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Chronicle is the monthly newsletter for The Northwest Rabbit Welfare Project. The project is part of the Society for Abandoned Animals located off Dane Road in Sale, Manchester. The Altrincham/Cheshire branch of the RSPCA generously supports the project by paying for the costs of neutering, vaccinations and food basics.

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www.abandonedanimals.com

Issue # 9, November 2003.

Dear Friends,

We have a busy month ahead of us with the Xmas fair and launch of the ‘Amazing Animals Awards’ and we hope you enjoy taking part in them both. We will also soon be circulating details of the sanctuary’s staff and volunteers’ Xmas Party, where the winners of awards will be announced. As always we welcome contributions to Carrot Chronicle so please send anything in via carrot.chronicle@btopenworld.com or to the sanctuary. Best wishes to you all as always, Susie ox.

Alas the rehomings have considerably slowed down now that winter is creeping in and peoples’ thoughts turn to Christmas. We have rehomed 3 furry guys, and that has been thanks to the press coverage we received regarding the rescue of 19 bunnies.

Bodkin was the first lucky fluff to find a new home. He has gone to live as a house bunny with a wonderful family in Prestwich. A recent update revealed he is doing really well and loves snuggling up to the little boy in the family and climbing all over him. They declared they love him!

Reenie and Cookie were the other two lucky bunnies to find a home – at last! A lady who had adopted from us before saw our appeal in the paper for bunny homes and felt the time was right to have bunnies back in her life again. They are living in a fabulous outdoor set up and settling in well.

New Arrivals in September – where do we start!

Gretel

Gretel was planned for admission before we took in the 19 rescue rabbits. We were told that she was vicious and aggressive and the family were really keen to find her an alternative home.

Soon after admission Gretel was neutered and guess what? We have not seen an ounce of bad temper or aggression! She is a beautiful big softie, really easy going and loves to have a tickle.

Gretel currently has a reserve on her and bonding will begin in the following week with a handsome chap called Ginger.

Zippy

The following the admission of the 19 buns, we received a desperate call from a lady who lived in a block of high-rise flats. She had rung everywhere for help but had been refused. She had found a stray rabbit and no one was able to take him off her hands.

She was a genuine caller, we could tell by her desperation, so Gilly tootled off to collect him.

He is beautiful and such a cheeky-bun. He can climb out of his run and you often catch him pottering around looking pleased with himself!

Netto

Netto’s story is even more bizarre. One Sunday a local gentleman of an alcoholic persuasion turned up unannounced with this pretty little girl. He had found her as a stray and kept her in his flat for a week and brought her down to us in a carrier bag. Yes, a plastic carrier bag! You guessed it, it was a Netto’s plastic bag, and there was no way we were going to turn her away.

She is a pretty little girl and seems rather young; she is a little skittish at the moment but making good progress. She’s another naughty who likes to get out of her run! When she was first put into her hutch she scoffed for Britain and seemed to settle and relax instantly. With winning looks like hers it hopefully won’t be long until she finds a brilliant new home.

Tufty & Martha

And then there were two. These two beauties arrived with a gentleman, unannounced in a cardboard box. He didn’t want them any more. We explained our situation and said there was no way we could admit them just yet. To which he replied he was going to let the loose if we didn’t take them – and he meant it. Thanks to Karen, Tufty and Martha are safe and well in her foster care. Karen already had 3 of our buns to contend with but came to our rescue once again.

Movers and Jumpers

Form this...to this...to this...

Yes, in one week The Captain went from humpy trousers, to being in love, to being out of love, and is once again available for adoption. He was fine when he spent a week in the company of the gorgeous Bean whilst he was free-range. He was also happy spending a couple of hours in the same cage as her, but once he went to Bean-bag’s home he just wasn’t happy being caged for any longer than a couple of hours at a time and it resulted in him carrying out his frustrations on Bean and he became too humpy and too nowty with her. The only option was to separate him and accept that he’s a guy who likes his space!

Bean’s mum was deeply saddened to give up ‘the big guy’ but rightly put Bean’s welfare first. What we have learnt from the experience is that The Captain needs a lot of freedom, either a free-range house bun or in a shed/garage. He spent 2.5 years locked in a tiny hutch and now he has his freedom he isn’t keen to give it up. The Captain is immaculate with his toileting and has never sought to partake in ‘naughty’ chewing. He will make anybody an excellent house/flat mate, but he does take a little time to learn to trust new humans.

If you can give ‘the big guy’ a home please get in touch!

Whisper

Whisper (left) has gone into foster care with Karen because of concerns over his eating habits and poos. You may remember that he had only been fed on dried food, no hay or veg. Consequently he wasn’t familiar with veg and hay and didn’t eat it. His poos were awful and turned to liquid so we felt it best to closely monitor him in a home environment and the little guy is doing well.

Blizzard & Frosty

This ‘big guy’ is just adorable!

You may remember that Blizzard came in with his younger mate Frosty but the boys were unneutered and had to be separated due to fighting.

Frosty is thriving in foster care with Helena and the ‘big guy’ is having a ball in the Bunny Barn. He is just a wonderful natured bunny and he is so soft and loving, and lurves to explore and get his nose into everything. He comes up to you for tickles, loves to climb all over you and nudge you for attention. He really is a star. Isn’t he handsome.

More Babies!

Helena was caring for these four at home until they outgrew her set up so they are in the isolation unit binkying around and causing mischief and mayhem. The amount of poo they do is unbelievable and not one of them even attempts to go in a litter tray – how rude! But given that Paprika, Nutmeg, Cinnamon and Chilli are such little cuties, we’ll let them off!

Appeals and Ideas

CHRISTMAS FAIR Saturday 29th November 2pm to 5pm

Our annual Xmas Fair will take place at Trinity Methodist Church Hall, which is located on Trinity Avenue off Northenden Road in Sale. It is just a stones-throw away from the sanctuary, and we have very civilised starting times for those of you up for helping out on the day. We don’t need to be setting up until 12.30pm so if you fancy running a stall please contact us as soon as possible either at the sanctuary on 0161 9735318 or via email at carrot.chronicle@btopenworld.com

We are also desperately in need of the following: HOMEPRODUCE such as cakes, mince pies, plants, biscuits, sweets; we also need CRAFTS such as cards, gifts, household helpfuls; we also need books, cds, videos and PRIZES for the tombola. Can you help?

SPECIAL FEATURE

Society for Abandoned Animals
Amazing Animals Awards 2003

Volunteers, staff and supporters are invited to join in and have some fun with the launch of the ‘Amazing Animals Awards’.

As we reflect back on the year, this is an opportunity to recognise everybody’s hard work and dedication to animal welfare and to remember some of the wonderful animals we have all helped to care for in 2003.

Winning animals will each receive a certificate and a prize, and each person who submits a nomination form will be entered into a FREE PRIZE DRAW.

For a copy of the entry form either email us at Carrot Chronicle or pick one up from the sanctuary. Completed forms must be received by Thursday 27th November 2003. You will find a ‘Nominations Box’ in reception or you can enter via email, please contact: carrot.chronicle@btopenworld.com .

All forms will be treated confidentially and you may enter as many categories as you wish. So if you only know the bunnies, that’s fine, just nominate your favourite bunny! Can’t remember whose who? Why not take a look back at previous CCs.

Judging will be undertaken by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees and the General Manager. The winners of the awards and the prize draw will be announced at the Society’s Staff and Volunteers’ Christmas Party.

Categories:

Most Amazing Dog 2003
Most Amazing Cat 2003
Most Amazing Rabbit 2003

For animals to qualify for nomination they must have been under the Society’s care at some point during 2003. They may have been admitted, fostered or adopted during 2003, or were already in our care at the start of the year.

Whether they have passed away or are still going strong they qualify for nomination. Perhaps they have battled with ill health, or have come from a troubled background or have simply brightened your day – tell us who you think is a winner.

Stable Bunnies Stable

As reported in last month’s CC the largest in take of bunnies in one go were admitted in September and a make shift homing unit was established in one of the stables. Well since then we have moved the guys to a different location, which is warmer, nice and secure and affords plenty of space and time for exercise.

This picture below was purely taken by chance but does a little to illustrate the change in venue.

As a result of considerable press coverage, two homes were offered for 3 of our rabbits. We were actually inundated with calls offering homes and could have rehomed them all had we wanted them to live solitary lives in tiny hutches with no exercise or attention. But as you all know we have strict rehoming criteria to ensure the best quality of life for our rescue buns.

One call in particular summed up the calls we received: a gentleman caller rang to say he’d give a rabbit a home and subsequently asked “ but what do rabbits do in winter?” Gilly replied, “what do you mean?”. The man proceeded to ask “well, do they hibernate or what?” When informed, he declined his offer but the calls did at least demonstrate the willingness of the public to help. I must make it clear that each caller was advised of our rehoming policy and invited to come down to visit us but few actually materialised.

So how are our ‘job lot’ of buns doing? We have still found further injuries and illnesses emerging, e.g. bite wounds that have subsequently developed into abscesses, and sadly we have had to separate Ivor and Bungle due to fighting, but overall they have settled in well and certainly know when it is time for veggies! So let us introduce you to some more of the Wales wonders!

Last month we told you about Bumble, but we had no pictures at the time. Well, no words are needed for you to see that this softie furball is just bonkers! You can see why he is Gilly’s favourite.

Teddy

Teddy is the light of my life, and Helena’s and Anita’s! The picture we showed last time wasn’t too clear and since then his beautiful flufty fur has started to grow back. (He was horribly matted and had to be shaved.)

Why is Teddy so wonderful? He is just so good-natured, will cheerfully sit in your arms as you walk around, loves a fuss, a quiet sit, and never raises his bobtail at other bunnies. He is a true gentleman. He is just a teddy bunny-bear! I’d be surprised if he wouldn’t bond with most females, but he does need to go as a house rabbit and have regular grooming.

Bill and Ben

You’d be forgiven for thinking you were looking at two pictures of the same bunnies. Bill and Ben look identical, so much so that I couldn’t remember who was who when I checked out the photos, and they could indeed be photos of the same bun, I just don’t know!

Nonetheless these two are just stunningly beautiful and fit nicely in your arms for cuddles and grooming. They have grown since they’ve been with us and probably have a little more to do and may get to Bumble’s size

Got any spare time on your hands? Not much? Take a look at how you can help –

We don’t just need additional help with cleaning out all the extra bunnies (weekdays and weekend) but we also need help with grooming the likes of Teddy, Bumble, Bill and Ben, and of course cuddling them to. You don’t have to make any form of regular commitment to do this and so if you happen to find yourself with a spare hour or two why not come down and ‘play’ bunnies?

One such person to take up this offer is Lucinda, who adopted Murphy (formerly known as Bingo) from us two years ago. Lucinda comes along after work once every week or so and spends an hour or two cuddling and grooming. Do you fancy helping out like Lucinda? Contact the sanctuary on 0161 9735318 and speak to Gilly.

Hagen

At the time of Hagen’s adoption he was our longest stay resident. We couldn’t understand why he was still with us and we were all so pleased when Rachel fell in love with him. She tells us all about life with Hagen –

Update on Hagen by Rachel Sheldon

After months of promising Susie an update, I though it was finally time I put pen to paper:

In November last year we were looking for a companion for our 10month old doe ‘Spring’ after she had been spayed the month before. After a visit to the rescue Centre I fell for the ‘big white guy’ and Spring was introduced the following week.

It’s fair to say that things did not go too well. We know Spring and the look in her eyes when she first went for Hagen told me that she meant business!

A couple more sessions were called for and on the 22nd December Hagen came home with us. After various suggestions for names we decided to keep his name as it was. The poor love had been through enough stress without having to learn a new name. Over the months it has been shortened to ‘Hags’ or ‘Haggie’, he only gets Hagen when he is in trouble!

Various sessions followed in the bathroom and access to each other’s hutches while the other was running round the garden before they were allowed out in the garden briefly together. Fur flew on a couple of occasions, however I knew that we had cracked it on Mothers Day, we had family round and rather than play in the garden they both went in the big hutch and sat next to each other. It was still a couple of weeks before I was happy to leave them together full time.

Spring was desperate for a furry friend as she has previously had her sibling’s company and she backed down to Hagen every time and was always the one who was grooming him, however over time the tables have turned and despite the fact she is the smaller of the two, she is top bunny.

He has not been in the house of his own accord yet. I brought him into the living room once and he went off his food. (The trauma of the rehoming him also sent him off his food so on New Year’s Eve a trip to the vets was called for). Venturing into the house needs to be his own decision and I put loads of treats on the door mat to try and entice him in, however Spring decided to be of no help whatsoever and as she is quite happy in the house, hopped in and ate some of them, then she took some of the others out to Hags.

He was unwell in the middle of September with a gas attack, on the Sunday night the pair of them slept in the indoor cage in the living room, with me sleeping on the floor next to them. I kept waking up to check on him and on one occasion I woke up to find him looking at me! That night he was too ill to worry about the fact that we was somewhere new and once some of the medication we had given him started to kick in, he woke me up at 3.00am munching cabbage, although I’m not sure he was impressed at being woken at 4.00am for another dose of medication!

My most commonly used saying in January was ‘I’m so glad we got him’. It has been great seeing them grow closer and to watch him enjoy his time in the garden and charge round at full speed, flicking his head and jumping and kicking his back legs.

The pair of them love getting into mischief and teaching each other tricks. We have a sedum bush in our garden, known as ‘Bertie’s bush’, as is was enjoyed by a previous bunny occupant of our garden (see photo competition in the May Carrot Chronicle) Hags decided that it was in the way of the route he wanted to take round the garden so he cut a path through it. Spring used to dig before she was spayed, Hagen has decided that although he wouldn’t jump through the open kitchen door he would start digging his escape tunnel. I could see Spring watching him and then she remembered what good fun it was and joined in. Thankfully this isn’t something they get up to regularly. One of his favourite tricks is to nudge your ankles if you are in his way. The other day I felt the nudges, but softer than normal, I said ‘You’re being gentle today Hags’ as I looked down, Spring was at my feet.

Spring rarely played with toys, which I had bought, however since Hags joined her the pair of them now play with various things. The willow sculpturing man at Southport Flower Show thought I had lost the plot when I bought some of his goods to give to my rabbits as toys!

We have some small fencing, which was used by Dave when he was younger for his pet tortoise. We put it to good use during the bonding process, however it has remained in the garden. Even though they have the run of the garden they run back to this and it seems to have become the rabbit toilet (opposite). It’s great for fertilising the lawn, all we need to do is move the fencing and the fertiliser is deposited in various places round the garden. When we cut the grass you can see the clumps which have grown longer because they were well fertilised.

The pair of them are now so great together, I’m glad that we did not rush the bonding process. On one occasion Hags was spooked by something and ran off to hide, Spring unfazed, ran after him to see what was up.

Spring will always be a bit of mummy’s girl as we have been through a lot with her (death of sibling three weeks after we got them, gut stasis after she was spayed, burrs on her back teeth, an abscess), however she does love Hags and ‘I’m so glad we got him!’

More updates on our furry friends

Mischief

Went home to live with her new beau Gareth at the latter end of September. Mum Debs has been keeping us up to date with the bonding process. It hasn’t been an easy ride, but then the course of true love rarely is!

Debs has seen some promising improvements recently and a lot more mutual grooming going on.

Mischief has been renamed Daisy (white lionhead with brown markings). And what about Gareth, how handsome? Daisy surely can’t fail to fall for this stud!

Pandora the angora

Finally found a home in September and the new family are delighted with her. A recent update finds that ‘Piggy’ is still a little shy but is slowly settling in. They say she has a lovely nature and they besotted with her.

Tessie was adopted from us exactly 2 years ago and she is better known to many of us as Kaysi. She lives in the lap of luxury with her boyfriend Dillon and she is doing brilliantly. Take a look!

Tilly pictured below, was never technically a sanctuary bunny but was liberated from dreadful conditions by Gilly, and because she is so greatly loved by us we just had to show you a picture of her! She was dreadfully matted and had to be totally shaved. Now her coat has grown back she takes a lot of looking after.

She is also quite a madam, but you can tell that by just looking at her. She is prone to jumping on Gilly’s bed and nipping her in the back when she wants Gilly out of the way! How rude.

A Halloween Treat - Beauty

How many of you remember this grumpy madam? After several months of grumpiness and bad temper from Beauty Gilly had space to take her home to try and ‘socialise’ her to make her more rehomable. Except Beauty had other ideas and decided to stay as she was rather fond of the rest of the family and became a big, loving softy. She well and truly one everyone over and Beauty could do no wrong….like, oops the wallpaper must have fallen into her mouth. Oops the tassels on the sofa were coming off anyway!

Beauty still retains her grumpiness for Gilly and has not once faltered in her knarkiness towards her. We think it is because Gilly reminds her of the sanctuary, either that or she doesn’t like Gilly!

Beauty is modelling the latest in Halloween fashion – bet you never thought Beauty would become that placid!

Finally...

looking for a gift to give that special bunny lover in your life? Look no further...

The Society for Abandoned Animals aims to improve rabbit knowledge and therefore rabbit welfare. The sanctuary aims to successfully re-home the many unwanted rabbits that come into the Society’s care every year, but we need your support to do this. By sponsoring a hutch you could help us feed and house the several rabbits that might live in that hutch during a year. Not just improving the life of one rabbit but the lives of many.

Bronze level (£15 per year)

Details of the project
Stories of abandoned rabbits
Photograph of the Bunny Barn
Certificate suitable for framing
Receive monthly newsletter of the rabbit project – ‘Carrot Chronicle’
Name on the Bunny Barn ‘Thank-you’ board

Silver Level (£35 per year)

Details of the project
Stories of abandoned rabbits
Photograph of the Bunny Barn
Certificate suitable for framing
Opportunity to name one rescued rabbit
Updates of your named rescue rabbit
Receive monthly newsletter of the rabbit project – ‘Carrot Chronicle’
Laminate plaque on a hutch crediting your sponsorship

Gold Level (£100 per year)

Details of the project
Stories of abandoned rabbits
Photograph of the Bunny Barn
Certificate suitable for framing
Opportunity to name three rescued rabbits throughout the year
Photographs and updates of your three named rescue rabbits
T-shirt of one of your named rescue rabbits
Receive monthly newsletter of the rabbit project – ‘Carrot Chronicle’
Bronze inscribed plaque on a hutch crediting your sponsorship

For an application form please email carrot.chronicle@btopenworld.com, or telephone the sanctuary on 0161 973 5318, or write to: Society for Abandoned Animals, The Peggy Henderson Animal Sanctuary, Mosely Acre Farm, Stretford, M32 9UP.

The Society for Abandoned Animals is a registered charity: 245426.