Fawn and Treacle have become such good friends, they are like an old married couple! It is all a bit daft really, we have two bunnies that won’t get along, but both want to be friends with our cat, Treacle.
Poor Treacle is quite old now, and Fawn gets very excited when Treacle is around, but Treacle just wants to sleep.
Well, this picture just about sums up life in our house, and how much Fawn loves being with Treacle.
Fawn & Treacle enjoying a rest together
Treacle and Fawn
After the death of his brother, Custard, our other cat, Treacle had started coming upstairs more and of course Fawn was waiting for him. Fawn really loved spending time with Custard and had missed him terribly when he died, so it’s been great for Fawn to find a new feline friend.
Treacle wasn’t too sure when Fawn first came bounding up to him to say hello, but Fawn is not one to be deterred and he takes every opportunity to spend time with Treacle. We are aware that Fawn’s love of our cats means he may be a little lonely, but unless he and Fern sort our their differences and make friends then there is not much we can do about it, but we will keep on trying to get them together.
The story ‘First Snow‘ was inspired by Fern and her first encounter with snow, although the snowfall Fern experienced at the time was only a very light dusting and nothing at all like the snowfall that Fifi encountered in the story. All that changed this past week when Fern really did get to find out what snow is like.
The part of England we live in gets very little snow, usually only a light covering which may last a day and then quickly melts. This year was very different and we got 8 inches of snow falling in one night and it lasted the whole week, although by Christmas Day the snow was more packed-down ice than snow.
Fern was not very impressed with the snow at first
Fern is usually a very brave bunny, getting into all kinds of bunny mischief and when we woke up to a wonderful white blanket of snow last Friday morning; we thought Fern would be very excited and ready for an adventure. We were wrong!
As always, Fern spent the night in the house and Derek put her outside in her run she seemed happy enough, but when he opened the door to let her come out and play she was not impressed. The snow had been slightly trampled down outside her bunny door, by the door opening and Derek standing on it, even so Fern was not convinced. Derek was standing at the side of Fern’s run, sorting out a plant that had been damaged by the weight of the snow, but Fern would not even look out of her bunny door. Instead she sat in a corner looking a little shocked at all the whiteness around her.
All that day Fern would not leave her run, even though we were sitting outside with her, as we always do come rain or shine. I admit I was a bit worried by her reaction, as Fern can be a bit of a handful and I wasn’t sure how she’d cope with not running around every day. I needn’t have worried.
The next morning Derek took Fern out again and opened her bunny door for her. This time she hopped out of her run, looked at the snow and hopped straight back in! Not a great reaction, but it was an improvement. Luckily, later that morning when we went out to see her she was obviously feeling a little more adventurous and came hopping out of her run across the lawn, although she did stay in the tracks Derek had made getting to her run.
Fern eating one of the many berrys that had been knocked out of our tree by the snow
Fern’s confidence with the deep snow continued to grow, until she was bouncing around in the snow, doing bunny binkies and laps around the garden. It was lovely to watch her, though we were a bit cold standing around in the back garden.
Unfortunately the down side to Fern’s new love of the snow was the plants in our garden suffered. Fern didn’t seem to appreciate that the snow had raised the ground level and weighed the plants down, so they were in her way. Our sweet little bunny Fern went on a chomping spree, lopping off whole branches of shrubs and then trampling them into the snow. Even though she can be a very naughty bunny it is hard to be cross with her.
Fawn exploring the garden
Fern and Fawn may carry on like they hate each other, well its actually Fern who terrorises Fawn, but the end result is the same, they don’t get on.
Not to be deterred, Derek and I are persevering and trying to get the two used to each other. Summer is here and we are taking full advantage of it. The biggest problem we have with our two bunnies is Fern likes to be outside during the day, and gets very cross if we bring her in before bedtime – and then when we do bring her in at night only wants to go to bed. So actually getting the two bunnies together has been a problem.
Fern and Fawn
With the warm weather we have been able to take Fawn outside. We bought him a metal bunny run, that is made up of metal sections that clip together to make an pentagon. This keeps him safe from Fern, but they can sniff each other. Fern does try to bite Fawn though the bars, but she can’t really get to him. When Fern has had enough she goes back in her run, of her own accord, and we’ll shut her in and let Fawn out to play. This works out really well. Unfortunately we got over confident and let the two bunnies out at the same time and Fern went nuts, as usual, leaving Fawn upset.
The summer is nearly over now and we are no closer to getting the bunnies together. I don’t think it will be fair on Fawn to drag him outside in the cold weather, as he is very much a soft, cuddly, house bunny, boy.
I guess all we can do is wait until next year and try again. Who knows maybe Fern will have mellowed a bit more by then, we can only hope.
Fern enjoying her new lawn
Ever since we moved into our house, about 4 years ago, the lawn has been in a sorry state. We’ve tried a few things to make it healthier and greener, but the moss was winning. Now Fern’s living on it and we walk on it everyday, it’s has been getting worse.
So, we decided to treat Fern and ourselves and get some nice new grass. The lad we picked to do the work was very sweet. In fact his girlfriend works as a veterinary nurse at our vets, so not only was he sympathetic to our concerns about how the work would affect Fern, he also knew about our other critters. Some of the other people we had out for quotes weren’t very good with Fern and some actually lent on her run to make notes, which she was not happy about.
This story was inspired by our bunny, Fern, and her first experiences with snow.
The air felt oddly cool as Fifi made her way to the front door of her family’s warren. It wasn’t a horrible soggy cold, like when it rained. No this was a dry crisp cold. Fifi twitched her nose and blinked as the chill tickled her nostrils and made her sneeze.
She thought about going back down to her family and getting her brother Fawn to come out with her, but thought better of it. Fawn would never let her live it down. He would tease her for being a silly girl and tell all the other boys and they would laugh at her. It was bad enough being called Fifi, without giving the boys something else to tease her about. On top of that Fifi’s mum and dad called each years litter the next letter of the alphabet, so Fifi and her brothers and sisters all had names beginning with F. All the other bunny families that lived in daisy meadow thought it was a bit odd. Fifi sighed to herself, as strange as her parents were she did love them and knew she was one of the luckiest bunnies in the whole meadow.
I’ve been getting a bit concerned that Fawn was bored and lonely. Our cat Custard, who fawn spent a lot of time with, passed away last month and I think Fawn has been missing him. Both Derek and I work from home, so we get to spend a lot of time with Fawn, but we had noticed that he wasn’t spending as much time with us in the office as he used to. Instead we would often find him under our bed asleep or huddled in a corner of his room. He hadn’t been playing with his bunny toys as much either and it was worrying me.
Fern the explorer
Our little bunny is obviously not going to stop amazing us or finding new ways to get into mischief. At the end of our garden we have a picnic table, which is meant to be a nice place for Derek and me to sit and enjoy our garden. Thanks to Fern it ended up being a place to put potted plants to keep them out of her way and stop her eating them. While Fern had climbed on the picnic table a couple of times when she was younger, she never looked very happy, and we had thought the plants were safe there.
Look for Fern's mud prints
Fern’s busyness has been brought to an abrupt halt by the rain. It poured it down last night and has filled the tunnel Fern was digging with water. By the time she came out to play the water had drained away, but it was still pretty muddy down there. Fern took one look and was not impressed. I guess mud doesn’t make for good digging conditions.
Fern & Treacle
Terrorizing the cats.
We have two cats, Treacle & Custard, and when not digging in her tunnel, or taking a break in the shade, Fern is harassing our cats.
The poor things are ten now, which is fairly old for a cat and they just want to laze around in the sunshine and be left in peace. Fern is far too young and curious to respect this wish and so our poor cats have to put up with being harassed by an over friendly bunny.