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.
More of “the cute”
It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted, and my life is so boring and lame that I really don’t have anything to post about now. Let’s see…
- I have two new foster rabbits: Willa and Spencer, and I recently inherited our oldest living foster rabbit, Honey.
- I spent 45 minutes on Friday evening cutting mats out of the hair on my cat’s back – he’s so fat that he just can’t groom himself well, and all of the saliva just ends up gluing the hair together. It’s gross, and now he looks ridiculous. I hope he’s more comfortable.
- I’m moving forward with dog adoption – I’m working with a local rescue group, and went to an adoption event last Saturday to meet some of the dogs. I think I met “the one”, but am still waiting for the home visit to find out if I’m approved. I have a good feeling, but you never can tell…
- I’m psyching myself up this week for the big MEMORIAL SERVICE this Saturday. This thing has taken on a life of its own, and it’s more than my mom would have wanted. As far as I’m concerned, the only people that should be there are people that knew Mom, that loved her (or at least liked her), and have been supportive of our family. Those people will all be there, along with several others who haven’t had a presence in the lives of our family for years. The planning was sort of taken out of my hands – not unwillingly – so I’m just going to sit back and watch it unfold. It’s interesting to hear Dad’s perspective, because I think he’s looking for a different experience than I am. I’m pretty well over it, at this point, and am trying to figure out how I’m going to hold it together in front of all these people. I know I don’t have to hold it together, but I’m not really into sharing my grief at this point. Except in writing.
- I painted the spare bedroom this weekend – it’s a lovely shade of blue now, and while it needs another coat before it’s officially done, I’m ready to start filling it up with furniture. I’d like to get this daybed and thisbookcase from IKEA; I’d also like to get this lampshade to hang from a pendant cord. I think I’d like a glider, like this one to put in the corner for reading, but I’ll be checking Craigslist for one of those. I would also like to get a drafting table to use as a hobby station, but I’m not sure if that’s practical, since I also need to squeeze the sewing machine cabinet in there somewhere. Oh, and my grandmother’s cedar chest will be moving into that room, though I may refinish it and paint it red. I’m planning to hang the Sunbonnet Sue quilt that my Gammy made me when I was a little girl – it’s bordered with red and white gingham, and I think it’ll look great against the blue walls. Once that room is done, it’s on to the living room – I’m beginning to be in dire need of a new couch.
I think that’s about it. I’m ready to go to bed – I have an early day tomorrow, and then another night with the girls. It seems Pawpaw is playing “roadie” this week doing security for some kind of tour, so I’m pulling double babysitting duty. It’s a good thing the girls are so cute.
Filed under dogs, family, i want that!, me, rabbits | Comment (0)One year
This is Angus. He was my heart bunny, the bunny love o’ my life. Today is the one-year anniversary of his passing, so I thought I’d write a little about him.
Angus was “rescued” by a well-meaning samaritan. He was housed in a feed trough at a local pet store/nightmare, and because he was missing some fur over his shoulders, she thought he had mites. She bullied the manager into giving the rabbit to her, but she wasn’t going to be able to keep him. At the time, there was an email list for local HRS members, and she posted there looking for a home for him. I had always wanted a rabbit, and had moved into an apartment earlier that year, and decided that it was the right time.
Angus was the cutest thing I’d ever seen. He was about four months old when I brought him home in October 1999, and he was actually quite healthy… just overgroomed by his litter mates. He was bouncy and fun, very entertaining, in those early days. I did everything I could to make his life happy – he had tons of toys, I built him a ginormous cage, fed him salads that I weighed (HRS recommends 8 oz. of greens per 6 lbs. of rabbit – I just wanted to make sure he was getting enough!), and bought him the best hay and pellets money could buy. I even adopted a friend for him – Benny – though he and Benny weren’t interested in being roomies. We went through lots of things together… 2 different apartments, and finally, a house; several different cages; MANY new bunnies coming in and out; emergency, life-saving surgeries and all of the nursing that came with that. He was the undisputed king of the bunny room, and knew that I belonged to him.
Angus was the bunny that started everything for me – I became involved in rabbit rescue the next year, and started my fostering “career”. I can’t imagine living without a rabbit now – there’s something about earning the complete trust of a prey animal that makes the relationship seem more special. Angus’ passing left an Angus-sized hole in my heart that no other bunny could ever completely fill, though they certainly do ease the ache. I miss him every day, and I hope he enjoyed our almost-nine-years together as much as I did.
Love you, sunshine boy.
