Down The Rabbit Hole

Another wet yellow puddle greeted me again on Monday morning.

I was not amused.

Grumbling, I cleaned up the puddle, refilled her food dish, and rushed off to work. I couldn’t concentrate the whole day because I kept thinking about the rabbit. Is Phoebe ok? Does she seem more settled in? Is she drinking her water? Eating her pellets? Am I letting her out enough? Did she spray pee outside the cage again? All day the only thoughts running in my head were rabbit rabbit rabbit rabbit rabbit rabbit rabbit rabbit. Rabbit? Rabbit! Rabbit??! RABBIT!

When I finally got home I decided to try out my friend’s remedy and rubbed some vinegar onto the spot she peed on. To be on the safe side, I placed some newspapers over the spot as well. Feeling rather smug, I went off to shower before I headed out for my movie. As I was leaving the house, I decided to check on the rabbit again.

Lo and behold, there was another puddle of pee outside the cage… IN ANOTHER SPOT. WHICH ALSO HAPPENED TO BE RIGHT OVER HER FOOD BOWL, SO SOME STAINED THE SIDES OF THE BOWL.

I was quite ready to turn Phoebe into rabbit stew. But first I complained to my friend.

Me: SHE PEED IN ANOTHER SPOT. GYAHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Friend with two rabbits: Well, you just have to keep on rubbing vinegar until she stops.
Me: Really? *pause* Wait, how long did it take you to housetrain yours?
FWTR: A few months?
Me: *collapses on floor*

Man, I REALLY hope I have the patience to see this through.

It is advisable, when you first get a pet rabbit, to let it settle into its cage for the first few hours and let it pee there. Once a rabbit chooses a spot to pee in, it will return to that spot whenever it needs to pee.

Those were the facts running inside my head on Sunday when I checked on the rabbit first thing in the morning and was greeted by the sight of viscous, yellow fluid puddling on the floor right outside of the cage.

Why was the rabbit peeing outside her cage? How the hell did she even manage do that when she was inside the cage?!

“Male rabbits do that,” said a friend with two pet rabbits. “They tend to spray their pee outside the cage.”

Yeah, but Phoebe is female?

“Well, females do it too. Although most of the time it’s due to missing the mark.”

Ah.

“You can stop them from peeing on that spot by wiping some vinegar over it.”

Hmm.

I wiped the pee off the floor, stared at it, and observed the rabbit for the rest of the day. She didn’t seem to spray over the cage again, so I let her be. She was getting more well behaved as well, as I let her out again and she hopped back into her cage without me having to attempt getting her in. Yay, progress!

Hello! Meet Phoebe, the one year old albino rabbit Significant Other and I decided to adopt to save it from potential doom.

We just picked her up yesterday, and settled her into her new home on my porch. It is important to note that Significant Other and I had no prior experience with rabbits, so what “settled in” really means here is that we spent yesterday (and today) exhausted from stressing out over whether she was ok or not in her new home.

Our first impression when we saw her was simply WOAH, SHE’S HUGE (but totally adorable. Also, she is a white rabbit XD). After we got her to my house, we went out to buy her the necessities – a cage, food, some hay, and a water bottle – and placed her into her cage. I lined the tray with newspaper to prepare for what I was sure would be a bombardment of rabbit poop and pee.

After awhile we decided that maybe we should let the rabbit run around the porch a bit, as it had been stuck in a car and a styrofoam box for more than an hour. This turned out to be a mistake. Once the rabbit was out, it simply refused to go back into the cage. Every time we got near her, she ran away from us. Every time we managed to get close enough to her to pick her up, she panicked the moment we touched her. In frustration we called the girl who gave her to us to ask for help. She advised us not to let the rabbit out yet as it needed to get used to its new living space first… which was a bit too late. Whoops. Could she offer any advice on getting the rabbit back into the cage? Besides picking her up and putting her back in, nope.

So Significant Other and I spent the better part an hour trying to coax Phoebe back into her cage. Significant Other finally managed to grab ahold of her in a manner which she didn’t struggle… then she struggled the moment he reached her cage and scratched him -_- I was getting tired from trying as well, and it didn’t help that I had a dinner to go to in 15 mins. In the end Significant Other managed to grab hold of the rabbit again and bring her to the cage. She struggled again, hopping free of his arms… right into her cage! We shut the door before she could run out again. Phew. Significant Other quickly declared himself to be a champion rabbit tamer. I decided not to argue out of sheer exhaustion of chasing after the rabbit.

Well, of course I would rather jump into something less hazardous, but I’m getting really desperate here. And not to mention depressed. God knows how long more I can keep this up before I snap. Or go insane. Wait, maybe I already am insane.

Two days ago, I dreamt of insects. Yesterday night I dreamt of circles. I dreamt of things going around in circles, of circular shapes in every direction I look.

I related it to the same friend who interpreted my dream yesterday, and he told me that the circles represent infinity, going around in a loop without end, a monotonous existence… in other words, I’m stressed. Crap.