What is Wrong With You

Everyone in rescue at some point has thought about the owners who leave behind their animals, and thought, "What is wrong with you?" Well, yesterday was a hat trick. We had three new arrivals leaving me asking the same thing.

This is Donald (the big fuzzball) and his presumed son, 2-month-old Dexter. Both of them are super cute, and very skittish. But then I can't really blame them, seeing as they were left at a bus stop. In November. Who leaves any animal at a bus stop, much less a baby?

We also got a transfer from Scarborough of 14 dwarf hamsters. Yup, fourteen! Someone surrendered them to Scarborough last week: a mom with seven newborns, and six older dwarves whom we suspect to be her previous litter. I understand accidental pregnancies happen all the time, especially with pet store animals. Still. Two litters? Learn to sex your animals, people!

The babies are about 14 days old, but still a bit too young for shelter life, so they're staying with me for the next two weeks. The upside is that they'll all sweet and remarkably gentle, except for the mom. In my experience, dwarf hamster moms are always nasty when they have little ones, and who can blame them? She's had to deal with raising her kids while being brought to a shelter, kept in a shelter, transported to another shelter and then moved to a foster home. It's a tough life.

But this is what really burned me yesterday.  We got two new rabbits  from an owner surrender. Bugsy (in the photo) is seven years old. That is an old rabbit. He may only have a few more years in him. He is an affectionate, gentle boy, moves a little slower than most of our others, and is utterly confused by the shelter. And why did his owner give him up? Her new roommate owned cats, and didn't want rabbits because that would be 'too many pets'.

So she gave them up, just like that. Not only her old boy, but her younger boy too. This is Spirit, who is five years old. He came in with the name Precious, which is ironic, because clearly these two were not precious at all to their owner.

Spirit is one of the most loving rabbits I've met. As soon as you touch him, he starts to tooth-purr, grinding his teeth lightly and happily. He pushes his face under your hand to get attention and just melts once you start to pet him. He reminds me a lot of my boy Giles, actually. He just needs people to love him.

Bugsy, on the other hand, just looks sad. He's very sweet, but he is confused and scared in the shelter, and he just seemed depressed.
We almost never get older rabbits at the shelter. Usually we get young rabbits that were bought on a whim, or that grew up and stopped being cute. Who gives up a 5-year-old and a 7-year-old? And to a public shelter?
What is wrong with people?