Dennis Hopper the Bunny

The above is Mr. Dennis Hopper, my little bunny, at one year of age. He's six now and has a thymoma in his chest. This is a benign type of cancer that is taking up most of the space in his chest, pushing his heart to the side and making it hard for him to breathe because there's hardly any room left for his little lungs! I first noticed he was breathing fast at rest a month or so ago, maybe six weeks ago, so I took an x-ray at work and found that he had a mass in his chest. I made him an appointment with the Exotics Service at Cornell and they kept him all day yesterday for diagnostics. They did a CAT scan and also took a sample of the mass to make sure it was what they thought it was. He'll start radiation on Monday and will have it twice a week. It should rapidly shrink the tumor and give him up to a few more years of life, which for a bunny is a LONG time. Hopefully he does well with the treatments and will be a happy, hoppy bunny for a while longer.

Margot in New Spring Dress

I put this dress on Etsy a few days ago. Sarah says I should make some in other colors, like blue. Apparently not everyone likes pink as much as I do! :)

In other news, the chicks are getting bigger and bigger. They like to go outside quite a lot. Their coop is progressing and is a lot of work! Especially since I'm doing it all myself. I borrowed a jigsaw from my boss to cut their pop door with (that's the little door that leads to the chicken yard). I still don't really know what the heck kind of chickens they are, but I guess it doesn't matter. I know they're egg-laying breeds. At this point, I'm just hoping for not too many roosters. Anyone want a pet rooster? The chick below is one of my favorites and I'm hoping she's a she. If she's a she, her name is Alice.

First Outing

The chicks had their first day out today. I spent most of the day working on their coop, as well. They have outgrown their little rabbit cage brooder and they are now in a small wading pool inside an exercise pen for dogs/small animals. It works out well for them and they love the increased space. They're pretty silly birds and they now enjoy perching on my hands and flying up to my shoulders if I'm sitting. They're so goofy--they don't know whether the leaves are edible or not and they keep playing a game of keep-away with them.

Nicer Chick Photos and Questions on their Parentage

There is some question about whether these guys are actually what they were sold to me as. I don't much care either way, as long as they all end up laying breeds and not meat breeds. Anyway, the Tractor Supply guy said that the yellow chicks were New Hampshire Reds. I don't think they are, because I don't think New Hampshire Reds are yellow as chicks! I may have lucked out (I'm hoping) and have Buff Orpingtons, which was what I wanted in the first place. I ordered Buffs from a chicken breeder, but she didn't get them incubated and it was going to be another 6 weeks, so just got chicks at TSC and canceled my order with the breeder. Anyway, I have five yellow chicks of uncertain parentage:

And then I have three of these little guys with dark red and darker wings:
And two of these little softer looking red chicks with lighter wings:
I've posted a question on my Backyard Chicken Forum with the hopes that someone has some insight. I don't really care what they are as long as they're not all roosters, but it would be nice to know, and I'm hoping that I lucked out and some are Orpingtons. To tell the truth, the TSC folks were nice, but didn't seem to know diddly-squat about chickens!

Sleepy Peepies

They're not dead, just asleep! They're growing fast and doing well so far.

Look what I got!

I have five Rhode Island Reds and five New Hampshire Reds! Look at that little one on the right, happily pecking at the thermometer. It's amazing how much poop they produced in a few hours, too. These little guys and gals came from the feed store this afternoon.

Alice and the Cupcake

Alice is in her Re-Ment Kitchen, showing off her new pink dress with lace.


Then she spied a cupcake on the table!

MMM! Cupcakes!

(The dress will be posted to my etsy shop within the next few days.)