News from Abroad

I know I haven't been posting over the past few days, but I haven't gone missing again - I think I have a pretty good excuse.

I'm in Iceland!
I will be back in a few days however, and will resume posting. I have some exciting news to share, plus an adopt-a-thon is coming up and according to the website, a bunch of new animals have shown up since I left. And I'm afraid I'm going to have to share some non-rescue-related photos of Iceland, because it is a breathtakingly gorgeous country.
I just wanted to make a quick post to share some cheerful news:

Freckles, Fiddlesticks and Ghost have all been adopted since my last post! Fiddlesticks and Freckles went to great homes. I was not at all confident about Ghost's adopter, but the truth is, not every home can be perfect, and I just hope that his adopter becomes a little more educated about rabbits and gives Ghost a good home.

Even better, Snickers finally got adopted! Poor girl waited five whole months to get a home for some reason, but she has finally found a family of her own. Her new owners are bunny-experienced and are in the process of bonding her with their neutered male. Go Snickers!

So that's four less rabbits! And, Amethyst, Topaz, Spice and Almond were all transferred to Pet Values in Scarborough, so even with some new additions, we are approaching a normal number of bunnies (knock on wood).

See you (Internet-wise) in a few days!

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We were at the shelter yesterday to do a Thanksgiving shoot but ended up having to do website photos instead. Ah well! Instead we used our two remaining foster babies, Emerald (above) and Silver.

These are the last two left at our house, but we don't really mind - they quite enjoy each others' company and seem happy enough to be left alone until there's room at the shelter.

So, I hope everyone's had a nice Thanksgiving so far! What are you thankful for?
I am lucky enough to be thankful for many, many things. I'm thankful for my incredible mother, my wonderfully eccentric dad, my grandmothers, and the rest of my family. I'm thankful for our landlord, who never seems to care about our revolving door of fosters. I'm thankful that I get to attend the University of Toronto and follow my passion for science, and that I can tutor to earn money, a job I truly love with clients I really care about. I'm thankful I could continue music outside high school, and that I have the shelter and a cause that gives my actions, however small, some meaning.
But this is a blog about animal rescue, not about saccharine Thanksgiving speeches. So what else am I thankful for? My animal family, of course.

I'm thankful that Jamie, one of my old men hamsters, is still as playful as he was when he was a baby. I cleaned his cage today and despite being beyond senior, he still had to explore every inch and chew on every toy.

 

I'm thankful that Ollie, my other old man, is still kicking. He was having trouble breathing the other day and I thought for sure that his time had come (he and Jamie are, after all, over two years old) - but today he's running around without a squeak. I'm glad he and Jamie still have each other, and that my first foster babies have been able to enjoy their full lifespan (for dwarf hamsters).

I'm thankful that Captain Jack is living with us, safe forever from the hoarder where he was born.

I'm thankful that Estel survived against all odds and is now a healthy, social, fluffy boy.

 I'm thankful for my sweet boy Giles, who is always grumpy about everything except his humans and has the softest fur you will ever find on a bunny. Oh yes - and for the kind dog-owner who rescued my boy from a dog park, way back when he was first brought to the shelter!

 I'm thankful for my baby Neville, whom I will always think of as a baby despite the fact that he's over a year old now, and whom I will always spoil outrageously - he is doomed to be a mamma's boy for the rest of his life.

I'm thankful my boys are both happy and get room to explore and run and jump, and (too many) treats and regular vet care and lots of love. I do wish they'd always get along like in the photo instead of being completely stu- wait, this is supposed to be the positive things about them. Never mind.

I'm thankful my birdies get along so well and I don't have to worry about them fighting, even if sometimes they get along too well and start laying eggs everywhere.

 

I'm thankful for our lord and master Bailey, and I am very thankful that I am the one person to whom he actually listens.

I am so very thankful for my beautiful girl Loki, who was my first bird and the most loving, cuddly cockatiel anyone could ask for, and who has been with me for 8 years.

So, who are you thankful for, animal-wise, this Thanksgiving?

Hope you all have a wonderful long weekend!

Experimental

I knew it was going to be difficult to get the babies into the shelter. There were so many of them, it was going to take forever for enough space to open up for each of them individually. So I decided to ask if we could try something different.

We have this big window room downstairs in the shelter, across from the front desk. Other than that window, all of the animals are upstairs.
Normally, we have a litter of kittens in the window, but even though it's a fantastic little room, no one ever looks in there! I don't know why, but nobody ever stops to look in that window, they just go straight upstairs. Kittens enjoy themselves in there but they take ages to get adopted.
My idea was to put Circe's litter in the window when they were old enough. I would work to make sure they were litter-trained at home, we wouldn't have to worry about space in the Room, and hopefully the oddness of having rabbits in the window would make people stop and look.

 About a week ago, I brought Achilles, Zeus, Hercules and Circe in to give them the run of the window. I opened the carrier and let them take their time coming out. We had some worries they'd be too stressed in the wide open space. Unsurprisingly, Achilles was the first one to venture out.

Hercules soon followed him, and the two little ring-leaders were soon have a lovely time galloping around the room and exploring. Unsurprisingly, their mother and brother were a little less confident:

Those two are such wimps. Eventually Circe was drawn out by the promise of greens, but her littlest son was still too timid. Zeus was especially frightened of the slippery floor, as he couldn't get a good grip with his feet.

He ended up sitting like this for about half an hour, while everyone else explored and had a great time. What a goof. Finally I put a little rug in front of him so he could get traction, and he at last came out to explore with his family.

We tried to give them lots of places to hide, and lots of things to chew so that they didn't chew the caulking on the window. There were boxes, wooden arches, cardboard coffee trays and about a million paper towel rolls. (I love the twins Achilles and Zeus back there in that photo, they really do look alike)

We also left the carrier in order to give them a safe hiding place, although they didn't end up using it at all. They did thoroughly enjoy jumping on top of it for a better view, and even taking naps on top.

Once they'd made their way out of the carrier, the whole family seemed to thoroughly enjoy the window. They didn't hide or show obvious stress behaviour, and they explored every inch, doing binkies and happy dances all over the place. The kids certainly liked it more than their mom, but Circe didn't seem to mind the extra space.

It wasn't a perfect experiment. Their litter-training, which was so wonderfully perfect at home and a point of pride for me, seemed to be rather forgotten in the big room. They weren't terrible but they weren't perfect, and it gave the staff more work to clean up. On the other hand, they've improved with time and it's not really that messy. I don't know if we'll ever do it again, but I'm glad we gave it a try. It also left more room in the Room, which was very necessary.

The best news of all, however, is that two of the family were adopted the other day! I don't know if it's really because they were in the window, as this couple looked around quite thoroughly for a bunny, but it can't have hurt. Anyway, Achilles and his brother Hercules were adopted together! They were adopted to a wonderful, bunny-experienced couple (who, funny enough, were related to the awesome people who adopted Emma a year ago).We needed that adoption so much, and I'm so glad the boys went together. I hope they continue to get along fabulously as they grow up!

Of course, the way the Room is going lately, the ebb is always less than the flow. Three new rabbits have joined our adoption room. Ah well.

Pushed to the Limit

We have too many rabbits.
In my three years at TAS, I've never seen us have so many rabbits. Right now, we have no other animals in the Room or Pet Valu - just bunnies. And that's the worst, because rabbits are slow adoptions; they don't get adopted en masse like hamsters.

It's not even just from the litters that are coming of age. It certainly didn't help that we had to deal with 12 babies from the condo hoarder, or that we found 7 babies under a porch. But even without that added pressure, rabbits have been pouring in, a steady stream of strays and owner surrenders. The staff are already overwhelmed, especially as we've had some sick dogs recently and an insane amount of cats, and it feels like the place is at a boiling point. What is this? Summer is over. It's supposed to be calming down, not spiralling out of control. I am generally an optomistic, look-on-the-bright-side-despite-the-stupid-people person, but lately every time I see a new rabbit I just want to scream!

Here's our line-up currently in the Room (not counting Snickers at Pet Uno or Cashew at Pet Valu, or Silver and Emerald still waiting in foster). Know anyone looking for a rabbit? Feel free to share - with 18 rabbits, we're just a little desperate for homes.

Almond is one of our hoarder babies (from Pistachio's litter). She's super squirmy about being held and a little shy, but very affectionate. She also has just gorgeous colouring.

 Amethyst is also a hoarder baby, from Ruby's litter. She is so outgoing and loving! She adores attention and will do anything to get a good rub on the head.

Topaz (as you can probably tell) is Amethyst's brother. Strong resemblance in this family! He's a little quieter, certainly less active, but he too loves people and will lie right down if you stroke his forehead.

Freckles is a 6-mos-old lop brought in as a "stray". She is SUPER energetic and nosy, needs a space to run, and loves people!

Ghost was left behind in an apartment when his owner moved out (charming!). He is a very handsome boy, very confident and craves attention. Unfortunately he managed to injure his ear recently, but he's now healing well and waiting for that unsightly wound to go away.

Circe, the mom of the porch litter, is quite timid, especially around strangers. She does warm up to you over time and is super, super gentle. Just a little scared. She deserves a proper home after all she's been through.

Achilles is one of Circe's sons, and you'd never guess he was found under a porch at 1 week old. He is the troublemaker in his family, always sticking his nose where it doesn't belong! He is super curious about everything, not timid at all and he loves, loves, loves people.

Hercules is another one of Circe's sons. This beautiful guy may look plain black in the photo, but he has subtle silver flecking across his ears, rump and belly. It's pretty neat. Herc loves people and he is usually the first to hop onto your lap or run over to say 'hello'. He is very affectionate, and a big explorer who will need space to play.

Zeus is Circe's third son, and he's very attached to his mum. It'd be nice if they went together, although I'm certainly not holding my breath. The runt of the litter, Zeus is the shyest, but he's starting to really come out of his shell. He's a very gentle, timid boy.

Melody is one of our newest arrivals, she's only been at the shelter a few days and hasn't been spayed yet. She's a very cuddly girl, likes people but quite timid in the shelter environment. Her owner gave her up because he was "going on vacation" and didn't want to find a sitter. She's 10 months old.

Sugar arrived with his girlfriend, who is also a Lionhead and thankfully being spayed today. Sugar is just the cutest little ball of fur, look at him. What a face! He's also very sweet and laid-back, doesn't get too excited about anything and seems to like people despite being a little shy.

Spice arrived with Sugar, and she's getting spayed today so she'll be good to go in a few days. She's a sweet girl, a little freaked out by the shelter since she just arrived a few days ago. Like Sugar, she's quite laid back.

 

And finally we have Fiddlesticks, who just arrived yesterday as a "stray". He's a super, super affectionate boy, very in-your-face, pet-me-already kind of personality. He's very gentle and he has lovely markings and blue eyes.

That's thirteen in the Room alone. And there may or may not be more coming in today. So if you know anyone interested in adopting, PLEASE pass on the word - we're drowning in bunnies!