Hazel

This is my rabbit, Hazel. She's a Holland mini lop-ear, although I don't know mini compared to what, because she's pretty big.

Hazel's named after the main character in one of my favorite books, "Watership Down". When we come down to work, she's our Hazel-Rah and the recycling box is her throne. :)

Hazel is five and a half years old, which in human years amounts to about 55 yrs, I guess. She used to bite when startled, so everyone was scared of her, but she's gotten much better now. A couple of months ago, she stopped eating, so Allison and I took her to the vet, where she was found to have a large abscess on the left side of her jaw. The vet put her under and plucked out a loose molar that was sitting on top of the abscess and pop, out came three more teeth and a large pulpy chunk of her jaw. There is now a big gap between the front of her jaw and its left hinge, the part that connects to the rest of her skull so that she can chew properly. She can still eat though -- which I think is amazing -- although the lower part of her jaw is now all wobbly and can't exert much strength anymore. Allison and I have to feed her a goopy mixture of fiber and probiotic bacteria culture every night to supplement her pellets because she no longer eats hay.

You'd think that she'd be in pain and feeling miserable all day, but not so! Ever since the procedure, Allison and I have kept her in our office, letting her hop around loose, stuffing herself into corners, and ripping up pieces of scrap paper. In the photo, you can see one such piece -- a receipt from Subway -- sitting on the floor. A few minutes after we'd taken this picture, she climbed out of the recycling box, hopped straight over to the receipt, and shredded it enthusiastically like it was a redacted CIA file from "Zero Dark Thirty". 

She used to spend most of her time in a big cage in the living room. Ever since we've given her free reign of this room, however, she's become more playful, more affectionate, and more... rabbit-like. She likes to lick Allison's pants whenever Allison sits on the floor with her and will often sit under my chair doing nothing for an hour at a time.