If These Walls Could Talk...

[Leader of the Pack]

23 years ago when our son was only 3 years of age someone gave us a Dutch rabbit. Our personal experience was very limited at the time so we relied heavilyon the advice and counsel of my father, whose own father had raised rabbits.Along the way there was "some" progress made in our small rural communitybut it wasn't until he was nearly 13 thatit becamepossible to take a rabbit to the vet around herewithout haveing them roll with laughter.

Our next opportunity for bunny love came while I was working for a local computer company. A local photographer had purchased some baby Dwarf rabbits to use in his Easter photos and was lookingto find good homes for them after the holiday. I jumped on the chance to rescue a pair of these poor creatures. The female was a black and white dwarf we named simply "Betty". The buck, we named "Scooter". He remained one of the most gentle bucks we've ever had to the end of his day.

Here is Scooter in his younger day with one of our rescue cats named "Oh-No".

I'm a great believer in "Family Photos" for every special holiday event. The fur-kids always love to see me coming with a camera in hand, a prop or two and those gawd awful costumes.....

Scooter models the newest craze then..."Spider Collars"

While I was sleeping, (actually getting ready for work one morning) Betty and Scooter were making plans for an "early morning fling" right under my very nose. All that was required was that one of them learn how to open the door of their cages. Everything happened so fast. And me, being the nieve bunny mom that Ishamefully admit to being then

; everything was over and done before Ihad put down the blow dryer, wiped the cobwebs out of my eyes and gone into their room to see ifmy eyes were deceiving me.

A short time later I was the proud grandmother of...

Bernie, Beata, Thumper, and Little Bean

Having "house rabbits" and the act of spaying and neutering your "pet rabbit" was an extremely rare event in our area as well at the time. Our own personal vet was very hesitant to do it. So we went about the business of purchaseing more cages, I learned to keep twist ties on the door locks of cages that I knew the bunnies would easily figure out how to open, and we turned our utility room into a bunny living and play room for years. In that time I acquired a deeper love for these gentle creatures and also came to respect them when one overly excited young buck developed the habit of biteing the hand that fed him over the years. I still loved him. I just learned how to approach him if he was in his cage when it was feeding time.

All the rabbits lived to be at least 10 years of age. Scooter, the father of them all was the last to pass at the ripe old age of 13.

But that's not the end of the story.....

 

[Leader of the Pack]

...Once the word was out that we were a "Bunny Family", people came from out of the wood-work to ask us if we'd take in their "unwanted" Easter gifts once the fun was over. (which still to this day just angers me to no end. How can people do that?

)

Twobunnies though,were the only ones left inour small community pet store. The owner knew me wellbecause of the frequent visits I made to the store to purchase supplies for the rabbits we all ready had. "Cinnamon" and "Bow"were about to bedonated toa local school teacher as a "Class Pet".That was all I needed to hearand I whisked the pair away with an extra bail of Timothy Hay in hand andtwonew cages.

Cinnamon and Blanch...Valentines Day Photo Shoot

The next special guy to come into our lives was "Biscuit"...

Here he is with his very special cat brother "Simon". These two could not be seperated and Simon would spend hours on end grooming Biscuit. It was the sweetest thing I'd ever seen.

Biscuit's story ended tragically. To this day I still blame myself and can't understand the lack of experience and education in the vets around here when it comes to treating rabbits. We decided that we wouldhave Biscuit altered. Everything I was reading on the internet at the time indicated that it made for a much happier and healthier rabbit; and if you plannedto keep them in the house as a pet, they would be less likely to spray and mark. We scheduled his surgery and the actual surgery went fine. Biscuit was delivered back to me the same day, a little groggy, but seemingly happy. I had even gone so far as to inform the vet assistant that we could "Not" hold back food over night the day before the surgery. At least I had done some homework that I hope helped. But obviously not enough....

Biscuit was allowed free roam again, in the house, after he returned from his surgery. I didn't think anything of it. Three days into his recovery I caught him hopping out of the cat box. Having this "gut" feeling that this wasn't the most sanitary place for him to be at the time I checked his incision and cleaned the area with a little surgical scrub that we used at the vets to clean areasprior to surgery.

A few more days passed and I noticed Biscuit seemed to be "dragging". When I picked him up to cuddle him and check him I saw that his testicles were inflamed and enlarged and he had a massive infection going on. We side-stepped our usual vet and managed to find a vet in another town thatseemed to havemore experince treating rabbits. His assistant had a pet house rabbit. It was too late for our precious boy. The infection had all ready spread too far and the vet told us that while they were trying to get an I/V into him he suddenly went into cardiac arrrest and died. He tried to explain that rabbits are very sensitive when handled to the extreme necessary while sick. He could have also had a congenital heart condition that along with the infection, the stress...he just wasn't able to pull through. I blamed myself for months. And vowed, that despite all the good that may be said for having a rabbit altered, I would never take the chance again. I could have done so many things differently. But knowing what I know now won't bring Biscuit back.

"Hasi" came on the scene after a client at the vets office needed to move and couldn't take this beautiful fellow with her. Hasi had always had total run of the house and was an intact male. To this day, we've never had a rabbit so eager to "bite hard" as Hasi was. He settled into the family with no trouble at all, and virtually took over the dogs as well as the cats. It was nothing for him to sneak up behind both and give them a quick nip, flip up his heels and take off. What was really troubling about him was that if I even looked like I was about to enter "his" room (even at feeding time) he would charge me, and if I wasn't wearing shoes, and socks I was in for a "bite"....not a nibble.

He caught me in the hallway one afternoon and I thought he was simply coming up to sniff and rub against my leg. What he actually did was bury both his bunny teeth into my leg, leaving me with a horrible wound, and scar that I will always fondly remember him by. (Yes, I'm that tolerant!)

Hasi and Sam...

He had a wonderful playful personality though. I couldn't help not love him. He seemed to just burst at the seams with joy and excitement over everything. He loved playing with the cats toys and played with them more than the cats did. Toliet paper tubes were his favorite though. He left more than a mark on my leg, he left a mark on my heart as well.

And that brings us to our most precious new girl Sidney....

I have lots of pictures that I would love to share with you all of her. I hope I haven't bored everyone to tears with our "rabbit tales" or scared anyone off.

To be continued.....

Terri

 

[juliew19673]

I am so sorry for your loss of Betty and Scooter, but am so happy that you championed on.... Love the photos and the stories and hope for more - seems you have a gift for telling the "tail"..

 

[JadeIcing]

I love your blog and need more!

:biggrin2:

 

[kirst3buns]

Can't wait to hear more. Need Sidney Pics and story soon!

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

That Halloween pic is great! You'll definitely have to enter our contests when we do them!

OMG, Hasi looks exactly like my last bun Angel:shock:

Great blog so far!

 

[katt]

more pics!

that photo of the babies is soo cute!

 

[Leaf]

Welcome to the forum!

I've enjoyed reading abut your past guys, and just love the picture of Biscuit and Simon together.

(I have a cat named Simon, and one named Sam as well)

 

[Leader of the Pack]

to all. I sat down last night and added to our blog but my connection with the server was interrupted and everything I'd composedwas lost.

Then around 1:00 this morning our 7 year old German/Aussie Shepherd Mix named "Deacon" started urinating blood.

The poor guy couldn't help it, but he flooded our kitchen off and on for the rest of the night and had both my hubby and I pretty concerned. I just got back from the vets office and he's on antibiotics for a few days. He wasn't running fever and other than obvious signs of feeling discomfort when urinating he appears normal. Doctor did find a small mass on his side though, that he thinks at this point is only a fatty, benign tumor. But if the antibiotics don't clear up the bleeding then we may have to take a more serious look at it. Our poor man is getting older and falling apart all at once. We just got him over a dislocated knee

Deacon is one of 10 of our wonderful dog family. Our son took it upon himself to bring him home as one of the last of a litter that was being offered "free to a good home". It just so happened that the owner of the mother dog was alsoa client at the vet clinic where I worked.On a rare occasion I had Deacon with me at the vet when "his birth mother" (a beautiful whiteGerman Shepherd)spent the day with us and I was able to snapthis special picture of "Mother and Son".....

That's the update to my blog for the day. Our furry-family keeps me busy to say the least. There is never a dull moment around here, but all the "kids" are so worth our every effort. Please keep Deacon in your thoughts and prayers.

More to come.......

Terri

 

[juliew19673]

Oh Terri so sorry to hear about Deacon's problem.. I hope it clears up w/the antiboitics.. He's beautiful (love both shepherds and Aussies both - great combo)..

Sent up a prayer for Deacon - please post with any update... good luck!

 

[pinksalamander]

I have to say how much i love reading your blog, as JulieW said you really have a gift for writing these things. I can't wait to hear more bunny stories!

 

[trailsend]

I love your blog too! Great job. I loved reading about your fur family. I can imagine how busy your furkids keep you! I used to work at a Sanctuary for special needs dogs - it's quite a time! Life would not be the same without dogs and rabbits. Only having three dogs now is a piece of cake. Great pictures by the way.

 

[Leader of the Pack]

....I just wanted to take a minute and thank all of you who have been so kind and welcomed me and my furry family with open arms. Even though Sidney is gone, I'd still like to visit occasionally, continue to get to know you all and your special buns.

One thing I know alltoo well, both from having worked for a vet and taking care of so many of our own, is that you never know what to expect when you open your eyes each morning. Cats, Dogs, Rabbits they are all like children in that they can be running around happy and playful one minute, and be silent and ill the next. Thankfully not all of them succumb as quickly as Sidney did. But it was only a few months ago that I woke up early one morning only to have a year old rescued cat of ours named Chelsea, walk up behind me as I set in my chair at my computer, cough as if hacking up a hairball, and the next minute I was on myknees tryingto get her to breath.Our vetbelievedthat she hadruptured a blood vessel in her lungs. We were heartbroken. Chelsea had been with us one year, October 2008. She had all her vaccinations, had been tested for all the usualcat illnesses and the night before her death had been romping around herewith the youngest of the bunch and having a ball.

As I said, I never know what a new day will bring, all I can do is love them the best I can each day that I am given.

I seldom have time for my feet to touch the floor each morning before their isn't "something" waiting for me to do. Even being the night owl that I am, and sometimes not going to bed before 4 in the morning, and rising by 7 still doesn't always assure me a easy, relaxing start to my day.

I'm not complaining. My husband and I would probably be lost, and potentially run each other off if we didn't have the constant worry of our "fur-kids" to keep us busy. Litter pans, pet laundry, mopping, feeding and medicating. I'm sure many of you with multi-pet families are all to familiar with the routine. Forget taking a vacation. Thankfully our furry family still has a wonderful "grandmother" (the only one I trust)that is able to keep up with them in the event of emergencies.

"Emergency" seemed to be our middle name during the month of May. Usually we are preparing for a huge family gathering over Memorial Day Weekend when one or two of our "Yankee" families (I'm a bornMichigander)brave the heat and humidity of the south and join usin celebrating the multitude of birthdays and anniversaries that all seemed to have fallen for our family in the month of May. With gas prices so high, and so many things on everyones "honey-do" list this year though, the big family gathering was cancelled. First it was our dog Deacon and his leg, then his urinary tract infection, our refrigerator threatened to go on the fritz and worst of all my husband got a call on the 24th that his sister had suddenly died of a massive heart attack. Grandmother came on the run and we spent four days grieving over the loss of a dear sister. Then, just when it looked like things couldn't get worse, Sidney became suddenly ill and passed all in the same day.

Through it all the fur-kids keep us going. They have no concept of life or death. Only "feed me" and "my litter pan is getting a little smelly". Thank God for them. They keep us balanced and never let us forget that despite our pain and grief life goes on; and that somewhere out there when one lightgoes out, another bursts into flames and needs usjust as much.

To my Rabbit Friends....thank you again. I hope to return andget to knowyou better soon.....

Terri