Curtain call

Ebony displaying one of the curtains.

Today was curtain washing day, which always creates a bit of excitement for the bunnies. They like to 'help' to take the curtains down, then make sure the condition of the exposed wall is up to their standards, before assisting with the rehanging of the washed curtains. The video below captures the key moments.

 Watch here for video accompanied by appropriate music!

As the years have gone by – and that’s 27 years, to date – there has been less and less of the curtain material to wash. But why? Moths? Shrinkage? Or could it be due to the occupation of eight houserabbits over those years…

Lupin was our first houserabbit, and came to live in our recently-renovated house in 1998 – she was more interested in chewing the sofa than the curtains, and we were highly protective of our new curtains, so she didn’t have much opportunity to make her mark.  

Lupin admiring the new curtains.

Charlie, our next bunny, joined us in 1999, and showed little interest in curtains – he was more interested in other fabrics. 

Charlie would never harm a curtain...

... but thought the towel looked tasty.

The curtains still had an un-nibbled hemline in 2001, when we adopted Neroli.

Princess Neroli using the curtain to compliment her colour.

... but was she hiding a frayed hemline?

Rosie joined us in 2003, but she was a good girl... well, at least her only interest was in tormenting Neroli, and she had little time for bunstruction.

Rosie showed no interest in the curtains.

By 2009, the hem had mysteriously come unstitched… but Neroli denied the accusations, and there was no hard evidence.

Why are the curtains behind Neroli touching the floor?

When baby bunnies, Mabel and Dijon, came to live in our home (2011), the igloo hide was placed strategically in front of one curtain – with three young children in the house by then, we didn’t always have time to ensure the upholstery remained unscathed.

Mabel and Dijon, always up to no good. 

By 2016, holes were beginning to appear.

Spot the hole in the curtain.

Mabel was chief seamstress, although she preferred to work without spectators.

Mabel taking a break from her work.

Ebony inherited the post of chief seamstress when she became Dijon’s new pawtner in 2018.
Here she is, hard at work, in 2022.

Dijon was usually too busy sleeping or eating to help with the curtain bunstruction project

Dijon contemplating his next snack.

He preferred just to sit behind them in full sun, if they were closed to keep the house cool on a hot day.

Dijon had nothing to do with the new nibbles appearing.

But when Snoop arrived, in 2023, the curtain destruction reached a new level... literally. From the day he was introduced to the living room, he was obsessed (note at this point the right curtain was still mostly floor length, and there was little damage to the left curtain).

He would argue that some of the damage was caused by us, which is true – when we spotted a hole, like the one in this video, which we thought was a risk to the bunnies, we cut through so they couldn’t become trapped.

However, one way or another, the bunnies are entirely responsible for the current curtain design, and they are very proud of their work.

 

And that’s why we still have our 27-year-old curtains.