The Wasp

I had to edit this a little bit as the F bomb was used in it way too many times. I don't like the F word and it didn't need to be used in this to get your attention either. You will see where I put in my own words and it's still gets the point across without the F word. Do take the warning of this wasp message seriously though, as they are not something you want to mess with, no matter your experience with them. Being a bee-keeper doesn't qualify you as an expert in wasps or hornets. Hornets are worse btw. I learned that the hard way about eight years ago when I feel into a hornets nest by a pond. I hurt for weeks after that. Wasps can inflict the same kind of pain if you are not careful. They are not afraid of anyone or anything, except for maybe a can of Raid or some other wasp killer. If you do come in contact with one or more, stop moving. Let them fly around you and they will carry on with what they were doing, usually with no stinging or attacking you. Swatting at them is a no no and only makes them mad. They call in reinforcements if you start swatting at them. Not good then.   

Poem: Five Baby Bunnies

Do you like poems about bunnies? I love them as they bring me closer to them and make me smile and feel warm all over hearing them, and writing them too.

Five Baby Bunnies

Five baby bunnies hopping out to play,
Hopping in the forest on this joyful Easter Sunday.

The first baby bunny carried his new cane,
He twirled it as he came hopping down the lane.

The second baby bunny came to the rivers brink,
Tasted the cool water and took a long, long drink.

The fourth baby bunny skipped down the shady lane,
He opened his umbrella just in case of rain.

The fifth baby bunny said, "Oh look what I see,
Lots of colored eggs hiding along side of baby bunny number three."

So cute and loving.  :)

Custom Rabbit Cages

This one to the left is a Custom Condo for your rabbits. It has all the safety and surroundings your bunny could ever need, including natural grass, fresh air, a ramp to and from each level, a hay filled bottom inside the living quarters, play toys, nibble branches, easy access doors for bottom and top, anchor straps on each corner for bad weather (I suggest moving them inside for extreme weather), a shingled and angled roof for rain runoff, and snakeproof wire cage. The water bottle and food are done manually, though some do have an auto system to refresh there daily requirements. You still have to manually clean it. This is perfect for a family of three fully grown rabbits, four if smaller.

We have 6 condos similar to this one that surround our Bunny Barn. The Bunny Barn is where we keep most of our wild/stray/unwanted bunnies. It is temparature controlled, can hold 400 bunnies if need be, and has many volunteers that come here daily to help out anyway they can. More on this later.

Happy trails!

Rabbit Cage Care

I recently read a complaint and question on a nature forum about this womans rabbit. I'm only going to post her main question and not all of her complaints:
"I have an indoor rabbit. Its driving me crazy. I dont want to use ANY woodshavings of any kind (too messy). Can I lay down just a towel or even just leave the cage bottom bare so I dont have to keep cleaning and changing the woodshavings in the cage?"

My answer:
Huh? A bare cage bottom? Having a rabbit as a pet is NOT to make YOU feel more comfortable because something is too messy. Let's say in a fantasy rabbit world, that two rabbits brought you home as a pet and they didn't like mattresses because they were too much to maintain, then they had you sleep on the bare floor. No fun in that is it? Your rabbit needs comfort just as we do. I'm not trying to insult you or put you down in any, but you can't tell us that you don't want to make your rabbit comfortable only because you don't like woodshavings can you? Part of having a pet is giving them comfort and love even if it's something you dont like to do. I think you should have done some more research on rabbits before getting one, as they are nothing like having a cat or dog. As for your question, woodshavings of all kinds are recommended for rabbits. They are also fine with gerbils and small mice. A towel is NOT recommended being the rabbit will urinate on it and it will stink badly, then you will have to throw it away everyday. Newspapers are a good choice as is a thin layer of hay, or even apple tree bark. You have to remember that they like to chew on things too and having something like a branch or some kind of non toxic bark in the cage, will only give them the surroundings most rabbits enjoy. Never leave the bottom of a cage bare no matter how thick there fur is. I have used cedar shavings in the past, but the shavings, like all shavings, tend to stick to the rabbits fur more than I would like it too. It's still a good choice for a bottom filler. The point is to make the rabbit comfortable. Rabbits like woodshavings. :)

The reply to what I had to say to this person was very defensive. Ugly and cruel is more like it, toward me and the rabbit. I will keep from posting the reply here, just know that I finally told her that I would make the trip to get her rabbit being it was making her life miserable, if she wanted me too. I mean, why have one at all if all you are going to do is complain about everything the rabbit does? Rabbits poop you know. Get over it! People like this are puzzling to me.

To my readers:
Maybe I was a little to forward in my reply but having rabbits is not that much work unless you have many of them. You must know this before you get one or more of them. We have over 300 of them. We rehab them, rescue them from mean people, rescue them from being euthanized, rescue them from weather disasters, care for them 24/7, and even have an adoption program through the county. We have a stockpile of tree branches and bark from North Carolina that is delivered here each month. Having 1 rabbit is nothing like having 300 of them, but we use the same concept as just having a single rabbit.

Happy trails!

Awkward Situations

Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This poor hunter is screwed! Can you imagine this being you - face to face with a man eating furry wild animal? What would you do? His rifle is out of reach, he is most likely reading a book that is about killing animals, and he is now almost nose to nose with it.

I know this picture is a fake, as it has to be. If this were a true situation, what would you do? First thing you should do is not move. Stay as still as you possibly can, and don't pay attention to the pee running down your leg, as it's yours anyway. Making any sudden move could be deadly. Just sit and don't stare at the animal. Staring back at any wild animal is a threat to them. On the comedy side to this, maybe tell a joke or blow a kiss at it might help. I don't know, just don't get up and run or yell, as this animal can run fast and it can yell louder than you can. lol

By the way, I'm on the animals side in this one. :)

Eyeing Nature

For the ones reading this that can go out into the woods or maybe a forest or even a nature trail, what is the first animal you usually see first? From my own experiences in many forests and nature related places I've been to, one animal has always been in each one and it's usually the same cute animal I see first. That one animal is none other than the squirrel. They seem to be everywhere. Most call them rodents, but unlike most other rodents, squirrels are cute to me, so I call them animals. lol Rats are rodents. They are ugly. Squirrels may look like a rat at times, but they are not ugly to me. Back to the point of this. Do you see squirrels the most in the wooded areas near you, or something else, like maybe blue jays, cardinals, hawks, or even the rarely seen eagle or rabbit?

I have rarely seen that many rabbits in the wild. I have on occasion come upon them in open prairies and have seen them in neighborhoods around here where I live. They are more common here in Florida than most people think. Squirrels though, I think we have around 3 in every tree and we have 15 trees in the backyard alone. Do I feed them? Yes I do. I feed them in the wild and in the parks. I know I'm not suppose to feed them, but I do it anyway as most of us do. I feed them nuts only. They wait on me each afternoon at the door too. I'm serious. They are so cute.

Fact: Squirrels live in almost every habitat from tropical rainforest to semi-dry deserts, avoiding only the high polar regions and the driest of deserts.

I have often wondered if squirrels existed in jungles where monkeys rule the kingdom of trees. From my research they do exist, just they dont roam as freely as they would in any other wooded area. If I were a squirrel and had a monkey in the same tree or in the tree across from me, I dont think I would be roaming around that much either. Would you? lol

Feel free to comment and any of my posts. Thanks for reading more of my jibberish. (I love that word).

Happy trails!

Easter Bunny Facts

Do you believe in the Easter Bunny? I do! Yeah!

In legend and old folklore tales, the bunny brings baskets filled with colored eggs, candy and sometimes also toys to the homes of children on the night before Easter. Some compare the Easter Bunny to Santa Claus.

Why the colored eggs? I did some reading on this and most have no idea. I asked my grandma to see if she might know the real meaning of the colored eggs tradition and she said they represented the changing colors of the flowers during spring time. That made perfect since to me.

Why a bunny though? Why not a fox or maybe a deer? Have you ever wondered why a bunny was chosen to represent Easter? Fear Not, I have the answer. lol It seems fertility has more to do with it than anything else. Eggs, like rabbits and hares, are fertility symbols. Since birds lay eggs and rabbits and hares give birth to large litters in the early spring, these became symbols of the rising fertility of the earth at the Vernal Equinox. Vernal Equinox meaning

Rabbits and hares are both prolific breeders. The females can conceive a second litter of offspring while still pregnant with the first. I bet you didn't know that. This is where the term "to breed like bunnies" come from.

Now you know why bunnies were chosen to represent Easter. Did you learn something from this? I sure did.

Happy trails everyone. :)

Calvin and Hobbes: Monopoly

Calvin and Hobbes is my favorite cartoon to read. This one is one of my many favorites from them which I titled Monoploly. Can you imagine playing this game with Calvin? He makes me laugh so hard at times.

Happy trails to everyone today. Starting the day with a laugh will make it a great day. :)

Got a nickel?

Good morning readers,

I got a huge laugh when I saw this last night. Here is this cat sitting in front of a gumball machine with a fish in it. I'm thinking to myself, "I bet that cat wishes she had a nickel." lol I can't imagine what the fish is thinking. Maybe a better home, as the one it is in is not somewhere I would keep a fish, plus it looks lonely. A healthy fish is a happy fish. I can see tubes in the tank, so atleast it's being aerated in some way. Back to the cat: I wonder if she knows that if she lifts her paw and turns the lever on the tank, that the fish will come out. lol