Yesterday in the Lounge, I related an anecdote about how Fernando had staged repeated “jailbreaks” from the X-pen enclosure he shares with his mother Panda of an evening. At the time, it was pretty funny. Last night, though, I found out how he’s actually doing it, and it’s not quite that funny anymore.
I was having a floor session with the buns last night, lying down prone on the floor, and Fernando was climbing around over my back, something he likes to do but hasn’t actually done in a little while. So, I was just lying there feeling his little paws scamper around, thinking how nice it is that he’s trusting me so much, and all of a sudden he tenses up, then *sproing* he jumps something like two feet, two and a half feet maybe, straight up and at least a foot across, and the next thing I know he’s on top of the condo looking down at me with the rabbit analogue of impudent glee. He led me a merry chase around my apartment for the next few minutes before I was finally able to lure him back into the X-pen with his beloved Simple Rewards treats.
I worked out that he might be jumping from one of the two hidey boxes I’ve usually put in the X-pen, so I removed the one closest to the condo, then went to bed. Guess what – a few hours later, I woke up and just like last night, Fernando was skittering around on my bed again, and I had to use treats to get him back into the X-pen again. This time, I had no choice but to latch both him and Panda up in their condo for the remainder of the night (and I ended up oversleeping so that I barely had time to give them their breakfast and refresh their hay and water before I had to go catch my train).
Right now, I’m not sure what to do beyond making sure the X-pen ends are securely latched to the condo (which I’ve already done) and removing both hidey boxes from their X-pen enclosure when I go to bed (while leaving the cardboard tunnel, which isn’t stable enough for Fernando to get a purchase on for a jump). This shouldn’t be a hardship for them because they still have their condo, and the hidey boxes inside it, so they can run inside it and take shelter if something triggers their instincts. I’m going to try it this evening and see if that works. My real problem, as far as I can see it right now, is that when I go down to North Carolina for Thanksgiving and take the buns with me, since I can’t carry the condo in my car, I’ll have to figure out some way to set the X-pen and their gear up so that Fernando doesn’t get tempted. Any ideas?
(Panda, by contrast, has been perfectly well-behaved. She hasn’t even been tempted to slip out of the pen while I’ve had the door partially opened while chasing her naughty little boy.)