Rescue Round-Up July 2013

Well here we are at the end of another month. And what a long one, or at least so it has seemed.

The weather has been punishing - several weeks of sweltering heat, which is great for anyone hitting the beach, not so much for bunnies laying around in a coat of fur or people hard at work sweeping poo! We got through it with the fans on maximum and lots of ice lollies and cold glasses of water, but we are totally looking forward to a cooler August (we hope)!

Several of the team attended the RWAF conference this month which for the second year running was held locally to us at the Wood Green animal shelter's Godmanchester centre.  Always good to brush up on the knowledge and skills, it was a great and very informative conference.

Our events team has continued to be busy, with more awareness-raising events around the local counties, including pet shops and this month even our local village fete.

We also had a first birthday of sorts - the one year anniversary of being an officially registered charity! No time to party though, maybe next year!

The month has been a bit of a challenge in terms of the workload.  As we hit summer, volunteer numbers seemed to go down - peoples lives are changing, some went on holiday, our teenage volunteers come to the end of their school year and some are off hunting for full time jobs.  But as the number of volunteers goes down, so the number of rabbits goes up this time of year as past residents come to stay with us while their families go on holiday.  Fortunately we have a dedicated core team who are willing to step in to help out, with extra evenings, weekends or taking holidays from their regular jobs, and of course Super-Caroline with her never-ending pool of spirit and dedication (and energy drinks!). So much sweeping...

Having such a large number of rabbits with us waiting for new homes, statistically we will almost always have to face some sadness.

Kirk

We were very surprised to lose Kirk early in the month, a young and seemingly hardy bunny, was overtaken very quickly by respiratory problems.  This loss was also very sad for Mars, as this was the second of her partners to fall ill this way having lost her dearest Dexter late last year.  In contrast to sweet, quiet little Dexter, Kirk was a bold and friendly in-your-face bunny who was very lively and had brought on Mars' confidence with people in leaps and bounds. It is very sad that he never got to have the perfect forever home with his own family that he so deserved. We will miss you Kirk.

Our most recent tragedy was extremely heart-breaking.  One of Azula's litter of 8, just weeks old, found dehydrated, off-colour and off food Saturday morning.  Despite treatment and fluids Saturday, by Sunday had gotten worse so she was rushed to the emergency vets but there was nothing they could do for her.  So young, and with so many babies arriving at the Rescue recently, we hadn't even given her a name yet. So heart breaking. Binky free little one.

Well that was July.  Thank you for following along on our journey.