My family has a lop ear/dwarf rabbit cross breed that we affectionately call Mr.Snuggles.

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I have renamed him several times, he’s been Sir Poops a lot, Mr.Poopy, and now, Mr. Stupid.

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Mr. Stupid may be unbelievably adorable, and unquestionably soft, but he is not the sharpest bunny in the burrow.

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Mr. Stupid has matured, officially reached sexual maturity, and as such, has become a tiny bit territorial.  He apparently does not like it when a small hand reaches into his cage to empty his stinky litter box, or to fill his food bowl.  He growls now, and on occasion bites, if he feels particularly pissy about spending the night without food because he ate all of it within five minutes of having his bowl filled at bedtime.

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Paulina is absolutely the best pet owner in the world.  Every single morning she gets dressed before the rest of us and goes outside to see her precious pet (in the garage), and take care of all of his ‘necessities’.  She loves this bunny more than anyone.

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But Mr. Stupid apparently never learned the meaning of the phrase ‘don’t bite the hand that feeds you’, because not only did he bite her, but he leaped at her when she was bent down talking to him and bit her in the face!!!  She came running into the house with blood streaming from an inch long cut on her lower lip, crying hysterically.  Crying not really from pain, even though it did hurt, but more from shock and upset that Mr. Snuggles Stupid could be that mean, to HER!

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After I had taken the kids to school I had a visit with Mr. Stupid and told him that he was going to have to say goodbye to his big pink testicles if he was going to be miserable with our girl.  I even threatened to get the scissors and perform the surgery myself.  He looked at me, all cute and fluffy, big velvet nose and whiskers twitching. He had no idea what I was saying, but somehow, somehow I felt better….

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As it turns out, Paulina is healing, but it’s slow going, as cuts on lips usually take time, especially with the cold weather we’re having.  Luckily she seems fine, other than the odd craving she’s developed for timothy hay and carrots….

Meet our new pet, Mr. Snuggles.

Officially, his name is Chester Snuggles, because Jeremy did not want to admit to his friends that his new pet’s name is  ’Mr.Snuggles’. I mean, how embarassing!  So we have compromised on Chester Snuggles, so Jeremy does not need to be humiliated every time someone asks him his pet’s name. 

 I have high hopes for our pet.  As his mother, I KNOW he is smarter than all other bunnies and will be litter trained sooner, rather than later.  (I can’t wait).

 He has the best digestive system I have ever heard of/witnessed (whatever).  As soon as he takes a nibble of food, he poops.  And then, he poops continually until he stops eating.  And then he only poops every two minutes instead of every second.  Very impressive.  (So impressive that I’m seriously considering adding alfalfa hay to my daily dietary intake.  And maybe a little for  the kids too, secretly mixed into their morning protein shakes-goodbye flax, hello hay!).

Mr. Snuggles often spends time multitasking, using his food bowl as his litter box. 

Okay, okay, so maybe he’s not so smart, but he is damn cute!!!

Paulina is fated to be a politician, although she believes she will be a veterinarian.

After a trip to the local provincial park at the beginning of the summer, one we love and frequent, where we saw baby bunnies and were lucky enough to hold them, Paulina has developed a new fixation.

It doesn’t matter that she has six dwarf hamsters, yes six, she is determined that she NEEDS to have a bunny.  Now this is a girl who doesn’t ask for much, and was devastated when told by her father that, no, she could not have a bunny while she has six hamsters.

So, now she is waging a full, yet subtle campaign, complete with small, slipped into the conversation hints and comments, bunny photos innocently appearing on her daddy’s desk and promises to name the bunny after him!!! 

Last night when hubby logged onto the computer to check his home email, he laughed to see that his new wallpaper is a full screen picture of an adorable baby bunny.  He just so happens to love bunnies, as his only pet as a child was a bunny (he is Italian and this is definitely another story!!) and so, he thought Paulina was very funny. (She was in bed and did not see his reaction!).

Today, she went a step further and changed his screensaver to swirling words that say ‘I love bunnies’ and the icon beside his name to yet another bunny pic.  He hasn’t seen it yet.

Pretty soon, he is going to have to crush her dream (again) of receiving a bunny for her birthday.  I don’t want to be there when he does.  I think I will suddenly need to do yet another load of laundry when he begins the dream crushing process.  She is a determined little campaign wager, so I assure you, this is going to get ugly.  U.G.L.Y.

I’m planning on taking the kids to my parent’s cottage, with my mom for 3 or 4 nights.  Hubby gets to stay home without us and enjoy the solitude.  But he will not be able to be completely relaxed as Paulina has told him of her expectations of him while she is gone.  In regards to pet care, he has quite a list to follow.  I wrote yesterday of how my friend dropped off her two fish tanks and one fish bowl for us to fish sit for two weeks. Well, while we are away,  hubby gets the responsibility of caring for the fish, and our hamsters.  Paulina and I are a little concerned that he won’t be able to handle it, so at his request, Paulina wrote him the following list:

Beta fish-4 pellets of beta food, twice a day

Baby fish- a little pinch with your fingers

Big fish-a bigger pinch but not too big

Paulina’s fish- a pretty big pinch (about the same as ‘big fish’)

Jeremy & Jack’s fish- same as Paulina’s fish

Girl hammies- two pellets each day

Boy hammies- 1 pellet each day and change water in water bottles each day

I’m really hoping all the critters are alive when we return home!!! Paulina is our pet care person so she will be worried the whole time we are gone that her dad is caring for them all properly.  And if my friend’s fish die, I’ll have to make a quick trip to the pet store before she returns home.