Breeding Like Rabbits

We've been over capacity on the rabbit front for quite some time now after a series of abandonments, strays and of course 7 being born in our care. By saturday we reached a total of 23 in our care, and counting, when we can only really afford/fit 10-12 at anyone time.

I'm sure you'll remember Hetty and her babies. Well they are 7 weeks old today and have grown so much but are just as beautiful as ever. Catherine took the above pics on Friday and I went to see them for myself Saturday and I just felt so proud!

But the real reason I went to see them on Saturday (having transferred them from mine to our boarding place prior to my holiday) was to deliver 3 out of 4 rabbits we rescued late on Friday night.

Yes, Catherine did it again - she found another stray rabbit and is now officially banned from walking her Juno!

This is time the owner came forward, though not catch the rabbit, just to see what we were doing. They knew full well their bunny was loose but seemed undeterred. I went to the home to find unneutered male and females all loose together living in squalor. It really was wholly inappropriate and thankfully we managed to get all but one bunny signed over to us.

I was given assurances that the remaining bunny was being rehomed with a family member. The conditions he/she were in were so bad that the owner was visibly embarrassed and tried to dissuade me from investigating further and highlighting to her how woefully inadequate the conditions were.

When we got the bunnies to safety we found we had two approx 5 mths old, 1 that was heavily pregnant and due to drop any moment (and not for the first time) and the 4th with bite wounds all over with one badly infected plus dental problems and also seeming to be pregnant. This poor girl is Agatha and being fostered, thankfully, by Hannah, and she is having an ultrasound tomorrow to see how far gone she is cos we can't neuter her due to the bite wounds!

So, 10pm on Friday night I'm putting up cages in my hallway for the other 3 thinking..."Welcome back". Come Saturday morning I get a knock at my door and the words, "I've found a stray rabbit." What appeared was nothing short of a vision of loveliness; a gorgeous helicopter eared white male rabbit. So he is now occupying the vacated space in my hallway. He must be being greatly missed cos he is so friendly, in really good health and even castrated! I really hope someone comes forward to claim him or else he will be put for adoption and he's just too gorgeous!

And the week started off in typical style. First call I took was from a distressed adopter desperately wanting to the return the dog they'd adopted just over a week ago. Why? Well, they said she was destructive and had chewed the remote and the garden ornaments and destroyed the garden they had spent years working on. So now we are in dire straits with the dogs too as we are over capacity at the boarding kennels and a situation we cannot afford to maintain for long.

Even worse, our vet bill was another thousand pounds over again this month because of the number of ill animals and euthanasias we had to undertake. For example, one new dog, Dillon, who was, I think, dumped on wasteland, had to lumps removed from his gums and biopsied at a cost of £297. It's not funny, is it.

I can only hope that our summer festival/ fun dog show gets great weather, a great turn out and enough volunteers to make it a success cos we surely need every penny we can get at the moment. And if I can be really greedy I'd like lots of suitable homes for our bunnies. And if there are any people out there questioning why they can't give a single rabbit a home in a hutch alone outdoors (like I had today) IT DOES NOT MEET THEIR NEEDS.

Already loosing my will to fight on but tomorrow is another day!