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!

Or follow me on Instagram for the latest!

ALSO CHECK OUT OUR NEW Fine Art America STORE

Lagomorpheus is the Prince with a Thousand Enemies

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  Controversy: Lagomorphogenesis

The birth of a Running Bun Magazine rocker rabbit cover.

Here are some of the many image versions I worked on while completing this cover. The photograph is copyright © Rabbit Photog of Inspired By Paws Studios. Derivative versions strictly prohibited!

Here is the original photograph taken on this handsome rabbit's second birthday in the yard of Inspired By Paws Studios, also the offices of Running Bun Magazine. In Photoshop, I adjusted only the contrast on the photo in the area of his head.

© Running Bun Magazine

In this photo, I immediately noticed sun-enhanced markings which astounded me. I showed friends and family this shot and asked them what they thought he looked  like or who he looked like.

© Running Bun Magazine

I got many interesting answers from an Asian trader to a swashbuckler to an antique gentleman with an Imperial moustache. It's his moustache that really intrigued me. Below, I've only darkened the area where his moustache markings are by using the burn tool which simply makes what is already there, darker. I extracted the moustache marking with the select tool and put it aside, it reminded me of a question mark.

© Running Bun Magazine

For many months after spying these markings, I thought about 'what does it mean? How did this rabbit develop markings which appear to look like stage makeup? His emphatic Colin Farrell eyebrows, even with eye shadow in soft graduated tones of taupe on his Satin fur, even earrings hanging off his ears! And the markings being perfectly symmetrical on both sides of his face!

What caused this? I had never seen such markings on any rabbit before much less any animal. The closest in the rabbit breeds would be the gorgeous black eyerings of the Blanc de Hotot but this guy doesn't have anything like that. It was almost as if the spirit of someone was coming through his DNA to be seen to human eyes again, a haunting, as it were, in the form of a very well dressed rabbit.

This brought two things to mind: the research by Dr. Emoto on the effect of mental energy from a close by research assistant on ice crystals as they froze and the final works of mathematician genius Alan Turing on animal markings and morphogenesis.

Illustration from Turing's theory of morphogenesis

Some tiny fraction of the morphogenesis formula

Morphogenesis: the conscious moment

Alan Turing is best known to those not so mathematically enthusiastic as the guy who wrote the test to determine if a computer is aware. It stands as the standard test of artificial intelligence. He was a genius whose mathematical feats have touched all of our lives in some way although most of us don't know it.

When an animal embryo is at a very specific point of time and development, the markings that animal will bear all its life are affected by external forces in the form of thought energy and intent. This formation of the markings is called morphogenesis. Like Dr. Emoto's happy snowflakes whose beauty and delicacy is affected by the positivity or negativity of thoughts and feelings directed toward its formation by the external energy force of the researcher, Alan Turin's morphogensis theory explains the very similar formation of an animal's markings as it unfolds from the encoded DNA of its origin.

I realized also, that what was going on with this rabbit was then a very unique type of morphogenesis which occurred during the creation of this lagomorph, this rabbit.

Lagomorpheus

He became known to me as Lagomorpheus, a pirate rabbit whose markings happened to be formed during the crazy summer when the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie came out. Were his markings an expression of the throngs of pirate obsessed people passing near his mother who was impregnated upon arrival at a public animal shelter? Were they affected by me who cared for his mother there and whisked her away just before she gave birth? Did I have an inner pirate, which I know I do, who loves pirates for their parrots and who oodled some energy onto this little being as he blossomed into a baby? Or did he just look like the funky purple king of coolness, Prince Rogers Nelson, because I've seen him in concert five times and I still have Prince on the brain?

I didn't know but I wanted to paint out the undesirable parts of the photo so I produced the following digital painting so I could design an uncluttered Running Bun Magazine cover featuring this Prince with a Thousand Enemies (his band). And this is what I came up with. I was  happy with it.

© Running Bun Magazine

At first I wanted to simulate the Musicology cover by making the grass purple and the type slanted. The poses were so similar!

© Running Bun Magazine, Prince photo used conditionally

I played with different fonts for the headline.

© Running Bun Magazine

I went through a washed out, desaturated period and finally settled on typeface below.

© Running Bun Magazine

The Final Cover

The extracted markings became the symbol of the rabbit formerly known as the prince with a thousand enemies now known as Lagomorpheus. Appropriately, it looks like a question mark. Butterflies denote the butterfly effect which, if physicists can believe that, mathematicians can believe lagomorphogenesis. The three circles hint at a paisley pattern, beloved by Prince Rogers Nelson, but encapsulate the ideas of morphogenesis, and emotional energy with this symbol which looks like a question mark.

And there you have it.

You should be able to figure out the headline references if you're a Prince fan. I am. You can see other photos of this pirate rabbit hopping around during this same photo shoot in which you can clearly see his markings in the next post.

© Running Bun Magazine

 -Thumper S. Thompson

See more of this issue's content.

All content and images © Running Bun Magazine. Use without permission prohibited.   watermark by subtlepattern

Enter the Rabbit Hole

RabbitPhotog here, stepping in yet again for Thumper S. Thompson, Senior Writer of Running Bun Magazine. Where the heck is TST? Is he in Las Vegas? Hiding in the shadows of Owl Farm? Lurking around the campaign trail? Or maybe protecting Jimmy Carter from swamp rabbits down in Georgia? 

Let me take a brief segué here to mention he might very well be protecting Prez Jimmy Carter from swamp rabbits down Georgia way. You know he loves Jimmy Carter, ever since he heard the man quote Bob Dylan in a campaign speech all those years ago. It's not every day politicians quote folk singers, much less the heir to Woody Guthrie's soulfire found smouldering in the personage of Robert Zimmerman. But maybe you didn't know about all the glowing embers the swamp rabbit drenched during that story? Rest assured, TST will enlighten you later down the road on those twisted tales.

President Jimmy Carter shoos off a swamp rabbit attack (far upper right)

Suffice it to say, TST is indisposed until later this month until after his favorite holiday, which also starts with a T and during which he devours huge amounts of that avian meat analog known as Tofurky. It can be hard to find the Tofurky Vegan Feast this time of year, and so perhaps, he is out there rooting and snooting for it. Yea, that's it.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, me, RabbitPhotog, owes you dear reader, another tome promised in the series which is coming to be known as The Secret Voice of Rabbits. So let us enter the rabbit hole.

Oh, but wait! This is a perfect time to mention our 2014 Official Running Bun Magazine calendar! We are even treated here to a glimpse of the cover which features a rabbit hole entrance with hulky looking Mini Rex bunny rabbit peering down into it from the grassy plains above. These fantastic calendars feature a different rock star rabbit each month as they appeared on the cover of Running Bun Magazine. There are also some out take shots from each if the photo shoots of that month's rock star rabbit. And found only here in this calendar, each rock star rabbit's bio and stats. That means their real life name before entering rock star rabbitdom, the sad story from whence they came, and the tantalizing tidbits of their personal happily ever after. 

January features the incomparable Buno of U2. February has the beautiful Bunoncé's cover and headlines about her being Dangerously in Love with Bun-Z and out take shots of her onstage dance moves. March takes a look at a modern day Fierce, Bad Rabbit á la Beatrix Potter's famous tale. April is the mouth watering Mr. Chocolate who melts on your wall and not in your hands. 

May is drop dead gorgeous Bink!(y), the fabulous animal welfare advocate with her gentle, loppy gaze. June is awesomely magical with The Gloved One (do we really need to say which bun is this?) showing out take shots of him dancing the MoonHop! 

July is the dapper and dashing crooner, Harry Bunnick, Jr. who also starred in the legendary science fiction thriller, Independence Day. August features the angelic empress rabbit rescue icon, Glenna the Good, whose tragic tale still evokes tears from some and inspires others (like myself, her photographer). September's Back to School cover has none other than our own Thumper S. Thompson with the only ever photographic stop action thump shot! Truly legendary! October's cover is the original down and dirty rock star rabbit, Muck Digger of the Running Buns sticking out his tongue in total irreverence. November mellows out with Splash of Buns n Noses as he awaits the cold November rain and last but never, ever least is Bun Jovi just in time for a holiday prayer as in Livin' on a Prayer!

How can you resist? Currently, we only have five of these in stock, so get yours before they're gone. Thanks! And the proceeds will all go towards helping us help our rock star rabbits! And we do a lot for them. 

So as the calendar cover says, Follow Me, let's go down the rabbit hole together. And I will have to continue this post later in the week. That's when I'll talk about the secret to getting that scared rabbit's ear up from being flat on his head to standing up tall and proud. 

 -RabbitPhotog
All content and images © Running Bun Magazine. Use without permission prohibited.