Friday Foster – Willa
Oy. It’s been a while since I’ve featured a Friday Foster rabbit… I think it’s about time I resurrected that category.
To recap (even though the majority of my readers are also IHRS volunteers), I volunteer as a foster home for domestic rabbits in need of rescue. Over the last 7 or 8 years I’ve lived with more rabbits than I can count, all of them with very different personalities and idiosyncracies. Anyone who thinks rabbits are just livestock animals needs to come and stay with me for a while… of course, I don’t think any animals are just livestock animals, but that’s a post for another day.
Let me introduce you to one of my current foster rabbits… this is Willa.
We received a voicemail at the beginning of May from some concerned members indicating that there was a domestic rabbit at a local animal shelter, and could we help? At the time we were trying to work out how many rabbits we could take to help the Missouri HRS chapter with a confiscation case they were working with, but I had room, and our commitment has always been to local rabbits first.
I picked Willa up from the shelter on May 22, not knowing what to expect. All of the shelter staff I had spoken to kept telling me what a nasty bunny she was… I imagine that if I were stuck in a tiny cage surrounded by predators, I’d probably soil myself, too. At any rate, they took my carrier back to the kennel area, and what they brought out was this beautiful, vibrant, lively Harlequin rabbit. I brought her home and set her up in a condo with a litter box full of hay, gave her some toys, a water crock, and a food bowl, and left her to settle in. Do you know, over the next 24 hours she did not leave a single pootie outside her litter box? Not ONE. So much for the “nasty” bunny.
Willa is a sweet girl, and she’ll make someone a wonderful companion. She really doesn’t like hands reaching into her condo – she tends to cower toward the back, although she’s getting better about it each time I have to lift her out and put her back in. She is not shy about letting you know that her food bowl is empty – she either fills it with her toys, or turns it upside down. She loves to be petted once she gets over the initial worry about what those hands might do, and she especially loves treats.
My hope for Willa – and for all of our foster rabbits, really – is that she is able to find a home with people who will love her and respect her for being a rabbit. So many potential adopters seem to have such high expectations – I think it’s because they have no or very little experience with rabbits, but many people don’t understand that rabbits are not like dogs or cats. Rabbits make excellent companion animals, but not all homes are the ideal homes. The goal, I guess, is to find forever homes.
If you’re interested in adopting Willa, or any of our other adoptable rabbits, please visit our website at www.indianahrs.org.
Friday Foster – Poppy
It’s been a while since I wrote a Friday Foster post… I guess I’ve just been busy. Lord knows there are still plenty of foster rabbits to write about.
This week I’d like to introduce Poppy. This last spring – May, to be exact – a woman called to report a stray black rabbit that was hopping around her neighborhood. Indiana HRS gets lots of calls at all time of year regarding stray rabbits, and most of the time our efforts to capture them have been successful. This time, our volunteers went to do some recon work ahead of time, and while we didn’t see the rabbit, we’re also smart enough to know that bunnies are most active at dusk and dawn, when it’s cool, and predators are less likely to strike. We made plans to come back in the early morning… but the only thing we were able to find was a black cat hiding under a mini-barn. We left some traps, but never did catch the black rabbit.
In the meantime, that same woman called back to say that she had captured a white and tan rabbit that had also been hopping around, and could we take it? I live nearby, so I agreed to foster her until there was room for her elsewhere. She has been with me since then, and I can honestly say I’ve never met a rabbit quite like her. The nicest way to describe her is to say she’s a crackhead. This rabbit literally bounces off the walls when she’s out to play – it’s a symptom of her age, mostly. She’s very young, probably no more than 4-5 months old at the time she was rescued. She’s still growing into her feet and ears, that’s for sure. But she’s a delightful entertainer, and as long as she doesn’t hurt herself leaping around the way she does, she’ll make someone a great rabbit! She has pretty good litter box habits, LOVES to eat, tolerates being petted, and is becoming pretty easy to handle. I kind of like having her around, if only for the fun factor.
Poppy, rabbit on crack from Amanda on Vimeo.
If you’re interested in adopting Poppy or any of our other adoptable rabbits, please visit our website at www.indianahrs.org. You’ll find a list of upcoming events we’ll be participating in, as well.
Filed under friday foster, rabbits, videos | Comments (2)Friday Foster – Hilo
This is Hilo (pronounced HEE-lo), our own little half-pint. She’s just a little bit of bunny, but don’t tell her that. Hilo was adopted out to what we hoped would be her forever family several months ago, and was returned after a pretty short time because the family got a dog and no longer had the time for a wee little bunny. Granted, she’s a wee little bunny with lots of attitude, and they were basically letting her run roughshod all over the place, but still… it always saddens me when we spend time and make the effort to provide education and set realistic expectations about life with a house rabbit only to turn around and have it go all wrong.
Anyway, Hilo now lives at my house, where she is relearning the fine art of being a well-behaved lady rabbit instead of an utter heathen. For the first couple of months she was here she lived in a little smaller cage with the cage closure in the front, and that did NOT go well. She had become very aggressive about hands reaching in for her, and caring for her on a daily basis was definitely not fun. I’ve had aggressive rabbits here before, but not like her. I count five scars on my right hand alone… all from the Tiny Teeth of Terror. Last month after my rabbit, Angus, passed away I moved her down to the bottom of a 2-story Bunny Abode. She hasn’t been the same rabbit since. No more lunging, no more attacking, she lets me stick my hands and arms into her condo without any trouble at all. It’s so amazing and wonderful to earn their trust, and to see such a big change in such a short time, with so little effort! This is one of the primary reasons I enjoy rescue.
Hilo was originally found by one of our volunteers just hopping around a neighborhood all by her lonesome. She loves to be petted, and will sit by you and lift her little nose to have it rubbed for as long as you’ll rub it. She’s really fun to watch, and as long as you approach on her terms, she’s happy to have you around. I will be excited when she finds her real forever home, and hope she finds a person to appreciate her for the spirited little bit that she is.
If you’re interested in adopting Hilo or any of our other adoptable rabbits, please visit our website at www.indianahrs.org. You’ll find a list of upcoming events we’ll be participating in, as well.
Filed under friday foster, rabbits | Comment (0)
