He's so cute! He's so fluffy! He's Giol!
Yeah, that's his name. And he's a rabbit. Some sort of miniflop... I think. I got him from the humane society so his heritage is rather vague. I know he's a little over a year old, that he's very sincerely male, and licks himself in places probably best not mentioned.
He also doesn't photograph very well. Hey, you try taking a picture of something that moves that fast.
I love my little friend! *cuddles*
I have got to get my own camera.
My bunny has been very lazy lately and I'm been worried about him. Especially since the few times when he isn't lazy he tries to make out with my ankle. 
Well, the pet store I visit suggested that I might consider getting him a friend to play with.
Another rabbit?! I'd be nuts to consider that! I barely have enough room for one rabbit!
Come to think of it, there isn't much for a rabbit to do in my apartment. I started thinking it over especially hard yesterday. He can't read or play on the computer (duh) and watching TV would only be frustrating because he wouldn't understand what's going on. He must be terribly bored.
So what could I do to make him less bored?
I must give some credit to The Secret Garden for the idea I had. The book reminds me of the more pleasant parts of my childhood and thus the idea that came to me.
I'd build him a fort. I got a bunch of boxes from the grocery store (free! Yay!) and bought duct tape and wooden spoons at the hardware store (sale! Yay!). I already had a scissors for cutting doors and such.
Giol was very interested in what I was doing. He alternated between standing at the door of his cage (sometimes nibbling to say "let me out") and sitting in the back acting like he didn't see me.
Finally, when I let him out, he sniffed the box fort. Then he hopped to a corner and looked back. Then he hopped back and sniffed another part. Then hopped away again. This repeated for a while.
Maybe it was the lingering smell of fruit on the boxes, maybe it was the food pellets I put on the second level, maybe it was just that it was new. In any case, he was definitely interested, he just didn't know what to *do* with it.
He finally hopped inside, then came right back out. Repeat, several times.
Finally he realized he could go into the next box. And the next box after that. And that he could get to the second level. It was so funny watching him in one of the second level boxes. It doesn't have a roof, so he'd stand up with his forepaws over the edge of the wall sniffing at the outside as if wondering if he should try jumping from there. He hasn't yet, but he has found some creative ways of getting into the fort that I hadn't considered.
He's a lot less lazy now, so problem solved. Though he has been licking my feet an awful lot. (Someone wants a little bunny date?)
Don't expect to have any privacy if you have a rabbit. I leave my bathroom door open because he always follows me in and I don't want to close the door on his paws or something.
If I'm just using the toilet he'll usually leave right away. He might wait by the door for me to come out (gets very interesting if it's dark and hard to see) or he might get bored and start doing something else.
However, if I'm brushing my teeth or otherwise standing by the sink he'll hope around me then flop down behind the sink with his little nose going a mile a minute. No idea why he does that, though I know he'll spend a lot of time in the bathroom when I'm not in there.
He particularly likes to relax behind the toilet. I guess it's nice and cool back there. Though I did eventually have to find another place for my, ah, sanitary napkins.
See all those plastic bags of napkins? Well he decided that it would be great fun to rip them to shreds. Don't ask me how he came to this conclusion, I can't imagine plastic tastes good and the napkins are supposed to be unscented. But I did find bits of plastic and cotton batting all over the floor when I came back from errands one day.
Rabbit proofing a home is kinda like baby proofing, only babies don't have as sharp teeth.
I wish I had a video of Giol doing the binky, but this will have to do.
No, the little creature doesn't have epilepsy, which is what I thought the first time I saw Giol binky. They do this because they're happy! Happy, happy bunny!
There's also an all too adorable video of a baby wild rabbit binkying in his little plastic home. Sooooo cuuuuuuute! Aside from the ears, that could be what Giol looked like as a baby. ^_^
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=4LUbdhHnGsQ&feature=related
Giol likes to eat. He also likes to be out of his cage (can't really blame him, it's boring in there). That makes getting food for myself rather, ah, interesting.
No, he didn't open the door himself, but he did slip between my legs when I opened the door. He does that all the time. Usually he starts digging at the vegetable drawer. Other times he notices something interesting on the shelves and starts digging and pulling at that. It's pretty amazing that anything is in one piece in there.
Naturally, he likes carrots. He just about took my thumb off trying to get at one that I was taking of of the vegetable drawer. He also likes celery. And fruit. If I'm eating an apple I have to give him part of it because he starts begging. Just like a dog but without the noise. He also likes grapes. He eats the stems, too, so that's one less thing for me to throw away. (My one little garbage disposal. lol Not really. 
)
Hmm. Blueberries, the green leafy bits off strawberries (not the fruit itself), nectarines, peaches... oh! And be very careful you don't leave the pits where he can get at them because he will try to nibble at them and they're just as bad for rabbits as they are for people. (I think it's cyanide that comes from pits, but it could be some other poison.)
And never, ever feed him raisins. I gave him three once because he begged me to and for the rest of they day he was like a hydrogen molecule. Even when standing still he vibrated more than usual. He slept for two days after that. Not quite nonstop, but almost.
He'd still beg for raisins after that, but I had to be firm and not give him any. Interestingly enough he doesn't seem to get hyper off of dried apricots.
To read this it must seem like I feed him a lot of sugar. Haha! Every little kid's dream, a diet of candy!
No. These are all treats. His main diet consists of weed and grass clippings from the frontage road near my apartment. It's free and has many more interesting flavors than packaged Timothy grass. When dandelions are in bloom I give him those, too, because they're high in vitamin A and he just loves the taste. It's so much fun watching him eat with his little cheeks vibrating and his fuzzy lips wiggling. I have got to get some kind of video camera so I can tape him eating. Now wouldn't that be fun to watch.
Giol? I named my rabbit Giol? Why not something more traditional, like Flopsy, or Muffin, or Fuzzbutt?
Or maybe a more Otaku friendly name, like Momiji, or Bun-Bun, or Ryo-Ohki?
Well, for one thing, I'm pretty sure Ryo-Ohki is female. My little guy is all male. (All original equipment and everything.)
Well, I considered a lot of things. I even thought of naming him Uncle Wiggily. ... The bunny rabbit gentleman with the red, white, and blue striped rheumatism crutch? Uh... right... moving on.
Well, he isn't anywhere near as outgoing as Momiji and I wasn't familiar with Ouran High School Host Club at the time (February 2008). I also didn't want a cliched name.
Then I thought about a character I'd made up for a story. That character had a personality much like my new bunny was showing. So I named him after that character.
Why that character is named Giol? Whole 'nother story.
P.S. The picture no longer has a copyright notice as per a request from Kittenlark. My bad. ^^;
