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 | The Story of FooBar Chapter 1: Foo's First YearFooBar was our first house rabbit. He was born on June 24, 1990, and he came into our lives in August of 1990. These are some of the pictures of his first year with us. As you will soon learn, during Foo's first years, we learned all about having a house rabbit the hard way. This is the first picture I ever took of FooBar. Actually, my friend Lisa took the picture. This is Foo's first day with me. I was living in Boston at the time, but I came all the way to California to pick him out. In this picture he is sitting in a sewing basket that I used to transport him back to Boston on the plane.Right before the plane was to take off, a stewardess came down the isle and said, "I'm sorry, all items must be stored in the overhead bin." Before I knew what had happened, she took the sewing basket from my lap, flipped it on it's side, and shoved it in the overhead bin. A few seconds later the plane took off with a deafening roar, and I wasn't able to get up out of my seat to check on Foo until we'd leveled off about 10 minutes later. When I opened the overhead bin door, I noticed that the sewing basket had opened, and there was no FooBar inside! I was panic stricken as I rummaged around in the coats and jackets looking for Foo. I soon found him snugly nestled in the arm of a man's overcoat. He spent the rest of the trip safely sitting on my lap.  After our in-sky adventure, FooBar settled in quickly to our one bedroom apartment in Cambridge. While we were away during the day, we kept Foo in his cage so he couldn't get into mischif. When we returned home at night, we let him out to roam the apartment. At night while we were sleeping, he would often jump up on the futon to say hello, waking us at all hours of the night. We figgured this was a fair tradeoff, as poor Foo spent the time we were away alone in his cage.We tried to provide Foo with many toys, fun objects, and places to explore. holoween was approaching so we bought him a pumpkin. We thought he might enjoy eating it, or at least pushing it around. This photo was taken in late September or early October of 1990.  One of FooBar's favorite places to hang out was under our futon bed. He would sometimes chew on the fabric that held the futon frame slats together. He also liked to chew on popsicle sticks. You can see one to his left in the photo.
Another place he liked to explore was underneath the comforter that covered our daybed/couch. The comforter was loosely tucked under the mattress at floor level, so it made for a great bunny burrow and tunnel. Often we'd wonder, "Where's Foo Bar?" A quick survey of the apartment would turn up nothing. Then after a few minutes we'd see a small lump moving along the bottom daybed, and realize Foo was in his burrow  Another photo of FooBar under our futon with a popsicle stick.Foo Bar was our first house rabbit, and at the time we didn't know very much about bunnyproofing. During his evenings and weekends of freedom, Foo Bar did lots of exploring. Several times, much to our dismay, he made his way into the baseboard heating elements! There was just enough room for him to hop on top of the metal flanges that gave of heat. He didn't hurt himself, but it didn't seem like a very safe place for a bunny to be. We quickly covered the ends of the baseboard heaters, but then he was on to new adventures. We learned the hard way that it's important to keep electrical cords away from rabbits. Late one evening we were relaxing and watching TV. All of a sudden we heard a zap!, saw a puff of smoke, a bunny flying backwards, and then the lamp went out. I quickly rushed over to find a dazed Foo and a chewed up lamp cord. Thankfully Foo did not appear to suffer any permanent damage. The only sign of his trauma was a black singe mark across his two upper teeth. After inspecting Foo, and unplugging the lamp, I let Foo down to be on his way. Can you believe the first thing he did was to go back over to the unplugged lamp and start chewing on the cord again? It was at this time that we realized some major bunnyproffing needed to be done.  Of course once we had all the bunnyproofing done, it was time to move. In December of 1990, we moved to a new larger apartment in East Cambridge. Foo thought this was great. He has much more room to explore and hop around. Strangely, though, he spent most of the hours of the day sitting on top of a large dog carrier, under a wooden table. It's quite amazing that he was able to jump up to this spot, as the kitchen floor was a slick ceramic tile.I think he liked it in this special spot because it was a small and cozy space, high off the floor with a great view of everything around him. Sometimes I'd come along and rouse him out of his spot, thinking he might like to play, but if it was during the day, he's invariable hop back up again and doze off for a bunny nap.  FooBar was a very affectionate bunny. In this photo you can see him reaching up to kiss my fingers.
 FooBar also enjoyed just sitting near us in the front room while we read or watched TV. We could tell he was lonely, though, and felt that by the time he was one year old that the best thing would be for foo to have a bunny companion to hang out with.
 This is Zowie at the age of six weeks. In October of 1991 on another trip to California I picked out Zowie as FooBar's companion. This picture was taken the first day Zowie was with me while at my hotel room in San Jose. More pictures of FooBar and Zowie... Looking for Paige? You can find Paige blogging at thecolorawesome.com |
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