Well, Gussy’s home again. He was very tired last night, so we just spent a lot of time patting his little furry head before going to bed.
This morning he’s pretty much back to his old self again… charging and grunting when I bring him his breakfast. Of course, that’ll probably stop in a week or two as the hormones in his system fade away. But all in all, Gussy’s doing just fine. He was alert & active (sort of) when we picked him up yesterday afternoon, and he’s settled right back into his old spots in the livingroom.
Speaking of which, we’ve re-arranged things a bit for the bunnies. Gussy’s cage (which he never used) is now in the kitchen with Betsy, who likes it more. (She’s used to having a wire floor.) Betsy’s litterbox is in the cage, which we hope will help her actually use it. Since she was kept in a wire-floor cage previously, she has this instinct to poop on the wire floor of the cage – but we hope that the association of the litterbox in the cage will help make her use it instead (it’s much easier to clean).
Betsy is also becoming kind of aggressive herself. We let her & Gussy meet for a moment when he got home, hoping that she would snuggle with him… but instead, she tried to mount him!!! Betsy!!! You bad bunny!
After double-checking again that Betsy is in fact a girl (she is), we figured it was just a dominance kind of thing. Betsy’s getting secure in her position now, and she had been in the livingroom (Gussy’s space) all day while he was at the vet. Also, we think Betsy knew that Gussy was in no position to dominate her (he was a little sore), so she took the opportunity to establish her dominance in the rabbit hierarchy. Weird bunnies!
To top it all off, Gussy sneaked out of the livingroom this morning – past the barrier we’ve set up – while I was making my morning bagel. I turned around to find the two of them approaching one another slowly… and then Betsy tried to establish herself again. I tried to separate them, but they got away and came at each other again. This time, Gussy snipped at Betsy – he’s obviously feeling better – and then I was able to grab Gussy and take him back into the livingroom. Then I had to fortify the barrier with a chair, so as to prevent any other escape attempts. Geez!
So, that’s the story of the bunnies so far. In about a week or so we’ll take the barrier down and let those two get friendly… assuming that they don’t fight. Ah, Bunny politics!
