Dappy and Little Snow Rehomed

The RRR volunteers have an online discussion area which is used for disseminating operational information. It is mostly filled with such exciting discussions as:- what needs cleaning tomorrow, how much veg was left after todays breakfast and, more importantly, how much veg is likely to be left for tomorrow after it has been subjected to 'Archimedes tax'.

Occasionally some of the discussions spin off into what funny antics the bunnies have been up to and the like. One such discussion recently started, as some do, "I know we are not supposed to have favourites but...". What quickly became apparent is that there was one particular pair that around half the regular volunteer team had all fallen in love with and wanted to take home. And I will admit, I was one of those people.

But fortunately, for the harmony at home with our own bunnies and long-suffering partners anyway, I am happy to say the temptation to give in to those feelings has been removed. Because the wonderful Dappy and Little Snow have found their forever home as pampered house bunnies! Good luck in your new home guys and make sure to tell your new humans that we are all jealous!

"Aww, really? We were that popular? You should have told us, we would have conned some extra portions of grated carrot out of you lot if we'd known!"

Untreated

"Forget it, it's just some human with a broom."

"Back to bed!"

"In case you can't work it out, this is my disappointed face. If you want to see my happy face, try sweeping quieter and don't wake us again unless there's treats."

The Undeniable Logic of Jinny

I tell you, it doesn't matter how big a portion size you give some of these rabbits...

"You still have food left. I'm still hungry. There's a solution here looking for a problem is all I'm saying."

Hoppy

Once seen, never forgotten. 

When I first started volunteering many years ago, I recall very few of the rabbits but I certainly remember Hoppy, running around the grass areas with not a care in the world that only three legs worked properly and the fourth would spin wildly at his side. Over the years he never stopped, brave and wonderful and inspirational Hoppy, even as the rest of his legs became affected. On his last day, I witnessed him greet me at the door for his food and springboard an impressive height out of the large litter tray. He had a will to live and perseverance that meant we kept him comfortable for a long time, loving him and admiring him.

Many rabbits would falter at half of what life put him through. Many rabbits would be unhappy or give up, but he never did. Of all the rabbits in our care, he truly was the most special and amazing of them all.

Sadly his latest vet visit last week showed the true severity of his joint condition and how far it had developed, to the point where despite his great strength and composure, it was considered to not be in his best interests to allow things to deteriorate further.

With deepest regret, we said goodbye to a dear and much loved boy. Even departed, his memory shall live on in everyone ever touched by him.

And now we really can wish him something he's not been able to do from a young age... binky free, dear Hoppy. Binky free.

If You Chomp Them, They Will Drop Them

"You SAY you're out of treats, but something tells me a quick nip and frisk will prove otherwise..."

White In Flight

Last weekend Amy asked me to take some photos of Denver and Thea, ideally to get a nice one of the two of them together for promoting available pairs during Rabbit Awareness Week. I thought I'd let them outside into one of our grass areas for some good shots of them nomming grass together, but of course they had other ideas...

"Binky Town, population: Me!"

"Oh yeah!"

"Woo hoo!"

"Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Run, Eat, Sleep, Repeat

It's a tough and tiring life, chasing volunteers around begging for food...

... all the time...

The Downside

"You introduced me to him, you let him lick my ear and made me fall in love with him... You didn't tell me he snores!"

Mission: Successful

Sometimes being naughty gets its rewards. Little Naruto decided he didn't want to stay in his hutch while it was being cleaned out and made a break for it. With the clean carriers tied up by the vet run, out on the grass he went.

"Ooh! Nomnomnomnom."

Jackie Ran

With the exception of Pea, Pod and Cosmos, one large problem that we have with our wild rabbits is the fact that they hide away all day and it is hard to tell how much they eat or how much they venture out at all. When Aragon and Jackie had a stint in a Rabbitopia, she spent most of her time hiding at the very top out of sight. After the death of Minty and relocation of her widower Eccles, a unit with a grass area became available and I thought they might be interested in trying it.

Aragon surprised me and ventured around with great happiness at the first opportunity. Jackie surprised me more, as I never expected to see her as I never did with Minty. From the looks of things, she didn't expect to see me either.

It was nice however that being caught in the act didn't put her off on this occasion, despite several mad dashes back into her house. I'm glad she got some time out on the grass, just as a wild rabbit should. I even caught her doing a little binky.

"But what does that woman even want?!"

"Oh, don't mind her, you get used to the nuisance eventually..."

The Grumpypants Diet

There are various rabbits at the rescue who have revised diets, from Bailey B who is not allowed sugary carrots, to Angel who isn't allowed vegetables at all, to Romeo who is practically not allowed anything in case it makes him seriously unwell.

One rabbit who has reluctantly been forced into a new morning nibble arrangement is Mutley, who has had to endure several expensive bladder procedures for accumulating sludge. Not only is he now receiving low calcium bottled water but there is a list of low calcium vegetables that he is allowed to eat. The downside of this is that most of those vegetables are received with some disdain.

"I'll get off my box and start eating my breakfast when you go back to that wheelbarrow and get something that I consider proper breakfast!"

Anouska And Bobbit Adopted

The big news at home this week is that, after more than two years living in my house as foster rabbits, I finally conceded that Anouska and Bobbit are family and formally adopted them.

I tried to get the bunnies excited about it by splitting a celebratory strawberry with them, but as he slowly and begrudgingly ate his bit Bobbit just looked at me all disappointed, then asked why he wasn't getting a carrot stick instead. I think that pretty much sums up our relationship right there. [sigh]

The Ref

"So what you are saying is: hay, grass, carrots, greens, broccoli and parsley ALL grow readily here in the UK, even our sprouts, it turns out, are not actually FROM Brussels, and yet you STILL want to know if I have an opinion on the referendum? What do you think?!"

Jin Doe

We have a bit of a murder mystery on our hands. A fallen rabbit, cut down in its prime.

Our victim:

Name: Jinny

Age: Five years old

Sex: Female

Cause: Unknown

Prime suspect: Her husbun Twizzel, found next to the body. Would not make eye contact.

Motive: ???

"Don't be daft, Twizzel wouldn't hurt a fly... and if he did ever have a grudge against me, it's because I eat all the breakfast."

Tactics

Some rabbits can, when faced with breakfast, be overcome with a sudden shyness. Perhaps they get the suspicion that the food is a bribe, placed there in order for them to be suddenly scooped up and taken off somewhere, like to the V.E.T.S.

So what do you do when you really want that food? Well, obviously you've got to try a little bit of camouflage to blend in with your surroundings...

"Do you think it's working?"

A Cheep Guest

At the Rescue we occasionally come across other forms of wildlife, including various birds such as the notorious robins, one cheeky little thief of a blackbird, red kites overhead and a mob of wrens (one of whom had to be rescued yesterday after managing to get into an aviary and not being smart enough to get back out again). One thing I was not expecting to find inside our fences was this little guy.

None of us had heard or seen a duck at the Rescue at all, much less that day. With no sign of mama duck and no idea about how he would even have got on site, we could only ponder if he'd been dropped by a larger bird. 

One of our volunteers took him to a wildlife centre where he was put with another group of ducklings so he's now going to be well cared for with lots of friends!

Smug

We've had our sad losses lately, but it hasn't all been bad. Following on from the death of Cuba, her poor husbun Mallow became quiet and sad alone, like he'd lost a part of himself. A date was set up and it was practically love at first sight, with one lick apparently turning his eligible widow to mush and causing her to worship every little bit of him. Her grooming became so extensive that one time I witnessed him attempting to wash his front paws while she meaningfully washed them with him.

Ladies and Gentlemen (and buns), the new Mrs Mallow.

"I got myself a new lady within a couple of hours and she snogs me all the time! Beat that!"

One Foot Into Danger

Having a small gap at the bottom of the Special Needs units is helpful when it comes to washing the floors as it creates drainage. As one bunny recently found out though, it is not a good idea to flop so close to the back wall that your foot slips out.

Anyone spot why this was a bad move?

Well, I'll tell you. On the other side of this wall, with the tunnel, is one of our grass enclosures. In this case, it was containing one Mrs Elantha bun, who duly decided to sneak up and have a nibble. The foot's owner set the speed record and many bangs and crashes were heard inside the house.

Didn't stop her from doing it again later though.

Amaru Are You Asleep? Are You?

Clean Licks

"I don't know why you have your head down too, I'm not licking yours clean next! Stoopid human..."

Life's Revolving Door

On the same day that one of my favourites left us forever, another one came back.

Having beaten up her potential suitors at the Warren Bunny Boarding, my dearest Skyla ended up as part of an exchange, allowing Sherman to take her place with a home lined up for him, provided he can court a woman and behave himself.

Having lost her husbun, actively resisted having a second one and then had to endure what turned out to be a three hour journey back to my house, it was not surprising that Skyla wasn't in the best of moods when she arrived.

"Grrrrrrr!"

Elf

Always the highlight of my meds round these last two months has been Elf, the easiest rabbit in the world to medicate and a bundle of laughs. Whenever he knew I was coming he would rush to the door and wait. No matter how many syringes with whatever medicine, he would grab them and play tug of war. What is not to love?

Recently he had been unwell, taking longer than we would have liked to recover, but did eventually stabilise and seemed to be happy and comfortable, if extremely thin. I think he liked the attention really and I liked giving him attention, but the universe had more things up its sleeve. Iain, our vet, believes that Elf may well have had lymphoma and would likely never have recovered. Sadly for us, he left the world by himself last weekend, quite suddenly and unexpectedly. We are glad at least that he seemed to go on a high.

Goodbye, sweet boy.

The Spot

Ever get the feeling you've walked in on a game of Hide and Seek?

"He he he! She'll never find me in here- oh."

One Foot High

Liberty

Imagine you are doing the meds round. You enter one special needs shed and find Liberty, a rabbit with chronic digestive issues. She needs gut medicines to keep her stable and pain-free. You handle her, feeling how boney she is and yet how big her tummy is in comparison. She accepts her medicines well, if slightly reluctantly. You gently release her so she can stomp away but find that she does not- she turns around, follows you to the thresh-hold, puts her paws on the door frame and waits patiently and expectantly. You need to hurry up and deliver her after-med treat.

The Rescue looks after rabbits as long as they have quality of life and Liberty, despite her many troubles, was allowed a severely revised diet and all the medicines she needed for as long as it was ethically right to give them. We knew she was happy enough and comfortable enough. For a long time she even lived in Caroline's house, becoming a firm favourite.

It had become obvious in the last couple of months that Liberty was losing condition and there was nothing further the vets could do for her, as she was on all the drugs it was possible to give. On the 31st May Liberty stopped eating and despite her gut medicines, rehydrating injections from the vet and attempts at syringe feeding there was nothing more to be done and on 2nd June we set her free. 

She leaves behind her beloved other half, Google.

This Episode Directed By Fonzie

"Back a bit, back a bit...THAT'S the spot!"

Chomped Again

So it turns out, Dean usually has his medicines given to him *in* his aviary. He tried to explain this to me quite enthusiastically, through the medium of chomping, while I was carrying him out. Quite frankly, I would have much preferred if he had waited until I put him down and explained it through the medium of dance. He was so grumpy, I got this look and a rejection of his post-medicine consolation snack.

Sorry Dean, I'll know for next time!

Not Gonna Stop

Most of our special needs rabbits at the Rescue right now involve dental problems such as lack of teeth, digestive issues, being EC Positive, or various other little chronic ailments that can be cared for with medicines. Only a few rabbits currently are physically disabled, notibly Hoppy's wild legs and Honour's contorted head and neurological damage.

Our newest rabbit to the world of the physically challenged is Aoura, who was on the cusp of being rehomed when she was suddenly found in her accommodation paralysed in her back legs. Amazingly, she didn't seem bothered by this, racing around on two legs at speed and, once confined for her own good, ate readily, rattled the bars and had a fight with the vet bed. An emergency trip to the vets showed not a spinal injury as we had suspected, but the onset of spondylosis, an incurable condition of the vertebrae that was probably aggravated by a fall or bad landing.

This now means that she's been moved to her own special needs house with her son Mr Tickles, put on hefty painkillers and prevented from doing anything daft. Unfortunately, being daft includes ending her ramble around in the grass area by running headfirst into a 6cm gap between buildings with such enthusiasm that it took some careful extraction to pull her back out. The biggest problem appears to be that Aoura doesn't care and thinks she can simply do what she's always done which is not a bad mindset for a rabbit to have but is certainly not doing her any good!

So, Aoura, are you going to be sensible and take it easy for a while?

"Mmmph?"

This Quiet Corner

It's quiet down the rescue most of the time, especially now my mp3 player has given up the ghost and gone to meet its maker. Unfortunately this means that my strange mind (you don't have to be mad to work here but it helps!) has to find ways to entertain itself. Pandoren FM tunes into such classics as...


"Because I'm Hoppy (clap along if you feel like a room without a roof)..."

No? OK, maybe not then...

How about... 

"Sprocket man! (Burnin' out this fuse up here alone)..."

What? No good either?

OK, one last try...

Wait for it...

"Mallow! Is it me you're looking for?"

"I'd stop right now if I were you..."

Tough crowd...

Noticed At Last

Occasionally when writing up posts one finds a rabbit that has been at the Rescue for years and yet inexplicably has not appeared on the blog. One such rabbit is little Sprocket, husbun of Indiana, who was always a rabbit that I never interacted with much until he caught a lung infection and had to be medicated. Now I've been able to see what a sweet and delicate little boy he really is.

"You keep picking me up... sticking nasty plastic sticks in my mouth and then shutting me in a stinky box for twenty minutes. You think I'm sweet and innocent... I'm just biding my time, human."