Welcome Rex, Goodbye Neen

On Friday evening, we headed off to collect little Rex (yes, it's a boy and this time we're sure!). We got to look at the little Siamese dwarf we'd been interested in previously too. Looks like it will turn out to be a dark chocolate Siamese after all. But I had my heart set on a Rex. We could choose between our little guy and his brother, but Varen wanted the little runty one ... who has no tail. So far we're calling him Kanga-Rex. Seriously, he looks like a tiny Kangaroo to me. Varen says he's more like a Dassie with no tail! We took Rex home and after a little bit of a run around on the grass in the dark, settled him in our bath.

I can't believe how similar his colouring is to Lily's, I'm sure she must have Rex in her somewhere! He's got similar grey under coat with the brown on top and the same colouring on his tummy. But his fur is much shorter than hers, as is typical with Rex's.

On Saturday we started the bonding process. It's gonna be slow, like it was when we introduced Coal to Bell & Henna. Coal is super unimpressed with this new interloper. And the real problem is that Coal was a big baby and Bell & Henna were both dwarfs. Whereas Rex is a little runt (he's already 8 weeks and still so small!) and Coal is a standard bunny (and not yet fully grown, I don't think). She's frighteningly bigger than the little guy! And she is also taking it out on Lily (as Bell did on Henna). At least Lily's fur has stopped flying and Coal is now only "zooming" her. Zooming is my word. It's the only way I can explain it. It's like Coal isn't chasing Lily to catch her, she's just trying to show who's boss. But Lily is pretty skittish at the moment. Lily also does not seem as easy-going as Henna was and has done her fair share of chasing Rex too. We have to let them chase each other a little ... although for the most part we've been protesting Rex. The girls need to smell him and put him in his place. Hopefully without hurting or scaring him too much. So far the girls are living outside in their hutch as usual and Rex is staying in our bath ... everyone has been getting some "free time" in the garden while we're there. Will be harder with us at work all day now that the weekend is over tho. At least there are plenty of long weekends coming up :)

Oddly, we got Rex a year to the day after we got Henna. I'm back in supreme worry mode. Could someone please remind me to never get a new baby bunny after mine are older than 3 months. It just doesn't work. I thought this would be easier than it was the last time round cause Bell & Henna were about 10 months when we got Coal ... but really, it doesn't seem to matter than Rex is only 3 months younger than Coal, because Coal is over 3 months old and now a "teenage" bunny with territory and dominance issues :( We'll be taking the 3 of them for a long drive on Wednesday morning in the hopes that it'll finally bond them like it did with Bell, Henna & Coal. Finger's crossed people, it breaks my heart when they're not all getting along happily :(

Otherwise the weekend was quite relaxed, we spent a lot of time outside reading, being on guard while bonding the bunnies. Rex seems to be the first bunny that's a real daddy's boy and Varen is loving it - I have some adorable photos of Rex sitting with Varen while he was reading.

On Saturday morning we tried a new spot for breakfast, Paputzi's in Linden. It's quite a lovely garden setting (although one of the people at the table next to us had a voice that just carries over everything!) and the food was good :) I had a spinach & feta omelette that I couldn't finish that was very yummy! Unfortunately I couldn't use my Deals on Meals card ... even tho it says on the website that the discount is valid for Breakfast or Lunch, we were told at the restaurant that it was only valid for Lunch. I was quite annoyed because after my previous similar mix-up, I'd checked the website to be sure. Still, it was a great breakfast venue so I think we'll be back.

Varen got me my birthday present this weekend too (since we'll be away next weekend). I got a 8900 Blackberry Curve :) Sadly not the red one ... because they don't import it (aargh! anyone know where we can get a red cover for it?). But still, cool! But now I have to sync all my stuff up properly so I'm not yet on the ball ... But, to be honest this is the ideal gift because I'd never buy it for myself but it is really handy and no doubt will be great fun :)

On Saturday evening I went to HarassedMom's birthday celebrations at Cool Runnings in Fourways. Was a fun evening with a good crowd, familiar faces like Angel&Glugs, Exmi, Jackson's Mom & Jenty along with some new ones like @bergenlarsen and Wenchy.

On Sunday I got one of those calls from my Mom. You know, where you can just tell there's bad news. There was. My 2nd cousin had died in childbirth, she was only in her mid-30s. Her new-born son survived. I was horrified, I still am. I didn't know things like that still happened! I still don't know the details, except that she went in for an emergency caeserean on Friday night and died from complications. She was super-fit, a personal trainer last I heard and it was her first child. I feel so dreadful for her family. They're really close and I can't imagine the heartbreak when the joy of expecting your first grandchild / nephew turns out like this :(