Fez Has Joined Abby at The Bridge

Hi Everyone,


I know that I don't post much anymore, and haven't since Abby passed away. However, I still follow many of your blogs, and know that some of you have been wondering how we are doing.


Recently, Fez passed away. His loss has been very hard. We believe from the bloodwork that the lump that was on Fez's face was likely a secondary tumor and that he had cancer. The cancer also seemed to have prompted some kind of auto-immune response because his white blood cells were completely messed up, and his red blood cells were "chewed up" and extremely low. Although I am comforted that I did all that I could for him, and that in the end there would not have been any way to save him, I still am in shock over the loss of my "baby." Fez was the youngest of my rabbits and I did begin to foster him when he was just a baby, maybe 6 weeks old. He was a Barrie Bunny, rescued from a deplorable meat farm in March of 2008 along with about 300 rabbits. His buddy Norbert was part of the same rescue, though Norbie was an adult. Norbert is doing well. The vets were amazing at the end, and allowed me to bring Norbert to say goodbye. We all sat on the floor in a nice room together, and I told Fez how much I loved him, and held him as he died. I will miss him every single day.

Fez was an amazing rabbit, full of personality. Despite the fact that I had to hand feed him while he was a baby, he grew up not particularly "needing" me. He had Norbert, and also Abby who passed away in October 2010. He always preferred to snuggle with them instead of me, but was always full of hilarious antics to keep us all entertained. With his goofy ears, you could not help but smile and laugh, even as he got into the worst trouble (like eating my birth certificate... after jumping onto my kitchen table to do so...). Fez had cocked ears, always, that pointed out 5 o'clock... reminding us that it really is 5 o'clock somewhere. I always said that was his motto as he really did grab life and live each day, always having fun. He ate all the best bits of hay first, loved to make messes in order to binky around when I "yelled" at him, and really had a pure heart as he was such a good friend to Abby and Norbert. He taught me a lot about living life, as all our small friends do, although his was much too short.

I will continue to check in and follow many of your blogs. I may even share more in the future. But I want to thank you for thinking of us, it means a lot to know that people out there were as touched by Fez as I was.

-Amy

Dedicated to Abbey

I have bad news to share. Be prepared; this is a long post.

On Sunday, October 24th, my dear Abbey passed away suddenly after a brief, two day illness. We don't know what happened. We did everything that we could. By the time that the cause was actually showing (an absess behind her eye) she was so weak and unstable, that the vet was not able to stabilize her. I lost her.

The vets and some friends of mine and I have concluded that Abbey was older than we thought. She must have been slowly losing weight (she was down 3lbs when I took her to the vet - and I hadn't noticed any change in her habits until that day). As bunnies age the small issues they have can overwhelm their systems. This is what I now believe happened. But it doesn't make her loss any easier. I miss her every moment and feel her absense when I even just walk past the rabbit room. She is gone. I would like to share her story, as a catharsis, and to help myself remember that although she is no longer with me, memories of our time together always will be.

Abbey was my first "foster" with Rabbit Rescue Inc. She came to my home in July (I think) of 2007. She came to us from a lady who had rescued her but couldn't keep her. Abbey had been living in an outdoor hutch year round. She was attacked by a dog, and when the lady rescued her she had a large absess on her back. She was not in good shape. She took her in and the absess was removed, and Abbey healed. She was a fighter, and she pulled through. Her fur in the back area always grew in differently, like soft baby bunny fur, after that. I could always see where her "scar" was. It was about 8 inches long and 2 inches wide.

Abbey lived in my kitchen and from the start I enjoyed sitting beside her and having her there, giving my fingers kisses and leaning against me for pets. She was quite demanding and greedy, and would relentlessly head butt anyone around her for attention. She loved to stretch her back legs out behind her, and stretch her head down and foward, and look as long as she could.

One day the adoptions manager emailed me with a potential adopter. She asked, "Is Abbey available?" I clicked reply and began to write that she was, then burst into tears at the thought of her leaving. I deleted the text, and wrote back, "NO, she's mine!" and sent in the papers. I just couldn't imagine my life without her.

Abbey was so much to me. She made me laugh when I needed it most. After Cappuccino died in December 2007, it was Abbey who I snuggled into, breathing in the bunny smell. When Abe died, who I had intended to bond to Abbey, I came home devestated to find Abbey waiting at the door, and when she saw me she started to binky around like a mad-woman. Abbey did these mini-binkies. She would toss her head, and binky with her back legs only, and turn around in a 180. It made me laugh, even though I was so upset. It was like she was telling me that Abe was okay, he was at peace, and that things would be okay again.

She was my companion on sleepless nights, when I sat in the bunny room and absorbed the calmness, she would come and lean against my leg and fall asleep, silently comforting me. She was my little clown, with her little binkies, and her love of bananas! She was very ladylike, unless there was banana involved. I think she could fit more in her mouth than a person, just through sheer determination. She bullied Fez and Norbert, and made them groom her from head to toe, she picked the best pellets from each food dish and if the boys were in the way of anything she wanted, she climbed on their heads. She greeted each new person by running over and periscoping up for an ear rub and never showed fear. She was so very special to me, and I feel her absence in every way.

I am coping well, the boys are doing fine and Jack is business as usual. The boys are snuggling a lot and treating me pretty normally. Norbert has been made to endure more pets than normal, and he seems to slowly be getting slightly more comfortable with that. Fez refuses to submit and continues to toss his head and pounce away. I am remembering to cherish each one for their individuality. They are all my favourites, truly, in their own special ways. Abbey's way was her silent, mighty, courageous spirit. I will never forget the lessons she taught me.

What NOT To Say When Adopting a Rabbit

How to Adopt a Rabbit from a Rescue or Shelter:

Rule Number 1

When told the minimum cage requirements, don't tell the adoption counsellor that it seems "too big" for a rabbit. Furthermore, when the adoption counsellor insists that the requirements are the SMALLEST they will accept, and that bunny needs a lot of exercise outside of the cage, DO NOT say, "Well, if I bought a smaller cage, and the bunny didn't get exercise, you would never know, would you?"

I know now, thank you. Application denied.

Today's Lesson: Don't tell the adoption counsellor that you intend to lie on your application.

Asiago, available for adoption from Rabbit Rescue Inc., Ontario, Canada.

Renovations...

Hi Everyone,

I have decided to make some changes to the blog, and also to begin to devote more time to blogging once again. Instead of writing about the antics of strictly Fez and the bunnies, I will be focusing on my life here in Virginia.

I live with my four house rabbits, Fez, Abbey, Norbert, and Jack, my partner, and our beagle. I volunteer with rabbit rescues, the local shelter, and work as a professional pet sitter with a small company.

After much soul searching, a few years ago I quit my career path at the time to work with animals. It is a journey I am still on, as I strive to gain a foothold working in a shelter to help people and animals alike.

Each day I come a tiny bit closer.

Fez and the bunnies here are all well. However, I am quite sad to report that my dear Bambi, who I left back in Canada with my mom due to her age, passed away last week from cancer.

She was with my mom, who loved her very much, and we miss our sweet little girl dearly. She was about 12 -14 years old.

Too Busy for Blogging

Hi all,

The bunnies and I are all doing fine. I have been so busy working two jobs and with life in general! I just wanted you all to know that they are doing great though, everybun is happy and healthy, and I am getting started on a new blog that will be up shortly that is less centered on just the bunnies (though they will be in appearance) and more focused on the whole picture over here.

Hope you are all great, will get a bit caught up :)

Amy

Pancakes has crossed the Bridge

Hi all,

I'm very, very sad to report that Pancakes has crossed to the Bridge, early this morning.

His family is devestated and to be honest, so am I.

My one thought is that Pancakes is now pain free, and before he died he had 5 weeks of unconditional love and care from two amazing people.
                     
Dustin has stated that any donations that have been made and are still left, he will donate to other rabbits in need.

For those of you who would like to email him directly, with any words you might be able to scrounge up (I know I'm having a hard time) you can contact him at campbell.dustin@gmail.com

Thank you all for your thoughts and support on behalf of Pancakes and his family.
           

                        

Another Pancakes Update

Hi again everyone. Pancakes is in the hospital tonight, getting IV fluids, pain meds, etc etc. I just wanted to share the post that his Dad put on BunSpace earlier, it is very touching and at the very least will make us all go immediately to hug our own special bunnies, kitties, doggies, fishies, turtles, or whatever else that is special to us in our lives...

"Pancakes was not getting any better. He keeps going through, what looks like progression and then falling two steps worse than the last round.

Today, we decided to hospitalize him to help him get better. We had hoped so much that he would be able to do it on his own and I know that each and every one of your parents who has ever had to hospitalize you will understand the horrible heartache that Maria and I are feeling right now. We don't like the fact that he is in a different environment with new people and without us to be there to cuddle and support him and I reaaaaaaaaally hope he doesn't feel abandoned (it is breaking my heart just thinking about it.)

I spoke with the doctor on the phone (because I was at work all day) and he said that so far Pancakes is on IV, a catheter (sp?), and has a concoction of medications and pain killers. He has been incredibly co-operative (moreso than one of the staff has ever seen a bunny be.) He has voluntarily eaten pellets and critical care food. The doctor won't say if he is out of the woods yet or not because it is too early to tell but so far, he is progressing really, really, well.

I had a long and earnest discussion with him about options. We talked about Bicillin (thank you bunspace because I had never heard about it until the wonderful bunnies here had told Pancakes about it.) The vet is going to investigate it because I wanted him to be absolutely certain that a bunny in Pancakes condition can handle it.

I also spoke with him frankly on the matter of his mouth and in particular, options regarding his experience with bunny mouths. He was kind (and honest) to share where his expertise is at and where it isn't. Thankfully, that too, is not a worrisome issue as there is a hospital not very far from our town that specializes in it...so...while Pancakes gets stronger, his mouth will be fully assessed to find out if the problem is in the Doctor's skillset to fix or if the other hospital will need to join in the Saving Pancakes program.

I thank everyone who has supported Pancakes in his fight and I am doing everything I can think of to keep that support going because I am not sure how the hospitalization will affect us financially....

I need LOTS of moral support (because although people at my work understand how important Pancakes is, it's still no excuse for crying at work :P)

So, if you are reading this, please make your next click to be toward leaving a comment because although I haven't come anywhere CLOSE to replying to everyone and saying hello to all Pancakes' new friends, your comments, are very very very very very very very important to us. We are (in our city) surrounded by people who would have long given up on Pancakes who simply do not understand why we are fighting so hard for this sweeet (ok, now I am crying)...sweet bunny.

Bunspace is full, and I mean just packed, with bunnies and bipeds who do understand how special a bunny can be and I cannot possibly capture just how your words, how bunspace, how BiN, how Winston, Rocky, Binky, and soooo many other bunnies (no offense to anyone I haven't listed, it would just take me about 5 pages to list everyone), how this entire community has given Maria and I the exact words that we needed to hear.

I am not saying we would have ever given up on Pancakes if we didn't discover bunspace but what I am saying is that without bunspace:

1) Pancakes would not be getting the care he is receiving now. His options would have been far less open.

2) I would have struggled 1000 times harder to make options available to him

3) We would have never known about Bicillin or these recommended bunny-expert health care places

4) Maria and I would have been fighting this battle with our hearts shredded to pieces. Our morale has been crushed with each downfall.

Bunspace bunnies have been there to help us with everything. Pancakes owes you everything and although Maria and I only took Pancakes into our care to avoid him being sent to the rainbow bridge before his time...we have in the past month discovered that we owe Pancakes for all the joy and happiness he has brought into our lives. Little magical moments like him hopping up to you for no other reason than he wants to cuddle and feel safe in your arms.....it makes you think..that this little tiny bundle of sweetness, looks at our touch and our embrace as a safety and comfort feeling for him....how could we not fall in love with him?

In about 3 hours time, he will have been personally away from my arms for a complete 24 hours. This has been the hardest day that my memory can think of.

-Dustin (ever-loving Dad of Pancakes)"

He is on BunSpace for those of you who are as well under Pancakes, from London, Ontario. The support you all send means a lot as you can tell. I know we have all felt this way - and knowing there are people there who understand and who genuinely care, even though they are strangers, somehow makes things just a tiny bit easier.

I hope everyone and their bunnies are well tonight! And stay that way! The gang here is all fine. There is a special anniversary coming up on March 12th (The Barrie Bunny Anniversary). I, too, am grateful to have a caring community and feel lucky to know that somewhere I am understood!

-Amy

Update on Pancakes

Hello kind friends!

Some of you requested a Pancakes update. His site was updated late last night by his owner. The donations have really brought them up and out of the trouble zone for now! But it does sound like he will require dental work from his recent post.

He is doing much better and back to being active. His cheek is continuing to heal. They found a lump on his neck but believe it to be his lymph node with a bit of swelling due to his body fighting the infection from his cheek. He had been drooling a lot and having trouble eating - but he just lost an incisor, which sounds like it had been broken and that was what was bothering him. He is now no longer drooling and is able to eat much easier!

You can visit his status page: http://www.dustincampbell.ca/pancakes/hisstatus.html to read the full update.

He also posted some new pictures to show his progress! Under his pictures page. Please be aware they are graphic in terms of his missing cheek, so I won't post a direct link, but if you want to view the pictures you can find them. They do show a nice steady progress.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart on behalf of Pancakes, for taking the time to read about him and give support with thoughts, emails, donations, and passing on the word.

An Apology... and a Plea

Been a long time... so I wanted to say sorry! I try to keep up with reading about you guys, but Mom has been soooooooooooo busy, so she claims. She would like to offer you this very adorable picture of some buntocks to appease you:

              

                

I know, we are cute. Even from the back end.

        

Anyway, Mom also would like to jump in and offer a few words, or something. Now it's my turn to apologize... At least she probably won't call you FezzerBumm...

        

I only want to quickly ask that you guys take a few moments to visit a website about a special bunny named Pancakes. Pancakes lives in London, Ontario, Canada. He is approximately 2 years old, and a Netherland Dwarf bunny. He is incredibly friendly and loving. His previous owners abandoned him - with an abcess in his cheek roughly the size of a golf ball.

    

Now, I know many of us have dealt with our bunnies being sick. Treated them, vetted them, cared for them. Someone has luckily taken Pancakes in, to treat and care for. Unfortunately he is having difficulty with the financial aspect of treatments. You can read all about what Pancakes has had to go through on the website. I am posting here to ask people to pass it on, or to donate if you can. The website notes that you can't donate directly to the vet; however a friend of mine has called the vet directly and they will accept a credit card payment directly to be put towards Pancakes' care. The vet is:

1310 Commissioners Road West
London, (ON)
N6K 1E1
(519) 472-3770
         

I hope you are all well and I will get caught up and updated shortly! Thanks for taking the time to read about Pancakes.

              

Hoppy Holidays!

          

So, we are totally over not going to the top levels. It did torture mom, but they are just so fun! See Norbert enjoying it up there!? He likes to climb down along all the boxes. Wheeeee!

           

So we thought maybe we should give mom a break. It's not nice to torture her. The other slave was giving her presents too, so we didn't want to be upstaged. He gave her this loud thing, she calls it a dyson. She got all excited and ran into our room and turned on the loud thing, and kept schreeching "it's picking up the hay!!!" while she ran around the room. What a whacko. Anyway, we thought since she has so much fun with this thing, we should make sure she has lots to use it on.

                 

I had this bright idea, to throw all the hay and stuff out of our litter boxes and strew it around the room. Then she could come in with the loud thing and get all happy and pick it all up. Brilliant! So, we have started to regularly do this for her. When she walks by and peeks in and sees the gifts we've given, she says things like, "OH! You BUNNIES!" and then gets the loud thing right away. She must really love it.

                  

Yesterday we did it three times. Let me tell you, on the third time, when she saw how generous we are, she was SPEECHLESS. I'm pretty sure I saw a tear in her eye!

          

So Hoppy Holidays to you all! I hope you can all do something as nice as this for YOUR humans!

           

Caught in the Act!

Well, she finally figured it out. Norbert and I ventured up to the second level to stretch our legs, and she caught us.

                

         

Man, then all the squeaking she did, and jumping around, and picture taking, and more squeaking, and telling the other slave to come and look... I really don't think he cared.

        

So the fun of torturing her is over. Oh well... I'm sure we can find another way....

      

Monday Bunday... on the ground level

We are perfectly happy, down here, on the floor.
             

            
I believe I will continue to drive the Mom crazy by refusing to climb the ramp. Lately she has started to put Jack up in the upper level... I can tell. I can smell her up there. I bet she's leaving little poops as if it's her own area. But it's not hers. It's mine. I just choose not to go up there.
                           

Sneaking up...

I decided to sneak to the second level in the middle of the sleeping time for Mom. But she caught me! I should have known. She always gets up at night to pet us and refill our hay.
                      

                 

I sat really, really still. I thought maybe she wouldn't see me, then I could sneak back down and she would continue to go insane. But she saw me. And got all squeaky, and took my picture.

             

Well, the joke is on her. I haven't gone back up since! Ha!

                    

Ahhh.... Friday!

We are so glad that it's Friday! We have a pretty tough life you know.
               

          

We work so hard sometimes it's hard to find the energy to even eat! Somehow, we manage...

             

Mom is still harping on us to try going to explore the other levels. We are still note sure. I guess that really intelligent animals, like rabbits, just don't adapt to change very quickly! She has bribed us with treats, and cajoled us, and even put Abbey up on the second level (! can you believe the indignity?!) but we won't go until we are good and ready!

                                       

Happy Friday!

                  

The New Digs

Hi everybun from our new place! Check out our set-up:
          

              
There are 6 of those big windows, and lots of space in the rest of the room. Jack has explored a ton. She has even found a spot in the windows to lay in. However..... we three aren't so sure of our new condo.....
                    

         

See, Mom's put lots of stuff on the second level there, trying to get us to go up there. We remain unconvinced. You can completely forget about the third level at this point.

                              

From Fez's Mom: If anyone has any ideas of how I can entice these cowards to explore their HUGE condo, I'm all ears! I'm tired of seeing them like THIS for half the day:

             

         

Squished in one litter box! (Please note.... they are free range in the entire sunroom for 12 hours a day, so still getting lots of exercise.)

             

I'll Help With Those Boxes...

See, I'm always doing nice things for Mom...
             

                           
Here I am helping her take care of these moving boxes! I only made a little progress on one corner, before she told me to stop. I guess she didn't want me to over-exert myself. The big move is this weekend!
      
To answer some of your questions... the humans are moving too!  Mom says we're not going far, just across town.

We are Moving!

Hey bunny rabbits! Guess what?

Yep we are moving! The bunny slaves bought us a bigger place, where the bunnies get to have our own room! No more sharing the living room! A room just for us, the Bunny Room! Rulers of the house! Well, the one room, anyway.

We'll probably be moving over there on October 24th or 25th. But wait... there's more! Check it out...

We are even getting our OWN CONDO!!!! How awesome is that! The three of us will live in the sweet condo from Leith Petwerks above, and Jack is going to have a pen to herself. I can't wait!

A New "Friend"

A couple of weeks ago, we had company come and stay over. It was the Other Slave's mom. Can you guess what she brought with her? A Dog-bunny! He has these funny floppy ears, he must be some kind of lop. Anyway, his name is Russel. He is going to stay with us now. We're not sure what we think of him, and I kind of think the feeling is mutual....

Here he is with Jack. Mom says he's an older guy and we should be nice to him. We don't really bother each other, but you should see him and Jack! It's like this guy doesn't speak rabbit. See, Jack will tell him to GO AWAY with a big scary lunge and a grunt, and you know what he thinks?? He thinks she is playing! He gets this dopey grin and wags his stupid long tail! And he makes this really LOUD noise!

So the rest of us usually just stay still and let him come over and groom us. Then he gets bored and goes away. Not Jack, though. She launches at him in full attack! Yesterday she bit his head. He still thought she was playing. Maybe he speaks some other bunny language.... like Backwards Bunny English or something. Definitely a foreigner.

Monday Bunday, how we've missed you!

We haven't really missed Mondays... but Monday Bunday is another story!

          

             

Here are Norbert and I enjoying a cuddle... Until Mom got the stupid camera that is! As far as bunnies go, we have all voted at our house, and decided that Norbert has a HUMONGOUS head. Okay, so I'm 12 lbs of fabulous-ness, and Norbert is only 10 lbs., but look at how much BIGGER his head is than mine!

       

Anyone else know some big-noggin bunnies? We can have a contest! (Don't worry Norbert we still love you even if your head is mutant-large!)

             

At Last!

All hail our glorious return!

Mom is finally back in the USA. Actually, she has been back for almost three weeks, but too busy (so she says) to catch up with the blog! We were glad to have her back, though the other bunny slave was very good and took his direction well. Abbey had him eating out of her hand... or rather, hand feeding her so she could eat out of his! She has that effect on humans.

Back to the important part! I sure have missed reading about all of your adventures! It will take me forever to catch up. I don't even have any new photos to share. So I will let Mom fill you in on what she has been up to....

Yes thank you Fez, I am back in the USA. I finally got my visa and am one step closer to my green card. While back in Canada, I had no job and little to do so I began to volunteer at the local SPCA/Humane Society. Where I grew up is a very rural area, and so the shelter was very small and expected to take care of a very large area. We used a converted tractor trailer as the shelter, which had been renovated and insulated, at least half of it, and brought up to code to house people and animals. There were about 70 cats able to be kept at the facility, and more in foster care. Dogs were kept in foster care. The SPCA was also expected to conduct primary investigations and go on emergency and wildlife calls. Since I had nothing else to do, and quickly fell in love with the job of a rescue worker, I devoted most of my time to the shelter for the 11-12 weeks that I was there. In addition, I fostered a little bunny, who came in named "Snow White with Makeup on" but when I discovered it was a male, I renamed him Cooper (think Alice). I do have his pictures to show you...

Cooper having fun with his toys

Cooper visiting the camera

Cooper is a very good bunny, about 5 months old, learned his litter habits after he was neutered and is very playful and affectionate. Every time you pet him he lays down right away, and he gives kisses like crazy. He is still looking for a forever home, so put the word out all you Southern Ontarians!

I got back at the end of August and since then we have bought a condo (2 bedrooms yay!) and we have also just taken in a new doggy friend, named Russel. Russel is an 8 year old Beagle, who is epileptic, but it's under control. He is a very good dog and is getting along well with the bunnies.

Okay okay, you have gone on long enough! We can update you all more another time... now to catch up!