accommodate, and making a bit more cozy does seem to help.

It’s pretty typical for them to poop on their people LOL, that’s a territory behavior. “You don’t smell like me, and you’re mine- Here, I’ll fix that!” It’s the same reason they’ll go on our bed.

All of that said, they might not ever be 100% perfect, but there are lots of little ways to get them closer to 100%, and I find that they do improve over time once they’ve been in a space for a while and are able to designate their litter area- Once a full space smells a little more like them (from chinning, walking around etc) they’ll be less inclined to scent mark. I’m hoping Marcus’s manners improve (he’s about 85% when peeing, and maybe 60% with pooping), but I won’t know for sure until he’s been in the space for a while.

I mainly handle my grief as if it’s a very large bomb that will explode at any wrong movement- That is to say, I avoid it entirely. Which doesn’t change the fact that there’s a very large bomb about to explode, but you learn to think about it less, because what else is there to do?

I hate that I think about him less because it’s the only way I can keep from crying. Two mornings ago, when it was still far too early but the animals had all woken up and I stumbled out of bed half asleep to turn the light on, there was a lump in the middle of the floor. A perfectly shaped, multicolored lump. And in the dim morning and in my half-conscious mind, it made perfect sense that it was Elwood, sitting comfortably and in the way as he always did. And then I remembered- Oh, of course it isn’t Elwood.

It still just feels wrong that he’s gone. It feels like it isn’t possible. Any moment in my room, subconsciously, I am imagining his sleeping body on the rug, or under my bed where he liked to lay on the cool floor. But then I get up, and there’s no Elwood.

I had a dream, too, that he and Gideon both poked their little heads up from the garden, sprinkled with soil and leapt out under a full moon, chasing one another in the yard.

I miss him very dearly. I miss the way his fur feels, I miss kissing his head and sticking my face into the crook of his neck and breathing in his warmth and softness. I miss his clumsy, lumbering footsteps and the sound of him scratching his ears.