All Creatures Great and Small Archives - Page 2 of 24 - Ruffing’s

Posted on August 3, 2016June 3, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Popular bunny toys and the IKEA doll bed bunny bed

Oliver Bunny got some fun new rabbit toys and a new piece of bunny furniture, an IKEA doll bed.

Our friend, Becky, from Triangle Rabbits, hosted a bunny toy-making workshop. Becky makes delightful and creative bunny toys. Some of her Bunderland Bunny Toy Emporium toys are available in the Triangle Rabbits store. Triangle Rabbits is a local rabbit education and rescue group, and is the Central NC Chapter of the House Rabbit Society. Handmade bunny toys and accessories are also available at the group’s Rabbit Day/BunFest. Information on events is available on the Triangle Rabbits website.

Becky collected natural, untreated, rabbit-safe bunny toy parts, which we strung together for our rabbit toys, using untreated sisal rope. Many of the parts are toy-making supplies for birds, so the dyes are safe for bunny toys.

We used cardboard that was free of tape, glue, or ink, along with paper towel rolls, and toilet paper rolls, also avoiding glue residue.

Supplies for bunny toys can be found at Make You Own Bird Toys. When shopping for parts for rabbit toys, make sure you are using items that are natural, untreated, and safe for rabbits to chew.

Oliver’s favorite parts are the palm leaf flowers and the vine balls. Oliver is playing with his “busy box”, which I made at the toy-making workshop. Becky’s rabbit toys are much more impressive, but Oliver appreciated my effort.

Oliver can be a bit possessive of his things and wasn’t sure Josephine should be looking at his toys,

but he still appreciates pets more than toys.

Becky and I ended up trading toys. She picked up an IKEA doll bed for me when she was at the store, and she adopted a Hug Me Bunny for her rabbit’s birthday. Below is a photo she took of her rabbit, Samantha, with her pink birthday Hug Me Bunny, and another of her cuddling with her stuffed bunny rabbit Hug Me Bunny. Becky says Samantha loves snuggling with her stuffed rabbit.

My Hug Me Bunnies will be in our Ruffing’s shop. I am busy trying to restock my creatures, and so, if anyone is looking for a Hug Me Bunny stuffed bunny rabbit, feel free to ask me. I have lots of partly-done toys and many colors of fleece.

I have been enjoying friends’ super adorable photos of their bunnies resting on their IKEA doll beds. Becky even has a bunny-themed custom-made mattress for Samantha, with a pink bunny cotton print fabric on one side, and fleece on the other, shown below.

I may have to make one of those for Oliver. This bunny fabric is made by Robert Kaufman Fabrics. It was designed by Ann Kelle, and is part of her Urban Zoologie line. It comes in “Pink” (shown), “Blush”, and also in a multi-color range, called “Spring”. You can find it online by searching for “Urban Zoologie Bunnies“.

Oliver and Bertie helped me assemble the bed. The cats were jealous. It was easy to put together. When we were done, I excitedly waited for Oliver to use it. And he did. Only instead of hopping on top of it, he thought it was fun to hop under it! Haha.

Those are his little bunny buns sticking out in the photo. Well, I thought it was fun to crawl under the bed when I was little too. 🙂

The cats think this IKEA doll bed it fantastic. I find them napping on it or rolling on it. Cats like beds of any kind, and they think everything is for them. It must be true.

Oliver especially likes furry toys that he can groom. He likes to lie down next to them and lick them. He has licked the ears off his favorite Fat Cat Fluff Bunnies (above). They erode away, he loves them so much. They are catnip bunnies meant for cats. Sometimes the cats steal them.

I always grab soft fluffy stuffed bunnies for Oliver, when I see ones I think he might like. I put two on his IKEA doll bed and he decided hopping up on the bed was all right after all.

Posted on August 3, 2016June 3, 2019 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Hug Me Bunny stuffed animals and a helpful orange kitten

Juno orange kitten playing with superhero Wonder Bunnies fleece stuffed animals

At least one of my Wonder Bunny superhero bunny stuffed animals, which I am working on finishing next, grew an unusual tail, as you can see here.

I needed more assistance sewing stuffed animals than I realized!

Juno, orange kitten helper extraordinaire, has been using her super powers to help me in any way she sees fit. Here she is helping cut a piece of cording with her sharp little teeth.

I use that to cord center my details on my toys. I didn’t really need it to be trimmed, or at least I didn’t know I needed it to be trimmed. Juno is insightful and has many creative recommendations for me.

I traded Juno’s elephant rattle for the toys I was sewing. It is a good thing she takes naps.

She is growing up, and was 4 pounds at her vet visit today. She was only 14 ounces when Cheryl first found her. She is doing very well, and has started to have more frequent bursts of sweetness. She purrs, and gives head bumps and kisses. She still ends up biting us, but thank goodness she is calming down and learning to be nice.

Now, if she can learn to behave around the bunny, I will be even happier. She doesn’t yet understand why throwing up her paws and pouncing on everyone isn’t always taken in the spirit of fun in which it was intended.

I have been finishing up fleece bunny stuffed animal art toys. I will post these in our Ruffing’s shop.

This pink Hug Me Bunny found a home already, but her mauve and soft light orange bunny friends are, at the moment, still available.

They have my new custom-printed two-tone eyes. I attached their eyes and hearts with embroidery floss, using a blanket stitch.

I hand embroidered their smiles and noses too.

Each one comes with a hang tag that can be personalized with a name and a message.

I finished my first Hug Me Slug with the new eyes as well. She is a very soft light pink fleece.

Just like the bunnies, she comes with a tag that can be personalized.

Posted on August 3, 2016November 13, 2020 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Miss Foxy Loxie

My beautiful fox friend I mentioned in my last post, made another appearance and I was able to get some photographs. I took these from a distance.

She came in the early evening to nibble on the long grass I left in the back yard. The grassy patch has become popular with crickets. I am sure mice, bunnies, deer and snakes like it too. It got too long to mow, because there is a wet patch underneath it, and it grows too quickly to maintain. So, I let it grow. I am not brave enough to try to walk through it any more.

When she was done pulling seeds off the grass, she trotted back to the woods, as she usually does, after looking around a little.

She is so pretty. Our vet said to stay away from her, and don’t leave any food, like cat food, out or encourage her in any way. I leave water out for the animals, which he said is fine. He also told me to watch for any unusual behavior, like not running away when she should, but she seems to be healthy and normal. One of our neighbors clapped his hands at her and she did run. The vet said that is a good sign, but to be careful because foxes can be carriers of rabies, even if they are not symptomatic.

I get worried that people will get worried about her being around. I want her to be able to go peacefully on her way. I am hoping she will have the sense to avoid coming out in front of everyone, but she seems used to being near people. She hasn’t shown any interest in chasing cats, but I worry about that too. I have told my immediate neighbors who have cats outside that I have seen her out in the evenings, to be cautious. I have also told them she seems normal and healthy.

I am wondering if she has fox pups in the woods. She always comes and goes at the same spot. I used to see eggshells on the lawn and in the woods, but I hadn’t seen a fox in years. People in the neighborhood have chickens and ducks. I hear a rooster on the other side of the trees. Maybe she set up her home to be near them, or maybe she just makes the rounds.

Posted on July 23, 2016May 3, 2024 by Elizabeth Ruffing

Juno, Junonimo! An unexpected lesson in abandoned kitten care!

I got an unexpected lesson in Abandoned Kittens Care.

The day after my last post, our friend Cheryl found this four-week old baby screaming by the side of the highway outside her house, at 1am.

Cheryl has been finding kittens in need of rescue almost every other day lately. She had to go to work in the morning, after staying up much of the night, trying to get very upset kitten to eat, and put out a call for help. I had no experience bottle feeding kittens, but I knew they had to be fed frequently and be kept warm. I was home, and met her at the plaza to take the little one, who was still screaming, home with me.

Cheryl had given her a bath, but couldn’t get her to eat on her own. Cheryl gave me some KMR, kitten milk replacer/formula, which is available at pet supply stores, along with a bottle for feeding kittens. Walmart had a version of kitten formula as well. Cheryl had some because, as I said, she keeps finding kittens.

Kitten formula needs mixed and then warmed first, before feeding it to kittens. Best Friends has more detailed information about what and how much to feed, and how often to feed, depending on age. At four weeks, they are ready for gruel, kitten food mixed with formula.

I couldn’t get the kitten to eat on her own either. I tried putting a little mashed-up gruel of KMR and kitten food in her mouth with a syringe, but that didn’t work so well. I was concerned about potentially choking her, by trying to feed her with the syringe. She needed to take it in at her own pace, and it is hard to release food gradually with a syringe. She had to eat every few hours or so. Newborn kittens have to eat more frequently.

My mom and I tried wet kitten food, dry kitten food, dry kitten food softened with water and KMR, but she wouldn’t take it on her own.

Finally, I got her to eat by putting the gruel in the palm of my hand. I cupped my hand, and put a small amount of dry food softened with water mixed with KMR formula, warmed, in the palm of my hand. I sat in a chair, with her on my lap, and held my cupped hand right near her muzzle. She stuck her nose in there, and kneaded me, while she ate. She wanted to travel around my chest and neck. So, I kept moving my cupped hand with the gruel, offering it to her wherever she felt like kneading. Her face got messy, and so did I, but she was eating! Whew. We offered her food this way every three hours or so.

Any found animals should be kept separated from your other pets, for a couple of weeks, until they have the okay from the vet that they are in good health. Everyone needs to be up to date on their vaccines too. An extra room is best, but we didn’t have an extra room available right away.

I set her up in our extra bunny bin, which is smaller than Oliver’s. She yelled for a while, but then calmed down. I’m sure she was terrified, being left the way she was. She was only 14 ounces. She was extremely lucky that Cheryl found her and rescued her.

My mom and I took turns feeding her and cleaning her up. We took her to the vet for a checkup, and got some other dry kitten food. We found that she liked to eat the softened dry kitten food out of the palms of our hands, so she could “nurse”.

The vet explained to us we would have to show her how to eat out of a bowl. We put a bowl right next to her, with the food, while she ate food from our palms. She was still kneading, like she was nursing from our palms. We tried to guide her over to the bowl, while she ate, adding food from the bowl, to our palms. Eventually, she tried taking it from the bowl, but not consistently.

Even now, we are still supplementing her diet with KMR, which she laps from her bowl, and she is, at long last, eating dry kitten food on her own. She is very fussy about food, and we have to change varieties to keep her interested. She likes big cat dry food. That is probably because she likes to play hockey with the larger nuggets. She won’t touch canned food. She has strong preferences.

She has a feisty personality. She takes on everyone and everything in the house.

Our vet said we can expect another couple of months of that, while she tries to prove to everyone that she is the alpha cat, which is odd because of her tiny size. He said once she establishes her position, she will stop trying to make her point. We’ll see.

She was showing the lettering on our cardboard boxes who the boss was too.

She loves to bite. I use a baby rattle to distract her so I can pry my hands loose, when I need to use them for something other than kitten chew toys.

She can be relentless.

Her own reflection is not excused either. She is a fierce warrior. My mom dubbed her “Junonimo”, after Geronimo.

Luckily, she takes long naps.

She has become an avid fan of our household game, “Ropey”. I had to get an extra cord because she tries to take it for herself and won’t always give it back.

She is getting leggy, but is still a pipsqueak.

Oliver Bunny was prepared to like her, but has found her to be completely without manners.

I have to keep her away from him, until she calms down.

Right now, most of what she knows of social interaction is smacking and biting and wrestling. The adult cats are supposed to teach her how to behave, by scolding her, if she gets too nervy. The vet said if they hiss at her, they are just doing their job, teaching her what is okay and what isn’t.

Yesterday, she gave me a head bump, purred, and licked my nose, which was a nice change. Then she bit me, but progress is progress.

She is super fast, and I have to confine her while I clean up Oliver’s litter in the morning, or she dives right into his bunny bin.

He doesn’t like that at all. He grunts at her and gets upset. She likes to run inside his Twigloo house. I’m hoping they will be friends when she calms down.

The three of us, bunny, kitten, and I, did manage to watch a movie together, “Fright Night”, which I thought was fitting for a vampire kitten. She was afraid when the characters were fighting, of all things. I kept the baby rattle on hand, for the moments when she got her own ideas.

In between feeding, cleaning, and kitten monitoring, I painted bunches of eyeballs and worked on a box of toys. I sealed a lot of my custom-printed eyeballs and emblems with my Liquitex Fabric Medium.

I cut them out and pinned them to toys, and I’ve been hand embroidering them on fleece bunnies, kittens, slugs, and sock monsters.

These are photos of the toys in progress. I will post finished toys on our Ruffing’s shop. I’ll make blog posts for them separately, since my kitten photo album on this post is big!