Transfer Central

In my completely unbiased opinion, TAS South is one of the best, if not the best, shelters in the city for small animals. We move them out quickly, so we often find ourselves taking in small animals from the other TAS locations.
Annabelle was surrendered to the North York shelter with two babies. When they were old enough, the whole family became available for adoption. Annabelle and her two kids arrived at South last Monday.
Cinnamon is one of Annabelle's kids. A quiet little girl, she's a bit shy but really darling. She's at Petsmart and I bet she'll be gone by the end of the week.
Cocoa, her sister, is a ball of bouncing energy. She's at Petsmart with Cinnamon - I sort of hope they go together, they make a cute couple.
Then yesterday, the Scarborough location transferred two female rabbits to us. Sweet Pea here was a total grouch while I was taking her photo, grunting at everything including the camera. She wasn't aggressive in any way, just irritable, but I have to wonder if her name was meant ironically.
Friday is the other girl from Scarborough. Isn't she adorable? I love rabbits with faces like that - they look like wild hares, and they're all wiry and have such interesting personalities. Friday was quite scared to be in a new place, but very sweet.
And finally, seven dwarf hamsters were transferred to us from North on Monday. It's a litter, and thankfully the males and females were separate so no chance of pregnancy. There's a pair of females (Happy and Bashful), a pair of males (Doc and Sneezy) and a group of three males (Dopey seen below, Grumpy and Sleepy, above).
A friend of mine at the shelter joked that if we didn't get rabbits from the other locations, we'd be empty. It's an exaggeration, but not by much! I have to say I'm rather proud that we can step up to help the other shelters - it means we're doing something right with our small animals.

Holiday Cheer

The holidays are for feel-good stories and happiness, right? So let's have an extravaganza of updates! I have so many piling up in my inbox, it's great. Here we go:
That's our girl Coraline in her new home! She is bonded with their other bunny, Boxer (who was adopted from Rabbit Rescue). I've gotten a couple of great updates from her new family:
The bonding went very well and Boxer and Coraline are getting along famously...not to mention also being spoiled (as any pet should be).
Coraline continues to thrive and show us new things she has learned each day. I must admit I never thought I would find myself having to out think a bunny! Furthermore, the affection that she and Boxer clearly share for each other is heart warming.
Yesterday I even saw them 'sharing' a brussel sprout. They were sitting about 6" apart with the sprout between them. One would take a munch out of it which would result in it rolling to the other who would then take a much and it would roll back. The bunny equivalent of Lady and Tramp sharing a strand of spaghetti!
Thanks again for taking such good care of Coraline (as well as the other animals that come your way).

I'm so glad she found such a great home after all she went through. And check out her living quarters! Penning is such a wonderful alternative to caging, Boxer and Coraline clearly have it made:
Continuing the hoarder theme, I also have an update on Sherlock! To refresh your memory, Sherlock was a very scared little guy who was probably the father of Coraline's babies.
Sherlock is doing great. He was shy at first but he's really gotten out of his shell. He's even started eating from my hand! He loves hopping around and is very fast. He loves his bed nest but is not too fond of carrots. He loves jumping on piles of stuffed toys and putting his toys in his water dish. He is a silly rabbit that I have come to love.
He loves listening to tv shows and music - he jumps on top of his wooden house and lies down with his legs out just listening (very cute!). He has a lovely personality and I am very happy I was able to take him home. And one more thing - he seems to listen to us more when we call him Sir Sherlock than Sherlock.
And how about an update on Swiffer & Sparkles, who were dumped so coldly by that woman? They've found a great home:
For weeks I looked at the picture of Swiffer on the website, then a new one came out and I was smitten, by both of them. I had a number of commitments and I didn't have the time to spend with a new pet, so I crossed my fingers and waited. December came and the girls were moved into the Pet Valu store; I became kind of frantic worrying that someone else would get them. I realized that I already thought of them as my own. On December 7, the second I finished work I booted it to King & Duffering (after picking up some fresh parsley). They were there waiting for me.
I remember after getting home holding them both, one in each hand, they snuffled into my neck and I got stereo singing. It was like nothing else. I love them both so much.
They have had a name change - Sparkles is now Manuela and Swiffer is Burnadette. The names are from a BBC show called Black Books. Manny is still very skittish, but is so sweet. Burn is always the first to come out of the house to check things out, getting first dibs on veggies.
Thanks for taking care of my girls until they could come home.

Isn't that great? Those girls are really going to be appreciated now.
I have some more updates, including a really super one on a very woolly rabbit who was adopted before he was even posted on here, but I'm running out of room so I'll have to save them for another post! But to round out this good news post, how about some awesome recent adoptions?
The wonderful Mr Lewis, who had been waiting three long months, was adopted just before Christmas! His awesome new family already had three TAS rabbits at home. They had adopted Pongo and Ariel from us before, and apparently those two have become a bonded pair! It was great to hear how they were doing - Lewis is going to be a spoiled boy.
Winnie the guinea pig, Dottie the rabbit and the four dwarf hamster girls (Comet, Blitzen, Prancer and Dancer) were all adopted in the last week, but most importantly:
Bellatrix has been adopted!!
She was adopted right before Christmas. And do you know what that means? Six months after that hoarder dumped an avalanche of small animals on us, it's over. Some went to Rabbit Rescue, some had to be euthanized, and two died despite our best efforts, but all TWENTY-SIX of the adoptable ones have now found homes!
And that is a pretty good Christmas present.
Happy Holidays!

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Merry Christmas from TAS South! That's one of our staff, Nicola, grinning because the shelter was closing early and everyone got to go home! And that's our donation tree - all that stuff cluttering up the bottom are donations from people feeling especially generous this holiday season. By the way - last count, we sold at least 15 of my cards ($60!).
We had a very elaborate set-up for this holiday shoot - seriously, they are quickly getting out of control. It's just so much fun! If you squint, you can see Luna in the middle there.
I very earnestly suggest that you click on the photos to look at the larger version, because they look so much better.
We had fake Christmas lights, which were a favourite of Rudolph the dwarf hamster (don't worry, he couldn't really eat them). All four of Rudolph's daughters have been adopted in the past week!
His son Donner preferred the Santa hat and pinecone decorations.
Marbles also liked the pinecones, although what she really wanted was to chew the fake candy cane behind them.
Ebony preferred the little Christmas tree, probably because she found a healthy, tasty present waiting for her! Hey, sometimes it takes bribery to get these photos.
Juliet posed very nicely, don't you think? Romeo wanted absolutely nothing to do with the photoshoot, and scolded me very loudly when I took Juliet.
On to the rabbits! Elf did not especially like his "Jingle collar" but doesn't he look dashing?
This may be my crowning achievement. This is Annabelle, who was just transferred to us from North. And she is wearing an elf hat, complete with fake elf ears. And it actually stayed on.
These two are also new, sisters only a few months old. Cute as buttons and completely insane - in other words, completely normal teenage bunnies!
Cocoa, the more adventurous of the two, really loved the fake poinsetta. (Look at the ears! Such lovable ears!)
Cinnamon is the quieter of the two. Hey, how many days is it until Christmas?
Jingle is another new one, the most laid-back rabbit I've ever seen and a perfect little Dutch. Hey, I think it might be less than one day until Christmas now!

I'm sitting here with a cockatiel sleeping on my chest and a rabbit sprawled at my feet. I hope your Christmas Eve is just as sweet!

Edited to add: Haha, I just went back to look and realized that I used the same title last Christmas Eve. It's a classic!

Deserving Something Better

Two days ago, one of the TAS drivers picked up a rabbit. She had been left overnight in front of a hair salon, in a cardboard box with rotten food.
It was immediately obvious that she wasn't in very good shape. Her coat was dirty and clumpy and flaked with dandruff, her ears were filled with wax and she was having trouble walking.
We named her Noelle, because we decided that all new animals up until Christmas have to have holiday-themed names. Noelle is a beautiful dark silver Rex. She has a typical Rex look, but she has nice furry ears instead of the fuzzy ears Rexes usually have.
Someone treated this rabbit like trash. She was kept in some cage that has left her feet fairly ruined. Her nails had grown so long that even when we cut them back to the quick, they are still long and curled, but we can't trim them any more without making her bleed. We'll have to give the quick time to recede and keep clipping them. There are sores on the pads of all four of her feet, and she is clearly uncomfortable putting weight on them.
She has dry, irritated skin and a terrible coat. She's clearly itchy and she shuffles along as she walks, rather than hopping. But she does have a bright, eager attitude - she's been inhaling food since she arrived, and she loves to be stroked (and scratched!). The vet checked her over and determined that there doesn't seem to be anything broken. It seems that her trouble walking comes from the damage to her legs from whatever terrible cage she was in, and time will have to tell if that damage can be reversed or improved.
I took her home to foster her. The vet agreed that good nutrition is going to make a huge difference to her health. We are going to give her the best diet possible, and I think a week or two of constant hay, high-quality pellets and fresh greens will clear up her skin, her fur and her general wellness. We will work on getting her nails back to a healthy length, and we'll have to see how much that affects her ability to walk, because that could be a big part of her limping.
Otherwise, it's going to have to be wait and see. She'll have good nutrition, grooming if needed and soft bedding for the next couple of weeks. As the sores on her feet heal, her general health improves and her nails go back to proper length, we will have to see if her ability to walk improves. And if it doesn't? We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Noelle is a sweet rabbit. She deserved to live in a good home with good people, not to be neglected completely and then thrown out like garbage.
She's safe now. She'll have a wonderful Christmas and get spoiled rotten as long as she's at our house. And we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed that her ability to walk improves.

Doppelgangers

For any fans of the show 'How I Met Your Mother', doppelganger is a very familiar term. I felt like I had inadvertently stumbled on a crowd of doppelgangers this week, as a bunch of look-alikes showed up in the Room.
First, my beautiful girl Munchkin finally found a home of her own! Now all of Coraline's family have been adopted! She was adopted by real rabbit people, who have a neutered male at home and hope to bond them. The woman was very knowledgeable and didn't mind Munchkin's grumpy little personality at all!
Literally the next day, this little guy was found running around a busy intersection. Yeah, that's a different rabbit. His name is now Elf and his personality is totally different than Munchkin's - he loves to lick fingers and he's very pushy about attention. Elf is now in Munchkin's cage and I've called him Munchkin about a million times. He's a lighter shade and has a heavier build, but he has her face almost exactly.
Then this sweet girl was transferred to the Room from our North York shelter. Dottie has been waiting two months and hopefully she'll get more attention at our shelter. She is a stunningly gorgeous rabbit - which naturally made me think of my boy Magic.
That's my little boy Magic up there. The markings aren't the same at all, but the 'style' is the same, with that striking black and white contrast. Dottie has the same mannerisms as Magic, but the craziest thing is that they have the same eyes. The exact same shade of blue, the same look in them.
Then we have Noelle, an older Rex who arrived the same day as Elf and has an absolutely horrid story to tell, which I'll write about tomorrow. Noelle has just totally captured my heart, and I have to admit that's partially because she's a complete clone of my older boy Giles.
I couldn't find the best photo to show it off, but they are identical. They have the same coloured fur, the same chunky body, the same box-shaped head. Their faces are completely the same. They have the same disgruntled, I-like-being-petted-but-I'm-going-to-act-annoyed attitude. The only noticeable differences are the ears and the fact that she's a Rex.
A lot of people think rabbits mostly look the same, but once you're comfortable with them, each one has a very distinct face. It blew me away to find three sets of 'twins' in one week!
Meanwhile, the Room has been a whirlwind of activity lately, mostly in a good way. We found little Dancer (above), the escaped dwarf baby! One of the dwarf pairs, Comet & Prancer, was adopted to an absolutely wonderful home. Tapioca was also adopted, amazingly! Bogart the Rex was sent to Rabbit Rescue, and Bellatrix and Shade have been sent to Pet Valu to hopefully find homes of their own.
And one final shot of doppelganger-ism...I was moving cages around and Luna and Marble ended up beside each other. Wow, they look alike! It looks like there's a mirror (a dirty, plastic mirror) there!

Christmas is Coming!

And boy, are we ever busy! TAS is doing an awesome Christmas campaign this year, called 'The 12 Strays of Christmas'. Three animals were picked from each of the four shelters and put on the website with adorable little write-ups. If there's one area where I always feel TAS is too lax, it's advertising, but they're really pushing this campaign. It's on the radio, it's everywhere, it's great! For our shelter, we have two cats, Cinnamon and Barton. Barton miraculously - and I mean miraculously - got adopted before the campaign ever started.
And I'm very proud to say that we have a rabbit as one of our animals - Mr Lewis himself! That is not his official photo, it's just a result of me torturing him (he's such a good sport, that boy!) while warming up for the big Christmas photoshoot. It's going to be massive, people. I've been buying out the dollar stores.
Back to the campaign - I'm astonished a rabbit was even included and I think it reflects really well on the consideration TAS South gives our small animals, so woohoo! I was actually contacted by a higher-up at TAS to post the 12 Strays on our Facebook page, so you can go read their stories there, day by day. I'm thrilled to say that besides Barton, three others have already been adopted!
I've been wanting to do something fundraiser-y with my photos for a long time. I mean, I have hundreds of photos of TAS animals just sitting on my computer. So for the holidays, I made them into Christmas cards! Each one has one of my favourite shelter photos, and a little write-up inside about the animal - each card features an animal who was adopted from our shelter in the last year. And they're actually selling! We've sold 7 so far, at $4 a piece. That's $28! Not a huge amount or anything, but I'm just excited that people want them. Pretty cool!
And finally, in Christmas-y news, Bunspace has a great campaign where they send bags of treats and toys to shelters who sign up to receive them. I signed up (of course!), and they sent me a note saying they were in the mail December 1st. I was a little worried that they never showed up, but yesterday they finally arrived! It turned out the box had gotten lost (and also pretty crushed - thanks Canada Post!).
These things are great. Each one has a toilet paper roll stuffed with hay, a vine ball (Munchkin loved that), a willow ring, a beautiful wood-and-rope toy that Lewis and Ash just went nuts over, a bunch of treats and more stuff I can't remember. They are just wonderful! We don't have as many rabbits now as we did when I ordered them (and each bag is so full), so we'll be able to spread them across the holidays, making sure each rabbit who comes in will get some. HUGE thanks to the volunteers of Bunspace!
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The Come-to-Jesus Moment

I often say that you can never judge a rabbit's personality when it's in the cage. And I believe that firmly. Many rabbits act completely differently when they're in the cage, due to territory issues or wanting-to-get-out issues or just simple stress. Being able to run and jump makes a huge, huge difference to a rabbit's attitude.
But you know, when you're actually faced with a snarly little jerk-in-a-cage it can be hard to practice what you preach. Tapioca arrived stressed at the shelter and like many animals, went into a steady downward spiral with every passing day. Her attitude in the cage can be summed up in the photo above. Hunchbacked, growling, lunging and generally furious at the world. If you tried to pick her up, you got snarled at and probably kicked in the face.
Now logically, that is not her fault. But illogically, when you get kicked every day by this grumpy little twit, you get pretty grumpy yourself. However, she's in the Room and therefore I consider her at least partially my responsibility. So the other day I knelt in front of her cage and looked her in the eye. We had the following conversation:

Me: "Ok, that is IT, you are coming out of that cage today!"
Tapioca: * sitting in the corner with malice in her eyes*
Me: "You don't scare me, rabbit. I'm doing this."
* I reach in to grab her*
Tapioca: *GRUNT GRUNT KICK*
Me: "No, no, you are coming out right now!"
* Ensuing struggle with kicks and grunts and growls and cursing*

Yes, I know, I could've gone about that better. But in the end, I picked her up and dumped her on the table and we sat there glaring at one another.
And then she nudged me. Not a "I'm-going-to-kill-you" nudge, a "Please-pet-me" nudge.
To my utter astonishment, she turned into a total cuddler. She jumped on my lap and just lay against my chest while I played with her ears, tooth-purring contentedly.
I kind of fell in love with her. What a sweetheart! I must have taken about 100 photos of her, she posed so nicely. All she wanted was to be pet and scratched. She tooth-purred almost the entire time she was out.
Now, that's not that weird. As I said, lots of rabbits have totally different personalities outside the cage. The weird part happened the next day. When I arrived in the Room, she immediately ran to the side of the cage and stuck her nose out. She let me rub her nose through the bars - without even a grunt! And she's done it every time I go to visit.
Here we were, thinking she's a territorial nightmare lunatic, when really she just wanted attention. I mean, she's still a little territorial but nowhere near as bad as before. Maybe she came from a loving home and is used to attention all the time? Whatever it was, it was a real breakthrough.
People think rabbit personalities are simple, but they're not. It's like any animal, or any person - they can be complicated and they're not always what they appear.