# Natasha Rabbitova's 2015-16 Blog



## MikeScone (Feb 7, 2015)

Here it is February already and I haven't started Natasha's 2015 thread. Pure neglect. I don't know why she puts up with me... No time like the present. 

If you'd like to see Natasha's earlier blogs, here they are:


Natasha's 2010-2011 Blog
Natasha's 2012-2013 Blog
Natasha's 2014 Blog


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## MikeScone (Feb 7, 2015)

Natasha gave me quite a scare last night. By and large, her health has been really good throughout our time together (_knock wood_), so I'd hoped that as she got older she wouldn't develop the periodic stasis problems which Scone suffered from throughout his life. 

Last night when I got home from work I opened Natasha's cage, but instead of waiting for me with her paws on the gate, she was just sitting passively in her safe spot in the corner of her cage. I put out her dinner - kale, her favorite - but she didn't touch it. She just hopped into the living room and sat next to Marge, her big stuffed bunny. When I called for her to come for a treat, she didn't move - although she did take a dried banana chip when I offered it. I left her alone while I had dinner, but she hadn't gone anywhere by the time I was done. 

Alarm bells started going off. She wasn't hunched over or grinding her teeth, but she wasn't herself, either. I offered parsley, but she just nibbled a bit of a leaf and turned her head away. I even brought in a tray of snow, but she ignored it. 

She eventually laid down in front of the front door, in the cool breeze under the door, and seemed to be comfortably napping. After a while, I started her hopping around from place to place, and when she discovered the sprig of parsley on top of the snow tray, she ate it. Success! She started digging in the snow and dumped the tray, then ran into her cage and vacuumed up her kale. This morning she was back to normal. Crisis averted. 

A few pictures to start the year:

The local Wegmans supermarket has a "please take" box by the door, where you can pick up packaging and the like (a great source of free aluminum baking trays). They had a round box made of light wood of some kind - probably from a cheese or something like thtat - which seemed like a perfect bunny toy. Natasha loves it - I fill it with yummy Meadow Hay or Oat Hay, and she picks out what she wants (and dumps the box as it gets low). She's started sculpting the edges, too. 






Dumping hay boxes is hard work - time for a nap.





Natasha and her stuffed friend, Borders Bunny:





Napping together:


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## MikeScone (Feb 14, 2015)

Natasha's really been working on re-engineering her new hay box. The sides are nicely scalloped, so she can nibble hay without having to stretch her neck over the side. 






A good stretch always feels good after a nap...


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## bunnyman666 (Feb 15, 2015)

Natasha is aweome!!!!!


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## Azerane (Feb 20, 2015)

So cute, she certainly seems to have quite the luxury life. So glad that you avoided a stasis episode with her. They're not fun.


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## MikeScone (Feb 25, 2015)

Natasha's deconstruction of her hay box is complete. It took a lot of work, but the hay box is now a hay tray. 





The hay tray makes a good place to relax in, too...


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## pani (Feb 25, 2015)

I love seeing Natasha's photos! She always looks soooo soft, I want to give her a big cuddle.


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## MikeScone (Mar 12, 2015)

Natasha's stuffed friend Marge (short for Margerine) has been poorly of late. Natasha's over-enthusiastic grooming has worn holes in her extremities, so I had to do some restorative surgery this afternoon. I stitched up her arms, and gave her some socks to keep her feet warm (as well as fully stuffed and ungroomed). 

Natasha inspected the surgical work carefully.






Natasha seems very satisfied with Marge's recovery.


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## bunnyman666 (Mar 12, 2015)

Nat has some attitude!!!!! She's a diva and she is AWESOME!!!!!! Give her a snuggle and smoothing for me.


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## MikeScone (Mar 14, 2015)

Natasha loves oat hay. All I have to do is open the cabinet and say "yummy hay", and she runs over to her hay box and waits impatiently. 






Just relaxing....





Fully relaxed, Natasha still keeps one ear trained on Dad, just in case...


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## MikeScone (Mar 24, 2015)

I got a new camera body yesterday - Nikon's new D7200 - and of course I had to try it out on my favorite furry subject.


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## pani (Mar 24, 2015)

She's looking beautiful as always!


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## bunnyman666 (Mar 24, 2015)

Natasha is AWESOME!!!!!!


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## MikeScone (Mar 24, 2015)

Two more pictures from tonight:

"Hi, Dad! Got something for me?"





Natasha and her box full of paper - she can keep Dad company in the computer room, and dig through the waste paper at the same time. What could be better?


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## MikeScone (Mar 28, 2015)

Spending a nice Saturday morning with Natasha and my new camera. 

A brown paper bag is a favorite bunny toy - you never know, it might have a treat in it...





Gotta check both sides...





"Nose rub, please, Dad?"





A bunny kiss is Dad's reward...










Yummy oat hay always hits the spot.


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## Wabbitdad12 (Mar 28, 2015)

Looks like your model works pretty cheap, she's very beautiful.


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## MikeScone (Mar 31, 2015)

A few more pictures of Natasha Rabbitova.

Natasha and her stuffed friends:





Natasha whispering secrets to her buddy Borders:





The beautiful Natasha:










"Did I hear you say 'treat', Dad?"


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## JBun (Apr 1, 2015)

You do a really good job at capturing her beautiful black rex fur color and texture. Not easy with black buns.


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## MikeScone (Apr 14, 2015)

... which is 1,500 miles West of Natasha, at the moment. I'm going to spend a week at the Sun'n Fun Fly-in in Lakeland, Florida, and have stopped off in Fruita, Colorado, for a week on the way (as you do...). My friend Jerry and I took a hike in the Colorado National Monument this morning. Here are a few pictures I took on the hike - and the first is a bunny:






It's a Desert Cottontail, to be exact. He was hiding in a bush, just watching as we hiked by. 

Here are some more denizens of the desert, pictures taken in Monument Canyon or Wedding Canyon:

A Rock Wren:





There are thousands of lizards everywhere in Colorado, but if you look closely they're not all the same. Depending on what website you look at, there are anywhere from a dozen to forty kinds. This is a side-splotched lizard:





This colorful character is a Western Collared Lizard:





If you want to follow along on my flight, I've got a blog going at our local flying club's website, which starts here:
https://ehfcmembers.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/by-skyhawk-to-florida-day-1-ithaca-to-oshkosh/


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## MILU (Apr 14, 2015)

I'm so happy to see that you and Natasha are fine! Although I'm sure she misses you now.. she'll be very happy when you get back home! 
I love the pics and stories of Natasha and her activities with the hay box that became a tray, and Margerine's surgery, etc... she's so sweet! 

Nice pics of FL and CO! 

Make sure you don't take too long traveling - Natasha is waiting for you!


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## MikeScone (May 16, 2015)

Spring has finally arrived, and Natasha is enjoying the yummy apple blossoms and twigs Dad has brought in for her...


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## MikeScone (Aug 23, 2015)

I just got the latest issue of Bunny Mad! magazine from the UK, and found that Natasha is on the Funny Bunnies page. 

She's so proud...





Natasha basking in her well-earned fame...





Natasha had an extra-large share of kale for dinner in celebration.





Here's Natasha with her comfy rug - a woolen muffler she likes to lie on or next to in the evening.


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## MILU (Sep 24, 2015)

Natasha is so cute!! I'm glad to see she's been doing well and still in great shape now also famous with her portrait in a magazine - you must be so proud!!! :goodjob:blueribbon:


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## MikeScone (Nov 23, 2015)

In their Winter 2015 issue,_ Bunny Mad Magazine _printed my article about living with Scone MacBunny and Natasha Rabbitova as a two-page spread.

Natasha was impressed...





She had to tell Marge and Borders Bunny right away...


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## MikeScone (Dec 6, 2015)

Natasha and I were down on Long Island Thanksgiving weekend to visit my folks. They made quite a fuss over her, which she appreciated. 

I brought Natasha's friend Marge along for company. Here Natasha's pushed herself under Marge's hand - I think Natasha thought Marge was petting her.


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## MissyAndMoonlight (Dec 18, 2015)

That's adorable


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## MikeScone (Jan 3, 2016)

I've been home most of the time since Christmas Eve, other than the odd run to the store or visiting friends, so Natasha's become used to having me around. I don't know what she's going to think when I go back to work tomorrow. 

Here are my first 2016 photos of Natasha:

Natasha's been dozing next to me most of today, in full meatloaf mode, as I've been working on the computer. 






As soon as I put the camera down on her level, though, she got up to see if it was something edible or interesting:


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## MikeScone (Sep 5, 2016)

I've definitely been neglectful of Natasha's blog this year. It's been a busy one for me, and not always in a good way, so I haven't been on RO in quite a while. 

Anyway, Natasha's still going strong. She's eight now, but still acts like a kit. She does Bunny 500's around the house every morning, and binkies when I turn off the TV at night and tell her it's time for her bedtime snack. 

She gave me a bit of a fright this week. On Tuesday she had run into my bedroom just before the alarm and ran laps around the bed as usual. I got up and got ready for work, and then I called her for breakfast. That usually brings her running from wherever she'd been - but on Tuesday, nothing. No bunny. I even tried calling "Carrot" - nothing. So, I got a flashlight and looked under my bed, where she hides sometimes - no bunny. The back rooms were closed off, and I have a small house, so the only place she could be was the dining room or the living room (she won't go in the kitchen because of the slippery linoleum). She wasn't anywhere. That made no sense. I ate my breakfast, figuring she'd come out to chow down when I stopped looking for her, but she didn't. I looked under everything which had an "under", and behind everything which a bunny could get behind. Still nothing. Finally, I opened the sofa bed in the living room, and there she was. Somehow she'd gotten herself under the bed mechanism - don't know if she was trapped or couldn't find her way out, or if she was just playing "hide the bunny". I picked her up and held her for a while, then plunked her in her cage, where she immediately started inhaling her morning salad. 

Sometimes, I think rabbits just enjoy making us worry...

Some recent pictures of Natasha:


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## pani (Sep 20, 2016)

She's so funny - I love keeping up with Natasha's antics.


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## MikeScone (Oct 16, 2016)

Natasha was just chilling out on Wednesday, when I was home for Yom Kippur. She spent quite a while in a full-on flop next to her ball and her cardboard tunnels, but of course she rolled upright as soon as I grabbed my camera. Someday...


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## MikeScone (Dec 26, 2016)

I'll start a new blog for Natasha for 2017, but in the meanwhile, to close out the year here are a few pictures I took since my last post. 

"Hi Dad, what's up?"





"It's about time to clean my cage, don't you think? Not that I'd nag or anything..."





"There are pellets in here, I know it! And I smell hay... If I work at this long enough, maybe I can get to the Mother Lode..."





Natasha, posing...





Natasha and her Big Yellow Ball





"A dignified old rabbit lady needs to keep herself neat and clean..."





Natasha Rabbitova's Christmas Breakfast - Organic Spring Mix, same as every other morning. Natasha doesn't really celebrate Christmas. After all, she's Chewish...





Happy Holidays to everyone - we'll be back in 2017!


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## bunnyman666 (Dec 28, 2016)

Your darling Natascha is just as cute as the day is long.


Though I do think she would have a mouth like Cloris Leachman. I mean that as a compliment, as my dearly departed Trixie would have had a bit of a potty mouth. After all-lady rabbits of DISTINCTION like Natascha and Trix would have EARNED the right to be a *bit* earthy...

You have a beautiful rabbit there, sir!


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## MikeScone (Dec 31, 2016)

bunnyman666 said:


> You have a beautiful rabbit there, sir!



Thanks! Natasha certainly thinks so. 

I grabbed a couple of pictures of Natasha in her litter box this morning.






Of course, Natasha had to see what the weird clicky thing on the floor was...


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## Azerane (Jan 1, 2017)

Just gorgeous  How old is Natasha now?


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## MikeScone (Jan 2, 2017)

Natasha is about eight and a half, although she acts much younger. In bunny years, that makes us about the same age - 65.


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## bunnyman666 (Jan 3, 2017)

She has a gleam in her eye. She's a lully (Bristolian for lovely) girl!


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