May 7, 2010: Whisperer
 

We had the Horse Whisperer, Ghost Whisperer, and that really cool Dog Whisperer on the National Geographic channel.
There's also Pet, Wood, Lion, Book, Car, and Bear Whisperers. :rolleyes:

Well, here is the Bunny Whisperer.

http://cellar.org/2010/whisperer.jpg

I wonder if he could make your significant other, shut up and hold still?
10 minutes would be way more than enough time. :haha:

link

via

So if we make the assumption that the good doctor is well versed in tonic immobilization techniques,
where do you think he "massages" Peter Cottontail to get this response?

I'm sure poking his fingers down the rabbit's hole would do the trick.:thumb:

lafs @ "hopnosis"

Awwwww....da bunny is in da state of bliss! :apaw:

All ready for spit-roasting. :yum:

Hugh Heffner has been doing this for decades. How else could an 85 year old man get a 20 year old bunny in bed?

Money. ;)

:lol:

...

Lying a rabbit on its back makes it freeze and go into a trance. It can be quite dangerous to their health, and is done as a last resort by, for instance, vets and handlers to keep the rabbit still whilst examining them or whatever.

This is total bullshit.

re: Shaw: How many times do we have to tell you?

It's NOT lupus!

I did not know this. Now I'm vaklempt.

I forget where I was, but I went to someone's house where they showed us this trick with their pet bunny. I've seen it.

The article says he is in demand amongst local vets. Maybe he is able to do it in such a way that it is less stressful than otherwise. It isn't hypnotism though.

Of course it isn't, it's hopnosis. :lol:

You can do much the same thing with chooks.

Most animals have this Tonic Immobilization (playing dead) response when they feel threatened.

There was even an observed case of this around 1998 where a killer whale induced tonic immobilization
in a great white shark by quickly inverting the shark where it was held still for 15 min.

I believe the shark died of asphyxiation.:fish:

I'm gonna put some cool patches on my shirt, like he has.

If only the Secret Service had known about this, they could have saved Jimmy Carter from a traumatic experience.:rolleyes:

I know. But making THOSE go limp is more fun!

Pffft. I can do the same thing with our Yorkie when I rub her belly. Where's my white coat?

Shh. Be vewy, vewy quiet. I'm hopnotizing wabbits.

Shoulda put it on a treadmill.:yelsick:

Contrast is bumped way up on that photo...

I believe that's called the marinating position.

And the colors desaturated about 20% too.

I lawled.

Ok, what you're all missing here is that this guy is in great demand. That means that in ONE town in England there are a lot of folks who will pay to have surgery performed on their rabbit!

We weren't missing it, we were hoping to pretend it wasn't happening.

lalalalalalalallalalalalalalalalal
I'mNotListeningI'mNotListeningI'mNotListeningI'mNotListeningI'mNotListeningI'mNotListening

But but but, a freaked out rabbit that size, can/will fuck you up. This guy has a hotline, and works for free, so why wouldn't a Vet use him to knock a bunny down, so they can get a needle in it?

Around here if you stepped back to take that picture of the petrified rabbit, a hawk would snatch it.

Link to Monty Python and the Holy Grail Rabbit scene on youtube

Can't fuck up a 3oz stoat though. Bad-ass little mf'ers...

Y'know I had heard the word stoat before but never knew what animal referred to.

Those guys looked like weasels.

According to the dictionary, stoat = ermine = weasel.

Now maybe that's an oversimplification of the dictionary and ermine/stoat is a member of the weasel family.

Or it could be a British thing like lorry/truck and torch/flashlight.

Still I heave heard of ermine in terms of furs that royalty used to wear (maybe still do). I guess "Her majesty was resplendent in her weasel robe" probably sounds a lot better with 'ermine'.

tha'ss no ordinary stoat.


Look a' tha boooones!

I think Ermine is the winter coat of the stoat -white fur ...or something like that. Much rarer because the bastards hide more in the winter.

I actually witnessed a stoat chasing a rabbit in the Adirondacks once. The stoat and rabbit passed by me three times, they were several feet apart. They went back and forth each time the stoat was closer to the rabbit.

At the last pass, the stoat was about 25 feet from me and noticed me sitting there. He stopped and turned and came toward me! (Probably thinking he'd hit paydirt) When he was about 8 feet away I pointed my finger at him and in my most authoritative voice I shouted "Knock it off!" He stopped and resumed chasing the rabbit.

One of my most weird animal encounters.

A few years ago we took a friend of ours from this area, knee deep in deer, rabbits, squirrels, etc... up to the adirondaks. He described it as "a fucking petting zoo" because of the animal encounters. A chipmunk nibbled his toe...

I had a similar run in with a racoon. I found myself alone in our campsite, and a coon came trotting in....and eyed me up....

FUCK OFF! i said. and fuck off it did.

Despite all it's prowess, my cat dragged a stoat home one day. That cat was an ass kicker.

P.S. Didn't eat it though.

Our cats in the UK once brought a live city pigeon -the big fat ones the size of a roast chicken- through the cat flap. It went under a bed and crapped everywhere. Also a live squirrel. And many that were dead and disected by the time we found them. they never ate the kidneys but always licked them clean.

Piece de resistance was a few days before our wedding we woke up to black shreds everywhere. My (black) wedding dress was hung on the back of the door. We're both short-sighted, couldn't see it well.... Never was a person so relieved to get out of bed and step in blackbird remains.

My friend and I saw two robins chasing a squirrel as we walked the other day. By the time I got my camera out, the tide had turned and the squirrel was after the robins....

(yes, I have discovered the "auto-enhance" since our discussions in the Treasure hunt threads! :lol: -what a weird function that is -I'm sure the grass wasn't that color...)

I guess I shoulda cropped too :lol:

Nah, you need the context. It's great the way it is.

We have chickens and fight endlessly against the rats that come for their spilled feed. We've taken to leaving the gate to the pen open at night after closing them in their coop. This provides access to the local cat to hunt the rats that spend the night trying to squeeze, climb, or chew their way into the coop.

Last night our son was laying out on the brick walkway looking at the stars when hideous animal screams started from the coop about 10 feet away. Simultaneously he got a whiff of skunk and saw a bright shooting star.

He was right on the path to the pen and feared he'd have a panicked skunk running into him so he got up briskly. Looking in the direction of the recent commotion he saw a skunk carrying a very large rat in its mouth farther into the heavily planted area of the pen.

We had no idea skunks were rat predators! We are quite happy about it too.

Skunks will also kill chickens. A farmer friend hates skunks, they'll get into the pen and start killing chickens, eating them alive. I'll spare you the gruesome details, but it's slow and unpleasant.

OTOH, their fur is exceptionally soft and luxurious (luxuriant?) and was called "American Sable" Until the sable industry lobbied to prevent confusing names. When American Sable had to be called skunk, it lost a lot of appeal.

Nope, stoat and weasel are different animals in this country. I had to find a site to detail the difference as I couldn't remember myself. Turns out they're so damn close it's hard to tell them apart (wildlife Britain site). The main difference is the litters and that the weasel does not have a black tip to its tail. The pics look identical to me!
That's a robin?
I'm taking it that's an American robin then.
Is that what they put on Christmas cards?

Could be an unladen african-american robin...

This is our chap (from the Wiki page European Robin)

I doubt he could carry an empty coconut...

Yes, SG, they're totally different birds, just both happen to have red breasts -American robins are HUGE -probably can't tell from the pic, though, 'cause Michigan Squirrels are also HUGE. :lol: -thet driveway behind them is two car width. Those paving slabs on the sidewalk are about 4 feet wide.

Why, hell, boy!! Around these parts one of our squirrels would have that rabbit on the street and turning tricks within a fortnight.

:D

Ta Monster. I did think it looked a bit beefier than our little bundles of fluff. Seriously, though - are American robins associated with Winter/ Christmas?

I'd also like to add that now our chooks are getting bigger, I carry them on their backs. I take them out to the outside run when it's sunny and their wings are now strong enough to cause themselves some damage if not held right. It stops the the distress call which works the remaining chick up, making it harder to handle when I come back.

Mrs G (a chicken owner as well as teacher) was impressed that I knew to do this. I thought I'd sound irresponsible if I said I'd learned it on t'internet.

American Robins are the emblem of Spring, although they often hang around in winter if there is enough food.

Nah. You'd have sounded like someone who is able to research a subject quickly and assimilate the necessary information.

Nope, Cardinals on Christmas cards.