Have a Holly Jolly...Boxing Day

Happy Boxing Day everyone!
I had the most ridiculous Christmas, starting with a 5 AM visit to the emergency vet clinic with my boy Giles. Thankfully he is doing much better, but the whole thing made me miss my flight, so the last 24 hours have been a flurry of reorganizing and scheduling. Hence the Christmas post on Boxing Day!

Because I thought I was going to be on a flight on the 25th, I wasn't able to make my annual Christmas Day visit to the shelter. Instead, I went in on Christmas Eve armed with the makings of a bunny feast:

They ended up being spoiled rotten with a ridiculously over-the-top salad o' treats. It was Romaine lettuce and mixed garden greens, with a baby carrot, slice of apple, banana chip and dried cranberries on top, along with a sprinkling of these fancy lavender/chamomile treats.

 The boys approve.

I also made up little Christmas presents for everybody in the room, and left them for the next day. They were paper bags filled with hay, with a few cranberries, banana chips and lavender treats in each one and a toilet paper roll on top.

 

The staff gave everybody one on Christmas and apparently they had a blast playing with them, so hooray!
Sadly, I never had time to do a Christmas shoot this year, but I always like to review who's in the Room over the holidays. So I went a little crazy with Picnik and made a bunch of incredibly cheesy Christmas-themed photos. They're hilariously bad, in my opinion, so enjoy!
Presenting the Room's holiday residents (are you sitting down? It's a loooong list):

Can you believe Cashew's still waiting? He's six months old, for crying out loud. He is a rather strong-minded individual though - I think he intimidates people. But so handsome!

I really can't believe Silver's still waiting, he's a sweetie. He's six months old too! Sheesh.

Emerald and Silver are brothers, but for whatever reason, I have decided Emerald celebrates Hannukah. Happy Hannukah! I'm really sorry there wasn't latke clipart.

Cascade here looks like the leader of the candy cane mafia. It's a little intimidating. I did not mean to insinuate that she is the member of any crime family, I swear.

I love this boy. This is Finn, and he is just such a sweetheart. I was hoping he'd find a home for the holidays, but he's rather unassuming and I think he often goes unnoticed. Hopefully he'll have better luck in the new year!

Marbles looks kind of intimidating too, I just noticed. Maybe he's the leader of the stockings mafia, and he and Cascade are in cahoots.

Sawyer is just the cutest little guy. I think he's rather dashing with a hat on - I'm going to have to try it in real life. This little dude, who hasn't been on the blog yet, was found outside, completely filthy. He sure cleans up nice!

Pancake the rat was rescued from being eaten by a snake when he was a baby, but his near miss doesn't seem to bother him much. He's a sweet boy, and he went absolutely bananas for the Romaine.

Pete arrived in a pair, but he was a bit of a bully to the other pig so now he's on his lonesome. He doesn't really seem to mind, to be honest.

Peaches & Pippa are two of the kids from Popcorn's second litter. They are a packaged pair and make fabulous substitute Rudolphs.

Patches and Penelope are also from Popcorn's second litter, and this photo is just embarassing. I could not get a decent photo of these two together, but everybody else got in this post, so I didn't really think it was fair to leave them out.

Mr Rabbit (the name, I know) always looks a bit uptight but he's actually quite lovely. I spared him the shame of Rudolph noses and Santa hats, and just gave him a cup of cocoa and stuck him in the snow.

Jellybean, who was adopted a few months ago but returned last week, also got a cup of cocoa. The adoption was a bad match and despite the family's best efforts, it was in Jellybean's best interests to try and find her another home. Still, poor girl's not too pleased about being back and I rather wish I could give her an actual cup of cocoa.

I actually kind of love this one, not going to lie. This is Chip, the only boy out of Popcorn's four youngest.

And our last two arrived as a pair, dumped outside the Veterinary Emergency Clinic the week before Christmas. Happy holidays to you too, owners! Moppet is an incredible Lionhead and just gorgeous. She arrived with Snowshoe (below, also gorgeous), but they don't seem particularly bonded so they will probably end up finding separate homes.

Snowshoe reminds me of Alice's looks with Giles' "I'm-going-to-pretend-I'm-a-grump-but-I'm-actually-a-suck" attitude. Obviously, I totally love him.

And that's all! Just, oh, 18 animals. I left out the 6 at various pet stores and the 14 in foster care for everyone's sakes. Man, if you got through that, you deserve a whole plate of holiday cookies.

Happy holidays everyone!

An Abundance of Updates

Sometimes it seems like all I ever say on this blog is "Oh no we have too many animals" - and as true as that may be, it's nice to change things up every once in a while. I had a really depressing post all written and ready to go, and then I thought "It's Christmas in six days, nobody wants to hear that". Besides, I have wonderful updates piling up in my inbox. So let's have a feel-good post!

First, an update on the actual Room. For the first time in ages, we had some rabbit adoptions! I'm pleased to say two of the rabbits from the recent hoarder have been adopted! Raven and Blackjack were adopted right after each other. Otherwise adoptions have been slow (as per usual at holiday time), but senior citizen Bugsy was transferred to rescue, where he will have a much better chance.
Now how about some adopter updates?

 

Sharpie (the black one in the photo) was adopted from us two years ago, just before Christmas 2009. He was known as Shrek at the shelter (haha check out my terrible 2009 photos), and we got a lovely update from his family last year. His family sent this sweet photo last week to show that two years later, he's still doing well! I love getting long-term updates. Obviously Sharpie (and his best friend Sabrina) lucked out with their forever home!

 How cute is this? I got this photo a couple of weeks ago. Clairabel was adopted from an adopt-a-thon at Pet Uno in October. The young girl who adopted her also sent this email:

Hey, I'm the girl who adopted Clairabel the hamster in October! So Clairabel is doing GREAT she loves the home and her new cage, she is adorable. We just figured out she LOVES apples! She loves to play in her wheel and all. She is doing very good and I will for sure send you guys more updates!

Sam (now known as Tayto) was a baby guinea pig adopted from Pet Valu in September. His new mom sent me this fantastic update, along with the beautiful photo above:

My parents got me my first guinea pig when I was three and I've loved them ever since. I have now been keeping guinea pigs as pets for about 24 years and adopting exclusively from rescues and shelters for 5 years. I adopted Sam from TAS at Pet Valu and wanted to update you and share his story. 

 We currently have 4 piggies in all, including Sam. Legend has lived with us for about 4 years now and is the oldest guinea pig in our home. We lost his best friend and cagemate of 4 years to sudden heart failure. When he passed away I found myself questioning whether it might be time to stop adopting new pigs, but I realized fairly quickly that Legend simply couldn't cope with being alone. He sulked, he started being really picky about food, and all he did was lay around the cage. He was clearly sad and missing his friend.

I started looking for a new pig. A week or two later I was taking my lunch break and walked past the Pet Valu on King. In the back, there was a tiny little brown ball of fluff named "Sam". Immediately I thought he was cute (big surprise, I think they're all cute). Abyssinians are my favourite so definitely caught my attention and I watched him for a while. A sales associate came back with a bag of treats and explained that she'd been spoiling him extra that day because he seemed sad, when I asked why she explained that his brother had been adopted out alone and that he hadn't been himself since. Well, that just hit a sore spot and broke my heart a little. By that point I'd already made up my mind. She asked me if I'd like to meet him before leaving and I couldn't refuse. By that point on the rest is history. Any hesitation I'd had about adopting a new guinea pig had just melted away...I knew from the moment I picked him up that I wanted to snuggle him all the rest of his days. 

 We renamed him Tayto and after a few weeks of quarantine he was ready to meet Legend. I wish I could say that their introductions were easy but in reality they were a bit rough. But after a few hours of roughhousing on the kitchen floor they both got tired and decided to make peace. They have been living happily together for almost a month now and Legend has never been more active and social, I guess he is motivated or inspired by all of Tayto's energy. I love Tayto's vibrant personality and I also enjoy how much he likes to snuggle. We're so happy to have found him and so grateful to have him as part of our family. 
Thank you, Toronto Animal Services, for taking him in and for caring for him. Thank you also for all that you do, please keep up the GREAT work. 

What an amazing update! I always worry about babies, as I'm always afraid they're adopted for the cute factor. But obviously Sam/Tayto lucked out!

 And finally, an update on two of Circe's babies! I love getting updates on my foster babies! This wonderful, rabbit-experienced couple adopted Achilles and Hercules together, and the boys are just getting spoiled rotten.   

Hi Laura,

I thought you would like to know how Hercules and Achilles are doing. In less than two weeks, they have managed to settle in perfectly and have taken over our home and our lives (and we couldn't be happier!).

 They are doing very well with their litter habits, so you should be very proud. They've been to the vet and have been given a clean bill of health. During the day they have the run of our bunny-proof spare room, and take full advantage of the space running like crazy in the morning and sleeping all afternoon. In the evening we've got them in our TV room with us where they have tons of space to kick up their heels. They are not shy of jumping up and down off the couch and anything else they can get up on! We are really happy we ended up taking both as they get along great and keep each other company! 

 They're growing fast, and already weighing in at 5 pounds each. They're still getting along great, with only one small fight since we've had them. Otherwise, they play together and groom each other whenever they're not napping or eating. 

It's sad to hear that you are seeing so many rabbits surrendered; I can't believe some of the stories. I'm happy we were able to help out by taking Oscar and Leroy. They seem to really like it here and are becoming a couple of cuddle-buns.  

They renamed Achilles to Oscar and Hercules to Leroy because the names were a bit too much of a mouthful to say all the time. Can't say I blame them, haha!

So there we go - a nice long, positive post. Huge thanks to all the wonderful adopters who take the time to send updates! They really make it all worthwhile.

Exponential Growth

Why does this always happen with hamsters?
We can never just get one, or even just one family. I mean, look at what happened with the duffel bag hamsters. This is nowhere near as bad, but still.

This is Popcorn, and I'm fairly sure it all started with her. She arrived at the shelter with a nursing litter of 7 pups. They were already about two weeks old, so I took them home to foster for the last week or so. She also arrived with 6 young adults that I'm fairly sure was her older litter. The six older ones stayed at the shelter and went up for adoption.

Barney (right) and Ted are the only boys in the older litter, and super sweet. Actually, all six siblings are friendly, social and gentle, which is rarer than it should be with dwarf hamsters. Their sisters Salt & Pepper are also available as a pair. The family also has pretty patchwork markings that I've never seen in dwarves, it's neat.

Their sisters Sunny & Luna, above, were also available for adoption. I say 'were' because they are no longer available. I went into the shelter one day and, hearing a familar squeaking sound, looked under their little hideaway house.
Behold!

Turned out Sunny'd given birth a few days before, but since she'd built such a nice nest and no one had looked under the house, no one had noticed. Oops.
Sunny didn't seem to care. Even with three little ones, she and Luna were as friendly and social as ever, and were completely at ease with us wrapping up their cage and sending them off to a foster home.
I can't say I'm surprised though. Because a week after she arrived at our house, Popcorn delivered the same surprise!

As you may or may not be able to tell from that over-exposed photo, she had four little ones. Poor Popcorn - that means she probably had three litters back to back. In other words, she had 17 kids in about two months. I'm surprised she's still alive, to be honest.
Anyway, she is a very good mom and her four newest ones are fat and happy, and just started tumbling out of the nest today.

 Her seven older guys (I guess they're the middle kids) are now split into three groups and ready to go into adoption. There's two pairs of females (Patches & Penelope, and Pippa & Peaches), and a trio of boys: Panda, Percy and Pablo (above). They're all nice enough for their age except for Patches, who is a bit of a chewer.

Basically, we ended up with 21 hamsters overnight. Right before Christmas, when adoptions are always slow. Honestly at this point, I'm not even surprised.
Hooray for hamsters!

Lights, Camera, Action!

Today was rather exciting!
Every Friday, CP24 Breakfast has a little adoption segment. TAS was featured yesterday, and partially thanks to my frantic exclamations about our many rabbits, we featured some bunnies! I got to go too - one of these days I must put 'rabbit handler' on my resume.
So at 8:30 this morning, staff member Nicola (media person extraordinaire) and I showed up at the CP24 building with Raven and Melody.

 That's Raven on the table in the break room as we waited to go on. I've been on the news several times but this was my first time inside a TV studio and it was kind of cool, not going to lie. On the other hand, I've never really been one to get super excited by media or anything - when it comes down to it, a studio's just somebody else's workplace, right? But any exposure of our adoptable animals is good!

And hey look, there we are! My mom took a photo of the screen, much to my amusement, but it actually turned out okay. Poor Raven suffers the fate of all black animals in that he's hard to see, but Melody showed up quite nicely.
The segment was short and sweet and the hosts were very nice. Both rabbits behaved themselves, although Melody almost got a little too friendly with Raven while on camera. I thought I was being all smooth in pushing them apart, but my mom called me right after and laughed about it, so I guess I wasn't as smooth as I thought.
It also turned out that Raven is rather attached to me. Colour me astonished! I haven't been a very attentive foster mom, so I can only assume he just attached to the only person he knew. He kept jumping into my lap and clinging to me. It was cute but it didn't sell him very well!

I think my favourite part of the segment was when Nicola told the hosts that Melody was surrendered because her owners were going on vacation. We'd actually told them that beforehand and they'd been suitably appalled, but when she brought it up on camera the host said angrily, "We're not going to name them, but SHAME on them." It was lovely! I hope her old owners were watching.
And then it was all over and they moved on to the news or the weather or something else non-animal-related.

I couldn't resist taking a photo with this sign in the break room. What is Toronto talking about? Hopefully Melody! She looked so cute in her blue blanket, even tough, hardened animal control workers couldn't resist.

And then we were out of there! Since Raven had to go home with me for foster, and I had class, I dropped him off to wait at my mom's office, which is conveniently close to campus. He had a lovely time running around on carpeted floors that actually gave him traction, unlike our apartment. He actually showed off much more in the office than on TV, silly boy.

And after all that, I was even on time for my 10 am class!