Little Bunny Foo Foo or Little Bunny Boo Boo?

Parting is such sweet sorrow. Although by this point in our trip, my husband thought for sure Kim would be sick of me and happy to have a few hours to herself! LOL!

As you probably guessed, Kim & I went our separate ways this morning. She headed over to Feathered Friends and I went to the Bunny House. They are within walking distance to each other and to Angel’s Village (the restaurant), which made splitting up for the morning pretty easy. While Kim seems to have soared through her chores with the birds (lol!), the work at Bunny’s House, not quite so easy! (Just kidding of course. Kim worked her tail off as well!)

There were only 3 of us with the bunnies that day – me, a “permanent” volunteer, and the bunny caregiver. Additional volunteers had signed up but were no shows (grrr…), and the other staff members were up at Area 51 which is where the 300+ Reno Rabbits reside.

Side note – If you’re not familiar with the Reno Rabbits, I’ll give a brief explanation. In 2006, Best Friends, along with other rabbit rescues across the country, learned about a hoarder in Reno who had somewhere close to 1000 rabbits in the backyard. The rabbits who survived the ordeal were sent to different rescue groups, with close to 600 going to a group in Michigan. Times got tough for the Michigan rescue, and earlier this year 312 of the Michigan bunnies made their way back to Kanab to call Best Friends home (until they find their permanent homes of course!). BF set up an area known as Area 51 for these bunnies, and as you can imagine caring for 312 of them takes just a few sets of hands!! Which is the main reason there was only 1 staff member at Bunny House today.

Anyhoo, since they were so short staffed and low on volunteers, I was asked if I would mind cleaning the first bunny house as the caregiver went about administering meds. She felt bad because she said that normally she asks volunteers to do the “fun” stuff like socializing the bunnies, making them toys out of toilet paper rolls, etc. I didn’t mind cleaning at all, as it was obvious she needed help in a bad way.

So, with Rosemary and Sage by my side (the white bunnies in the slideshow), I set about cleaning their building and hoping none of their neighbors escaped (or fought!) on my watch! It was kinda funny because there is a huge sign on Rosemary’s door that says she is a biter. No sooner did I read that, I hear the caregiver asking if I would mind Rosemary being let out because she’s used to hopping around as the staff cleans the runs. She assured me that Rosemary had never bitten her “hard”, which had me a little concerned because you’ll note she didn’t say that Rosemary had never bitten! Anyway, Rosemary was a great cleaning companion and although she liked hanging out by my feet and attacking my broom, not once did she come even close to taking a chunk out of me!

The cleaning took the better part of 3 hours, and afterwards I was rewarded with a bowl of Cheerios to go and socialize with the bunnies in other buildings. They are all so stinking cute, and most took the Cheerios right out of my hand or off of my knee.

I did learn this morning, though, that Little Bunny Foo Foo doesn’t stop at bopping field mice in their heads…they go after knees as well! I’m kidding but in all honestly, I somehow really screwed up my left knee while I was there. All I had to do was to walk across a parking lot in order to get to Angel’s Village for lunch with Kim, but I made it about ½ way across and experienced the most excruciating pain E.V.E.R., and was in tears by the time I sat at our outside table. While Kim was inside getting her food, another volunteer came by & asked if i was okay. I didn't realize my sniffling was as audible as it was! Embarrased to say I couldn't handle a couple fluffy bunnies without severely injuring myself, I lied and said that I was just taken back by the stunning views offered at the Angel's Village patio!

By the end of lunch my knee was done and I had no idea how I would manage to get through the rest of the day, much less the rest of our time at Best Friends.

So, while I was playing with the fluffy bunnies, Kim had a wonderful time with the birds. She met a family of 4 Parrots (I believe) who previously lived with a hoarder. This person had so many birds in her basement, she didn’t realize that this particular male & female had mated & had babies until a year later. She discovered the kiddo’s living happily in their parents cage with them, and at that point their size indicated they had been with mom & pop for about a year but no person realized they were there!

Kim also got a tour of the Wildlife Rehab Center, which she really enjoyed. She met a pair of young opossums, geese, owls, falcons, and a whole list of others that I know I am forgetting. Sorry!

Here is the slideshow of our morning. We volunteered at Cat Village in the afternoon, which I’ll post about separately.