Must the Littering Continue?    4/16/2006

A month or so ago, the Evergreen Animal Protective League was notified by Jefferson County Sheriff's department that a truckload of domestic bunnies had been dumped after dark in Lair of the Bear. The officers were shining their headlights into the dark to discourage predators until some volunteers were able to round up the terrified bunnies. It's possible some might have scattered, but 16 of them were so confused and frightened that they had more or less frozen in place and were therefore lucky enough to be rescued.

The rescued bunnies were subseqently spayed and neutered, with most of them being adopted fairly soon after their plight became known. There was one pregnant doe who has since given birth to babies who will be available for adoption early this summer. And three females have found their way to the Colorado House Rabbit Society.

To visit the website for the Evergreen Animal Protective Leage and learn more about the rescued bunnies, click on www.eapl.com. To see the bunnies now living at HRS and awaiting adoption, click on Molly or Rita and Angie. You can find their stories on our adoption pages. All three of these beautiful girl-bunns are oh-so-sweet and looking for a kind and loving home.

There Should Be Fines for Littering Like This    2/14/2006

January 9, 2006
Longmont, Colorado

Driving at high speed, a sub-human was seen tossing rabbits from a car window. Animal Control was able to save eleven of them, eight of whom came to our shelter a month later. All of them are friendly little critters. Unfortunately, they had not been properly sexed prior to coming to us, and two were about to give birth.

Brittany, a smallish white bunny with a wash of pale grey across her face had little more than a scrape on her back. She gave birth to five all-white(so far)babies on February 3rd. To see Brittany's story, click on Brittany or Brittany's Babies or Brittany on watch

Abby is a smaller black bunny who is very friendly. She says, "It wasn't flying through the air that was so bad, it was the landing that hurt!" On one side of her head, the eyelid and the ear are badly damaged. Still, she gave birth to five healthy little black balls of fur on Feb. 12th. You may see Abby's story by clicking on Abby's best side or Abby's Injuries or Abby's babies

Jethro, Wesley, Fynn, and Elmo were very badly scraped across their backs. Besides the damage to his back, Jethro lost part of and ear, and worse yet he lost an eye. Wesley lost most of an ear and large patches of skin and fur from his back. Elmo is struggling with serious infections due to the deep wounds on his back. Be aware, some of these pictures are very hard to take, but if you want to see what Jethro has gone thru, you can click on Jethro before the vet or Jethro's eye now or Jethro at his best. To see what Wesley's endured, and some of it is very upsetting, click on Wesley before the vet or Wesley after vet work or or Wesley's poor ear or Wesley feeling better. Fynn went directly to a foster home, so we have no photos of his injuries. There is a very raw photo taken of Elmo after surgery on his infected wounds. To see his initial injury, click on The night after Elmo's surgery. To see him so much better and playing safely supervised outdoors in the snow, click on Elmo's getting better.

Blossom and Beauregard were the lucky ones and escaped with only scraped noses and backs. You can see the photos of these two bunnies by clicking on Blossom or Beauregard.

Amazingly, these eight little ones don't seem to associate people with the horrors they endured. Instead, they seem to see us as bearers of good food and gentle ear rubs.

Incredible little beasties, rabbits.

All "Pueblo Bunnies" have been adopted    4/5/2005

It's been three years since the "Pueblo Bunnies" came to us. All of them have now found forever homes. The adopters of these special bunns all seem very happy with them.

What a wonderful end to such a horrible beginning!

Some Dreams are Meant to Be    1/25/2003

Some dreams are meant to be…especially the dream of a shelter for homeless rabbits in Colorado. If not, then…
• Why was a bank willing to loan me, a retired person on a pension, enough to buy the perfect place for the rabbits?
• Why was Carol Thielen, my good friend, and benefactor of our rabbits, able and willing to purchase my home on Birch St., fix it up, and sell it herself, so that I didn’t have to refurbish it and wait to sell it before purchasing the new property (which would have precluded my being able to buy it)?
• Why was the new property, modified over the years by Herb Fiske, who raised two families here, and ran an air-conditioning, plumbing, and electrical service business, and worked on inventions, so perfectly suited for the rabbits?
Because some dreams are meant to be.

The new place in Broomfield is a 2.2 acre property, consisting of a nice home with one single garage, and one two-car garage, a large backyard, and a huge vegetable garden; five rooms in a single long building; a red barn; a 60-foot concrete pad ideal for garage sales, two small parking lots, two fields and a pond. All of this is surrounded by a heavy wooden fence. There is a 1000-foot well, with adjudicated water rights, as well as city water. There is also a large room above the two-story garage where you may bring garage sale items all year long. This property is only 2.2 miles from our former location, so it affects our volunteer base very little.

The southern-most room in the long building will be a store, where we can sell both rabbit supplies and the kinds of things we have previously sold at the Bunny Boutique. Attached to this room is a small kitchenette and bathroom.

The next room will serve as an office where Kay Fritzsche, the “executive secretary” who knows how everything runs, and pretty much runs it, will reign supreme.

Then there is an alcove without a door, but with shelves where FedEx and UPS can leave deliveries, and we can leave supplies for people to pick up. Behind the alcove is a moderately sized storage room, where supplies for the store and for the foster rooms can be stored.

The two northern-most rooms are the largest, and these are our bunny rooms. All of our rabbits are comfortably situated here. The biggest of these rooms has a double deep sink for washing water- and pellet-dishes, a washer and drier, and a large, shallow, stainless steal sink, a relic of some of the items Herb used while working on inventions. This sink is ideal for washing the pans from the rabbits’ condos, and even putting whole cages in, for “spring cleaning.” This room is surrounded by shelves and work benches, and off to one side is a store room where many of our cleaning, feeding, and medical supplies can be kept. There are walk-through doors at the front and back, and a large garage door at the front. The second rabbit-room has two garage doors and two walk-through doors at the front. On nice January days (as well as nice days in other months), when the temperature is close to 60-degrees, we open all of the doors, and the rabbits can enjoy fresh air and sunshine.

One of the best things about my being able to purchase the property myself, is that the HRS building fund can be used primarily to improve the areas where the rabbits are housed, and to build indoor/outdoor spaces in the fields, hopefully beginning next spring.

Many people have pitched in to make the move smooth, and to make modifications to the premises, for the rabbits. So many were involved that I hesitate to give special mention to anyone, for fear of forgetting someone. Nevertheless, there are some that I must mention. Dawn and Kent Gleasure, sometimes accompanied by their daughter Victoria, spent several days moving enormous amounts of heavy items from one property to the next. Yvonne Short, and her husband George brought a trailer to help with the move, and George, Kent, Felicia Harmer, and Phillip Erbaugh built new dollies for our rabbits’ condos. Debby Schmidt and the Erbaugh family painted them. Kathy Erbaugh also spent a full day scrubbing the dried urine that had built up on the rabbit cages themselves. Of course, there were many, many others who participated in the move, and we are grateful to each one who helped.

This dream was meant to be. Our deep gratitude to each and every person who helped make it happen, and to the bunny gods who, unbeknownst to Herb Fiske, were guiding him to create this place just for our rabbits!

Pueblo Rabbits are Wonderful!    10/21/2001

We are thrilled to announce that the “Pueblo Rabbits” have progressed beautifully! Three are still being treated for abscesses, but all of the others are in excellent health and many are paired. Most of them are now ready for adoption! These rabbits should not, under any circumstances, be considered anything less than any other lop, in spite of their background. A few have ragged ears, but they all have delightful personalities. If anything, their background makes them especially deserving of a good home and a happy life!

Besides, many of them give kisses! So if you have longed for a bunny who would kiss you…

Pueblo Rabbits Surprises    8/9/2001

We have observed some surprising behaviors among the adult "Pueblo Rabbits (PB's)."

First, although they all ran to the backs of their condos at first, none ever tried to bite anyone, even when we caught them and picked them up. Only recently has one nipped a human, in a show of territoriality. We consider this a very positive sign of Butterscotch's emotional progress to what we know is normal for female rabbits.

Another unusual behavior in the adult Pueblo rabbits is that they drop almost every one of their pills in their litter boxes. Droppings, or pills, are seen by rabbits as a tool to mark territory, and it is normal for them to drop them all around their condos. It is rare for a rabbit to keep them all in his/her litterbox, but all of the PB's do this. (It's a nice convenience to their human caretakers, but an oddity among rabbits.)

Most rabbits begin their relationships with humans by allowing them to pet their heads, necks, and the base of their ears. But they race away if they are touched on their bodies, until the relationship has progressed a fair way. The PB's show the opposite behavior. They allowed us to touch their bodies long before they allowed us to touch their heads. When we tried to stroke their faces, between their eyes (most rabbits enjoy this), they pushed up against our fingers, bobbed their heads repeatedly, and moved away from us. But they seemed almost oblivious to our stroking their bodies.

In spite of some of the peculiarities in behavior, these rabbits show great promise of being some of the best anyone could adopt.

Update on "Pueblo Rabbits"    8/9/2001

We knew it was too good to be true: the Pueblo rabbits had not only become seemingly healthy, but had become increasingly friendly with humans. And then, we saw Melinda suddenly collapse. She died minutes after arriving at the emergency clinic. It was only then that we realized that she had lost significant weight. Her necropsy showed absolutely NOTHING wrong!

We knew that Lotus had been losing weight. We had been doing everything we could think of to help her gain it back. Blood work indicated nothing problematic. One morning, 30 minutes after being petted and appearing to be fine, she, too, collapsed. The veterinarian worked on her for four hours before she, too, died. We requested a highly detailed necropsy, where tissue samples are taken from all organs and sent to the pathologist.

The report was devastating. What couldn’t be seen from a basic necropsy was abundantly obvious when the tissues were examined microscopically. The digestive system of this poor rabbit had been destroyed! Small intestine and cecum had been badly damaged by bacterial colonization, including e-coli. The small intestine had lost most of its ability to absorb nutrition. Inflammation extended through the wall of the intestine into the adjacent tissues. Toxins released by the bacteria probably caused her death.

Not so amusingly, the histopath report read, “Poor sanitation and stress may also be predisposing factors.” It is hard to imagine that poor sanitation and stress could possibly ever be any worse than they were for these rabbits while in Pueblo.

We have weighed all of the other adult Pueblo rabbits and computed their weight loss since they came to us. We expected some weight loss, since they had been on a diet of pellets only before coming to us. However, weight loss ran between 8 and 20%.

We began treating all of the adults, but highly virulent strains of e-coli are not responsive to antibiotics, so we were fearful that our treatment might not be successful. And of course, there is no way to repair any damage already done to the tissues.

We are delighted to report that, with a combination of treatment and high-calorie diets, every one of the adults has gained significant weight! So we know that, even is some damage was done to the digestive tract, all of the remaining rabbits are able to absorb nutrition, and will be able to live full lives.

We are also happy to report that the rabbits who came to us as youngsters have apparently been unaffected. They have gained good weight, and have no indication of any problems.

Again, we ask you, on behalf of these sweet rabbits, to remember that their ongoing care is expensive. Please remember them in your giving.

Massive Rescue in Pueblo    5/15/2001

We are enormously grateful for all who contributed to the immediate needs of the rabbits whose story is told below, but do please remember that they continue to need your support. Many are still receiving medical care, and all, of course, require maintenance care. Anything you can give will help us continue to care for these sweet bunns.

In 1991, in Pueblo, a woman left her female mini-lop and a litter of bunnies in her home and moved out. She returned on a regular basis to feed them. These rabbits were not spayed or neutered, and they reproduced rapidly. In April of 2001, a child reported seeing rats in the windows. An investigation was conducted.

The findings were horrific—3-1/2 FEET of rabbit droppings and urine filled the home. Rabbits had fought viciously with each other, resulting in torn ears, abscesses, corneal abrasions, ripped eyelids, and even a broken leg. Rats had done additional damage to many. Dead rabbits were found on and beneath the manure, where burrows had been dug for delivery of baby bunnies.

67 rabbits were alive. The ammonia from the collected urine was so strong that the Hazardous Materials unit had to be called in. Fully suited and masked in protective gear, they struggled to remove these 67 survivors. One animal control officer took ten of the rabbits. Another two were placed in a private home. The remaining 55 rabbits were taken to “PAL,” the Pueblo Animal League. Eight had to be euthanized. One died. 46 remained.

The Colorado House Rabbit Society scraped together every possible resource, taking all 46. We distributed these pitiful creatures to fosterers who stretched their own capabilities to the limit to take them. Two little ones were taken to the emergency vet the very evening they arrived in Broomfield. One died during surgery that could not be avoided or delayed. Most of the females were pregnant. In spite of a massive effort to get spays done by veterinarians across the metro area, four does gave birth within four days of their arrival here. Two litters died. 13 baby bunnies survived, leaving us with a total of 59 extra rabbits.

We are especially grateful to:

-Drs. LaBonde and Kremsier of the Avian and Exotic Animal Hospital at Homestead Animal Hospital in Englewood;
-Dr. Stephans of the Evergreen Veterinary Service in Evergreen;
-Dr. Manobla, of the Hiwan Animal Hospital in Evergreen; and
-Dr. Ami VanDeventer of the Boulder Emergency Animal Clinic who contributed their services at greatly reduced prices, and worked through lunch hours and after hours to help with this emergency.

Needless to say, the medical expenses for these rabbits hit us hard. If you can help with even a few dollars donation at this time, it will help these rabbits survive and blossom into happy creatures. This is the least they deserve after what they have been through! Please be as generous as you can. Contributions can be sent to CO-HRS, P. O. Box 238, Broomfield, CO 80038-0238.

Also, if you have been thinking of adopting another pair of rabbits, or know someone who has been, now is the time to act! Moving some of our foster rabbits into loving homes will help greatly to relieve the pressures of so many. And we certainly have “Lots o’ Lops!” The younger ones are in excellent condition, and have rapidly responded to socialization.

And finally, if you can volunteer to clean cages once a month or feed one evening a week, the bunns sure could use your help!