Three Blind Bunnies, Earless Bob & Glenna the Good's Rainbow Hop Rememberance

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Three Blind Bunnies, Earless Bob, Beau and
Glenna the Good's Rainbow Hop Rememberance:

Beau and Bob Saved from the Jaws of Humans

Bob on his first night of safety

Published on International Rabbit Day 9-28-14

Sunday August 31, 2014

Four years ago today was a big day for Bright Eyes Sanctuary and today, the circle repeats itself like a running bun. Today, this little Sanctuary for special needs and hard-to-adopt rabbits finds itself with another earless rabbit who has simply awful teeth, three blind bunnies, two of whom are very old, and buns with various other maladies including megacolon, a thymoma, simple dental disease, and one very tender, sensitive tummy (belonging to the Prince with a Thousand Enemies) which requires copious amounts of romaine every day, several times a day to maintain hydration and thus, function.

I don't know if I'll finish this newsletter before midnight tonight but I write most of it on a day which has come to have much meaning as anniversaries of many life changing events for our sanctuary, myself and my family. So it seems to be the time to introduce to you two of our new sanctuary bunnies whom we whisked away from the jaws of abused hunting dogs and an elderly alcoholic trigger happy psychopath widower whose recently deceased wife's vulnerable hutch bunnies were being shot, sicced on by large hunting dogs (we presume they were hunting dogs because of their owner's gun fixation) and killed for food.

Beau accepts a carrot

Two stoic boys remained as survivors of this rural version of Danté's inferno, each kept alone in separate hutches, each scared to death and living on borrowed time in a situation only imaginable in a nightmare. Through a convoluted grapevine of animal lovers of various kinds, word reached me about an earless rabbit caught in a crossfire and awaiting his firing squad execution if he was not removed immediately from the situation, and one other bun had also survived thus far in that same hell hole. Knowing the mindset of some types, I suspected a manipulative plot to get me to cave and accept these bunnies. But investigation of the individuals involved in the dissemination of this dark news proved to be pure intentions of mercy for the bunnies and the two bunnies were indeed in mortal danger.

Enter Beau and Bob. Infested with fur mites, Beau also had irritated eyes from improper sawdust bedding and Bob, well, Bob's ears were missing, presumably cut off and his teeth were horrible with lower incisor tusks jutting out and upper incisor tusks curling around his upper jaw and then curling once again outward while threatening to pierce his cheeks. Their diet had been only crapple-quality corn pellets. Their coats were in poor condition. They were shivering with terror and nearly perished just with the scare of a car ride. But a neighbor of the psychopath had worked with a local lady who did one type of exotic rescue and managed to get this sad story to my radar where it pinged loudly if mostly because of the situation's close proximity. 

B!nky (Bubbles) is comforted by husbun Orion

Bright Eyes Sanctuary has been closed to new intakes for some years and we now have low adoptions as many of our alumni have been returned and, sadly, many come back in very poor shape or with poor habits for various reasons. My personal financial and health concerns also preclude our indefinite involvement in rabbit adoptions these days as those adopters of BES will know, adoptions are an incredible amount of grueling and detailed work which a post-recession (is it post- or ongoing?) climate shriveled up just about all chunks of this BES volunteer's free time and resources. So we focus on a careful, super cautious approach to continued rehoming attempts for those on their first, second, or third go around in the adoption merry go round.

Personally, my health has put pressures on my energy levels that just don't allow me, as the main face of this organization, to spend 40-50 hours a week rehoming rabbits anymore. Those days of 10-15 adoptions a month are over for more reasons than one. My focus had shifted to the maintenance of a high quality of life for our Sanctuary bunnies. But Beau and Bob needed a safety net, the absence of which had already failed the other rabbits in their home. So we pulled up our sleeves and brought them here this past Memorial Day weekend.

Details of Bob's ears

Bob's ears, however, were probably not cut off by a human but rather by a terrified, inexperienced mother rabbit perhaps caring for her young in a vulnerable outdoor hutch during a thunderstorm or other frightening experience. Many species of mothers do things like this in less than optimal situations. His horrible teeth are genetic but probably worsened by poor nutrition since birth. Beau is in pretty good shape. Both buns have been vetted and had blood work checked. They needed to enjoy good care and diet just a while longer before neutering - they were neutered last next week. Both of them, along with BES' 50 other Sanctuary rabbits, who have all had their annual exams, are given premium food and enrichment and are very lucky to be right where they are.

B!nky (Bubbles) eyes are examined

But BES could really use some help with the annual costs of this veterinary care as well as their supplies like tons of Carefresh every month, Oxbow pellets, bungalows, treats, willow toys and hay. Isn't it great that there's this little life boat out there in the sea of misery for animals in this world? We know that we are very good at doing what we do best which is taking care of bunnies. We think we do this well because our bunnies live so long, like over 16 now for Josephine, 11+ for several others, and various other ages. Dr. Carr of Maryland Avian and Exotics is our exotics vet who cares for all our bunnies and they love her! (Follow her on FB) But our bill for the annual exams this year was almost $5,000!

Orion gets weighed for his exam

Also for those who are clients of Dr. Lisa Carr who don't already know, she is now located in the newly opened Hope Advanced Veterinary Care center in Rockville, Maryland at 1 Taft Court. Their website is http://rockville.hopecenter.com Dr. Carr is still available for house calls as well. She did all of the BES annual exams via house calls, in several trips.  However, if you have a rabbit emergency, you should call Pender Vet in Fairfax, VA at 703.654.3100 or if you are in the Baltimore greater area, call Animal Emergency Hospital in Bel Air, MD 410-420-PAWS. The latter is used regularly by BES board members who love them!

Bob in profile

Bob will need his incisors trimmed every 30 days until we feel he may be ready to have them all removed just like Earless Glenna had done four years ago. That will be expensive. Do any of you remember Earless Glenna? Well if your memory isn't so good, we have republished the original blog posts on BES official blog, Running Bun Magazine, at this link: http://bit.ly/RBM-Glenna The photos have yet to be restored to these posts but we'll do that as time allows. Nevertheless, it is touching to reread all the annals of that brave bunny's epic journey. And we wanted to have it out there on this day.

We will never forget our beautiful earless empress, Glenna, and her stoicism in the face of so much of which seemed fueled by her love for her porridge! What a spirit she was! One person of the many who she inspired was Bob Smith who became a stalwart supporter of BES but who sadly passed away recently. So when faced with naming another earless rabbit, this time a male, it only made sense to honor the memory of this special Glenna fan by naming the lucky little fellow after him. Hence, we have Earless Bob. And Beau is just named for his handsomeness. Additionally, Bob Smith's beloved bunny, Tommy, (both pictured below) was reunited with his doting owner in Heaven just a week or so ago.

Bob holds his little Tommy

We don't usually send out more than two fundraising emails a year but we really need your help now with these operating expenses. Would you please consider a donation to Bright Eyes Sanctuary? It would be 100% tax deductible and we have seen a great decrease in the amount of active supporters in the last few years. So please consider donating whatever you might be able to so we can continue spoiling these bunnies and giving them the best veterinary care possible. Thank you so very much!

PLEASE HELP WITH OUR CONTINUING MISSION

"Can You See My Will-to-Be?"

-RP

Editors note: Running Bun Magazine is published strictly for the express benefit of Bright Eyes Sanctuary. All revenues earned collected and donated through Running Bun Magazine are directly deposited into the Bright Eyes Sanctuary coffers. Your support of our publication, which we hope you find useful, is greatly appreciated and needed. Your patronage is paramount. 

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Sanctuary Bunny Gallery:

 

Our Presiding Angel Bunny - Glenna

Our hero forever and inspiration.

Josephine

 Now approaching 17, she's healed from liver problem causing heart murmur.

Orion guarding Bubbles

Orion has megacolon & Bubbles is mostly blind

Buno Pookah

This rock star is battling a suspected thymoma and winning.

This gallery will be continued in subsequent posts in October!

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Lagomorpheus is the Prince with a Thousand Enemies

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  Controversy: Lagomorphogenesis

The birth of a Running Bun Magazine rocker rabbit cover.

Here are some of the many image versions I worked on while completing this cover. The photograph is copyright © Rabbit Photog of Inspired By Paws Studios. Derivative versions strictly prohibited!

Here is the original photograph taken on this handsome rabbit's second birthday in the yard of Inspired By Paws Studios, also the offices of Running Bun Magazine. In Photoshop, I adjusted only the contrast on the photo in the area of his head.

© Running Bun Magazine

In this photo, I immediately noticed sun-enhanced markings which astounded me. I showed friends and family this shot and asked them what they thought he looked  like or who he looked like.

© Running Bun Magazine

I got many interesting answers from an Asian trader to a swashbuckler to an antique gentleman with an Imperial moustache. It's his moustache that really intrigued me. Below, I've only darkened the area where his moustache markings are by using the burn tool which simply makes what is already there, darker. I extracted the moustache marking with the select tool and put it aside, it reminded me of a question mark.

© Running Bun Magazine

For many months after spying these markings, I thought about 'what does it mean? How did this rabbit develop markings which appear to look like stage makeup? His emphatic Colin Farrell eyebrows, even with eye shadow in soft graduated tones of taupe on his Satin fur, even earrings hanging off his ears! And the markings being perfectly symmetrical on both sides of his face!

What caused this? I had never seen such markings on any rabbit before much less any animal. The closest in the rabbit breeds would be the gorgeous black eyerings of the Blanc de Hotot but this guy doesn't have anything like that. It was almost as if the spirit of someone was coming through his DNA to be seen to human eyes again, a haunting, as it were, in the form of a very well dressed rabbit.

This brought two things to mind: the research by Dr. Emoto on the effect of mental energy from a close by research assistant on ice crystals as they froze and the final works of mathematician genius Alan Turing on animal markings and morphogenesis.

Illustration from Turing's theory of morphogenesis

Some tiny fraction of the morphogenesis formula

Morphogenesis: the conscious moment

Alan Turing is best known to those not so mathematically enthusiastic as the guy who wrote the test to determine if a computer is aware. It stands as the standard test of artificial intelligence. He was a genius whose mathematical feats have touched all of our lives in some way although most of us don't know it.

When an animal embryo is at a very specific point of time and development, the markings that animal will bear all its life are affected by external forces in the form of thought energy and intent. This formation of the markings is called morphogenesis. Like Dr. Emoto's happy snowflakes whose beauty and delicacy is affected by the positivity or negativity of thoughts and feelings directed toward its formation by the external energy force of the researcher, Alan Turin's morphogensis theory explains the very similar formation of an animal's markings as it unfolds from the encoded DNA of its origin.

I realized also, that what was going on with this rabbit was then a very unique type of morphogenesis which occurred during the creation of this lagomorph, this rabbit.

Lagomorpheus

He became known to me as Lagomorpheus, a pirate rabbit whose markings happened to be formed during the crazy summer when the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out. Were his markings an expression of the throngs of pirate obsessed people passing near his mother who was impregnated upon arrival at a public animal shelter? Were they affected by me who cared for his mother there and whisked her away just before she gave birth? Did I have an inner pirate, which I know I do, who loves pirates for their parrots and who oodled some energy onto this little being as he blossomed into a baby? Or did he just look like the funky purple king of coolness, Prince Rogers Nelson, because I've seen him in concert five times and I still have Prince on the brain?

I didn't know but I wanted to paint out the undesirable parts of the photo so I produced the following digital painting so I could design an uncluttered Running Bun Magazine cover featuring this Prince with a Thousand Enemies (his band). And this is what I came up with. I was  happy with it.

© Running Bun Magazine

At first I wanted to simulate the Musicology cover by making the grass purple and the type slanted. The poses were so similar!

© Running Bun Magazine, Prince photo used conditionally

I played with different fonts for the headline.

© Running Bun Magazine

I went through a washed out, desaturated period and finally settled on typeface below.

© Running Bun Magazine

The Final Cover

The extracted markings became the symbol of the rabbit formerly known as the prince with a thousand enemies now known as Lagomorpheus. Appropriately, it looks like a question mark. Butterflies denote the butterfly effect which, if physicists can believe that, mathematicians can believe lagomorphogenesis. The three circles hint at a paisley pattern, beloved by Prince Rogers Nelson, but encapsulate the ideas of morphogenesis, and emotional energy with this symbol which looks like a question mark.

And there you have it.

You should be able to figure out the headline references if you're a Prince fan. I am. You can see other photos of this pirate rabbit hopping around during this same photo shoot in which you can clearly see his markings in the next post.

© Running Bun Magazine

 -Thumper S. Thompson

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Lagomorpheus: The New Enemy

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When Buns Cry:

Whole Foods Marketplace

 -by Thumper S. Thompson, rabbit social critic

The Prince with a Thousand Enemies has a new enemy. 

Surely you've read of the Whole Food Market's' recent announcement of a pilot program selling Iowa-raised rabbit meat in certain regional stores of theirs. Outcry from this country's people who own the third most popular pet here have been ignored by Whole Foods Market.

Kind of like how the FDA ignores the fact that rabbits are mammals and refuses to allow them the same protections other mammalian food animals receive under the Humane Slaughter Act. According to the FDA, rabbits are poultry and from there, the definition of reality dilutes further until reality for rabbits within the FDA universe is sadly akin to one of Stewie Griffin's multiverses with sentience not part of being a character's profile by any stroke of the pen.

But then, what is real? How do you define real? Is it ok for an economy or mainstream culture to have corporations controlling the food supply sector who force us to accept their corporate priority of the bottom line over what is SO OFFENSIVE to one third of pet owners here? Does the threat of a boycott mean nothing to them? Now the dollar used in this way isn't meaningful?

What's wrong with this picture is not so much that Whole Foods Market is not only selling rabbit meat as food for some heartless meat flesh foodies in spite of the vocal and valuable one third of pet owners who splurge on their pet bunny rabbits, it's that in doing so, Whole Foods Market is being complicit with the egregious oversight of the FDA of rabbits being mammals and requiring the same protections which other mammalian food animals have under the Humane Slaughter Act. 

As well as this suspension of reality by the FDA which summarily dismisses the rabbit's right to even be scientifically categorized correctly as a mammal, and therefore as a rabbit, or lagomorph; Whole Foods Market then presents the utter conundrum of their selling 'cruelty free' cosmetics in those same stores as some sort of corporate acknowledgement of rabbits' need for mercy from human moral inadequacies. Can you almost see the inner departmental quabbles within Whole Foods Market's corporate culture? How bogus is any reply they could possibly make to the pet rabbit loving public about selling rabbit meat flesh with corporate morals as muddy as that?

And it doesn't stop there. At least in The Matrix, the little baby humans get to grow up in their incubation vats.

Baby Bunnies Ripped From Their Mothers and Culture

According to Whole Foods Market, it's ok to separate a little baby from its mother and litter mates long before Nature would ever have been exposed to them. In doing so, Whole Foods Market shows complete ignorance of the behavior of reproductive rabbits.

According to R. M. Lockley's Private Life of the Rabbit, which is the ONLY and therefore seminal published work on the European rabbit's wild behavior, rabbit's mate for life and live in large underground cities called warrens where they stay together in family tribes, so to speak, for generations. Socially, they are nearly unequaled for close ties and they stay together while rearing young for months. The flesh meat rabbit meat Whole Foods Market is selling are mere babes. Babes who have no protections as being the properly labeled as a mammalian species.

Sure there are lots of countries selling dog meat and cat meat. That is not the point. The point is that it is not mainstream in this country.  Unless the rabbit loving public unites into a legion of marketplace consumers, soon rabbits will lose the ground they've gained in the cruelty-free cosmetics market and puppies and kitties are next. Make no mistake, puppy and kitten meat as well as their adult counterparts (dogs and cats), will become the future victims of this highly privileged foodie-crazed monster economy which Whole Foods Market seeks to cater to, zombies with no emotional intelligence who want foie gras and veal. What's to stop that? How will rabbits ever gain ground as a sentient being when a convoluted corporate morality such as is exercised by Whole Foods Market exists. The marketplace must respond to the power of the dollar.

So make like a hippie lionhead rabbit and BOYCOTT Whole Foods Market. Listen to Lagomorpheus and join the resistance, don't be a lettucehead, HAVE A HEART  FOR BABY RABBITS! Also write the FDA and your Congresspeople and tell them to protect meat rabbits under the Humane Slaughter Act! Don't be a lame-o!

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More Looks at Lagomorpheus' Markings

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  In Depth Views of Lagomorpheus' Markings:
the rabbit with the Imperial moustache

 -by Thumper S. Thompson, rabbit social critic


Here are some additional photos of Lagomorpheus' markings with varying adjustments of contrast and burn.

All content and images © Running Bun Magazine. Use without permission prohibited.

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Pelvis Binkies That Shook the World!

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 Pelvis Binkies That Shook the World!

The year is 1956 and Elvis Parsley is becoming a household name; a name that elicits the same kind of sneer from his detractors as presented by the bun himself. But Elvis Parsley is not sneering back at anyone, he's sneering because he can't believe how uncool everybun in the world is compared to his utterly ice cold frosty cool self!

He has already become famous for wild, unbridled onstage pelvis binkies that sets young, beautiful does swooning and dropping like flies in dead bunny flops. They gaze at him singing with his tremulous but raw-edged tenor chortle as he hops through hit song after hit song crafted during his days and nights in the Louisiana Hayride.

His fur is still a reddish light brown before his gorgeous markings matured into the black Hollywood-inspired look he'd later don.

And always the pelvis binkies, everywhere he hopped, always setting the trend, imitated by thousands but never equalled. Pulsing binky hips like a leprechaun skipping over hot coals. But it's not hot coals he glances off of but rather a million little bunny doe hearts beating madly as the elf king, the Elvis of the Parsley, leaves forever the pounding impression of that one and only pelvis binky only he can do.

Because he is the king of the thump, the jailhouse rocker bun who must break out of jail, out of this animal shelter and hop into your heart. So don't be cruel, adopt a jailhouse rocker bun today!

 -Thumper S. Thompson

All content and images © Running Bun Magazine. Use without permission prohibited.

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The Fierce, Bad Rabbit; Taming the Hormonal Bun

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He's Intact, He's Bad, He's Obnoxious,
and He's Not Happy

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Elvis, the King of Rock - Sneering Rocker & Rock's Original Bad Boy as a Rocker Rabbit Incarnation! A bunny rabbit!

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Elvis King of Rock Whimsical Sneering Rabbit Collectible Magazine Cover Rock's Original Bad Boy

Good evening folks, Thumper Thompson here. I know I've been away but now, I'm back for good. That's right, never gonna leave again. I'll take over the main posting authorship and instead of the farewell salutation of that Rabbit Photog, which looks like this:

Tread lightly,

-RP

You'll see me signing off thus:

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onward in the everlasting search of the rocker rabbit and those three chords,

TST

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I hope that's a satisfactory introduction to my assumption of full time writing duties as Senior Writer for Running Bun Magazine. Yeah, that's right, I have my own FaceBook page at the link there so why don't ya stop by and like my page while you're at it. That's cool, thanks man.

Now to the news. As you can see from the headline of this blog post, the first official cover for 2014 from Running Bun Magazine features Elvis Parsley, the King of Rock and Roll. He's featured as a young Elvis bun of the castor red mini rex rabbit variety. His press photo for the cover of Running Bun Magazine shows him sneering like an angry 50's rebel. This is young Elvis Parsley from before when Hollywood directors decided he should dye his hair black.

That would almost overshadow his other wise Scandinavian features which would normally be betrayed with the origin of the meaning of his name. Elvis, in short, means Elf, like in Santa Claus, the King of the Elves. But this is not Santa Claus, this is Elvis Parsley, the King of Rock in the Rocker Rabbit multi-verse.

I can't keep that stuff straight so let me cut to the chase, the big brouhaha of bunnies. Here's some publicity art to go with it that the graphics department gave me. Oh, right, I mean the photography department.

Here it is:

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Elvis King of Rock Whimsical Sneering Rabbit Collectible Magazine Cover Rock's Original Bad Boy

Running Bun Magazine Special Edition Rock's Original Bad Boy issue featuring Elvis Parsley rabbit. You remember don't you? The pelvis binkies that shook the world, scandalized television airwaves and probably also caused some of those fanquakes similar to Marshawn Lynch's beastquake (see blog link for more info: http://runningbunmagazine.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-secret-voice-of-rabbits-part-deux.html ).

Well here's the rocker rabbit who started it all: Elvis Parsley, the King of Rock.

This Special Edition's Running Bun Magazine headlines include a look at Jailhouse Rocker Rabbits, a gold record discography with such hit songs as "Don't Be Cruel to a Jailhouse Rocker Rabbit," an exposé of the famous Elvis entourage group, the Memphis Owsla, and last but best, Pelvis Binkies that Shook the World about those gyratin' bunny hips that shocked the world and even got a sneer out of Ed Sullivan.

Aside from all of these wonderful headlines from the rocker rabbit multi-verse, there is the gorgeously shot breathtakingly handsome and darling, wonderful rabbit photography of a castor red mini rex rabbit sneering at all the world as he responds to his photographer.

The spirit of Elvis Presley seems to be manifesting for a brief flash of a strobe moment on the adorable and highly whimsical fine art photograph of this lagomorph's visage. Shot against a background of capsicum spiked hot chocolate or a rustic amber, it is reminiscent of Elvis the Pelvis in the days before Hollywood dyed his strawberry blond hair to black. This is Elvis Parsley while still a ginger, really, in all his Southern glory. And that sneer, the signature gesture of Elvis for all time is right here perfectly embodied in the face of one of those famously disapproving rabbits like only mini rexes can do it. It's undeniable, just look at him!

So, for this glimpse into the rocker rabbit universe, Elvis Parsley is the King of Rock. And he's just as gloriously dashing as a red, shale colored castor mini rex bunny rabbit as you could ever imagine (now c'mon, you can imagine that right?) Good for you!

Covers are 10" x 14" and signed by the photographer/designer. They are printed on premium fine art 'velvet' paper made of 100% cotton. Printed on the world's premier gicléé printer.

We can't say enough about the stunningly better than lifelike quality of our photo prints produced in our shop. 100% handmade from eco friendly 100% cotton fine art paper.

Thank you for stopping by and if you made it this far and still want to know more about this rocker rabbit business, definitely check us out here: http://runningbunmagazine.blogspot.com because our esteemed social critic, Dr. Thumper S. Thompson, and staff photographer, Rabbit Photog, are always writing about their adventures. Tread lightly. -RP
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onward in the everlasting search of the rocker rabbit and those three chords,

TST

 -Thumper S. Thompson

All content and images © Running Bun Magazine. Use without permission prohibited.

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The Secret Voice of Rabbits, Part Deux

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The Rabbit Rainbow Coalition
and Earthquakes

Hello again and welcome to another installment of our Secret Voice of Rabbits series. I've been real busy with all of my many duties as RabbitPhotog of this Running Bun Magazine and it seems I've been abandoned by our illustrious "social critic" of the rabbit multi-verse, the eminent Dr. Thumper S. Thompson, so I'll just try to hold the fort down by myself. With all that's been going on in Colorado recently, I think it would be safe to bet that Thompson is hopping around at Owl Creek bleary-eyed and looking a bit like one of the red eyed whites than the handsome golden lilac lynx colored Netherland Dwarf rabbit. No doubt he is hopping in zig zaggy fashion all around the place and celebrating what he had hoped, oh so long ago, to help pass into law when he ran for election to the Owsla. As we know, he was narrowly defeated but helped pave the way for more progressive agenda in his county and also helped to rat out the big money influences which defeated him. So I don't begrudge him the celebrating over the recent legalization of his favorite grass hay in his home county. I just hope, for the sake of his neighbors, that he doesn't go around shooting poops out of his butt too much and maybe hurt himself, his butt, or anybun else.

At some point, though, I know he will run out of money and no doubt come shyly hopping back to work as carrots aren't free and neither is that other stuff. Ya hear me doc? Don't forget about us, we will need you back in good time so hope you're having just that in the meanwhile.

Rocky Mountain Highs and Earthquakes on Mt. Rainier

There is a little known species of lagomorph I'd like to bring your attention to today as I think he has been making some news lately in the "real world" (and I say "real world" with a bit of a snort because, well, it just sounds like an oxymoron to those of us hopping from universe to universe here in the rabbit multi-verse.) It appears the extremely rare and elusive volcano rabbit may have been sighted at Mt. Rainier! And not only that, he may have caused a recent earthquake in Seattle! You've never heard of the volcano rabbit? Well hop on, dear reader, you know I'll gladly share that with you.

Romerolagus Diazi: The Volcano Rabbit

Here is a nice photo of this very rare, unique rabbit from my good friends over at the Edge of Existence.  They are a fantastic group of folks (as hoomins go) who do a lot to help endangered species and are also the folks who provide the awesome, fabulous iPhone app InstantWild (which is simply my fave!) It is an app which brings you live feeds from numerous wildlife camera traps around the world and is really kickin'. As an animal photographer, I love InstantWild and am rewarded now and then with the appearance of a rabbit or hare hamming it up for the wildlife cameras. Check it out and download the app, it's free and start helping endangered species today!

But I digress. You see in this photo above what is a species of real rabbit (as opposed to a hare mistaken, as usual, by most people to be a rabbit which is not the same species and can't even interbreed with them) that is the only rabbit in its genus. That means that it is a rabbit, it's in the rabbit family scientifically speaking but it's not related to your house rabbit or wild European rabbits or any other type of rabbit, and there are a number of other types of unrelated rabbit genus's or genera (proper form of plural genus).

This scrappy looking fellow looks kind of primitive, doesn't he? That's because he is a primitive type of rabbit which developed independently of the other genera of rabbits since way back when hares and rabbits had a common ancestor about, oh, 38 million years ago. Until now, the volcano rabbit has only been known to inhabit the volcanic highlands around Mexico City and nowhere else on Earth! Talk about a unique rabbit? Well you know what they say about unique rabbits, right? How do you catch them? You 'nique up on them, Mwah ha ha! (Hey look, I'm not the esteemed rabbit "social critic," he's up in his own highlands right now and I'm the only one tending the shop so can I have a break? Thanks.)

Here's another gorgeous photo of the volcano rabbit by Javier Lascurain over at Arkive.org - a fantastic wildlife photography charity! Pretty cool, huh? You bet! Isn't that a gorgeous little bunny even if he is pretty much the Fred Flintstone of bunnies? He really rather looks like a pika, don't you think? You might think why would these rabbits develop only around volcanos? Maybe they like it warm or maybe they like the exotic, nutrient rich grass grown in volcanic soil (calm down, Thumper S. Thompson! I can hear your excited thumps from here?)

Volcano Rabbit ©Javier Lascurain

Volcano Rabbit Sighted at Mt. Rainier!

Time for a confession, dear reader. I am a huge Seattle Seahawks fan and I'm really hoping they pummel the San Francisco 49ers this coming weekend for the big playoff game, the NFC championship. Why am I a Seahawks fan when I live all the over on the East coast? It's just a lovely town with very sweet people, incredible coffee, salmon, and a music scene history like no other. Anyway, maybe you've heard about the record setting earthquakes that happen regularly out there due to the rabid fans? They happen during the Seahawks games, especially when Marshawn Lynch has a big play. There was one famous earthquake caused by Marshawn Lynch's big touchdown via the 12th Man (better known as Seahawks fans) shouting and stomping loudly at the play they call the "BeastQuake." This past weekend, Lynch caused yet another touchdown-related earthquake or "BeastQuake"! When Lynch scores big, it a rainbow of Skittles showers the stadium as the fans throw Lynch his favorite treat or "power pellet," as his mama calls them.

But here's the secret behind all this. Marshawn Lynch and the 12th Man didn't cause those earthquakes near Mt. Rainer. A rabbit did. The extremely rare, highly endangered volcano rabbit whose gene pool is so depleted that this one lone volcano rabbit was born albino and not only that, he hopped a plane from Mexico City and settled down right inside the beautiful Mt. Rainer. It's just a coincidence that he is a Seahawks fan, too, and gets so excited when the 'Hawks score, like he did in this video. It's his celebratory snort and stomp which causes the Earthquake, not Marshawn. Sorry 'Hawks fans. It's not the 12th Man. But I guess you could call him the 12th Rabbit.

Sorry folks, I couldn't resist what with being a big Seahawks fan, and the whole BeastQuake thing. I promise I'll get back to business and get serious about this series, the Secret Voice of Rabbits. Promise! Until then,

Tread lightly,

-RP

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