...I'm a slave and I am in love. LOVE. LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE.

I've been cyber stalking petfinder for a few weeks now.  My obsession started with I saw photos of a few English Angoras all blown out in their show coats. They were so awesomely funny looking that I decided that I HAD to have one.
Turns out, English Angoras aren't all that easy to find on petfinder, so I started looking at other breeds, mostly Jersey Woolies and Lionheads.  I really like the longer-haired breeds.

A friend told me about a lionhead available at a shelter over the bridge in Jersey (I live in the Philly area). After checking him out on petfinder, I decided to trek over there and check him out in person.

I got to the shelter and after talking to the adoption volunteer, she pulled him from his cage and sat him in a playpen with me.  He was super cute. Really, seriously freaking adorable, but not very social. I didn't count it against him, since he was in a loud shelter setting and could have been nervous.
So as I was sitting in the playpen with him, I asked the volunteer about the mini-lop female who lived in the cage above him; my hope was to see if they'd bond so that I could adopt them both.

She brought the female out, and she was so cute. A little shy, but still much more social with me than the boy was (he pretty much wanted nothing to do with me at all, whereas she bounced over to me and was all up in my business).

Well, as soon as the boy realized she was in the pen with us, he turned into the World's Biggest Butthead. He launched himself at her and tried his damnedest to mount her.
You could see that she was really interested in having a friend, but not at ALL interested in being violated against her will.  We watched them for a few more minutes to see if he'd calm down, but when it got to the point where he began pulling out tufts of her fur, we decided to call it quits. As the volunteer reached in to grab him, he tried to mount her again, and she literally launched herself into my arms and buried her head in my neck. And then I melted.

And that is when my quest for a lionhead turned into a mission to bring home a mini-lop.

I filled out the paperwork, paid the donation fee, plopped her in my bag and headed for home.
Her name is Jellybean. She is the absolute sweetest thing EVER.



I ordered a crapload of binkybunny supplies and toys on Friday, to be delivered this week, because I really wasn't expecting to have a rabbit this weekend! Her cage isn't even completely finished yet!  I made a ghetto temporary litterbox out of a cardboard box that I had in the basement, which I filled with carefresh. I had to stop at the petstore and pick up some el cheapo pellets and hay, because my Oxbow order isn't due to come in until later this week too!

So anyway, I hope you guys have patience, because I am sure that I will be asking about a million ridiculous questions, as I re-introduce myself to rabbit ownership after about 16 years of being rabbit-less.

Thanks!

She's currently hanging out in a wooden hut/house that I had bought a few years ago when I had guinea pigs, and scaring the crap out of me.  Her breathing seems fast to me, and she makes a quiet/fast honking sound when I get close to her or pet her (I googled about 75,000 videos of rabbit honking to see if the sound was similar).  She nibbled some hay when we first got home, and she also nibbled half of this little cookie treat thing that I put in her cage for her, but other than that, nothing has been touched. I don't think she really drank ANY water on her own, because when I got concerned, I detached the water bottle from her cage and held it in front of her mouth, and she began gulping it down.  

I'm hoping that the stress of being pulled from the shelter is putting her into Panic Mode, and she just needs time to adjust?  I re-hung the water bottle, turned the lights off in her room (but left a nightlight on!) and dropped the A/C a few degrees because I thought maybe she may have been warm (it's not hot or anything, but I'm being overprotective).

Also, she hasn't pooped at all.  Aren't these guys supposed to poop like every 32 seconds? That worries me. 

Welcome to BB! =D I would just keep an on eye the pooping. I would think that since she hasn't eaten much that's the reason why she's not pooing. Did the shelter tell you if she had a favorite veggie that you could try to entice her to eat? I would make sure that you wean your rabbit off of the cheap pellets and mix it with the Oxbow when you get it. You don't want to distress your bun's digestive system. It'll take her a bit to get used to her new surrounds.

Yes, I had a rabbit a loooong time ago, when I was in my mid-teens.  I haven't had any rabbits since he passed, but I in my mid twenties, I owned (adopted) guinea pigs, and then after they had passed away, I fostered a slew of pregnant guinea pigs for a local rescue for about a year (that was super fun, although I always hated handing the babies over once they were adopted out).  

I thought about taking her body into the shelter, but by the time I get out of work and make the 40 mile trek home, collect her body, and then drive the 25 miles to the shelter, it'll be way past their closing time.  I'm still unable to get in contact with them.  

Husband buried her.  My 5-year-old stepdaughter was away this weekend, and we didn't want her to come home and have to explain about the deceased bunny. The silver lining (if there is a silver lining here) is that she didn't know that we got a bunny over the weekend, because I wasn't sure if I was brining one home. So at least we don't have to go through explaining everything to her.

I reviewed the paperwork I got with Jellybean...under medical history, it shows that she was spayed on 8/20, and then received a metacam injection on 8/21, but that's all the info listed.  She was initially housed in another shelter, and was turned over this one (a no-kill shelter) due to overcrowding in the original shelter.  There was no other background info on her.

Via another message board, I've talked with a few other friends who are involved in rabbit and small animal rescue around the country, and the consensus is that they probably did treat her with something. I guess it's common for shelters to treat animals before they are released, and some shelters that are mostly cat and dog specific (like this one) have sometimes been known to treat rabbits with cat flea treatments, not knowing that the dosage is still too strong for a rabbit.

After some thought, I've made the following decisions:
- I am going to continue to try to contact this shelter, at least to get some answers.  I am not going to adopt another rabbit from them, but am also not going to ask for my money back.  They do a LOT of spays and neuters on a very reduced price scale, including free spay/neuter on ferals as well as animals from particular towns (I guess where people let their cats free-range and get into trouble), so while I don't have a lot of confidence in them rabbit-wise, I think they still do a lot of good in general and I'd feel bad about demanding money back.
- I am going to adopt another rabbit, but only from a rabbit-specific rescue, so that I am sure to get a healthy rabbit from someone who I am confident will be able to answer my questions when I have them.

Thanks for the well wishes and input, everyone!! This forum is awesome.

It's me again!

So, after taking some recovery time after the Jellybean tragedy, I went back onto Petfinder and started looking for rabbit-specific rescues, so that I could be sure to adopt from a source with experience and knowledge in buns.  I found a rescue that I liked, and then found a bunny that I liked from their adoptable list.  I went in to see him today, took one look, and said "YEP, bag n' tag 'em; he's mine!!"

We've dubbed him Frank Sinatra because of his dreamy blue eyes.  

He's a Jersey Wooly....after all of my research, I thought that I knew exactly how hairy they are, but MAN was I wrong!  I've read tons of info, looked at about a billion pictures online...but you really don't get to grasp the extent of their gobs of hair until you are face-to-face with them!

I sat on the floor in the back of the shelter with him, in a make-shift playpen.  He hopped around me for a while, doing his best to ignore me.  Every time I'd stop paying attention to him, he'd come over to check me out, but as soon as he realized that my attention was focused back on him, he'd turn tail and go back to ignoring me. His brattiness cracked me up.

So I filled out all the paperwork and paid the adoption fee.  He needs to be neutered, so I won't be bringing him home until Monday.  I'm MUCH more confident going into this adoption; the shelter director was very knowledgeable and very approachable. She gave me her cell phone number and told me to contact her at any time with any questions, no matter how small. 

Handsome little hairball, isn't he?