One is Better Than Two

I love animals in pairs or trios. Most of the animals in my house have a best friend with whom they spend all their time, and I think that's great. Some people think that animals in a pair or group aren't as interested in their human family, but I've never had that experience.
But you know what - bonded pairs are the worst. The absolute, complete worst. I hate it when they come into the shelter.
Caramel and Snowflake have been with us now for four months and they are fed up with shelter life, not that I blame them. Snowflake in particular is getting depressed and spends most of her time flopped out.
In the last two years, we've had 4 bonded pairs of rabbits. Ginny and Harry took 4 months to find a home. Moo and Meatball were a fancy breed and lucked out, getting adopted 1 month after arrival. Fred and George took half a year. To put that in perspective, the average time a small animal spends in our shelter is 3 - 5 weeks. Bonded pairs have a terrible time of it in the Room.
Bonded pairs really aren't more work than a single rabbit. They entertain each other (and groom each other, which really helps keep their coat shiny and eyes clean). The only extra concern is food and vet appointments.
Luckily, a very nice woman called the shelter today, interested in the girls! She sounds like a great, bunny-knowledgeable home and I have all my fingers crossed that she will get these two out of there.
Rat pairs don't have that bad of a time, but our two current boys have a really hard time getting anyone's attention. Hudson and Arizona are shy and fat and big, and there's two of them. But you know, they're really sweet and funny if no one's looking. They just need some time to get to know you. I really enjoy them now that they trust me a bit. They've been with us two months now; here's hoping it doesn't drag out too long.
It's a total game of chance, trying to figure out which animals will fly out the door and which animals will languish for ages. But bonded pairs always have to play the waiting game.

Two Turtle Doves

Ok, they're not turtle doves. They're Ring-Necked Doves, but there is no popular folksong that I can easily reference about Ring-Necked Doves.
Anyway, we now have two of them. This blows my mind. I think it's weird when we get one dove, but two? Within a few weeks of each other? From totally separate circumstances?
It's probably not that weird, but I am fascinated.
Angel has been with us for a month today, and she has finally started to calm down a bit. I say 'she' because we guesstimate that they're both girls. This is because neither of them have cooed since they arrived, but who knows - it's impossible to tell a doves' gender without an egg being laid or DNA testing.
Angel is just gorgeous. She looks like a dove you'd see in Touched by an Angel or something. She's easy to handle and always seems very bemused by the chaos around her in the Room.
Mocha is our newest feathered tennant. She is very pretty in her own right, with brown and white markings. Mocha's been through the ringer lately. She was found as a stray (near my house, oddly enough) and taken to Toronto Wildlife Centre. The TWC does not handle domestics and so she got transferred to us. We don't have that many bird cages, so now she's in a cage meant for budgies and a little cramped.
Mocha's 'defensive posture' is the same as my cockatiel's reaction when the rabbit startles her, and I find it hilarious in both instances. Mocha does the 'defensive posture' as soon as you touch her. She doesn't fly away or anything - she just stands there like that, looking incredibly offended.
Mocha looks a little bedraggled at the moment, to be honest. Her tail feathers are a mess, which means her flying isn't so hot. She's also majorly stressed (and hopefully nothing more). We're keeping an eye on her.
Doves are really growing on me. I'd never really thought about them before, but they're so curious and pretty and interesting. And so gentle! I could see myself having a dove one day in the far (far, far, far, far) future.
Anyway, hopefully someone else can see themselves having a dove in the very near future, and will come to adopt these beauties.

Standing Out in a Crowd

The Room is full. Really full. Which is not necessarily bad, but it's also not good. If there are too many animals in the Room, it's overwhelming for people coming to look at them. And it's hard for each animal to try and stand out and get adopted, especially the shyer animals like Sherlock.
We've had quite a few new rabbits in the past few weeks.
Hershey is brand new and looks identical to Sherlock, except in a lighter shade of brown. They even have the same white snip on their nose. So weird. Unlike his long-lost twin however, Hershey is outgoing and super friendly and probably won't have to wait very long to find a new home.
Ashley here is all muscle and energy. She is the rabbit epitome of the word 'athletic'. She is so handsome and loves to run. She's been in the system since July, but just got transferred from Scarborough a few weeks ago.
Those two red-eyed white babies turned out to be male and female (of course), so they're now separated. It's a little concerning to have two New Zealand rabbits - they don't exactly fly out the door. This is the male, Lewis.
And this is the female Carroll. One of my favourite photos ever. Those two have truly magnificent ears! I wish people could see beyond the red-eyed, lab appearance, I think New Zealands are really handsome.
And finally this is Panda. This boy is about 2-3 years old and already neutered. He's really unusual looking, with those Hotot eye-rings and brilliant blue eyes. Unfortunately he's had a rough time of it lately.
His charming owners abandoned him at the shelter and he is stressed. He's more stressed than our doves. His fur is coming out all over the place.
This poor boy has a rough coat and is on the skinny side, and it's not surprising. For some unfathomable, ridiculous reason, Panda hasn't had hay for three months. Rabbits can't digest anything properly if they don't have hay 24/7. Panda's got a big supply of hay now, but he isn't exactly a picture of perfect health.

We now have 10 rabbits, 3 hamsters, 2 rats, 1 guinea pig and 2 doves (don't ask me how that happened) in the Room. Eighteen's a crowd!

Urgent Need for Carriers

Thank you everyone for your well-wishes, it was very sweet to read them all. But of course the world doesn't stop, school goes on, life goes on, the shelter goes on. And I am back to work, which is better than moping at home anyway.

A feeling of impending doom is looming over us, kind of like when the hoarder first happened. I don't know if you've heard of this, but there was a massive 6-alarm fire at Wellesley and Parliament last night. It was insane, and 1200 people had to be evacuated.

Nobody ever talks about Animal Services when it comes to things like this, but our people were there all night. Many of those evacuated people have pets, and TAS workers were working the entire night to make sure those pets were contained, fed and watered. Right now, we haven't transferred anyone to the shelters, but it's inevitable. Surely some of them will get claimed, but many, many times when animals come in after being seized from a fire, they never get claimed and simply go up for adoption. I shudder to think how many will come from this apartment.

But that is for the future - right now we are just trying to keep them safe and looked after. And we don't have enough carriers for that. We seriously need donations.

IF YOU HAVE AN EXTRA CARRIER, PLEASE DONATE IT! You can drop the carrier off at South, or one of our other three Regions. North (1300 Sheppard), East (821 Progress) or West (146 East Mall).

Please help if you can, and pass the word on!

My Alice

Last April, a Giant Chinchilla rabbit arrived at the shelter. She barely fit in the cage. She had once been well taken care of - they opened her up only to find that she'd already been spayed, and she was very friendly. It had been two years since our first rabbit, Nancy, had passed away of old age. We had said that we would never get another rabbit, but I fell completely in love with her. It took some convincing, but eventually my mom agreed.
Alice lived a cage-less life, free to roam around half of our apartment. She spent many summer days out on the balcony, and sometimes took trips to the park. She stuffed her face with greens everyday. Only a few months after she arrived, she got very sick and had trouble standing up. We were afraid we were going to lose her, but Alice didn't let anything hold her back. After many tests, we never found out what had happened, but she recovered remarkably. She was always a little shaky and off-balance after that, but she hopped lopsidedly around. She never seemed frustrated at her slow speed, always content to lay by our side.
A year later, Giles arrived at the shelter after being abandoned in a dog park. Feeling sorry for him and believing him to be quite old (ha), I took him home. I knew Alice wouldn't mind - she liked everybody and was quite used to fosters. I didn't expect them to become best friends overnight. They slept together, ate together, played together. They were inseparable.
Two days ago, Alice began to breathe strangely after a short trip in her carrier. Worried (she'd never been the healthiest rabbit), we rushed her to the emergency vet. Alice was brilliant at carrying on despite all illness - she even fooled the vet, who initially thought she could go home for the night until we could get her to our regular vet. An x-ray, however, showed that Alice had fluid in her lungs, chest and abdomen. How had it gotten so bad? She panted a bit in the last week, but other than that, she was running around, grooming Giles and stuffing her face like normal. As heart problems are common in giant breeds, we feared it was congestive heart failure. She spent the night in an oxygen tank - we came to visit at 3 am as they were going to draw some fluid out and weren't sure she would survive the procedure. She did, but another x-ray showed a mass in her lung. It probably wasn't heart failure, but it was ruining her lungs. The next morning we transferred her to our vet and finally faced the bad news.
There was a mass in her lungs and fluid all through her chest and abdomen. Every option had little hope - the only possibility that might have resulted in a cure required a surgery that would've been insanely high-risk. And while cost was not at all the first thing in our minds, we had to admit that it would've been thousands of dollars to prolong her suffering and probably only buy a little time and a very small chance. We decided that we would rather have her die with us comforting her, after she'd only been hospitalized and suffering for a day, rather than make her continue on. We stroked her and held her and told her we loved her, as she passed away at far too young an age.
Everyone who met Alice loved her. She spent many days this summer at the camp where I worked, eagerly getting petted by a crowd of children. The vet at the emergency clinic was almost as heart-broken as us - all the techs told us how gentle she was. She was the most laid-back, sweet, friendly, loving bunny I've ever met. The minute you touched her, she sank down to the ground and began tooth-purring, always thrilled to be stroked and loved. She put up with everything - neurological problems, foster rabbits, baby rabbits, birds (including one who liked biting her on the nose), being picked up. Even in the oxygen tank, she was trying to get to us to get another scratch behind the ears. She was a part of our family as much as any dog, any cat, or for that matter, any human. The whole thing happened so fast - a roller coaster of emotion in two days. We only had a year and a half but I wouldn't trade it for anything - I just wish we'd had 10 more. I am always, always going to miss her.
Rest in peace, my beautiful girl. My Alice.
We love you.

Baby Bunny Bonanza

It's a baby bunny post, but it's not about my foster babies. Right now, there are 5 baby bunnies between the ages of 3-6 months at the shelter. What the heck? At Easter time, or even shortly after Christmas, I would understand. But September?
Anyway, they're adorable and irresistible, so whatever. It's certainly not the worst trend ever.
Remember this little guy? His name is Claudius now, and he just got back from his awesome foster home. He got neutered yesterday, but he won't be with us long. Someone has already decided to adopt him so he should be gone in a few days!
Beans arrived at the shelter at about 5 mos of age. He's been with us a month now and has beefed up considerably, as they tend to do when they hit 6 mos. He's lost his 'baby looks', but he is a handsome boy with a gorgeous coat and a very outgoing personality, so I think he'll do just fine.
These guys just showed up today. I'd guess they're about 4-5 mos old, and I don't even know what gender they are - although judging by the size difference, I'm guessing we have one of each. These guys are not going to have the easiest time - white with red eyes, already pretty big, I'm pretty sure they're New Zealand rabbits. The New Zealand is a big breed, the traditional meat/lab rabbit, and they always have a tough time finding homes. Luckily, these guys seem to have winning personalities.
And then we have Noddy, whom I just adore. Seriously. He (I think it's a he) is the cutest thing ever, he's so fluffy and friendly and he has such big ears! Aww. He's also the youngest, at around 3 mos old. I predict he will last five minutes before being adopted.

Adopt-a-thon @ Kennel Cafe today! We'll be bringing two-three rabbits, a guinea pig and two hamsters, as well as about a billion cats (seriously, we have a lot of cages set up). Fingers crossed for a big success!

Here a Pig, There a Pig

I can't believe how long we went without a guinea pig. Guinea pigs are usually as guaranteed to be in the Room as rabbits. But I checked - our last guinea pig was in May. We managed to go pig-less for over three months!
But of course it couldn't last! That's okay. Guinea pigs are friendly, popular and easy to adopt out. Meet Harley - he's only nine months old and he's already been dumped. Sheesh. People don't really think about the fact that a guinea pig will live to be up to 8 years old! Harley is a little skittish, but that's ok. He just needs a little patience.
Now this was the weirdest thing. After a three-month dry spell, Harley was surrendered on September 7th. Then, two days later, someone brings in three more guinea pigs. Waldo, that handsome (and very talkative!) boy up there, was one of them. Unfortunately the other two were girls. Of course.
This is Winnie (the lighter one) and Piglet (the smaller one). I'm fairly certain Winnie is Piglet's mom, as Piglet's quite young. I'm also fairly certain that one or both of these girls are going to be new moms in the near future, thanks to Mr Waldo and some very clueless owners.
Hee, I love this photo. Piglet is so sneaky, stealing her mom's lettuce.
Luckily, Grace, our awesome foster mom, stepped forward to help these guys out. Grace and her husband fostered Lucy the bunny (from the hoarder) and Thelma & Louise and their whole family. They are life-savers! Fingers crossed that these girls turn out to be pregnancy-free, but I think we all know that's wishful thinking.
But wait - there's more! The day after the family of three arrived, another guinea pig was brought to the Room. This is Fuzzy. He has adorable markings, a very sweet face, and a great personality, and he's coming to the adopt-a-thon with us tomorrow.

So, I think we have successfully caught up on our guinea pig quota. And then some.

Update on the Chinchillas

Remember that pair of chinchillas that was dumped in a parking lot, back in July?
I don't blame you if you don't, I had to go waaaaay back to find a blog entry about them. They were in the shelter for over a month, in a truly ugly cage that we are now going to throw out since they're gone. We named them Tom and Jerry, although they later turned out to be girls. They took up a lot of space (the Room is not very big after all), and even though they were super friendly, we were having a lot of trouble finding them a home.

Well, at the end of August, they were adopted to a wonderful family. Soon after, they sent me this fantastic update. These are the kinds of updates that just make me grin to read them!


Hello Laura,
We read your biography of "Tom and Jerry" at the South office and promised the staff to write to you to tell you how the chinchillas are doing now that they have a forever home.
My husband and I like to browse on the Toronto Animal Services adoption page online, as many of the pets we've had in the past have come from the shelter. We were delighted to see that two chinchillas were available. We phoned immediately and arranged to pick them up the next day. We woke up early to get there before the Ex opened (and to ensure no one adopted them before us! We were surprised they had been awaiting a new home since July).
The vet did an examination and we discovered that Tom and Jerry were actually two girls! (Oops) We re-christened them Chita and Chilli.
The girls are such a welcome addition to our family. Chinchillas are hypoallergenic, so my son is able to be around them without itching or swelling up. My husband absolutely adores them. At first, we wondered how we would tell them apart but their antics distinguish them. Chilli is shyer and more mellow whereas Chita (aka Pepper) is the more active of the pair and climbs higher and bathes in her dust with more vigor. When we give them their daily exercise, they love to climb the stairs, run on us (just like you said in your description) and even leap against the wall. I'm also so glad that they came together - we give them lots of attention, but they also love to be with each other and will cuddle each other up like two little lovebirds.
It's obvious the staff at Toronto Animal Services South and their volunteers really care. Thanks again for helping them find a new home. Attached is a picture of the two of them.

We talk a lot at the shelter about 'upgrades'. An adoptive home may not be perfect, but is it an upgrade from their last home?
Considering their last home dumped them in a parking lot, and their new home is clearly treating them like queens, I'd say Chita and Chilli definitely got an upgrade!

Family Time

The last time I posted about my bunny family, they were only a month old. Now, they're over two months old, and almost ready to be weaned from mom!
They have names and very distinct personalities, and they've grown up quite a bit. They've gone from roly-poly balls of fluff to lean, mean, bouncing machines. And wow, do they have energy!
Emily (formerly known as Stripe) was named after Emily of New Moon. We wanted to tie their names to their mom by naming them all after children's books. Emily is very adventurous! She loves to explore and she's not a big fan of being picked up, although she'll put up with it if she has to.
The babies really love their greens! There's a lot of online debate about what age is best for introducing greens. People get really passionate about it, and there are quite a few who argue that you have to wait until 6 months. This litter has made me believe that they can start eating greens whenever they want, as long as they start eating hay a little bit earlier (hay helps them digest). The babies were stealing greens from their mom when they were only 3 weeks! They grew super fast, and their coats are shiny and fluffy, and they're very active. Clearly, it didn't harm them.
Stellaluna (from the book of the same name) is one of the blackies. We can finally tell those two apart! They grew up to have very different personalities. Stellaluna is the shyest of the litter, and needs to be handled quite gently or she gets squirmy! Like the rest, however, she would never bite and can be cuddly if you take your time with her.
Magic here is definitely my favourite. Not that I would ever play favourites. We were going to name her after some specific witch or wizard (doesn't she just look mystical?), but eventually decided Magic did the trick. She is the sweetest little thing, friendly and happy to cuddle.
Isn't she the prettiest bunny you ever saw? She has these gorgeous blue eyes and really amazing markings. She's very unique looking.
Munchkin (from The Wizard of Oz) is the other blackie, and she is hilarious. She's the complete opposite of Stellaluna, eager to be picked up and say hello. She's so outgoing! As soon as you open the cage door, she's sticking her head out to investigate.
Look at those big ears! I love their ears, they look almost too big for their heads.

It is going to be really hard to say goodbye to these guys! But they are healthy, with incredibly soft fur, lots of energy, sweet personalities, and they never bite. In the next few weeks they'll be separated from mom, then in the next month or two they'll be spayed. I think we've set them up for some pretty good lives.

Speaking of good lives - all five of the baby boy rats were adopted last week! They were adopted together to a rat-experienced home. Amazing! Woody the rabbit was also adopted, to the home of a woman who's had rabbits all her life. Hooray!

Update on Cinnamon

Remember Cinnamon (one of the Six Pack hamsters)? Her new owners sent an awesome update:

Hi there!
My boyfriend and I recently adopted Cinnamon - the cutest little hamster ever!
Over the two weeks, she started to settle into her new home. At first, she was a little overwhelmed by all the attention and hid underneath her wheel, but she's really starting to get used to everyone and perks up whenever one of us approaches her cage.
Inside her cage, there are two little houses she likes to crawl into and sleep in. She loves her wheel, too! It's incredible how fast she runs on it. And she's definitely nocturnal; the first night I brought her home, she kept everyone awake!
Cinnamon's becoming more accustomed to having us hold her. The other night, we sat down on the floor and brought her out of her cage to run around between our legs. And oh wow, she's fast! She kept climbing up over us, but we always managed to hold on to her :)

Cinnamon has a habit of chewing on her cage, so I bought her a couple of chew toys. One is shaped like a hamburger, and she loves to gnaw away on it! Toilet paper rolls are also fun for her; she uses the pieces she bites off as bedding. She's gradually stopping the cage chewing, so hopefully the habit will break all together soon.

Cinnamon has really grown to be part of our family during the past week. She's so adorable, and I'm ecstatic every time I come home and see her running around her cage and on her wheel. I try to hold her everyday, and she's becoming more accepting of all the physical attention she's getting. She even comes up to the door of the cage sometimes and tries to crawl out into my hands!

Thank you so much for letting me adopt this wonderful little critter! I love being able to give her a home that really cares for her.

That hamster has definitely got a great home! Cinnamon's young life was filled with drama - somehow ending up at a rescue-turned-hoarder, thrown into an empty cage in a shelter, shuttled off to a foster home, then back to the shelter. But now, she's spoiled and loved and being treated like a queen!

You know, it's been about 2 and a half months since all the hoarder craziness began. Not counting the animals sent to rescue, or the ones who had to be euthanized, our shelter ended up with 28 small animals needing homes. We lost two - Maisy and Lilith.
But thirteen of those animals have been adopted into new homes. Three rabbits, two rats, and eight hamsters. That is pretty awesome.

Only thirteen more to go!

Fostering: It's Good for the Soul

The last time I went into the cat rooms, this caught my eye. I mean, how could it not? Click to enlarge, it's pretty cute.
Being a foster home for animals is great in a lot of ways, and I don't know why more people don't do it.
Want to get a pet, but you're not sure if you can handle the commitment? Foster! If it doesn't work out, you give it back anyway.
Want to show your children the miracle of life?
Foster a litter of kittens (or rabbits, or hamsters). Instead of adding to the homeless pet problem, you'll be saving lives.
In the same vein, want to teach your children responsibility?
Foster!
This is the kitten that goes along with that card up there. Just another ordinary black kitten, among hundreds of cats. But because he was in a foster home and they made the effort, he suddenly stands out. People will stop to read about Lewis and how much fun he is, how playful. His chances for adoption can only be improved by that sheet.
Fostering saves lives, improves lives, and enriches your life. Everyone should do it!
On that note, we did a photo shoot with our remaining fosters the other day. Minerva's babies are all grown up! The last time I posted about them, they were only a month old. Now they're over two months old, and while they still look young, they're basically full grown. That's Hedwig up there, and she'll be heading back to the shelter on Sunday.
Dobby is probably the cutest, and the calmest. I think he's my favourite - look at that face! He's very thoughtful when you hold him, looking around carefully before taking a step, while his siblings dash about like lunatics.
Tonks was the calmest when they were younger, and now he's totally nuts. Well, no, not totally - none of them ever bite (thank goodness). But he will need some more work before he's ready for adoption. He really likes to squeal and sound like he's dying when you try to pick him up, which is a bit off-putting.
Flitwick, like Tonks, needs some work because he's quite skittish. The good thing with hamsters is that they only take a few days of socializing to calm down. I'm hoping all of these guys will be ready to go for the Kennel Cafe adopt-a-thon.
Bellatrix (formerly known as Padfoot) is going to need a secure cage because I have never seen a hamster so determined to escape. Once she's out of the cage, she's a sweetheart with lovely silky fur.
This is our third hamster litter (fifth foster litter in total), but I never stop being amazed at how they can go from looking like aliens to gorgeous, fluffy hammies. This litter really showed variety - each one looks totally different, and none of them looked like mom!
I'm going to give the baby bunnies their own post but here's a preview - look how big they are! They actually look like mini adults now.

When I was a kid, I was always pleading with my mom to let my rabbit or my gerbil or my hamster have babies. Because my mom is smart and ethical, she said no. Now I get to raise all these babies without any strings attached!
Fostering - it's highly underrated!