Seoulscapade

Well, here are they are, facing each other off over the front line, which was established between them as the threshold between the living room and the balcony.

We tried introducing Ricco, a younger and weaker male to Monty, the older and much more muscly male, whose territory was being imposed upon. Advise we’d read suggested putting them together in neutral territory, like a bathtub, which we did once. The results were much the same as you see in the shots below—taken over a series of days, first some dung dropping, some tentative jousts and probing maneuvers, then all out war!

It was generally an opportunistic charge, bite and flee tactic by Monty. The object of the battle appears to be to extract as many clumps of hair as possible from your opponent. You can see some, bottom left, in the shot above. But the end of the battle, there was hair from one end of the room to the other. I could tell who got in the most bites by the colours of the hair clumps.

Often Monty ran off with hair hanging out of his mouth. He’d then go and flop down on his side of the front line, sometimes doing a victory roll before lying there panting with exhaustion—hair still hanging out of his mouth.

See the spots on the window? A lot of that is urine! Rabbits, when marking territory, sometimes seem to have a spasm moment, when they flick their behinds in running off, either defecating or spraying urine in the process.

When the two weren’t fighting that’s what they were doing, spreading as much dung around as they could to mark out their territory. This and hair everywhere was collateral damage. There would have been more in the photos but I was cleaning it up intermittently.

But Ricco, though weaker, didn’t back down at anytime. You can see the female, Panda, in the background showing not least bit of interest, while boys will be boys in the foreground.

Most of these shots required a fast shutter speed. To the naked eye it’s almost impossible to see what’s going on, as it all happens so fast.

They both appear to be off the ground in this shot. You can see all the dung, or collateral damage, around that I didn’t sweep up. Oh, well, so much for the bonding sessions!

Getting Monty and Ricco to play nice wasn’t working, but we had to do something about Ricco taking up the living room. If he couldn’t live with the other rabbits, we’d have to rig up a proper home for him. After much consideration, we decided on another strategy, inspired by the vet who’d done Ricco’s neutering. He recommended keeping the males fenced off but side by side, where they could see each other constantly and hopefully get used to each other.

With that, we have created two areas on the balcony, divided by the meat-grill wire mesh fencing. It was a great relief after doing that to get space back in our apartment. We then went off to clean the apartment, but a little later noticed that Monty had broken through the barrier! He was on Ricco’s side and there were tufts of hair and alfalfa spread everywhere. This indicated a mighty battle had taken place. By the time we arrived, both parties were exhausted, and Monty was basically trying to get the hell out.

I secured the barrier and made a better makeshift mesh “door.” But that doesn’t stop Monty attacking the fencing now and then. The first night on the balcony constant noise came from Monty’s restless running around and hitting at the mesh. Our bedroom is right near the balcony and, as I was woken regularly, I presume he remained vigilant and active the whole night.

The rabbit war has been the major pain in adopting Ricco, not to mention double the cleaning (half an hour’s worth every morning for me), but with any luck peace will prevail eventually. And if they can all live in harmony, that might even halve the cleaning!

Ricco settling in on his side of the balcony.

Oh, not another one! Yes, we’ve got another orphan rabbit to add to our collection. It’s Ricco!

How did we end up with him? Well, a member of KARA (the animal rights group I made a website for) belongs to a church that has a kindergarten out the back with a kind of romper room and playground. In the romper room, which seemed to me more like a greenhouse, they had Ricco in a tiny cage. I was told no one looked after him, except the KARA member. When I heard about this, I went around to have a look and immediately suggested building an enclosure with more space. The KARA member had joined two cages together but this was still inadequate.

I felt really sorry for the little guy, and not a little angered at the behavior of the Christians in charge. Instead of being responsible, it seemed like he was regarded as some kind of kindergarten toy. And a companion rabbit that had been in the room with him had died from heat stroke last summer. As I said, the room was almost like a kind of greenhouse. This gives an idea of the level of irresponsibility practiced by the teachers.

As soon as I saw him, I could see his intelligence and brightness. He was clearly smart, with an intense curiosity and a zest in his movements. Quite unlike Monty, when we first met him. I thought it was criminal for Ricco to be locked up as he was.

I decided we would adopt him. The KARA member said no one would care. So, one Saturday afternoon, my wife and I went around to the kindergarten and basically kidnapped Ricco! The kindergarten teachers were on holidays, so they’ll find out when they get back.

We already knew introducing a new rabbit to the rabbit world of our apartment would be fraught with problems. So I constructed a pen from barbecue grill mesh pieces, bought from the local supermarket, and plastic twine.

Ricco was going to be named Coco, but then we found out he was a boy, and so it’s Ricco. Finding out he was a boy was also when all the problems started. How did we find out? Well, Ricco was let loose one day with Panda and immediately chased her around. Then, when we picked him up to stop him bothering her, we got a full frontal of our first rabbit erection. Between you and me, it’s an alarming sight.

Within days, we got him neutered, otherwise life would be hell for everyone, including him. Besides, it’s the right thing to do with any companion animal.

The temporary enclosure is very effective and gives a rabbit room to roam. Rabbits, by the way, need the space of at least 4 hops in length. The only problem was that Ricco is quite adventurous and is a good jumper. The height of these is just not quite enough. I should have put them long side vertical. But the solution was a covering for when we are not around, which is not hard to do.

In this way the other rabbits can get used to the new visitor. We let them in from the balcony occasionally, as opposed to all of the time. Panda is no problem but Monty has turned into a psycho!

It was fine when they first met, the moment captured below.

Then it kind of deteriorated from there. Nature took over Monty’s brain and he began exhibiting typical male rabbit behavior when territory is threatened. He began harassing Ricco back and forth constantly: running up along the mesh, charging the mesh, dropping dung around the perimeter of the mesh, and sometimes urinating by the mesh. I couldn’t put up with it. He was obsessed, or rather possessed. He’s now out on the balcony almost permanently.

Once Ricco’s hormone’s have settled down a little more, we’ll try introducing him to Monty and get them to bond, if we can. I don’t like our chances, though. Monty is a complete moron at this point. Despite being neutered, he’s begun trying to mount Panda, and he bothers her all of the time–presumably to keep her as a wife. Nature has taken over and is dictating, “Pass on your genes, lad, don’t delay!” I guess his world and its order has fallen apart, but really, they all are going to have to get along.

Apparently, it is possible to have two males together, but it all comes down to their individual personalities. And we are delighted with Ricco’s personality. He’s a real charmer. Nothing like the nervy Monty. Ricco is very much a people rabbit, allowing himself to be picked up and behaving almost like a dog when you get home. His eyes kind of smile at you, too.

I’ll keep things updated on how things turn out.

It’s time for update on Panda and Monty, and for this episode of their adventures, I thought I’d focus on what they are munching on these days. I mainly thought of doing this to detail the treats they indulge, so that other people who have rabbits might try the same , if they don’t give them already. Rabbits don’t live that long; so, why not let them live it up while they can.

Here is what they have in their snack bowl, which is constantly topped up: Quaker Oats on one side and Vita pellets on the other. Panda and Monty would go through a good handful of oats a day. Panda is not keen on the hard pellets but loves the oats. The pellets are mainly enjoyed by Monty, who I think may have been fed similar as a young rabbit, or else he just likes crunchy food.

We order the pellets online, but the for the oats I need to make a special trip to one of the import stalls at the Namdaemoon Markets in central Seoul. I buy a couple of the biggest Quaker Oats containers they’ve got for around $10 each. I don’t just buy them for the rabbits, either. I mix Quaker Oats in with my cereal for breakfast everyday. Sometimes I’ll be eating my oats and cereal and the rabbits will be at their bowl eating theirs, so we’ll be all breakfasting on Quaker Oats at the same time.

Here is the next staple of their diet, a variety of fresh green leaves every morning and evening. Both Panda and Monty prefer these over other leafy greens like lettuce. They’ll only eat lettuce as a last resort. One good thing about Korean supermarkets is that they all have these assorted leaves. People use these with various meals, sometimes wrapping rice or cooked meat with sauce in them. I have them in the vegetarian sandwiches I make for lunch at work.

I couldn’t even begin to name all of the varieties here. All I know is that Panda really likes the fan-like white and purple colored ones.

When I pull the plastic bag full of these leaves from the fridge, Panda prances around much like a dog would, and attacks the leaves as soon as they are set down. Monty is less of an enthusiast. He nibbles on them later, but sparingly, usually after Panda has finished. Of course, sometimes he’ll snatch a leaf away from her, but most of the time, he shows only passing interest. Curiously, whenever you hand a leaf to him at head height, he’ll munch on it, no matter what kind of leaf.

I always leave a handful of alfalfa like this before I head off to work each day. They both go for the tasty soft leafy bits first and perhaps the dry stalks as an after-thought. Usually, I’m left with stalks spread around the floor, which they don’t touch after a day or two. We order this stuff online, and it usually comes to our door in a box packet with whatever else we ordered plus some freebies.

What we find, however, is that the supplied treats for rabbits are generally ignored by Panda and Monty. Only two things can give them bliss, and they expect these at a set time of day, without exception: dried pineapple and dried plum. How we arrived at the times for giving these treats I can’t recall. But now they are a fixed part of Panda and Monty’s daily routine.

A sliver each of dried pineapple like those above is greatly enjoyed by Panda and Monty each morning. Panda sometimes won’t really touch anything else until she’s had her sweet slice of pineapple, after which she may move onto some cool and refreshing leaves. The pair of them jocking for position at my legs when I’m about to pass them out, and I have to draw their attentions in different directions with a piece of pineapple in each hand, so that there isn’t any snatching.

Pineapple is their morning treat and plum is for the evening, around 10.30, although sometimes they’ll start milling around to make it clear they want their treat “now”—perhaps earlier at 10pm. We cut one of these moist plums up with scissors into strips. Monty will eat the most. He inhales them. Panda will be satisfied with perhaps two large strips. After that, any more gooey sweetness seems to be an overload. At the most, they’ll consume one and a half plums, and then show no further interest.

In sum, Panda and Monty’s diet is not really expensive. Some of the things they eat I buy anyway for my own diet. The dried fruits, which I don’t eat, are costly; however, they last a long time, so the cost is minimal because it is spread over a month or two.

Panda is the most attentive when it comes to food, and is ever alert for the sounds food preparation—the unscrewing of a plastic lid or the crackling of a plastic bag from the fridge. Around a scheduled treat time, she’ll be waiting in anticipation, while Monty is perhaps attacking furniture somewhere. At night, Panda is the one who’ll first start hanging around the kitchen, or us, urging us to quit dallying with those divine plums. Maybe she’s the smarter rabbit of the two, or perhaps, like most women, she’s just keener on the sweet things in life.

A week or two back when my wife asked me if we could look after her co-worker’s rabbit for a week, I immediately said no. However, as any married person can attest, sometimes matters aren’t settled and things just seem to happen before you know it.

Last Saturday, it was brought to my attention that the day had arrived for us to take charge of Charles, my wife’s coworker’s rabbit. Obviously, I had not said a big enough no. The reason I had been against it was because I had read of rabbits fighting when they first met and needing around two weeks to adjust to one another.

I get the sense that my wife imagined Panda, Monty and Charles gamboling together on a sunlit balcony, swapping rabbit tales, offering each other tufts of alfalfa, and then cheerfully playing tag before passing the afternoon away in carefree slumber. Not even close.

The coworker arrive and Charles was set down in our lounge room in a playpen, which you can see above, minus the cage. Panda and Monty were allowed in, and although slow to recognize a stranger in their midst, when they did, chaos reigned. Monty attacked Charles through the playpen fencing, biting out chunks of hair. Panda attacked Monty at any slight movement. Monty attacked Panda whenever she went near Charles. Charles sat quietly, demonstrating impeccable good manners.

The coworker left us to it. We soon realized that the only solution to ensure sanity for the coming week was to keep Charles separate from the ill-bred ruffians, Panda and Monty. That meant putting him in the study, as you see above, the only place in the apartment with a bit of room. It is hardly convenient.

But what a polite, well-mannered, calm and friendly rabbit is Charles! What a contrast to our pair of back-street brawlers. Actually, we both joke now how nice it would be if we could swap Monty, the school dropout, for Charles, the Harvard graduate. Charles isn’t much trouble; nonetheless, I have made it more than clear to my wife that we will never again be looking after other people’s pets.

Monty has been getting hairier despite the summer. My presumption is that as he’s maturing, his Lionhead side is emerging. It can be seen tufts appearing on his flanks, cheeks and most noticeably on his crown. This picture—captured as he was licking his lips, or perhaps poking his tongue—shows his current rockabilly hairstyle. Very cool, Monty!

Only a few weeks ago it was hardly noticeable, as you can see below.

Our hairy house mates

Here’s a rotated image of our fellow resident/s. Panda is the hairy white one with black eyes and ears. She’s a girl. Monty, a boy, is the less hairy gray and white one. See under the Panda, Monty & Ricco category for more info, or see them on Rabbit Cam!

Meet Monty, a young male rabbit of 4 or 5 months old—he’s Panda’s new boyfriend. How he came to be with us goes back a few months, when we were reflecting on whether Panda might be lonely out there on the balcony while we’re at work.

Rabbits are social animals, and I often noted in the information I read that they were happier with companions. Then one day an old teddy bear was on the floor after we’d had a clean out, and Panda took a great interest in it. Next thing we know she was grooming it. That was probably the clincher that drew out a greater sense of obligation in us. We had to hook Panda up with a beau.

Sunah asked around at her workplace and searched the Internet. One of her co-workers knew of a woman who was due to get married and wanted to give away her rabbit. We were told that it was a male, that he was a lionhead, like Panda, and that he was around the same age. Everything seemed just right, so we said we’d take him. We found out later that none of the information was true, except that he was male and a rabbit.

We met the prospective husband one night at a subway station across town for the hand over. It wasn’t exactly how I’d pictured it, and nor was the rabbit. The guy just turned up carrying a cage with what seemed to be large rat in it. He handed it all over to me then and there on the sidewalk. There I stood, surrounded by crowds of Koreans on a busy sidewalk, all taking an interest in a foreigner with a cage housing a rat-rabbit cross breed. A taxi was waiting across a busy road and all I wanted was for the lights to change so we could get over there and be on our way.

The soon-to-be-named Monty just sat quietly in his cage the whole way. Not only was he smaller than I’d been led to believe, and not a lionhead, as I’d been led to believe, but he also seemed pretty dumb. Perhaps he’d gone stir crazy from encarceration. We’d heard he’d spent most of his life in a cage.

The Panda and Monty meeting was not a punch up, as we had feared, but sort of calm and orderly–so to speak. Monty was trying to mount Panda in no time. That was just a little too friendly for a first date. So, before bed, I rigged up some fencing on the balcony to separate them during the night.

While lying in bed, we heard what was Monty crashing through the barricades somehow, and I had to grudgingly get out of bed to rig up another divider. I collapsed his cage and used it along with other bits and pieces for a more formidible barrier. Really, we should have just stuck him back in his cage.

He pretty much chased Panda around for a couple of days until settling down. I guess having be locked up for 4 months would do that to anyone. Plus, he’d probably never seen or remembered seeing another rabbit before (of course, the same goes for Panda), let alone a cute, hairy female.

So now we know the real facts about the rabbit we volunteered to take. He wasn’t a year old because he’d been locked up for 4 months since he was a baby. I’m also pretty sure he isn’t a lionhead. In Korean, that breed is well-known and expensive, and people will just say a rabbit is a lionhead because it sounds good. I also learned he wasn’t fed all that much because the previous owner didn’t want him to get too big. I imagine his previous life had not been a cage full of laughs.

We decided to get Monty “fixed” straight away to add to his woes, and for that we took him to the same place where we had Panda done. When I say it added to his woes, this is only in the short term. Neutering reputedly gives rabbits a calmer, less stress-filled life. It’ll help Panda and Monty will grow old gracefully together.

Since the collar came off after the operation, all has been well with Monty. He’s been jumping around and has already chewed through one of my webcam cables. Everything is back to normal. I had to operate on the webcam to rejoin all of the wires. Amazingly, it still works, and so that’s back to normal, too.

Monty’s always such a cheerful fellow, a good balance for the sometimes grumpy Panda. The two bunnies are settling into what should be a long term de facto relationship.

Postscript: well, no, the webcam is not back to normal. Some colours are washed out and if it is moved sometimes, it reboots the PC! It’s headed for the trash. Monty, 1; Webcam, 0.

Much has happened since the last Panda update. Panda has naturally been in and out of more trouble, but she is starting to look and behave like a maturer rabbit. She’s also settled in well with us in our new apartment.

At our new place, I’ve been spending more time on my computer hobby, and as a part of that, I’ve set up some webcams. I think Panda enhanced my enthusiasm for webcams and gave me an excuse to spend money on them by volunteering to be my prime subject. My webcams can be viewed via the Ubantu Home link at top right. Presently I have 2 cameras set up for the balcony where she spends most of her time. (I also have 2 others set up, one of our balcony view and one in my study.)

The balcony area of our new apartment is less spacious compared to the one we had at our previous place. Panda’s regular habitat or home was reduced by about two thirds or more. However, the new balcony is still a decent enough size for a rabbit to hop around in, get some exercise and generally make a mess.

Panda exhausted after a good scamper around.

We had no difficulties with Panda in moving house. And she hasn’t been any more trouble than usual as she’s grown except that her hair is simply everywhere! She has more hair for the winter season. Some of it is so light that you see it floating around in the air.

We’ve found out that Panda is what is called a Lionhead Rabbit, or at least that is what they are called here in Korea, because of the mane her breed sports—under the chin mainly.

Lion rabbits grow to a larger size than the regular pet rabbits found in Korean pet stores. Those meek little fellows are about half the size. Regrettably, I’ve heard that North Korea will begin importing Lion Rabbits from the South for food, and the breed’s larger size is the main reason for it, plus that they are perhaps cheap and easy to breed. I cringe at the disgraceful and cruel conditions that are likely going to be imposed on the creatures in that operation.

Lucky Panda! With us it’s like living in a hotel.

Another thing we’ve done since the last update is go traveling back to Australia for two weeks. We left Panda with Sunah’s elder sister’s family, who have a much smaller apartment that houses four people and a dog! We were pretty worried about the stress this would cause—that is, the stress caused to the family and dog by a rampaging and bossy rabbit.

She seems to derive some enjoyment sitting in things.

Here she is sitting in a soil filled planter. It used to have tomatoes (she ate the lot of course).

We often worried during the trip at what chaos she was causing. When we had dropped her off, the family’s dog’s eyes began watering (as if crying, it seemed) and it later slunk off into a corner to sulk. I had given a generous advanced payment for their services but I kept thinking I had better give more when we get back.

As it turned out, we needn’t have worried so much. The family coped. When I first saw Panda after her two week adventure, she looked a little stressed, and after we got her home, it took a couple of days for her to snap out of a subdued manner.

These days she is as bright and cheeky as ever—apparently quite content with staying on the balcony soaking up the sun while we’re at work and scuttling about the apartment when we are home.

Panda was well and truly becoming part of the family even at the time this picture was taken a few months ago. We’d gotten used to the bossy and domineering behavior, thinking it typical of your average male bunny. As these photos show, our bunny was relaxed and happy living out on our balcony.

A lot of stuff was getting chewed up so we had to be diligent at all times when Panda was inside the apartment. One day our Internet went out. We tried everything to fix it and got nowhere. As a last resort, we decided to switch cables around and use a wall socket in another room to connect to. It was then that we discovered that a cable had been chewed through, the part of it that is usually hidden behind a door. Later the same to one of our TV cables.

I’d read that getting a rabbit “fixed” would reduce the chewing behavior. It had to be done sooner or later anyway, so we visited the vet to get the obligatory “neutering” operation performed, with the belief that it’d take us no more than an hour. A complication, however, forced a change in plans. The vet got Panda up on a table with the assistance of a nurse, fiddled and around and announced to us that Panda was a she and not a he. Sunah looked at me; I looked at Sunah. How could this be? This was one tough male bunny, we’d always thought.

The complication was that the female operation was more involved and we would have to leave her there till the next day. We were worried about the stress of it all, and there was this cat that lived at the vets that alarm young Panda. An ordinarily long-haired cat, this one was shaved to the skin save for around its head, its feet and the end of its tail. It looked like it was wearing white fur boots. I was alarmed myself.

When we returned, the vet told Sunah that he had had to struggle with Panda before the operation, so much so that he thought he might have been mistaken about his judgment on her gender. She was fighting him so much, and with such strength, that he actually checked again to see that she was in fact a male. That was pretty funny, and I have to confess I felt a welling of pride.

She was wearing a plastic lampshade-shaped guard to stop her from biting her stitches, and we thought this was only for a day or two. Unfortunately, we had to keep it on her for over a week.

I saw what the vet meant some days later when we bought her in for a check up. We could watch though a window that looked onto the examination table. The vet was there grappling with her, each one of his hands holding each one of Panda’s hind legs, pumping them back and forward as if in a wrestling match. It was hilarious. Afterwards, the vet said that he couldn’t believe her strength, and that it was like wrestling with a little kid.

I thinks it’s because we allow her to roam on the balcony and often in the house. She’s been able to build up muscle, in a natural way. She hasn’t been kept in a bird cage as that lunatic taxi driver recommended the first night we had her (see previous post on Panda). I suspect vets in Korea are used to seeing rabbits that have spent a lot of time confined to cages, and therefore, have poor muscular strength.

Things were back to normal in about a week and a half, when we could take that plastic lampshade off. As as you can see above, behind Panda’s ears, we began raising all wires off the ground and securing those parts of the house, where yummy cables exist, defenseless against a roaming rabbit.

Panda having an exceptionally bad hair day.

There’s never a dull moment in the wonderland of Seoul. The unexpected is always around the corner to amuse. That happened the other day when we came upon this white rabbit.

Sunah and I were on campus, heading home after work, when we saw at the edge of the forested hill near where we live, a fluffy white rabbit frolicking on grasses. People were passing by the rabbit with surprise, but all just left it be and moved on. No owner was to be seen. The bunny didn’t seem to mind, running with abandon from one patch of grass to another, perhaps never having seen so much grass in its life.

We reflected on its plight: it had either become lost or was abandoned, and if it wasn’t run over by traffic, it would be prey to cats by nightfall. Deciding to save it, then work out what to do later, I stood by the road to prevent it from getting run over and Sunah snuck up behind and caught it. We put it in a plastic bag to carry home.

We ordered in pizza for dinner (the rabbit wasn’t enough for two), and while having that we decided to keep the critter as a pet. After that, we set out to look for a pet shop that might still be open. On the way, the taxi driver was giving us all kinds of advice on rabbits. He was an expert because he’d kept them in the past. I became somewhat alarmed, however, at his insistence that you keep rabbits in bird cages. I can only imagine the wretch and dull lives his tortured pets had led.

Apart from lunatic taxi drivers, the great thing about Seoul is that even though it might be after 9pm, searching for a rabbit cage (as opposed to a bird cage) is not a vain endeavour. In fact, there was a pet shop still open not far from where we live. It had an excellent fold-out, metal cage of a good size, including a pull-out droppings tray, plus rabbit food, all for a cheap price.

Since then, two days ago, the bunny seems to have settled in and is starting to recognize and accept us. I still don’t know if it’s a he or a she, but let’s say it’s a he. He’s very inquisitive, and when let free on the balcony predictably eats some of our plants, and when free in the apartment predictably leaves little surprises and gnaws Internet cabling.

I guess while we’re at work, he’ll just have to spend the day in the cage, although I don’t like having to do that. But he can get some exercise at night.

I’ve never kept a rabbit before, but he seems like a cross between a dog and a cat, only a tad dumber.

Postscript:

I take that back. As an experiment, we decided to leave him on the balcony during the day, and set his cage with it’s door open cross the gap of the sliding door, inset but barricading access inside. This allowed him to run free but still get in the cage.

Because he had gone to the toilet in his cage over the first weekend, that’s where he returned to do his business, when free to roam. In only a few days, he’s been toilet trained. We’ve had no little surprises anywhere since starting the experiment, and things are going so well that we might even progress him to indoor status. (This will depend on the chewing of cables.) We probably won’t change the night ritual, keeping him in the cage, as he seems quite content with that.

Altogether, he’s been surprisingly easy to keep and has adapted very well, the introduction of broccoli and other treats adding to his luxuries.