A few months ago Karli went to a specialist to be tested for allergies. She tested positive for a number of things such as fruits and pesticides used on fruits, so the doctor gave her some prescriptions and some advice about dealing with these allergies. The doctor also asked about animals in the house. Well we haven't had animals in the house since moving to Utah 9 years ago, except........Dr Dre. Meg and Chase acquired a lovable rabbit. However, when they rented their last apartment, the landlady was very explicit about no pets. So we adopted Dr Dre into our household for now. That has been extended since, if you read my blogs, you know that Meg and Chase are in China.
Well, to get back to my story, Karli's doctor emphatically stated that we could not have ANY pets in the house if we expected Karli's condition to improve. I was worried about approaching Meg about moving Dr Dre outside (or Pooch as I call him). Meg, however, told me that she 'had resigned herself to the possibility of even giving Dr Dre away!' That nearly broke my heart! There's no way we could give Pooch away now even if Meg said so! And I knew that Meg really didn't want us to give him away either, she was just trying to be understanding and sensitive to our situation.
Well, as you can see from the first picture below, Pooch's home became his wire carrying case which we kept in our washroom inside the house. So the short-term answer was to move Pooch and his wire cage outside.
My feeling was that this wasn't going to provide adequate protection from the elements and from the 'wild' animals roaming freely in the night. I felt cats could easily jump up on the table and the cage and antagonize Pooch, which is something he has not been used to. Additionally, I felt a clever cat or a large dog could knock the table over and further antagonize Pooch. To better protect him from the elements, we did have some small sheets of plywood covering the top and he had a small box Chase built for inside the cage to provide additional protection.
Much to the chagrin of my family, I decided to remodel our existing rabbit hutch and add a second story for Pooch. We already have 2 rabbits, Fufu and BBQ, which come with their own stories. Lance (or Elder Williams as I now call him) built a STURDY hutch predominantly out of two by fours! Wow what a tank! So as you see above, after a month or so and several late nights, I completed my task. I cut 12 inches off the bottom of the hutch to make the second floor more accessible. While I was at it, I decided to add something to catch their 'deposits' if you know what I mean. So you can see below the right side of each level is a frame to hold removable plastic bins to catch and redeposit the 'deposits' into the garbage can or garden or whatever! Pretty clever, huh!?!
I then added the second story with a large door that opens down instead of up (which I believe is better, but I get the impression no one else in the household does - in fact I changed the door on the bottom to open the same way. These are reasons my family roll their eyes every time I take on such a project - which is rarely because I seldom do so with the approval of my family - oh well.) Now the 3 dinners - I mean rabbits - can be safe and sound against the house relatively protected from the elements. If I get another wild hair - or is it 'hare' :) - I plan to add some side flaps on hinges that can be opened and closed to provide even more protection from nasty wind, rain and snow storms that we occasionally get. Stay tuned.........
