Mechanically, yes, it’s easier … but one must still sit down and type !!

We had a very busy Christmas season what with the Santa pictures and continued adoptions along with a lack of volunteers that has certainly kept us “hopping”.

Well, I’m happy to report that we’re developing a “small but mighty” volunteer base and word is getting out about our need for additional help.  We’ll, hopefully, be out of the woods before long in that regard.

It’s not that we’ve not had anything going on .. quite the contrary.  Yet, when I’m asked, “What’s new?”, I invariably say, “Not much .. just S-O-S (same-ol’-stuff).  It sounds like we’ve got a mundane existance.  It’s not dull, by any means, but the days do seem to run together.

The problem, you see, is that we do see the S-O-S every day.  I’ll be sharing some stories of our news in later posts and you’ll see what I mean.  It seems that “only the names have changed” in a great number of cases.  Some stories will be very happy while some will, as always, be very sad.

… Stay Tuned.

Such was the case with little Marylyn.  I was making my “evening rounds” to check the kids, adjust cooler settings, etc, etc and I noticed the light on in the garage.

In the heat of the summer I sometimes keep the garage door open - hopefully, it helps keep it cooler.  We’ve got an electric eye near the ground that trips the light on if someone walks in.  Well, I was sure wondering who I was going to have to arrest for trespassing when I saw this little thing in the shadows beside the car.

I realized the situation.  Someone had simply tossed a little bunny over our fence!  She ran a little, but she did stop and let me approach and pick her up.

I didn’t think about it ’til a bit later, but …

Coincidence is simply when God wishes to remain anonymous.

… if I had not stepped out exactly when I did and little Marilyn hadn’t hopped into the garage exactly when she did, I would have simply closed the garage and we might have found a dead bunny a few days later.  That light is on only a five-minute timer!

She’s doing very well now .. in spite of the cowards that threw her out. 

But then, we have programs in place now that let you do that with human children, too.  If you don’t even have to show your face to abandon a human child, why should you have to to abandon an animal, right?

It’s more than obvious that this little guy was simply fed and left alone.   From the story we got - and the way it was delivered - these folks that “found” him were just letting him run around some bit of the back yard in the summer heat.

The people probably began to notice that he wasn’t eating so much and finally thought they maybe should look to see if he had a problem.

Well, by that time, he DID have a problem.  You can see, from the picture that his teeth had mis-aligned and had become grotesquely overgrown.

We don’t know what his bottom tooth (only one appears to be still alive) looked like.  “It broke in the wire we caught him in …”, they said.

Ladies and gentlemen … NEGLECT IS ABUSE !!  In fact, no matter what you think, it is worse than cutting off an animal’s head, beating it to death, or most anything ugly you can think of .. Those ugly things END at some point!

Neglect is prolonged suffering … sometimes prolonged, AGONIZING suffering.  Little Monsoon was not on a diet but he was sure losing weight!  He was the worst sort of victim of animal abuse.  Neglect is not just abuse … it’s torture!

Spend time with your pets.  Touch them - love them - notice them.  You surely don’t want to become one of these people that debate whether or not to take care of “the thing” or get rid of it … do you?

If you have no emotional ties to your pets, the decision to “dump” the animal is easier than you think. 

Monsoon [our name], she said, was staying out under the barbecue grill because “we don’t have anyplace to keep him” and she “also noticed” that he had a long tooth.  “Maybe the people that turned him loose did so because of that”, she said.

When the man got here, and the bunny was put away, Angel asked him - point blank - “Is this really YOUR bunny?” .. To which he, sheepishly, did not reply.

Well, their conscience is clear now.  They don’t think they abandoned the bunny.  They will just pretend that they never had a bunny to begin with!

There are a number of definitions of the word “abandon”, but the number one on every list of definitions is:

1. To withdraw one’s support or help from, especially in spite of duty, allegiance, or responsibility; to desert:

We continue to get people, that ask if we’re a “no kill” shelter.  This in the same breath as, “I need to get rid of this thing.”

I understand extenuating circumstance, but “stupid”, “insensitive” and/or “self-centered” do not fall into that category - by my estimation.

I have asked these people, more times than I care to remember, “What do you care?… As soon as you turn your back, you’re going to forget that this poor animal even existed.”

“We want him to go to a good home”, they sometimes say.  To which I have replied, “Well, there’s no doubt he will be going to a BETTER home, anyway.”

Please talk to your friends about this problem.  Getting an animal (and then calling it a pet) because “everyone else has one” is wrong.

Being a “Pet Owner” is wrong.  If you cannot be a “Pet Parent”, then don’t get the animal to begin with !

Believe me, folks … This is not a legal issue.  This is a moral issue.  In this day and age when families, marriage and even children are disposable … what chance to these defenseless creatures have?

Again .. speak to your friends, but more importantly .. teach your children — They sure won’t learn it at school.

There for a while, we were beginning to believe that we’d never get ahead of the “bunny boom”.  Well, remember we told you about baby Ivory having babies, herself?  We’re about ready to get the babies fixed so they can get homes, too.

“Slowly” is the right word though .. If you think about it, we told you about getting Ivory and her siblings at the first of the year!  This is August!  These backyard breeders don’t know (nor care) what long-term effects they have on these poor little creatures.

But “catching up” is a relative term, to say the least.  During the “bunny boom”, Neveah not only had a still-born litter, but had to be taken for a tooth extraction and then, later, an abcess removal from her jaw.

Lover Boy & Happy Boy were tossed like so much litter on a well-kept grassy avenue.  They found their way to the porch of an empty house and a lady called us to come get them because she was too scared to approach them herself.

We received the four bunnies - Chocolate Drop, Mocha, Oreo and Cookie from a man that said, “We had four more, but they couldn’t take the heat .. These weren’t looking so good, so we thought we might ought to call you.”

Sunshine (Sunny) was returned by the lady that adopted her a year and a half ago because, “my 10-year-old has lost interest and I just don’t have time for it.”

Sparkles was brought to us by a concerned neighbor of the girl that had thrown him from her 2nd-story balcony once and had come down to take him back and “try again”.  The girl was more than happy to let them have him - that way she didn’t have to kill it to get rid of it.

Then not long after that, we got Arizona Hot Boy on one of the hottest days of the summer (118 degrees).  He was let go to simply fend for himself … The only thing I’m sure he was thinking of was finding shade!

Khandi and Katlin are sisters.  They were dumped at one of our vet’s office with a baby no more than a day or two old (no doubt the reason they were tossed).  Obviously, now, it was Khandi’s baby, but neither her nor Katlin showed any interest in nursing.  This is a story just like Autumn and Ivory .. one had babies that didn’t live and the other was “sparked” into the “maternal mode” to have a successful litter. 

The other sister, Katlin has since given us two more butterballs that we call Kits.  There’s no telling how she’s feeding them so well.  She’s barely big enough (or old enough) to have babies at all — much less care for them the way she does.

Somewhere about that time we received a call from a woman that needed to “get rid of” a couple of sandy colored rabbits with big ears.  We had to tell her to hang onto them for a few days while we juggled hutches.

We never heard from her again, but the PetSmart in her area called with a need to give us a couple of sandy colored rabbits with big ears that had been left in a box on the curb sometime before the store opened.  Those two are Azalea and Marigold — a couple of beautiful Palominos.

Patrick was another that was returned by an owner that had “no time for him anymore”.

Powder Puff is a beautiful white mini Angora that would make almost any rabbit owner jealous.  A lady (using the term loosely) tossed him to us saying that he was more trouble than he was worth.  There are others, but I remember this handsome fellow specifically.

Then, yesterday evening, we got Monsoon. He was named for the storm that was raging when he arrived.  I’ll be devoting a story to him in a day or two.

… Did I say something about “catching up”? … silly me.

This area of our effort is the East Valley Bunny Rescue’s
Feline E-List Program. 

We have chosen to work with the Apache Junction Animal Control (AJAC) office in an effort to keep cats and kittens from being euthanized simply to make room for more cats.

We have proven very successful with this effort.  In fact, we believe that we’re the only such program that can say this:

“Since we began our Feline E-List Program in October, 05, the Apache Junction Animal Control (AJAC) office has not euthanized a healthy cat.”

That statement would indicate, also, that we, obviously, have found homes for these cats and kittens or we would not have been able to take in the more than 600 cats that we have, so far this year.

As you probably know, in times past, we’ve taken in virtually every “domestic” mammal up through pot-belly pigs.  Through the years, we’ve come to realize that a rescue effort - no matter what its purpose - cannot be all things to all people.

It is that realization that allows us to be successful with the Feline E-List Program. We are working with the AJAC to assist that little “corner of the world” with its excessive feline population.  We continue to say that we are not a “cat rescue”, by definition.

Only on an extremely rare occasion and/or dire circumstance have we taken in a cat or kitten from any other source.  We have synchronized our effort to match the needs of AJAC.  We have yet to refuse any cat or kitten that they have considered adoptable. Our “set-up” works like this:

1. We call on Monday or Tuesday to see how many cats we will need to prepare for.
2. The Mobile Animal Surgical Hospital goes to the AJAC site Wednesday and does spay/neuter on all the “excess” cats mentioned in number one, above.
3. We go to the AJAC office, collect the cats and kittens and, of course, pay for for shots, neuters, ear mite treatment, etc, etc, etc.
4. At this point, we finally get to see what they look like, what their sex is, their age, etc. 
5. Thursday morning these “newbies” are adoptable.

Our focus on this effort alone allows us to be extremely successful with cat placements.  It gives us the drive to care even more in that we have to have room for another “batch” next week!

We would certainly be remiss if we neglected to mention our PetSmart Adoption Centers in this effort.  Since AJAC is rather “off the beaten path”, we see as many prospective pet parents in a two-day weekend at these adoption locations as AJAC sees in two or three weeks!

For instance, we got one group of cats with 10, 13 and 15 year old cats in it.  We were blessed with adoptions for even these in their late years!

In another instance, one kind man came in to adopt a kitten and ended up also adopting little Sweetums - a cat with a hyperactive thyroid - knowing that her care would either include rather “pricey” surgery or $1 a day in medication!

We never miss a chance to thank those folks that adopt or promote adopting rescue animals .. Thank You, Thank You!

The rabbit adoptions are doing as well or better than ever, but our Feline E-List Program has blown the roof off any expectations we could have had.

To date, this year alone, we have found homes for nearly 600 cats!  This is, obviously, quite an accomplishment.

The point is, “Now We Know” what the difference is.  The difference is that cats don’t require nearly the “learning curve” of rabbits when it comes to care and upkeep.  A cat can be adopted on a “no questions asked” basis with a simple adoption agreement.  Our low (one of the lowest in the “industry”) adoption fee helps, but that’s another story in its own right.

We’re proud of our work, both with the bunnies and now the Feline E-List Program. We’ve found what works to get the number of adoptions to more than prove a success in the world of small animal rescue.

Let’s talk about the truest depiction of the Backyard Breeder.

Yet ANOTHER “breeder” family brought us their refuse. They had simply let bunnies run loose in their back yard and kept the 4-H and FFA well stocked with rabbits - cute little mini lops.

They brought nine of them to us because their market ran dry along with the fact that they didn’t want to spay or neuter to control their population.

Only nine? No big deal, right? … oh, it only gets better ..

First Autumn gave birth. She was too young and couldn’t make milk - her litter died. We set up Jillian with a nesting box, since she was the same age. She was “sparked” by Autumn and had time to make a little milk before she gave birth to her five.

Then poor little Ivory — a three month old baby at conception “blessed” us with five more. Amazingly, they have lived.

At least the calendar is on our side now - this batch is past the gestation period. Though not a part of this sordid story, Bit-O-Honey also gave us five more babies.

These people, obviously, just let their bunnies run loose, breed and kindle with no supervision at all. If you really think about that, one has to wonder how many litters they didn’t know about that simply died out in the tall grass for lack of care from “baby” mothers that weren’t old enough.

If you think about this in the truest context, your stomach should turn a bit. These folks, in essence, were saying, “If they live we’ll sell them and if they don’t, the rats and cats will clean it up for us”.

What can be done?

At this point of the story, most people would say, “That’s terrible, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”

They would be wrong. DO NOT purchase animals from the classifieds. DO NOT purchase animals from the Feed Stores. DO NOT purchase animals from the County Fair. DO NOT purchase animals from the pet stores.

Notice that word purchase? That’s the point. If these people can’t sell animals, they’ll stop buying them to sell. If the backyard breeders and the puppy mills can’t sell them to the pet stores or the public anymore, they will stop breeding.

County Fair? … 4-H and FFA animal husbandry education has outlived its usefulness. Stop supporting these programs.

Sounds simple doesn’t it? It starts with you. “But I want a purebred with papers”, you say. We ask, “Why???”. Prestige is a pitiful reason to purchase a living thing. “But I might want to breed”, you say. If you’re reading this, you’re obviously only making a lame excuse.

“Mutts”, according to those that have had both, are smarter (all round), more loyal and absolutely - no one can dispute - less inbred than any purebred animal of any species.

If you think you are “rescuing” an animal or two by buying them out of the conditions they are in, you are sadly mistaken. All you are doing is making room for more animals. If animals are truly in bad conditions, call the Sheriff.

Opt to adopt. Save a life. Shelter pets need homes.

You do the math.

And that Inbound figure doesn’t include the TWO LITTERS that didn’t live from the Wannabee breeder that you’ve probably already read about.  Inbreeding worked its wonders, again.  But had they survived, we’d have had 13-14 more bunnies to care for.  That’s an average nearing two bunnies dumped on us per day!  But that’s only ones that were lucky enough to find their way to us!

“Here Comes Peter Cottontail …”

But it’s not just bunnies that “breed like rabbits”.  That headline in the Rescue Herald above is true.  The governmental animal control folks consider April/May to be puppy and kitten season, as well. Only public opinion changes public attitudes.  Talk about the problem every chance you get.  The more you talk about it, the easier it becomes.

Uninformed Is Irresponsible

There are still many, many folks out there that think that they aren’t hurting anything with new litters because they find homes for all that are born (either sold or free).  They have not ever been shown the fact that every home they find for their new litter is a home that will not have a need to seek a “shelter pet”.

There are still many, many folks out there that think “my one litter won’t cause pet overpopulation”.  No, it won’t cause it - pet overpopulation already exists.  However, every new litter increases pet overpopulation.

How Can I Help?

The key is education.  YOU AND I are the beginning.  We don’t have to preach.  We only have to inform.  Most of these people, listed in the preceding paragraphs, reply with, “I never saw it from that side before”.

People that don’t realize they are hurting the situation will continue to do so until they realize the problem exists.

Education is the final answer to pet overpopulation and abandonment.  Word of mouth from a family member, friend or co-worker is the most trusted.

This is where to begin and Now is time to begin.

The hoarder mentality is a complete study on it’s own .. you should “Google” it.

The very short definition of the hoarder is “one that feels that no one else can care for these animals as well as I can.” They take on so many bunnies (cats, dogs, etc) that they ultimately can’t give even basic care to any of them.

A couple of weeks ago (Jan 27) we got out our extra-large shoehorn and made cage space for twenty more bunnies that were coming in from a hoarder situation. The husband was letting his wife enjoy herself. She had a little “mini-rescue” working — she went overboard — he said “enough!”. She did not get into this situation overnight, but it did only take her a few months. The husband diligently found homes for a good number of them, but he found out what we already knew. You cannot undo a hoarder situation, you can only “stop the insanity”.

They showed up with twenty-three rabbits! We scrambled for even more hutch room and got them all settled in, but this has maxxed us out again. We had some “breathing room”, but we’ve all heard that “the Lord moves in mysterious ways …”. I guess we were preparing for this without realizing it.

We dodged the hutch space bullet - for the moment only. They just keep coming! Please remember us with your prayers and help us where you can.