Three Blind Bunnies, Earless Bob & Glenna the Good's Rainbow Hop Rememberance

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Three Blind Bunnies, Earless Bob, Beau and
Glenna the Good's Rainbow Hop Rememberance:

Beau and Bob Saved from the Jaws of Humans

Bob on his first night of safety

Published on International Rabbit Day 9-28-14

Sunday August 31, 2014

Four years ago today was a big day for Bright Eyes Sanctuary and today, the circle repeats itself like a running bun. Today, this little Sanctuary for special needs and hard-to-adopt rabbits finds itself with another earless rabbit who has simply awful teeth, three blind bunnies, two of whom are very old, and buns with various other maladies including megacolon, a thymoma, simple dental disease, and one very tender, sensitive tummy (belonging to the Prince with a Thousand Enemies) which requires copious amounts of romaine every day, several times a day to maintain hydration and thus, function.

I don't know if I'll finish this newsletter before midnight tonight but I write most of it on a day which has come to have much meaning as anniversaries of many life changing events for our sanctuary, myself and my family. So it seems to be the time to introduce to you two of our new sanctuary bunnies whom we whisked away from the jaws of abused hunting dogs and an elderly alcoholic trigger happy psychopath widower whose recently deceased wife's vulnerable hutch bunnies were being shot, sicced on by large hunting dogs (we presume they were hunting dogs because of their owner's gun fixation) and killed for food.

Beau accepts a carrot

Two stoic boys remained as survivors of this rural version of Danté's inferno, each kept alone in separate hutches, each scared to death and living on borrowed time in a situation only imaginable in a nightmare. Through a convoluted grapevine of animal lovers of various kinds, word reached me about an earless rabbit caught in a crossfire and awaiting his firing squad execution if he was not removed immediately from the situation, and one other bun had also survived thus far in that same hell hole. Knowing the mindset of some types, I suspected a manipulative plot to get me to cave and accept these bunnies. But investigation of the individuals involved in the dissemination of this dark news proved to be pure intentions of mercy for the bunnies and the two bunnies were indeed in mortal danger.

Enter Beau and Bob. Infested with fur mites, Beau also had irritated eyes from improper sawdust bedding and Bob, well, Bob's ears were missing, presumably cut off and his teeth were horrible with lower incisor tusks jutting out and upper incisor tusks curling around his upper jaw and then curling once again outward while threatening to pierce his cheeks. Their diet had been only crapple-quality corn pellets. Their coats were in poor condition. They were shivering with terror and nearly perished just with the scare of a car ride. But a neighbor of the psychopath had worked with a local lady who did one type of exotic rescue and managed to get this sad story to my radar where it pinged loudly if mostly because of the situation's close proximity. 

B!nky (Bubbles) is comforted by husbun Orion

Bright Eyes Sanctuary has been closed to new intakes for some years and we now have low adoptions as many of our alumni have been returned and, sadly, many come back in very poor shape or with poor habits for various reasons. My personal financial and health concerns also preclude our indefinite involvement in rabbit adoptions these days as those adopters of BES will know, adoptions are an incredible amount of grueling and detailed work which a post-recession (is it post- or ongoing?) climate shriveled up just about all chunks of this BES volunteer's free time and resources. So we focus on a careful, super cautious approach to continued rehoming attempts for those on their first, second, or third go around in the adoption merry go round.

Personally, my health has put pressures on my energy levels that just don't allow me, as the main face of this organization, to spend 40-50 hours a week rehoming rabbits anymore. Those days of 10-15 adoptions a month are over for more reasons than one. My focus had shifted to the maintenance of a high quality of life for our Sanctuary bunnies. But Beau and Bob needed a safety net, the absence of which had already failed the other rabbits in their home. So we pulled up our sleeves and brought them here this past Memorial Day weekend.

Details of Bob's ears

Bob's ears, however, were probably not cut off by a human but rather by a terrified, inexperienced mother rabbit perhaps caring for her young in a vulnerable outdoor hutch during a thunderstorm or other frightening experience. Many species of mothers do things like this in less than optimal situations. His horrible teeth are genetic but probably worsened by poor nutrition since birth. Beau is in pretty good shape. Both buns have been vetted and had blood work checked. They needed to enjoy good care and diet just a while longer before neutering - they were neutered last next week. Both of them, along with BES' 50 other Sanctuary rabbits, who have all had their annual exams, are given premium food and enrichment and are very lucky to be right where they are.

B!nky (Bubbles) eyes are examined

But BES could really use some help with the annual costs of this veterinary care as well as their supplies like tons of Carefresh every month, Oxbow pellets, bungalows, treats, willow toys and hay. Isn't it great that there's this little life boat out there in the sea of misery for animals in this world? We know that we are very good at doing what we do best which is taking care of bunnies. We think we do this well because our bunnies live so long, like over 16 now for Josephine, 11+ for several others, and various other ages. Dr. Carr of Maryland Avian and Exotics is our exotics vet who cares for all our bunnies and they love her! (Follow her on FB) But our bill for the annual exams this year was almost $5,000!

Orion gets weighed for his exam

Also for those who are clients of Dr. Lisa Carr who don't already know, she is now located in the newly opened Hope Advanced Veterinary Care center in Rockville, Maryland at 1 Taft Court. Their website is http://rockville.hopecenter.com Dr. Carr is still available for house calls as well. She did all of the BES annual exams via house calls, in several trips.  However, if you have a rabbit emergency, you should call Pender Vet in Fairfax, VA at 703.654.3100 or if you are in the Baltimore greater area, call Animal Emergency Hospital in Bel Air, MD 410-420-PAWS. The latter is used regularly by BES board members who love them!

Bob in profile

Bob will need his incisors trimmed every 30 days until we feel he may be ready to have them all removed just like Earless Glenna had done four years ago. That will be expensive. Do any of you remember Earless Glenna? Well if your memory isn't so good, we have republished the original blog posts on BES official blog, Running Bun Magazine, at this link: http://bit.ly/RBM-Glenna The photos have yet to be restored to these posts but we'll do that as time allows. Nevertheless, it is touching to reread all the annals of that brave bunny's epic journey. And we wanted to have it out there on this day.

We will never forget our beautiful earless empress, Glenna, and her stoicism in the face of so much of which seemed fueled by her love for her porridge! What a spirit she was! One person of the many who she inspired was Bob Smith who became a stalwart supporter of BES but who sadly passed away recently. So when faced with naming another earless rabbit, this time a male, it only made sense to honor the memory of this special Glenna fan by naming the lucky little fellow after him. Hence, we have Earless Bob. And Beau is just named for his handsomeness. Additionally, Bob Smith's beloved bunny, Tommy, (both pictured below) was reunited with his doting owner in Heaven just a week or so ago.

Bob holds his little Tommy

We don't usually send out more than two fundraising emails a year but we really need your help now with these operating expenses. Would you please consider a donation to Bright Eyes Sanctuary? It would be 100% tax deductible and we have seen a great decrease in the amount of active supporters in the last few years. So please consider donating whatever you might be able to so we can continue spoiling these bunnies and giving them the best veterinary care possible. Thank you so very much!

PLEASE HELP WITH OUR CONTINUING MISSION

"Can You See My Will-to-Be?"

-RP

Editors note: Running Bun Magazine is published strictly for the express benefit of Bright Eyes Sanctuary. All revenues earned collected and donated through Running Bun Magazine are directly deposited into the Bright Eyes Sanctuary coffers. Your support of our publication, which we hope you find useful, is greatly appreciated and needed. Your patronage is paramount. 

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Sanctuary Bunny Gallery:

 

Our Presiding Angel Bunny - Glenna

Our hero forever and inspiration.

Josephine

 Now approaching 17, she's healed from liver problem causing heart murmur.

Orion guarding Bubbles

Orion has megacolon & Bubbles is mostly blind

Buno Pookah

This rock star is battling a suspected thymoma and winning.

This gallery will be continued in subsequent posts in October!

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