On a more exciting note...

Mylo! Isn't he darling?!














And Happy, my darling baby bunny! (Who, for some reason, looks huge in this photo.)

Another new arrival

It came to my attention that I hadn't made a post in quite a long while, so I decided that today would be appropriate, in keeping with the theme of the last entry, which was getting a new pet. Today, a little over one month from the date that Mylo came to me, I got a lovely little Netherland Dwarf bunny. When I went to the dentist last week in Chapel Hill, we stopped at the mall and visited the pet store. I fell in love with one bunny in particular, and begged my mother to let me get it. She said that I couldn't because we had a lot of stops to make that day, but that since she had to come back to the doctor in a couple of weeks, that we could check back then. I didn't put up an argument, but when we got home I reminded her of the last bunny that she said I could get. When I visited the same pet shop a year earlier, there was one bunny in particular that I wanted, but my mom gave the same explanation as to why I couldn't get it. When we went back two weeks later, the bunny that I wanted was gone. I also pointed out to her that since Cadbury (my first rabbit) died two years earlier, we still had everything that we needed to take care of a bunny, and it was ridiculous that we spent all of that money and the supplies were just sitting around collecting dust. After careful deliberation, my parents decided that I should get the bunny. Mom called the shop Saturday morning to see if they would hold the bunny until we could get there, but then I got the sad news that my precious baby bunny was sick and that store policy would not allow me to purchase a sick animal. They told us to call back Monday and they'd let us know how the situation was. Yesterday, mom and I both tried all day to call back, and we could never get through, as we always got a pre-recorded message from Verizon that all circuits were busy. This morning however, my mom called before I woke up, and got in touch with the people and they agreed to hold the bunny until we could get there because she was nice and healthy again. We got everything together really quick and drove to Chapel Hill to pick up my darling bunny. Said bunny is black and white, and small enough to fit in my hand. I have named her Happy, as in Happy Bunny (haha). They said at the pet store that she really likes sleeping in bowls, so I washed one of Cadbury's old food crocks and filled it with bedding, and it is definitely Happy's favorite part of her cage. Apparently, she's never had a salt wheel before, because she seems quite fascinated with it. She licks it and licks it, and then goes and drinks water for twenty minutes. Being a future veterinarian, I was a little curious about what had possibly made my darling Happy sick, so I did some research. Happy is a Netherland Dwarf. The breed originated, obviously, in the Netherlands. Netherland Dwarfs are basically just standard rabbits, but they contain one of the two genes for dwarfism in rabbits. Basically this means that if Happy were human, she'd be a little person. If a baby bunny is born with both genes for dwarism, this is fatal, and the bunnies usually die within three days of life. This is because along with the dwarfism, the genes also code for digestive tract abnormalities. Because Happy has one of the genes for dwarfism, she has a sensitive digestive tract. Because of this, if she has too many fresh vegetables, she'll get sick. When I went to pick her up today, I spied a big leaf of fresh romaine lettuce in her cage. This is the same thing that caused Cadbury to be sick a few years ago. Therefore, I solved the mystery. All that matters is that my darling little Happy is all better now, and I'm looking forward to giving her a long and happy life.