Munching

About 10 days ago I was going through some intense guilt feelings. No, NOT about a diet, which you might be led to believe based upon the title of this particular blog. It was about our soon-to-be new member of the household, Munchie. Munchie is a two year old white bunny with blue eyes. The guilt feelings were directed towards our Shih Tzu Tai Chi and our very large Kliban cat, Rosie. (They are called Shih Tzu's because you are constantly saying, "You're a little shit, aren't' zu? to them.) Tai and Rosie have been the best of friends for five years now, and you know the saying, "two's company, three's a crowd," and frankly I was worried about a crowd!

Tai went through some feelings of rejection when our daughter came to live with us. Chantí was three at the time, and Tai was used to being the center of attention. With the arrival of Chantí­, Tai had to take a back seat whenever visitors came for a good year. As for Rosie, although she is the most patient, tolerant cat on the planet, I've seen her ire when another cat has ventured into her backyard. I wasn't really too confident about how Rosie was going to react to this interloper on her territory.

Munchie was described as "a confident bunny" and that pretty much sums him up. No timid lapin here! By his second day, Munchie was letting me hold him on my lap for extended periods. On his third day we set up a play area in the laundry room and back hall for him to give him an opportunity to exercise his large muscles. My father, who grew up on farms, of course thought that was utterly ridiculous. Munchie doesn't seem to care a whole lot one way or the other. He has a "Cottontail Cottage" that the woman at the House Rabbit Society gave us when we got Munchie. It's a cardboard box about 18" by 24", divided into three levels with cardboard ramps. All of Munchie's paperwork says that he loves sitting on the roof. It must've been a different Munchie though, because so far OUR Munchie has only made it as far as the second floor. Chantí generously donated her Playhut caterpillar tunnel and we also got a 17" wicker "tent" for him along with a wicker basket that is just his size for "sleeping". That's in addition to the large and small wicker balls and the plastic ball with the bell inside. Anyway, during Munchie's exercise period, which generally lasts between six and eight hours, he mostly just sits in the tunnel. Every now and then he hippity hops about and we all (my daughter, my mother, and I) exclaim at how cute he is. Chantí­ will periodically go into the play area to play with Munchie. They toss the small wicker ball back forth a few times and then Munchie lies down in his basket with his head on Chantí­'s lap and soaks up the love.

Today I went grocery shopping - we needed more greens. If I could learn to like greens as much as Munchie, I wouldn't need to diet ever again. When I was bringing things into the garage, I heard Tai Chi barking incessantly. He does that whenever the garage door is up - he's afraid he's going to miss out on something. I yelled "Hush!" and the barking stopped. About five minutes later I came in and found Tai Chi in the tunnel with Munchie. They were just hanging out together. Tai is very curious about Munchie. I think Tai may have some species identification issues himself....he becomes quite amorous towards Rosie at times. After Chantí­ got him out of the tunnel, we sat in Munchie's play area with Tai Chi and Munchie. We held Tai Chi, but didn't really need to. He now wanted to be on the other side of the fence. Literally. Meanwhile, Munchie the Confident Bunny felt at ease enough with Tai to check things out. Mind you from a distance of maybe two feet, but nevertheless, for a bunny who had just had a dog bounding through his tunnel, he did remarkably well.

So the intense feelings of guilt are gone. Chantí­ is going to make a schedule out of who plays with which animal when, since there are three of us and three of them. (She's very organized, that Chantí!) Everyone seems to be working things out on their own terms. The hardest part is keeping Chantí from rushing them, but she is showing great restraint. In the meantime...I started a diet. But I still don't like greens as much as Munchie.