Not entirely OT: Relay for Life

[Alice]

I know this doesn't have much to do w/ rabbits,but it is important... I'm helping my mom out w/ her local AmericanCancer Society "Relay for Life" this weekend, & our team needsdonations. Mom's a cancer survivor twice over (breast& bone), my slightly older brother is a survivor ofnon-hodgkins lymphoma, & my maternal grandfather &great-grandmotherboth died of cancer (liver & breast,respectively),so cancer awareness & research iskindof a big deal in our family. Mom just got our relayteam's page up, so if anybody has a few bucks to spare, it'd be awfullykeen if you could wander on over & donate. This linkshould take you directly to our team page (team SAFE aka "Survivors AndFriends Etc"):

https://www.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=88631&lis=0&kntae88631=869B700E04B54F78B5B9B167281515A1&supId=0&team=907743&cj=Y

If you want to donate to me (and Meat Bunny ) specifically, I'mAlice Pilch. I'd also be very happy if anyone could donate tomy mom, Suzanne Pilch. General team donations are happilyaccepted as well. It would also be great if anyone could getinvolved w/ their local Relay for Life (http://www.cancer.org/docroot/gi/gi_1.asp), or simply donate to the American Cancer Society directly (http://www.cancer.org/docroot/home/index.asp).

Meat & I thank you! :}

To make this slightly less OT: I'm still debating whether or not Ishould bring Meat Bunny to the relay. Meat's a very outgoing& mellow rabbit, & she's very good about going onharnessed jaunts around our large yard, but I've never taken heroff-property. I would love to have Meat at the relay,& I'm certain she'd enjoy herself if she didn't get toostressed out (the relay is held at a *gorgeous* park), but I'm not sureif I wouldn't just be forcing her to do something stressful justbecause I think it'd be cute.

Ah, well... we still have a few days left to decide...

 

[Midori-Chan]

I'm sorry your family has gone through this! Truly, I am.



Good luck to you on getting donations!

 

[TinysMom]

Alice,

I'd buy a stroller or a baby carrier type thing (sling?) for her at ayard sale or flea market and take her with you but let her ride thatway....

Then again, I'm dying to get a stroller for Tiny!

Peg

 

[zoecat6]

I've been watching your posts and I just need toget it off of my chest...I am madly in love with Meat Bunny. That isone adorable photogenic rabbit.

 

What a wonderfullidea, Go forit takeMiss Meat to the rally ,function , It will be great forher , and for you , dajeti2takes Apollo everywhere , What an awspmeway to help others become more awareof the need for more breastcancer research , If you areafraid how she will act howabout going to a busy park orshopping mall to try her reactionsout first , you neverknow you ma havea celeberty bunny on your handsShe may Love it , Ifshe is antsy around a lot ofpeople you will know straightoff , and can accustom herto it gradually . Its a wonderfullthought and a great Idea takingher with you . Good Luck !pssttlet us know how shehandled it !.

 

[Alice]

Thanks, everyone, for the well wishes & encouragement!

The relay is tomorrow, & I've decided that I will take Meatwith me. I'll also be bringing a large dog crate that I'llset up & partially cover w/ a blanket (and of course keep fullystocked w/ water from home, hay, & toys) so Meat can just chillin there if she seems too overwhelmed by all the hubub.

I'll let you guys know how it goes. :}

 

[Jenniblu]

I'm glad you have decided to take Meat Bunny withyou. My mother died of lung cancer and I always try to make adonation each year to the local American Cancer Society.

Hey, what about making a sign for Meat to hang on her cage that says something like - "Meat Bunny wants to find a cure."

Of course I would go a step further and just get a baby shirt and write something on it and put it on my bunny.

 

[Pet_Bunny]

Good luck with your relay. I have anaunt going through chemo now. In Edmonton, they have relaystoo. I know of some other ladies who train year long to takepart in Edmonton's Annual Dragon Boat Races.

That is another nice picture of Meat.

Rainbows!

 

[Alice]

So, I loaded upthe car yesterday,popped Meat into a hay-filled cat carrier, & away we went! Meatdidn't seem terribly concerned about car travel, though she was muchmore comfortable once I opened the top of the box (it was low enoughthat she couldn't hold her ears naturally w/ it closed, plus when itwas open she could look out the window). She was very good, &never tried to jump out of her box (thank god... I can only imaginedriving down the highway, trying to keep a 10 lb rabbit out from underthe brake pedal while looking for a good place to pull over &wrestle the rabbit back into her box).

Got to the relay a little before 9pm (the relay went from Fridayafternoon to Saturday morning, & since I'm naturally nocturnal,I had the nightshift). Got the dog crate set up for Meat, & sheimmediately accepted it as her home. She was very interested in thegoings-on around her, but she definitely had the curious ears going,not nervous ones. W/in 20 minutes of getting to the park, she was fullylounged in the bottom half of the cat carrier, which was now serving asa litterbox.

Encouraged by Meat's seeming nonchalance, I got a little adventurous. Itook her out, got her harness on, & let her explore a bit. Shewas very curious, but every now & again decided she needed tobe back in her home Right Now & got very upset if I detainedher. She was being very tolerant of being held, though, so I triedcarrying her in a fleece shoulder bag. Meat fit perfectly, &she seemed to appreciate not technically being held as well as having aplace to hide her head if she wanted to. I decided to chance taking herw/ me on a lap. She stuck her head out of the bag through most of it,& although she was wearing some less than happy ears, shedidn't seem to be terrified, even being surrounded by loud music orpassing by a generator. As expected, lots of people approached usasking if that was a real rabbit, what's her name, do rabbits make goodpets, etc etc. Meat was very gracious about letting people give herhead pets, & near the end of the lap she was experimenting w/happy curious ears rather than tense ones, again. Got back to our"camp", & I let Meat relax in her crate, where she ate hay,drank water, & pooped like a good little bunny.

The trouble started the next time I tried to take her out of the crate,& continued whenever she wanted to go somewhere that I didn't.Pretty soon, Meat threw a grand bunny tantrum, which included grunting,lunging, thumping, and my very first bunny bite. I've also got a hugebruise on my upper thigh, which I'm 99% certain was caused by awell-placed bunny kick. I'm not a complete idiot, so at that point Ijust took her harness off of her & let her spend the rest ofthe night in her crate, which she seemed more than happy to do (I evencaught her doing a full-on happy bunny flop, once). Every time I openedthe crate (to give her more hay or water or whatever), Meat would puton the curious ears & try to get out... unless she thought Iwas going to pick her up, in which case she'd wedge herself between herlitterbox & the back of the crate. For awhile, I was sitting w/the crate door open, blocking the other line of escape w/ my body,& letting Meat out onto a tiny triangle of grass. She couldn'tget enough of the grass (most of our yard is just weeds), &kept trying to climb over me to get to more of it. Clearly, Meat'sproblem is not that she's scared of new & strange places& experiences, she just doesn't trust me to make decisionsabout her safety.

Around dawn, I started packing stuff up for the way home,thenheardthem announce the "Bad Hair Day" contest over theloudspeaker (since many people slept at the relay site, I guess theyfigured this would be fun). One of my teammate's joked about my "BadHare", so I hurriedly threw Meat's carrier back together, popped herinto it, & rushed to the stage. We were late, but they let usparticipate, anyway. The judges said that Meat wasn't a good entrybecause she was a beautiful bunny, but I insisted that she was very,very bad, which was why she was in "jail". ;D All of the prizes went topeople w/ genuinely bad hair, but we got a certificate for free friesat Burger King just for participating. Cue jokes about "Meat andpotatoes". I watched Meat throughout the experience, & shelooked mildly annoyed, but not nervous...which is why I took her in hercarrier rather than trying to put her back in her harness and/or bag.

Got someone to take a pic of me w/ my mom, then hit the road for home.

Meat was very relaxed on the way back, as long as her carrier wasopen. She kept putting her front paws on the open door of thecarrier, & dozing off standing up like that. She wasbeing so incredibly adorable, I was forced to take pix of her while Iwas driving. ;D I was amazed at how many of thebazillion pix I took of her turned out halfway decently, since I wasjust pointing the camera in her general direction & hoping forthe best. The first pic is my favourite because Ididn't have to use a flash & therefore you can see the realcolour of Meat's eyes (instead of the glowing red "devil spawn" eyesthe camera flash gifts her with). I would have assumed that a"Red Eyed White" rabbit would have red eyes, but hers are really morefuschia & lavendar. I don't know how anyone could think thatthese eyes were creepy... I think they're unspeakably gorgeous!

Meat says, "That was a long day!"

Needless to say, Meat's very happy to be home! All in all, although theexperience wasn't quite *all* I could have hoped for, I think it wentextremely well. Plus, I got to see my mom, & help raise moneyfor cancer research, too! Speaking of which, huge thanks to everyonewho donated! I reached my individual goal of $100, & Mom wasproudly telling random people about how Meat Bunny raised more moneyonline than anyone else on the team. :} Since our team's name is"S.A.F.E.", which stands for "Survivors And Friends, Etc.", it's beendecided that Meat is officially the "et cetera".

Mom really seemed to enjoy meeting her newest furry grandkid, too...

 

[Pet_Bunny]

What a wonderful experience for everybody.

Can't tell which one is you or which is your mom. You're both beautiful!

Rainbows!

 

[Pipp]

LOL!! Great story, thanks for sharing in such vivid (and humorous) detail.

My gut is still hurting from laughing so hard at the standing sleeping bunny pics, they'reprecious!!

Last but not lease, congrats on a great job promoting a great cause.

SAS

 

[CMiska]

What a wonderful story. You and your wonderfulbunny Meat seem to be wonderful spokespersons for the CancerAssociation. Congrats on your raising $100.00 for such awonderful cause. Now all you need is a pink ribbon forMeat. Thanks for the story and the wonderfulpics

 

[Alice]

Pet_Bunny wrote:

What a wonderful experience for everybody.

Can't tell which one is you or which is your mom. You're both beautiful!

Aw! Thank you! I'm the tall one (I'm taller thanboth of my parents... Mom says it's due to all of the peanut butter& jelly sandwiches she fed me as a kid ;D ).

 

[Alice]

Pipp wrote:

LOL!! Great story, thanks for sharing in such vivid (and humorous) detail.

My gut is still hurting from laughing so hard at the standing sleeping bunny pics, they'reprecious!!

Hee! You're very welcome! Due to far too manycreative writing classes when I was growing up, I am nothing if notlong-winded. ;D

The real tragedy of those Meat photos is that I couldn't get near mycamera when she was being *really* cute! I'm still quiteplease w/ what I did manage to capture, though...

 

[Alice]

CMiska wrote:

Now all you need is a pink ribbon forMeat.

I know! Wouldn't that be awesome?! Meat currently has a pink camo-print harness, but I really need to gether an actual pink ribbon for next year...

 

[cirrustwi]

Go Meat Bunny!!! I love that your Mom said Meat raised the most money.

Congratulations and tons of respect for helping such a greatcause. My Nana was an ovarian cancer surviver, back whencancer was almost always fatal (50 years ago) and my Aunt passed awayafter a long battle with uterine cancer. I believe cancer isan evil, hateful disease and I have to give great respect to anyone whohas survived the rigors of cancer treatment. Give your Momand brotherbig hugs from me and the buns.

Jen

 

[Jenniblu]

Great detailed story about you and Meat's Relayfor Life. It is a good cause. Who knows - maybeeven more people will show up next time to see the fund raising rabbit!

 

[Kricket]

YEAH!! Congrats on your donations yougathered. How much did The Relay make for that day?I just did the same thing here in Tucson. I was AMAZEDeveryone raised $39,000!! WOW!

Sounds like y'all had a great day! Good times

Hugs! Krick

 

[Alice]

Mom called me today to let me know that ourRelay team made $5 more than our goal of $800. Moreimportantly, the entire Relay made more than $160,000 (I belive theymade $120,000 last year, & $80,000 the year before).

Not bad when you consider that this Relay was for "East Volusia County"Florida, which is basically a conglomeration of towns whose biggestclaim to fame isthatthey're sortof near DaytonaBeach


Woot!