18th Birthday's, Petco's looking up, and we need a new facility

Good afternoon! I am in a much better mood today than the past couple, and I did notice a full moon last night. I should really watch that! Still no word back (not expecting to hear until this evening) on Buster's blood-work. He is such a cutie though! I just got a call from Petco, we are getting in two rats that some woman dropped off as punishment to her daughter and she said they haven't been fed in 4 days. I'm hoping Julie can foster them. Below is a link to the web-site with the info on the Fitchburg Bunnies, we are taking in one male NZW he is in the first picture after the text:

http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/fitchburg.shtml

It's busy enough here, but we are out to help, we are on a mission, and we are out to meet as many people as possible, someone out there might be able to help with a facility down the road. Someone with enough love for bunnies in their hearts that have the financial backing may be out there just looking for a Non-Profit Organization to help with a hefty tax-write off! We have a possible 5 more adoptions pending right now, so keep your fingers crossed. I got up at 5:30 and was at Staples H.S. this morning decorating the building with pictures and "Happy 18th Birthday Alexa and Nicole" signs by 6 a.m. Ali and Nic are two girls I use to nanny for starting at age 3! Ali has helped with very many animal parties and both are huge animal lovers. I was at work by 7am and then went home, made my rounds and I went back to see Ali & Nic around lunch time with balloons and we will have dinner together this evening at Circle Diner. I medicated all the buns needing it this morning, put some extra food in for the very rapidly growing babies, and signed on line to see a new 40 e-mails from yesterday. Busy, busy, busy. Next week I think I'll just go driving or maybe when Jet and Gigi come to stay, just go all over God's creation to hang up bunny adoption signs. Sounds good to me, and Harry Potter will be, of course, in the CD player! I'll be looking at getting a big decal for the back of the Pathfinder as well. We need more advertising. I think we are now in the beginning stages of getting back into Petco, Norwalk again. They are under new management and the new manager seems pleasant on the phone! Ivan, the head-tilt NZW, will be coming on Friday. I am going to end my blog here today saying that I am in a much better place today than yesterday, I have been on the phone with the Stratford Library for ink cartridges, the CT HS Newington shelter both help with transport of the 23 rabbits looking for homes and to offer up our services to teach a rabbit educational seminar for employees and volunteers, and online with HRN about getting the NZW boy from the Fitchburg bunnies next weekend. Now I'm going to head out to Friendly's, wait for Dr. Pieper to call (and Linda to translate!) and settle down for a semi-quiet evening at home.

Good Night :o)

Chris is coming home, rabbit maladies, and triple bonding

My phone has been ringing off the hook today, over 20 phone calls coming in. I gave up on answering it. I have the 9 baby bunny woman calling me to come to see the rabbits (I just can't do it) and a call into animal control for advice on that situation. I know one more of the babies is not going to make it, it's hunched up, and all I can do is keep it warm with its mom until nature takes its course. (They need a pet-sitter for their bunnies in Stratford the first week of Feb. if anyone is interested.) Chris has been away since Friday teaching Martial Arts in Texas, and he is on the CT Limo on his way home now. I miss him very much as I lay here stressed out. I'm going to try and get Buster in tomorrow to see Dr. Pieper. I'm pretty sure he has very limited sight. He walks right into the other rabbit cages trying to find his way around. I just held him tonight with tears in my eyes. I'm not so concerned about the eye-sight as I am that ½ of his face looks swollen. I don't feel good (back-ache big time) and Linda is sick as well, so maybe I'm just a little emotional. I'm aggravated with the condition so many of these bunnies have been dropped off in, Buster's eyes and possible jaw abscess, Bubba's eyes, nose and butt, Tapioca sick and pregnant, Cleopatra's ongoing respiratory issues (and she needs to have back teeth filed down now too!), Rosie's prolapsed anus and recovered broken foot, just too many to count. We have 3 follow up visits next week with Stormy getting his eye seen for what we hope will be a miraculous "No surgery needed," Bubba's recheck and Acorn for his ear infection to see if it has cleared up. I'm also more than likely adopting a bunny from Mandy at Cottontail Rabbit rescue named Ivan that has severe head tilt. They are treating as an ear-infection with Baytril, but I don't think that is enough. I think he'll do great with Cinni and Rags in the Graco play-yard with the baby bumpers up so that they can't damage them-selves. I'm actually looking forward to meeting him! I'm going to be doing a "Hopefully!" triple bonding between Jet, Gigi and Casper in the next couple of weeks. Parsley is doing great (our bathroom bunny this month) and Hermione was stretched out on the couch in our guest-room when I got home. It was a very pleasant sight to see for me, as I'm feeling a tad depressed this evening. Has the world gone mad? We have still received no payment from Julie Durante. Two of Tinkerbell's babies from her second litter (the solid black girls) were adopted out today, thank you to our Julie for helping with that adoption! I guess the good news is that my boss just told me today that they don't need me to go away with them for February break this year, so I can get all the rabbit records together in books like I have wanted to do. One binder for here with the rabbits back-grounds that are here, and one for the Hollow in Norwalk with all of their info. It will be some work, but we need it done to file away all the medical histories, etc! If anyone has any spare large binders or 8x10 individual page pockets (clear ones that go into binders) the donations would be greatly appreciated. Ok, I'm going to go finish meds, and read while I wait for my love to get home.

Hop A Long Meeting, Buster, Ali likes the blog

Well, we had our HALH meeting last night, it was fun! More of a dinner party, thanks to Linda and Harvey providing a beautiful sit down dinner for the 10 of us that were there. Michele brought a salad and Harvey made a beautiful chicken parm and pasta dinner with garlic bread that had pesto and melted cheese (I'm drooling now thinking of it, a little habit I picked up from the dogs!) and a delicious cake with homemade whip-cream frosting and blueberries! Yeah, now I'm hungry! Anyhow, it was fun!

Yesterday morning when I got up the 3 tiny runts were deceased as I suspected they would be, and this morning the older bunny (eyes still not opened) that was flinching all over yesterday had also passed away. There are four more surviving, one which is either the runt of this litter or the older one from the other litter, but I'm not sure if this one will survive. I am praying for the baby to make it, but know what will be will be. From my best guess, I am thinking the brown bunny was probably pregnant with two litters and with the contractions from delivery she delivered both litters at the same time, and all the preemies have passed away a long with one that was just born very unhealthy. It is very sad, but it is what was going to happen no matter what I did to help. Baby bunnies are so very, very fragile. Hopefully neither is pregnant again, but if they are, this will be their last pregnancies as we will have them altered after their "grace" period is done and we can then put them up for adoption.

"Buster" was dropped off today from his owner of 4 years that is being deployed. I did something really dumb by saying Chris was away when the kitty was meowing and that she was missing her daddy. I need to be more careful when people come over, I'm too trusting. Anyhow, ½ of Busters face looks a bit swollen, I'm thinking an abscess, so he will be seeing Dr. Pieper this coming week. He had pee all over him when he came in and had really long nails. He is blind in one eye (I think?!) and it is like looking at a pearl. I think his vision isn't the greatest in the other eye either. I was brushing him out after washing him and he started freaking out. He ran around the living room, jumped over Major (our Shepard) and ran into the bathroom, freaking Parsley (bathroom bunny) out, and she ran out. She was next to the dog who was still in the hallway laying down, both of them looking at me like "what the?" Other than all this, it's been a pretty uneventful past couple of days. Julie Durante still has not paid the bill for Bubba coming in, so we are going to black-list her to all the other rescues since we got word that after dropping him off in the condition she did, she is now possibly looking for another rabbit. No words can describe how I feel about this. Ali came by tonight and helped me stuff paper tubes for the bunnies with hay and raisins we got from Bay's "family." It was really nice, and she said she missed me being on line the past couple of days because she likes to read the blog. That made me feel really good, so this one is for you Ali! She also brought over meds for Cleopatra. Cleo has been diagnosed as having pneumonia now. She is more than likely going to be on Penicillin injections every three days for the rest of her life for the chronic symptoms she has had since coming in to the shelter. I hope it will help, she is such a sweet and beautiful lop. We had no hope for the longest time that bunnies such as Cleo, Willow, and Buttercup would ever be adopted out due to injections, but hey, Buttercup went to a home with a kitty that has diabetes and gets insulin shots every day, and a bunny with a shot a couple of times a week was no problem for them, so they adopted Buttercup (GREAT PEOPLE!) and she has given us hope that there are other families out there that are willing to take on bunnies such as these guys as well. I guess there's not too much more to say. Acorn seems to being getting along with his antibiotics, Stormy's eye is looking great, and Juliet's sneezing is calming down again after the Zythromyacin.

Ok, Goodnight!

Dizzy spells and a very nice donation

Hello Again! I went down for my turn at the Hollow (Norwalk location) today. I dropped Major off to visit his doggie friend Dilly on the way. I like the dogs good and tired! I am happy to say that today has been pretty uneventful so far (except these weird dizzy spells I'm having!). Pippen (or Merri, can't remember which) is now sneezing. Pumpkin is doing quite well, Claire is looking good too! Cleopatra was looking good yesterday (little beastie-bunny was "nesting" last night! She has never done that before!), and then sneezing her head off today. We'll finish this course of meds and go from there.

Those little tiny babies are still alive, but I just don't know how. I'll inject more fluids into them this evening, they just look so dehydrated. Their mouths are too small for feeding with an eye dropper or 1 cc syringe, it's very complicated to assist. I can't decide from one moment to the next whether to interfere with what will be, or to leave what will be alone.

A very kind woman named Eileen paid for Mr. Uggs and Casper to be neutered today. It was a $215.00 donation! I just can't explain how this makes us feel, and how kind that was of her to do.

That's all for today!

Big Blot Entry!

Well, today has been another one of those days. I took in 11 rabbits this morning, one has died since then. I got a phone call yesterday re: someone needing to place 9 baby bunnies, too familiar, right? A man called yesterday, said he use to belong to Hop-Line and his rabbit is neutered, and it just turned into a very bizarre conversation. Well, his girlfriend/wife (not sure) called today and was so all over the place in the conversation with exactly what they had, that I asked if I could go and see the babies. Ok, Room #1: neutered male, a female with her four 5 week old daughters, and newly neutered male (the dad - and I bet anything she is pregnant again - they didn't wait the 30 days for the sperm to dry up). She was picking up the babies quickly by the scruff of the neck, and letting them jump down out of her arms at the height you would a cat. Please know I was very aggressive in speaking with her about all this, and everything else I saw. I was talking to her about breaking their bones, and she proceeded to tell me that she figured out their bones were fragile when she was washing the foot of one before between her fingers and broke the bunnies foot. She also gave the last 7 born to a breeder. All the bunnies in this room are still running around together, and one of the 5 week olds had been attacked by one of the other rabbits and had a piece of it's eyelid hanging off, so get ready for this, she shaved around the eye, and took off the piece of skin hanging off the eyelid with a razor blade! We then went into room #2 where a neutered male lop lives with his female (un-spayed) bond mate (apparently these are his bunnies, the rest are hers). She went behind some piece of furniture and opens a cage, takes out an adult rabbit, grabs a handful of baby bunnies and drops them on a newspaper on top of the cage and proceeds to roll them up in the newspaper to carry them to the other room. OK, this might not sound bad, so let me explain. A folded newspaper, rolled up, both ends open for the babies to slide out. I told her it wasn't a good idea. Room #3: The bedroom... On the bed was a cat looking out the window, a very afraid looking adult rabbit, and some sheepskin thing that had long hairs (like a shag rug) that 5 babies were tangled up in and very dehydrated looking. She thought she was helping to keep them warm this way. I told her the moms needed to be in the cage with their babies (don't know which babies belong to which mom, and there is at least a weeks age difference) to keep warm and be fed. I went home, and then called back and told her I wanted the two moms and the infants. I rushed down to Norwalk where Linda and I gave them 2 cc's each of lactated ringer solution and fixed them up in a cage until I go home tonight. 1 baby was dead by the time I got to Linda's. I knew that they wouldn't all make it, and I still have doubts on 4 more. I have made a baby bunny formula, but one of the moms seems to be grooming the tiny little ones. I will assist where I can, but know that nature will take it's course no matter how I try to interfere. I am certain that there is probably (with my luck the past couple of months) going to be another litter from whoever had the litter that looks over a week old. They never separated them from the dad, and for anyone who doesn't know, rabbits can get pregnant within 3 hours of giving birth.

On a lighter and very kind note, I dropped of Mr. Uggs and Casper to be neutered today, and when I was unloading them from the car, a woman was putting a carrier into hers, she said that she was dropping off her rabbit to be spayed. I shook her hand and told her who I was and the name of our organization, she is an HRS member (love hearing that!) and then we said goodbye. She came back into Dr. Piepers office and told Sandra that she would cover the cost of our 2 neuters! I had tears, it was so very kind! I mean, WOW! It's so nice when you see people who really do care. There are angels among us! OK, well, who knows what the rest of the day shall bring, right? Just pray for these little ones that whatever is best for them is what happens. It's in God's hands ultimately, as are we all!

At Linda's, Pumpkin has started treatment for EC. The other day he started acting like he had injured a leg, then started flipping, of course she rushed him to the vet. He has been on meds less than 48 hours and is already walking around and acting like a normal bunny again! Claire is pooping again on her own and off the Reglan and force feeding. At my place, Bubba is getting daily butt massages (oh, Joy!) to work the medicine into his little area, Juliet and Cleopatra are now on Zythromicin, Acorn is on his ear drops, and Stormy (whose eye is looking SO much better) is still on his eye drops and he, Acorn and Bubba will all have a follow up visit in the next two weeks. All the babies that we have had with us the past month are doing great! You can see them listed on our web-site under "Adoptable's" at www.hopalonghollow.org. Oh, and Sheffie is back to his old-doggie self!

A reflection on the sacrifices we make

I'm washing all the animal dishes in my dishwasher. I know this is a silly way to start an e-mail at the end of the day, but it took me back to June this year. I use to hand wash all my pet dishes, and I guess I let one of the clay ones soak to long. I look at my right middle knuckle which is still much bigger than it should be, reminiscing about the night last June I was hand-washing the animal dishes and one broke, I felt a slight pain on my right hand, and then saw a little blood. I couldn't move my middle finger any more (convenient for those people who cut me off on the highway!) and I looked to see something white poking out. I guess I went into shock, it was around 8pm and Chris wouldn't answer his phone till after 9pm as he teaches a Martial Arts class. I guess I called Ali in a panic because when I pushed down on my finger I saw something white coming out (I thought it was my bone) and was looking for people to take care of my rabbits if something happened to me. I was laughing, and when the ambulance pulled up I was on my phone, I'm pretty sure, with my friend Debbie. I use to ride 3rd party for Stamford Ambulance Corp. So I won't get into much detail on how screwed up these guys wrapped my hand (like a marshmallow, with the splint on the wrong side) or how long it took us to get to the hospital (because they were deciding on who would drive.) I now realize I should have just waited the extra half-hour for Chris to get home, I wasn't dying or anything, I had just severed my hand down to the bone and the white I saw was the tendon sticking out. Weird ambulance drivers not knowing where they were going (thank you anyways!) and an emergency bill later I was at a plastic surgeon getting locals in my hand (FREAKING HURT!!) and had my tendon re-attached. FUN! I remember going to our first Hop-A-Long Hollow Party less than a week later. I guess I thought of this tonight looking at my still swollen knuckle (scar tissue) and thinking of all the sacrifices we make. Linda is actually allergic to rabbits. She wears a mask to clean, especially in the warmer weather to take care of all in her charge. She has severe asthma, as does her daughter Chelsea, and you know what? They keep plugging on! These rabbits and their stories are so endearing to us, that I just don't understand why people don't look up proper rabbit care online or find out from a local shelter what it's all about. Don't look at breeder websites! They are mostly in it for the money. Look at RABBIT RESCUE WEBSITES such as ours www.hopalonghollow.org or www.rabbit.org and really figure it out! Sorry, but I have four baby bunnies downstairs from people that I brought in today that I don't think are going to make it, not because of the momma bunny, but because of what they went through where they were living. Ok, I just keep going, don't I? Good Night!

Hectic, Hectic and Back Pain

It started off a typical day. I was called to transport wildlife this morning, and when I got to the vet's office at 8 am, the vet had taken the bird home yesterday and was not due in today. Alas, I will try again Thursday. I proceeded to the beach with my dogs, and Acorn the rabbit who had a vet apt. for 10:30 and 2 of my dogs for 10:45, they need a run! We made it to the vets with no incidents! Yeah! JD's blood-work came back negative for the disease that he was believe to have had. Sheffie and Major had blood work done today - both heartworm free I might add, and got micro-chipped. When they scanned the chips to make sure they were working, they saw that Major already had one. Funny the things you don't know about your own dogs, I guess the petstore he came from before going to SCAR in NY had him low-jacked already! Oh well. Acorn has an ear infection - puss and all. He started shaking his head yesterday morning and I hadn't seen him do it before, so kind of observed him, and it was still going on this morning, so in we went for an antibiotic shot and antibiotic ear drops.

I was unaware that the boy I nanny for, Nick, had 1/2 day today until he called me from his cell phone (Nick is 16 years old) to see where I was and to let me know he was home. OK, ran to Fairfield to work, check e-mails, etc... My friend came by and Sheffie didn't get up running as usual, but was keeping weight off his back right leg. He had an allergic reaction to the Rabies shot today, so back up to the vet for a shot of steroids. It's not even 4:30 yet! My back has been really sore, so I think I'll have Chris treat me later (my husband is an Acupuncturist) and fall asleep tonight, as I did last night, on my beloved heating pad. Is this supposed to be happening at 35? What will 40 bring? I got a phone call today too from a man who wants us to help place NINE baby bunnies that were just born yesterday. He apparently has 7 of his own House Rabbits and said he use to be a member of Hop-Line. Don't know exactly what's going on, but what the heck. I have another bunny coming in on Friday from a man who's being deployed, along with a check to cover the spay/neuter charges. I'm still waiting the $80.75 to come in from Bubba's previous owner, let's get going now girlie! I can't believe that so many rabbits are neglected and we (rescue groups) have to pick up the tab on it. Oh well, what are you gonna do?

Donations coming in and bunnies really like to chew cables

Wow, I haven’t written for a few days. Lucky you! Well, Stormy had his follow up appointment today, Dr. P said he’s very happy with us that we keep up on their meds (of course!) because his eye has amazingly improved (and he’s eating great now too!). His cornea and iris are not attached to each other, and if he has to have surgery at all it will be minor removal of scar tissue (Dr. Pieper keeps grossing me out saying it’s like sewing up Jell-o) and no specialist will be needed! Hooray for Stormy! He goes back in another week or 2 for another follow up. He will probably still have minimal sight as opposed to no sight at all out of that eye. Time will tell!

Shaylah’s babies eyes opened about 4-5 days ago. They are eating me out of house and home a long with Tinkerbell’s 6! We have had many donations come in to help out, such as the donation being sent in by the family that found Stormy, the $50 check from Michele, again, thank you, the donations from Anne on our web-group, and Michele C. is bringing us in a whole bunch of ink cartridges (around 100!) to be sent into the funding factory! Thank you everyone, it’s all helping us out so much! We do need more news papers, we are both going through them like crazy (no glossies!) and Linda had to run around to recycling bins again last week! If anyone lives near a deli, mine gives them to me free after 6:30, maybe you could ask and nab a trunk full to drop down occasionally. It helps!

Well, today on my way home I saw two black labs running down the road, in the road, and slowed down. I have never seen them before. I got one to come up to me, but the other took off. Not knowing their address, etc… Nothing on their dog-tags, even the phone number embroidered in the collar, was not up to date. I dropped “Rocky” off with Rachael at Stratford AC and watched as she checked for a micro-chip. I am getting all my dogs chipped in the next week, it’s important to me now, and everyone has our address and my phone number printed on their dog tags. Make sure if you have animals, you keep these up to date! You never know when one will sneak out!
Billy has become too comfortable in our house. He now leaves the bathroom and ventures upstairs to have the guest room all to himself. I went out a few days ago and got cord protectors for all the computer cords so that if he found his way around, he wouldn’t get into trouble, my big plans for this weekend! Well, he found them and I had to go and buy new speakers (again) 3 new USB cables and a new modem cable, we have no internet at home! Silly bunny! Oh, Billy is being adopted! He made an incredible connection to a little boy named Quinn and will be going to his new home soon. Parsley will become our new Bathroom Bunny, but with all cords protected!

SPCA of NY’s Chairman of the Board, Deborah, called me today. I really enjoyed speaking with her, and we spoke in depth of the Pound Ridge situation, and I felt quite happy with the way things ended. Hopefully everyone will keep on top of this devastating situation so that it does not happen at this location again. We are going to swap some rescue contacts with them for future help.

That’s all I can think of right now, my brain is fried. JD may have Cushing’s disease, not even sure what that is, something hormonal though – a new disease to investigate! He has a 3 hour visit to Dr. P on Friday for 2 blood tests (and will get his micro-chip too!).

The Swan, The Rabbits and a Cockatiel, oh my!

Well, all in all a good day. I got up, took Baby Gray and Cotton to be spayed, all went well, and they will go back to their new home in New Jersey, I went and picked up the Swan that was clear on broken bones and its blood test and seemed to be quite active. I won't even get into deep detail over its release, but I carried it down to the pond and released it back to where it came from, getting covered in poop in the mean time. Everyone told me to play lotto today (bird poop on you is suppose to be good luck) but alas, I forgot to get a ticket... My favorite Deli Guy Joe is leaving this week, so hopefully the new person will continue to save the newspapers for me... I did get to go out with a couple of friends shopping around for a couple of hours, so that was nice, but I was so overwhelmed with this past week, I totally forgot about taking my two nephews out shopping today, disappointing one of them, and I feel so badly about it! I'm going to go tomorrow and take them after dropping Ebony and Kate at the Hollow to go to their new home, picking up 3 ferrets from one woman, a chin from Linda, another ferret from the H.S. and meeting with Kelly Cruz who will take them all to a new home including the Beardie and 2 Blue Tongue Skinks. My back is aching, so I am going to go lay on a heating pad for a while, and please, please don't think I am saying "poor me" as I truly enjoy what I do! Stormy is now eating and pooping up a storm and Billy of the bathroom has started venturing off into our bedroom to hide under the bed. He is just so wonderful with his litter box and he is really coming out of his shell. Chris has said I will keep him, but I am insisting that I am not, he is just here for attention. Bubba is healing so nicely, and is such a rambunctious little 2 pounder. We are still waiting for his former owner to pay the $80.75 bill for his vet visit and meds. Shaylah's babies all have their eyes opened now and are popping around the cage like crazy and Tinkerbell's babies are doing great too. Bay is settling in very nicely, and Steve is thumping like a mad-man. My cockatiel Jack looks a lot better, but still on the thin side, I have tried introducing eggs, veggies and fruit juices to them this week. They are enjoying the different textures and colors of their new table foods. Christine who adopted Scrappy (the chinchilla with the very wounded eye) is thoroughly enjoying him and introducing her bunnies to him. It's been a long, but very good week. Night to all!

Stormy

Of course, now that I have force fed Stormy for the night and snuggled with him a bit after being terrified he wasn't eating/drinking enough and would suffer through stasis, I have him on a blanket on our couch hanging out with me and the poop has been non-stop. He is munching on a carrot right next to me as I type and the lettuce I gave him has been eaten quite a bit. He's playing me I think! He is tooth-purring and not grinding out of pain because he is only doing it when I pet him. I think he just doesn't know what to think of me or all the rabbits in his new living quarters down-stairs. It has been a long day, but hey, that is what rescue is all about! I am just ecstatic that he is actually eating something! I gave him some metacam this afternoon after our vet appointment (12 hours it is suppose to last) so hopefully that is helping. He was a very, very good boy getting his eye-meds and feeding tonight. I just love him, really, and I hope in my heart he will find a great home. I was talking to the Grandmother of the woman who called me to come and get him, and she was telling me how she was out in her yard and he came running across the street from down the hill and was screaming and making moaning noises last week. She was very concerned that kids might have been chasing him with a stick or bat or something. I told her that I felt that is when his eye injury probably happened. He is very content here this evening, but I have sorrow in my heart just trying to comprehend what he must have gone through. I wear contacts and my eyes burn from them just being dried out and tired, and as most of you may know I have had several severe eye infections myself (thought at first to be from the closeness I have with the bunnies, but we are now thinking that it might also be the solutions and contacts I have been using as since I have changed over to something different this past month I have been great!) which have left small scars on my cornea of my left eye (not much worse than what a tanning bed can do to you!) even though I Purell the heck out of my hands. He's grooming now, he's just so beautiful!

On a very nice note, in addition to Michelle's donation of the $50 Target G.C. today, she is offering to try and donate $50 each month to the Hollow (as Buttercups mom does) and Ann Salmon (ribbonsclothes@netzero.net from our web-group) came by like 2 minutes after I got home tonight and brought the Hollow a large container of baby wipes, raisins, a huge bag of carrots (the bunnies are loving this treat!), a gift basket with awesome movie-goodies in it, and 10 ink cartridges for our collection. I also got to show her some of the bunnies of the Hollow and speak with her for a while. She is a very kind woman with 2 bonded House Rabbit pairs of her own! Thank you so much Ann & Michelle! Ok, it's been a seriously long day with a little good news (Stormy eating!) at the end. Hope everyone is enjoying my little stories, and if you don't wish to be updated, let me know, I'll remove you from whatever list I have you on! For everyone, thank you so kindly for all your donations and help whether it be through the collection of items we need or you time donated to cleaning cages, or if you are fostering, just know you are helping us out more than you will ever know. You are all so much more appreciated than we can ever tell you, ever!

Stormy and poop all over the bathroom!

We totally took for granted how marvelous Billy is with his litter box. I knew Kate was like the rest of her brood, leaving pee-puddles around the other animal cages to mark their spots, so I moved Billy into the guest room for the night and put Ebony and Kate (who look great together and seem to be getting along ok so far) in the bathroom. They were terrible last night with the litter box! I woke up to Chris saying - WOW- not a good Wow but more of a Holy Crap WOW! There was poop EVERYWHERE smeared on my bathroom floor! Maybe too much space at once? Well, when I get home from work (where the beasts are with me now) I will be trying them out in a cage in the kitchen. Thank God I didn't put them in the guest room!

On a lighter note, we got many donations in from Bay's family (well, she was living in their yard so it's kind of her family!) of Vinegar, stuffed animals, baby wipes, raisins, and just a ton of wonderful things we can use (1/2 a jug of change as well!). Michelle Malone has just offered us a $50 Target Gift Certificate which I will go and buy Paper Towels and Garbage Bags with - OK, yes, we get excited over garbage bags and paper towels! You try living with 30 rabbits! Also, the woman (Mary I believe) who called about Stormy called back to check on him today and asked for our mailing address so she and her Grandparents could make a donation. (Thank you!) She was amazed at how fast I caught Stormy, but I honestly think he was just tired of life and ready for something, anything, to happen.

My dogs Sheffie and Major did great with their vet appointments, though Major shows some signs of his pads being soft, even after constant running on the beach, and some kind of allergy thing going on so I have to make sure his feet get washed off or wiped off when we get back from the beach, and JD had some blood-work done to see if the liver disease has led to diabetes. We really, really appreciate all that Dr. Pieper does for our whole brood!

Ebony and Kate have moved into a cage together tonight, and Billy Bunny has moved back into our bathroom. He is actually sitting behind me now on the top couch cushions as I write this. He is a wonderful rabbit looking for a wonderful home. Ali and I were thinking tonight that we need to do a "Bunny of the Bathroom" page and start bringing in any rabbit showing any cage depression signs to live here in our bathroom to be socialized before adoption. I will e-mail Jim, our wonderful web-page designer, about it to see if he can make it happen. We are happy to see Billy blooming, and hope to do the same for Parsley and then Oreo afterwards. They are wonderful rabbits that really need the attention.

Please, keep those Cell Phones and Ink Cartridges coming (Thanks again for the drop off last week Christine!) and asking around your children's schools or your offices for them. They will do us good.

The Rescue of Storm

I caught a bunny today under a tree in Stratford after getting a phone call from Linda that someone had called her, I was the closer one. I ran up there at 2:00 since they said they could see him (the kids I nanny for start coming home around 3:00 so it had to be quick), and said it looked like he only had one eye. Stratford AC had been out there a few days before and couldn't catch him. I found a break in the branches under the tree, put my knees in the mud, and pulled him out. He seemed defeated, like he was just ready to take whatever came next. He has a deep laceration in his right eye and will be getting Boric Acid eye rinses and triple eye antibiotic until his appointment with Dr. P on Wednesday. He isn't really eating, I gave him some fluids and critical care, but I'm concerned even though there were some small poops in the cage. We named him Storm, as it was a very gray day out and he was soaked from the rain. Water poured off the top of his head when I picked him up. Poor little guy. He is eating some soaked lettuce this evening.

The Arrival of Bubba

Thursday night a girl came by, Julie, and dropped off her bunny that she proclaimed to love so much. She works with Ali and has been pestering her for info on her bunny and finding a home for her bunny for weeks and weeks now. Because it's Ali, I went ahead and arranged drop off from this person, a twit, in my opinion, I might add. She had no true love for her rabbit. The little 2lb rabbit named "Bubba" was dropped off with severe dermatitis around his eyes, a piece of his nose hanging off, and a protruding scabbing over anus. The culprit we believe, the Christmas Tree. Ali told her repeatedly to keep her bunny away from the tree, and the girl never paid attention once, but kept complaining to Ali at work about her bunny sneezing and asking what she should do. This poor little guy was living under the tree, probably drinking the tree water, and eating the tree. He has severe contact allergies. I took him to Dr. P the next morning and he needs topicals for 2 weeks and had to have a shot of steroids to bring down the severe swelling around his nasal passages. It beats the heck out of me how that falls under the heading of "love." He is doing really well now, and I am waiting for her to take care of the $80.75 bill. She said she would cover up to $150.00 of it, but no more because she just had her car fixed, and basically since she dropped the rabbit off it was no longer her problem. She left the house without saying goodbye to me or her "beloved" bunny, and no "I'm sorry" or "thank-you" or anything. Coward.

Poor Willow and nature takes its course

From Linda:
I am happy to tell you that after being examined today by Dr Cronin - Hendrix was pronounced healthy and has returned to his new parents! We sent along antibiotics just in case he starts sneezing down the road a bit. But for now it appears he is fine. So say a prayer that he stays that way!

We also got the necropsy results on Willow. Apparently Willow had very severe lung damage back from the time period when she had all the abscess problems. She had several internal abscesses on the lungs that we had not known about. Her lungs were very badly scarred. One was totally useless and shrunken and the other had only partial function. She had chronic pneumonia apparently for many months. The twice a week antibiotic shots held it from advancing for a while but apparently the remaining lung abscessed and we think the abscess combined with all her other problems was too much for her. I was told it is amazing that she was with us for as long as she was. She was far sicker than any of us realized. Her chest x-rays didn't show how very badly damaged her lungs were. She was a tough lady. She fought hard to stay around and I do believe we all gave her an extra 9 month of happy time on this earth. I do so wish it could have been longer but I think we should all feel good that Willow got to know what being loved was like before she died. She learned about being well fed, warm in the winter and cool in the summer. She know love and hugs and the joy of binkies. And finally though it was only for a few short weeks she got to live in a home as part of a family. I'm so glad she came inside when she did. She had a couple of weeks that were free roam in the upstairs bathroom and she did enjoy that! Now I hope she is watching us from the Rainbow Bridge.

When I went to check on the bunnies this morning, Shaylah had tossed two of her babies from the nest. They were cold, but alive. I placed them gently back into the nest surrounded by their siblings to keep them warm, and then went to work. Sadly, when I returned home, 3 had passed away. 2 looked to be the ones from this morning. They all still have their eyes closed and are starting to get their fur coloring. I guess there was either something wrong with them, or she felt she couldn't care for all 9. We will never know, and nature takes over and we do not understand why. I, a long with others, was very deeply saddened. The other 6 appear to be continuing on their road of life. They were all warm when I checked both times today.

I had Chris, my husband, take in our cockatiel Jack yesterday to see Dr. P. We were given antibiotics, a prescription for cream (Thermazene) for his chest wound (self-inflicted) and a whole list of foods that you can feed them that is way better than seeds/pellets like macaroni, cereals, fruits and veggies, even occasional hot-dogs! I was dumbfounded, so I guess I will begin knowing a lot more about birds now than I ever thought. All 5 of our birds had breakfast with me on the kitchen table. It was quite messy, but enjoyable! Our lab-mix we adopted from the HS is showing signs of illness as well, over a year later. He is drinking a lot, becoming a slight bit incontinent, he regurgitated a couple of times just starting today, and his soft-pallet seems to be slipping quite a bit. He was 8-10 when we got him, though our first vet thought he may be older. We have an appointment for all 3 to go to the vet this coming week. Things are crazy here, as always, but maybe that's just the way it's meant to be.