New Bun

This is a backside picture of our new bunny! Yes, we got a third black rabbit to accompany the others. Can you see her big back side and the large bunny ears? Olivia and Oliver needed a companion so who do you think stepped up to the plate?

KOOF!

That's not a rabbit that's the little one, but why is she in the rabbit's box?

That is the mystery!

Chore List

-I have a chore list a mile long when Jimmy is gone. And all of them, yes ALL of them, involve the animals:

-Feed 2 bunnies, 3 cats and a greyhound two square meals a day (sorry Sickman!)
-Launder the bunnies towels once a day
-Wash the dishes twice a day
-Take pictures for the blog to cheer Jimmy up in his dismal surroundings
-Change the rabbit litter box two times a day
-Fish out turds from the cat litter every day
-Fix new litter for rabbits every morning and night with fresh clean box, new newspaper (hot commodity), new litter and new hay
-Timothy hay WHENEVER you remember it - they need a LOT to chew on
-Walk Maxine every AM and PM (today she got four walks because she wasn't pooping!)
-Keep Simone away from plastic!
-Make sure rabbits have LOTS to chew on
-Try and figure Maxine out
-Give Lulu the freedom to just be

New Fence for the Neighbor

Maxine is inspecting the neighbors new fence! They are putting it up despite the fact that the big pile of rubble and debris has not been removed from the offending property.

Max stands where the garage used to be and whines. Do you think she misses it? I do!

We are hoping for a fence this weekend, we will see. Max's backyard drama continues!

Double Double

I came to bring the rabbits their food tonight and I found them waiting for me, just like this in the little cat bed (we call them clams). This has got to be one of the best pictures of rabbits eating! They look as happy as little clams.

Silhouette

Can you guess which cat this is??

I love this picture of Simone. She always holds herself so well. This is a perfect example of this. She is the Rita Hayworth of cats! I love the late afternoon sun beaming behind her.

Can you see the little object to the left of Sickman?

It is a little Viking ship!

And to the right, there is grass for Simone to chew. She loves to chew on her grass and get sick! This is the picture the farmer's market has to sell us the grass. We pay 2$ for her to barf grass blades! The cat in this pictures is named Snowball.

Chomp Chomp Chomp

Chomp Chomp Chomp Chomp

That is the sound I hear while I am sitting at my desk working. What do you think it is?




That's Olivia and Oliver chomping on their "natural nibblers" or bits of stick and wood safe for them to chew and work down those choppers! Oliver is the one on the right, looking at the camera but also kind of leaning in.

This is a great close-up - look at her dive into that stick!

She chomps and he seeks comport in her presence. They have really come a long way. When we first had them and they were not fixed, he was just constantly bugging her. Now she is the boss and definitely takes care of him.

I have got to go change their litter!

O & O

Oliver and Olivia came into the office today to help us with our Sunday financial chores. This is a cute picture of them chewing on their timothy hay. Oliver is doing pretty good, he still falls on his right side and sometimes even rolls over! But we don't think he is getting any worse. And Olivia does her part to help him out whenever she can. Just a few minutes ago she was letting him lean on her as they chomp on their hay.

Max's Choppers

The Saturday right after the fire we took Maxine to her annual doctor's appointment. She got a clean bill of health! Usually she has to go in for a full teeth cleaning, but this year her teeth look great. Since she doesn't brush regularly, how do you think she keeps her teeth clean?


Chewing on bones!

Jimmy usually keeps them frozen and she takes them outside and gnaws on them for hours. She loves chewing on her bone and working on her sun tan.

Maxine Scopes out the Wreckage

We finally put a fake fence up since our real fence has had so many delays. So this is Maxine's first time going outside since the fire. The garage is obviously torn down and we know we will have to pull up two trees.



Maxine sniffed around but didn't seem too interested in the burnt and torn down building in our neighbors yard, but I think she must be a little miffed that the garage is gone! She used to love to run around that garage and chase other dogs!



This big tree in the foreground here will be out by next week. Hopefully by then we will have a real fence and will no longer have to look out at the wreckage!

Marley Ready For Playtime

Maxine has depended on her friend Marley this week for playtime. Marley has generously had her over much more than usual to off-set the fact that Maxine has been without a yard. All sorts of delays and problems leave Maxine without a backyard STILL.


Thank you Marley for sharing yours!

Comparison

The night before the fire, we took these funny pictures of our three diligent soldiers in a holding pattern pending snacks. They are watching us eat dinner. Lulu is just there for the ride, that is the funniest part of the picture. She really doesn't care about getting scraps from our dinner plate like the other cats do.


Little did we know this would be the last picture we would take of the backyard as we knew it. The green on the top above the fence is the ivy that covered the building that caught fire. That whole portion of fence is gone, the grass is gone and the tree will soon be gone. How sad!

Ruminate on Destruction

The cats are quite curious about their world post-fire. There are a few things they can say with certainty. There is no dividing line between us and our neighbors. There is no fence where there once was a fence. And suddenly it seems there are a lot more squirrels.



I don't think they necessarily see a correlation in those things . . . but who knows how they are putting this all together.

The Fire Continues

All the animals are sleeping now, they were pretty stressed out all morning. Here is the current status of the garage and back yard. The house diretly behind us had been condemned and there were squatters living in it. That house was the origin of the fire.




There is still current fire coming from the gas line that broke. We have to wait for the city to shut down the gas before the fire will be completely out.

Maxine Saves the Family From Fire (No Joke)

This morning we awoke at 4:00 am to Maxine barking. Not entirely unusual, but the odd thing was once we woke up the whole house smelled like smoke! Jimmy started screaming, "It's a fire, implement fire emergency procedures. Get dressed quickly! We need to move the animals into the truck."

When I turned the corner and looked at the backyard the building behind us was in flames and our gate was on fire too!

Within minutes I was dressed and we had all the animals (one by one) in the truck and I had the truck moved out of the driveway and out of harms way.

These dark pictures are what we woke up to, the fire bright against the night's sky.

At this moment, 6:59 am there is a gas pipe open and on fire that the firemen have to keep watering until the city comes and turns off the gas.



Thank the city for such a quick and amazing fire department or our house would have burned down. As it stands now, all the animals are inside and safe A little shaken up, but just fine.




The fire is still going as I write this. Day is breaking so we can get some better pictures of the destruction in the back yard. Our garage is half burned and half drenched in water. The whole back yard is a mud bog and the back gate is burned down. But we are all safe.