Volume 5, Issue 3 - August 2005
News from the Sanctuaries and Satellites
News from Hot Sulphur Springs and
the Grand County Satellite
News From the North
The Ewy Sanctuary
The Welch Sanctuary
News from Hot Sulphur Springs and
the Grand County Satellite
My husband, Clint and I were thrilled to become
a Colorado HRS satellite last fall. Grand County is still quite agricultural,
and prevailing attitudes
see rabbits as a stock commodity with a short life span. We knew we would
have a big educational effort ahead of us.
The first step in changing prevailing beliefs about rabbits was to place two Colorado HRS angoras, Cotton Ball and Q-Tip, with Linda Dewey, owner of the Lonesome Stone Gift and Yarn Shop in Fraser. Throughout the winter, Cotton Ball and Q-Tip lived in the store and were wonderful bunny ambassadors. I received many calls from people who had met the angoras and were interested in adopting rabbits. Unfortunately, many prospective bunny parents were quite surprised when I described what’s involved with properly caring for bunnies, and Colorado HRS expectations for adoption. I see these calls as successes, because no doubt those folks would not adopt rabbits and just stick them in hutches, as they might have done prior to the calls.
In mid-winter, foster bunnies, Caesar and Richie, two Flemish Giants, and Willow and McIntosh, two angoras, came to the Grand County Satellite “Winter Camp." My hope was to generate enough interest in angoras at the yarn shop that these two angoras could be placed in an adoptive home. It was also an opportunity to give the Giants some exercise and socialization and, hopefully, find a home for them as well.
We
have a “bunny pasture” available
to the rabbits year-round, and all the bunns loved playing in the snow.
It was a good snow year.
Richie and our Cocker Spaniel Samantha (right) enjoy
the “mountains” in
the pasture.
The local paper ran an “Easter bunny” column that I wrote, along with a “Prevent Hare Loss” poster and a 1/4 page ad with a photo of the four Colorado HRS foster bunnies. While this did not result in adoption for any of the foster bunns, I again received several calls. I do think we are making headway in teaching people the wonderful advantages of keeping bunnies in the house as family members.
We did have a great success early this summer. Tabatha Savage from Grand Junction called me about eight baby Hotots that were orphaned at one week of age. By consulting with the Colorado HRS health-line and following directions for baby care on the Colorado HRS website, all the babies survived, and they are thriving in new homes today! I have visited Tabatha and her two babies, and they are just adorable. Tabatha convinced the owner of the surviving father rabbit to have him neutered, and all the babies will be spayed and neutered by an authorized Colorado HRS vet in Grand Junction. Tabatha has encouraged the parents of the other baby rabbits to consult the Colorado HRS website for care and feeding instructions. This is an excellent example of these resources saving lives!
We have added Colorado HRS foster bunnies Spirit and
Josie to our family, giving us three rescued pairs.
This summer we
put new sod in the bunny
pasture and built a tunnel for the kids, which they love to play in.
Between the 4’ x 8’ digging box, the new tunnel, the lush
green grass, and three new trees, the pasture provides all kinds of joys
for the kids.
Tristan (left), a former Pueblo bunny, enjoys checking out the new tunnel.
We are honored to share our lives with rabbits, to be a part of Colorado
HRS, and we look forward to reporting future successes!
--Sandy and Clint Roberts, Colorado HRS Grand County
Satellite
News From the North
Besides our usual Spring visit to the Longmont
Sanctuary where we assisted in giving all the bunnies tune-ups and spruced
up the shelter buildings, we have been busy finding homes for a few foster
bunnies. Some have come from the Larimer Humane Society and some from
private parties. Recently, we have been able to take three bunnies. One
has been placed and paired, one is working on pairing, and one is in
foster care in Loveland until there is room at the Broomfield shelter.
It is through the assistance of many people pulling together that we
are able to re-home these bunnies.
We're also helping with cleaning at the Broomfield
facility and participated in Spring Fling. Even though we're here "up
north,"
we do what we can to help educate people and rescue bunnies in our
area.
-- Christine Haas, Satellite Manager
and Educator, Fort Collins, 970-493-6965, bosshaas@msn.com
The Ewy Sanctuary
Hot and dry. After a cool and enjoyable June,
July has been hot! We had five days with temperatures over 100 degrees.
We keep the fans and misting system running all the time during these
days. To make matters worse, we received only 24 hours notice from the
water district that they were shutting off the water from 9 a.m. to 4
p.m. the next day to fix a water main. Stuart quickly set up a swamp
cooler in each of the end barns, which is where we put the bunnies
for that day. It
turned out to be so effective that we left them in there until the heat
broke.
We have had some losses this summer. Butterscotch, one of the Pueblo bunnies died in late May. In June, Charlie--the last of the "big boys" we received from Dr. Aunt Julie--died. Then in mid-July, Peanut, one of the original sanctuary bunnies, died. Christine Haas organized a work day in May and several members from the northern group attended. Bunnies received tune ups, and we got some maintenance work done. We are always grateful for the help we get from the wonderful folks in the northern group.
Vanilla,
who had a bulla osteotomy at CSU in March, continues to do well.
She has been receiving acupuncture and physical therapy from Dr. Nancy
Bureau at Alpine Hospital in Boulder. She still has a head tilt, and
sometimes it is significant, but other times it’s not as bad. When
she is playing or eating her "head is on straight." She has
regained the weight she lost and looks great. We hope to find a friend
for her soon.
--Leslie & Stewart
The Welch Sanctuary
Summer is here and the bunns are enjoying the warm weather. Every morning
I look out the bedroom window to see who's out front sitting in the sun. On
some mornings it seems that everyone has come out to enjoy the day. Little
Comet has taken to dashing out in the yard, hopping and jumping and running
just as fast as he can, in and out of the legs of the chickens and turkeys.
He just loves being out in the warm weather.
Unfortunately, summer is hastily passing by and it seems that the major chores are stacking up once again. We have made some progress on the new fencing, but not as much as we would like. The rest of the summer is going to be busy, busy, busy.
We moved Fiver and Barkley back outside this summer and they are greatly enjoying digging in the dirt and running around the bunn house. They really appreciate an opportunity to get out of the house.
On a sadder note, we lost two of the original five animals we adopted from Farm Sanctuary in 1994. These five were the founding members of our sanctuary, The Bleating Hearts Sanctuary. Emma, the sheep, and Freddy, the goat, passed on during the past couple of months. Both lived long and, hopefully, happy lives, at least after they were rescued from their original situations. Emma was found on a dead pile at the Lancaster Stockyards in Pennsylvania, and Freddy, along with two other goats (Mercury and Apollo), jumped a six foot fence to escape a slaughterhouse. They were on-the-lam for about three months before Farm Sanctuary caught them and brought them to their New York Shelter. It was there that we adopted the two of them, along with Willoughby and Rebecca (who went before them), and Maggie, who is still with us. Emma and Freddy will be missed by us and everyone who got to know them.
On a happier note, we did take in a new goat, named Murrey. He has happily
joined the flock and is getting along nicely with the rest of the residents.
We will continue to work on our projects until late into the fall, when
the snow once again blankets the ground and the bunns are tucked into
their warm hollows.
--Dave Welch and Lynn Halpern
