Our Newest Sanctuary Intake - Beatrix

Here is the charming Miss Beatrix Potter. She is a 5.5 year old mini lop who came into the shelter because her previous owner was moving to a smaller space. Maybe they are one of the victim's of the housing crisis, I don't know but they did the responsible thing by bringing her to the shelter and not dumping her on the side of the road or at a grocery store like the people who dumped Vivien.

Beatrix is a total love bug and so very grateful to be living inside a warm, animal friendly environment. Her eyes lit up like Christmas trees when she saw the other bunnies here. It's been 5.5 years since she saw another bunny. Her previous owner kept her on bedding of sawdust which is terrible bedding because it is an eye irritant and harbors bacteria so well. As a result, poor Beatrix has a horrible eye infection. She is lucky that she does not have corneal ulcers but she does have plugged tear ducts.

And you can see here how bad her eyes were when she first came into the shelter. I took her to vet and she is on Baytril and eye drops and she is doing really much better but she still has a long way to go. If she had just had this one health problem, she could have stayed at the shelter, got spayed and then be adopted from there. I was even going to foster her through the shelter but it turns out she has two large mammary cysts which the vet said can be associated with hormonal surges and uterine cancer. Eighty-five percent of all female rabbits will develop uterine cancer by the age of five if they are not spayed.

So this means her spay will cost a little more. She will need to have her uterus biopsied to detect cancer and if so, then she will need xrays to determine if it has spread to the lungs. If it has spread, then she will receive chemo which in animals has the goal of enhancing the quality of life not the quantity. If she does have it, she will get the chemo and we'll keep her as comfortable as possible as long as possible like we have done for so many bunnies over the years.

If you think you would like to help us help Beatrix by making a donation, we would very much appreciate it. Just click on the button below to make a secure, tax-deductible donation. Bright Eyes Sanctuary is a 501c3 non-profit organization.

Pawprints in the Snow; Howling at the Winter Moon

Well Jessie got her treat and it was to play ball in the snow under the light of the moon at 3:00am! All of the dogs enjoyed running and getting their paws all frosty and getting snow in their coats. Mac ran around with the Kong biscuit ball in his mouth just hoping that it might anger Jessie and she'd want to get into it with him.

That Wacky Macky, my pointer-collie mix, what a punk he is. He even tries to taunt Rocky which is like suicidal! You do not mess with a 95lb. german shepherd who has a prey drive that is out of the galaxy! But that's my Mac, he is always looking to mix it up. I guess he knows deep down that Rocky or Jessie would never hurt him. Mac is everybody's sweetheart. But I still remember fondly the times when he was a pup and he pushed Wolfgang too far. He came in one day looking like he had a bullet hole in his face and he was so excited about it!

Of course I remember when we used to have a skunk living out back and Mac would get so excited when he got sprayed by the skunk! My crazy Mac, the things that make him happy seem so odd. He is definitely the beta dog of the pack, always pushing the leader, always wanting to challenge someone, anyone. His bite instinct is fantastic and he would have made a great Schutzhund. But wouldn't that look funny, such a pretty, smaller-sized Old World looking collie dog doing Schutzhund? But oh how proud he would be. He loves it when I have my big winter coat on and I start waving my forearm at him and he jumps up and bites and makes a lot of growly moan sounds like 'ah ya ya ya' and then he gets all happy and tears around the yard as fast as he can.

I remember the days when he used to run like the wind around the yard, he made roads in the yard which Rocky turned into a dirt pit. Yea we used to have grass. Now we have dirt and acorns. That's fine. We bought some of that special grass seed they use on football fields. I don't know, Rocky is pretty tough on the foilage. It might not work.

Well we won't have to worry about that today. The dirt is underneath some beautiful snow and there is much pouncing and spraying o' the white to be done.

Bon hiver!

Back in the Diaper Again

Well today it's become apparent that my little hobo sanctuary rabbit, Rebecca, who has lived here inside the house with for nearly 5 years, is in diapers for good now.

Maybe some of you read my article detailing Rebecca's experience with disability called, "Caring for a Disabled Rabbit." In it, I talk about how she was once partially paralyzed and used a wheelchair. She also had to wear a diaper due to incontinence. She got over both of those but she has been struggling with incontinence again recently.

She's been taking Bethanacol, a drug to help her bladder muscle tone because she had bladder sludge. Ouch! That is when a rabbit has a sandy sludge in their urine and as you can imagine, it must hurt to pee! Well she seems to have gotten rid of the bladder sludge but the incontinence is back. So she will get a messy butt from having stuff stick to her wet butt including poop and hay.

I really don't like having to give her a butt bath every day but I've been doing it. She is so good about all this but I know she hates it too. I love that old rabbit. She loves me too. She is such an inspiration to me. So to keep her butt from getting all messy and her tissue-thin skin there getting urine scald, she's back in diapers, this time for good.

She wears a size 1 Huggies. We have the system down really good now for changing her about every four hours. I get a plastic grocery bag and put her bottom half in it and open the diaper and it plops right off. Then I hoist her out of there and she does a twist while I pull a new diaper on her, from one side to the other, she twists at just the right time for me to seal the little belt. As she does the twist, she licks my arm which is really touching to me. It tells me she is glad I'm changing the diaper and that having worn it all day makes her feel good.

When she first started wearing them again earlier this week, she had a little trouble hopping around. She has such a funny hop anyway. Her hind feet do a hop but then they fall out behind her so her the top of her foot is flat on the floor. Then she swings her feet around like she's paddling and does it all again. It's a very strange bunny hop but let me tell you, she can book down the hallway faster than I can run after her!

I guess I'll have to do some butt baths now and then depending on when her cecals come. Oh and that reminds me! Joy of joys, I will have to feed her cecals to her since she won't be able to get to them in her diaper. Those are the recycled poops of the rabbit. They ferment their poop in their cecum and then eat it. It's how they draw the nutrition out of the hay. It's probably the only nutrition they get since veggies basically have no nutrition. Did you know that? Yea veggies these days are just for appearance.

So I will have to feed those cecals to her. I'll do a post on cecals soon. I have some great shots of cecal logs!

Here's my little hobo in her diaper looking all comfy and dry. This picture is actually from a couple of years ago but it's still the same bag of diapers I'm using today and she looks pretty much the same. Still beautiful and still the sweetest old lady rabbit you could ever meet. Bleckie!

What Cold Means to the Sanctuary

I love winter. More than any other season, this is my element. This is when I was born. Actually, I was born on a Tibetan holy day when the monks practice what is called Tuomo.

This is done on the coldest night of the year when monks go to the mountaintop cave and sit outside naked in the elements. Then they come inside and wrap themselves in sheets to soak up the sweat. Yea, sweat! They are sitting in a cave at the top of a mountain on the coldest night of the year and they're sweating. That is mind control for ya.

Anyway, that's probably why I like the cold.

But here at the sanctuary, we like the cold because it means no mosquitoes for one thing. So the dogs don't have to take heartworm medicine for at least one month of the year. That poison kills the heartworms but it is also not good for the dog really; a necessary evil.

The cold does wonders for the compost pile. The compost pile also provides a home for little burrowing creatures to hide from the cold deep inside of it. I'll try to post a picture of Mount Wannabeagrub when I get a chance.

And the cold also means snuggling! I snuggle with the bunnies, the cats, and the dogs. We hug a lot more in the winter. Although it's nice and warm in the house, there are drafts and so everyone knows it's cold oustide. So there's a good excuse for hugging right there.

The cold also means there's a possibility of snow! We all love to get snowed in and sleep in and not have me have to leave the house. When mom is home, everyone gets extra treats because I have time to dole them out.

And I guess the last thing the cold means (besides outrageous oil bills like the one for $450 I got today - ouch!) is the dogs are insanely happy. They can run and run outside for an hour and not get overheated like in July. This is what I call "collie weather." Although we only have one collie now, we used to have 3. So it will always be collie weather to me.

And that's the best thing of all! Collie weather!