BACKKKK (after 5 years!)

[tanlover14]

Oh. My. Gosh.

A few of us “oldies” were talking on Facebook and I decided to hop back over and see what I’ve been missing…. for the last five years. WHO IS STILL ON HERE?

When I got my first rabbit 8 1/2 years ago, I stumbled on BinkyBunny. I owe my deep involvement in the rescue rabbit community to this site – where I learned the proper way to care for bunnies and met the people who became my best friends. 8 1/2 years later, we are STILL best friends. 😀  Some of you I *may* know or follow on Facebook, my name on Facebook is Sandra Lee.  I previously owned the blog/online store “The Bunny Chick” which is no longer available online.  I do hope to start blogging again but have no interest in starting another store. I’m an HRS Educator and an admin on the House Rabbit Society group page!

Anyone who was on BinkyBunny previously, definitely knows me because of my first 3 bunnies, my three Tans (hence the username). My group has increased and decreased in so many ways over the past 8 years but these 4 bunnies currently rule my heart and home:

Fleury (left) & Zoe (right) – my bonded pair:

Fleury is an 8 1/2 year black Tan. He was my first bun, along with his two siblings, who came from a breeder (I know, I know! *facepalm*) . Fleury was double-exposed to EC (in the womb and after birth) and has had a lot of complications with EC over the years. When he was 3, his eyesight went from normal to fully mature cataracts in a span of 14 days. He has kidney disease and neurological damage due to EC episodes also. This little bunny is one of the strongest bunnies I’ve ever known though. He was the runt of his litter and the only one who has survived. His sister, Sidney, passed away 3 years ago due to complications from EC that led to sepsis. His brother, Tanger, passed away a year ago due to kidney failure from EC. We are currently battling another episode of EC, but he’s got this! If you’ve never interacted with a Tan, they are extremely active, extremely opinionated, and extremely destructive (=P). Even in his old age and with his illnesses, Fleury is my most active bunny. His neurological damage can make it difficult for him to remain upright but he still runs around and binkies more than all my other buns!

Zoe is a 6 year old Lion Lop. She was a personal rescue from a breeder who gave up all her breeding bunnies to me when her husband and her split up and her husband was going to release them all. My boyfriend, at the time, fell in love with her so she never left (all the others found homes/went to rescues). Zoe thinks humans are disgusting, so I let her do her own thing, but LOVES other bunnies. Zoe and Fleury used to be a part of a group of 8 bonded bunnies and she instantly loved EVERYONE. She’s an extremely laid back and lazy bunny. If you look at her the wrong way, her thump will literally shake the house.

Simba was my first adoption (he came directly after my Tans). Simba is a 10 year old Lionhead. He is currently a single rabbit, though currently being bonded to my next introduction). He is free-roam and despite what his adoption papers would tell you, he’s one of the sweetest, most lovable bunnies I’ve ever met.  He was initially rescued by a school teacher who found him wandering outside the school. He came in with an umbilical hernia that needed repair from a botched neuter. He was almost euthanized during his life at the shelter due to extreme aggression. It turns out, he’s only “aggressive” in small spaces because small spaces make him nervous. He will gladly snuggle and hands out kisses. I am diagnosed with C-PTSD & Bipolar Disorder and this little man has helped me survive many nights as an emotional support animal. He lays on my chest and gives me kisses when I’m laying in bed from panic attacks, and he has laid by my side during many nights that I struggled with depression. I cannot love this bunny enough for what he’s given me. <3

And last, but not least, my most recent adoption – Bazil.  Bazil is a 3 year old New Zealand White. My giant Goober man came to me roughly 2 months ago from NJ.  He was originally rescued from a cosmetics company who had used him for product testing. The worker who was supposed to euthanize him and the others snuck them out and surrendered them all to rescue. A year later, this May, the rescuer he was with was busted for animal hoarding. Bazil was found with 11 other rabbits in basement, living in 2 inches of feces on the floor, combined with cats and dogs. The dogs had begun eating the rabbits and weak cats for food because they were all starving. All the rabbits that survived were the larger breeds.  Although he’s only been with me 2 months, this boy has found such a huge spot in my heart that I cannot even explain.

Four other little crazy critters rule my home as well, I have 4 chinchillas also!

Mollie Ann (top right – gray chin) was my 2nd chinchilla that came from my rabbit vet. I had adopted my first chinchilla, Ollie, a few days previous from a rescue in TN. When I jumped into the chinchilla mom title, my vet told me she had a chinchilla that had been brought to her a few weeks previous for emergency surgery. A breeder had bred her and the babies were stuck, she needed emergency surgery to remove them, and was spayed in the process so the breeder ditched her with my vet.  She thought Ollie and Mollie would make a perfect couple so I agreed to take her!

Jaxon (top left – black chin) became my 3rd chinchilla when Ollie passed. Jaxon was from another city in PA, Philly, and had been left behind in an apartment complex with a few other animals. A rescuer had hung onto him but had been unable to adopt him out, so when she saw my Mollie grieving, she suggested Jaxon and he’s been here creating ruckus ever since!

Chester aka. Cheese (bottom – right) was my first disabled chinchilla! He’s blind and adopted from another rescue in TN. He was confiscated from a hoarding situation and is relatively old. I was specifically looking for an unadoptable chinchilla which is how he came into my life.

Pinot (bottom – left) is my second disabled chinchilla and came 6 months after Cheese. Pinot is actually Cheese’s son and is also from the same rescue in TN. Pinot has 3 legs – he’s missing one back leg, amputated due to a break. He’s the quickest and most hyper of my chins and the youngest!

AND finally, I still have two other bunnies that are technically “mine” but are currently in a foster-to-adopt situation. Harley (the harlequin) and Picasso (the black Lionhead) I took in from WV when the family they were with was threatening to release them and then drove to a meat breeder and was going to drop them off.  The Bunderground Railroad helped work out transport and they showed up a few days later. If anyone remembers me previously, they are actually being fostered to adopt through my ex-boyfriend that many probably remember (Aaron) and his current girlfriend. Harley and Picasso were both the perfect fit for him, so fingers crossed they are in their forever home for good!

I’m super excited to be back to the forums after such a long break!  =D Bunny people are the best people!

[HipHopBunny]

WOW! You’ve had quite the experience with rabbits! <3 First of all, I have to say, they are all such Cuties! Their set-ups are all Great, living the luxury life, eh? 😉 I have not actually known you, but have been reading old threads, and have read a lot from you and other members, and I am so happy to finally meet you. 🙂

“Bunny people are the best people!” Agreed, this website has definitely helped me several times. 😉 A huge thank you to everyone on here, for creating this beautiful website that has helped dozens of people and bunnies, and continues to do so every day. 🙂

Hopefully, more old members will start trickling in, it made me so excited to see your and other member’s names appear on here. 😀 We are going to need to start a Get to Know You thread, I’ve seen some of those in the past, and they sound like a great idea. 🙂

 

[JackRabbit]

TanLover you should do a post in the bridge section about your bridge bunnies as a tribute to them.  While some have come and gone since you were on BB before and some were on BB, all of them deserve a forever spot on BB.

[Hazel]

Wow, that’s a lot to take in! I just want to say I’m so very sorry about the babies you lost, that is heartbreaking. I’m so glad you still have little Simba, he’s such a sweet boy. And Fleury and Zoe, of course! 🙂  I love how Fleury won’t let his health issues keep him down, what a trooper. 😀

I don’t quite remember, but wasn’t Simba bonded with the others at some point?

I’m glad that Bazil got his forever home with you, he deserves it after what he was put through. Kudos to the guy who saved them from being put down. I can’t believe they would even do that, after using them for product testing, the least they could do would be to give them a chance to be adopted, is that really too much to ask? People make me sick sometimes.

What a cute little gang of Chinchillas you got there! How do they compare to bunnies?

[jerseygirl]

Hey TL !

oh gosh, there was a lot to catch up on. I teared up a little reading that Sidney & Tanger had passed on. I suppose I should know on some level that a lot of your buns would be in their golden years. Fleury is a champion! Nice to see him again and still with a bunny buddy. I don’t quite remember Zoe. I will need to see more pics of that awesome face.  I do remember Simba, of course! He looks great, TL. What a special guy.

Welcome to your newest, Bazil.  I’m happy he’s found you. I had a NZ Awhite and they are lovely buns. There is something calming about them.

I smiled reading about the 2 Aaron and his gf will potentially adopt. Fingers crossed!

The chinchillas…. holy crap!! 🤯🤯🤯

So freaking adorable. I just love watching chins, but we don’t have them here. 😭

[JackRabbit]

Bunnies, chins, fish, a certain cat, and even a bird (I think I have a situation here — words forever etched in my mind and stashed in my mental favorites folder lol).  TL has a huge heart!

[tanlover14]

@JackRabbit, you’re so right – I’ll definitely do a Bridge Bunnies post with everyone!  Not only for those that have passed that everyone knew, but also for the ones everyone missed that hold such a special place in our hearts (since you have known them ALL!).

@HipHopBunny, it’s so good to be back! I’ve been actually excited to check in on the posts!  It feels surreal coming back to the beginning days of my bunny mom journey. It’s crazy to think about where I am now in the bunny world compared to the first time bunny mom I was when I joined BB!  Rescue holds a huge spot in my heart and I’ve become good friends with soo many rescuers who have not only helped me in my personal life but bunny mom life as well.  A Get to Know You Thread sounds awesome!!

@Hazel !!!!!!  Simba WAS bonded to the others!  As JR said, so much has happened in the past few years since we’ve been on BB!  Long story short, Aaron and I split up when the group was 7 strong (Fleury, Sidney, Tanger, Simba, Lacey, Nora, and Zoe) and Tucker was a single bunny (due to his anxiety, he was always getting bullied!). When Aaron and I split up, we had both signed a legal document when we began adopting that gave us both rights to certain bunnies. Being the large group of 7, we split them up into the groups that would make the most sense.  He took Simba, Lacey, and Nora; I took the Tans, and I bonded Zoe to Tucker since she was such an easy bunny that always accepted others so well.  Even shorter story, he ended up not being able to handle the commitment for a variety of reasons, asked me to bun-sit, and never picked them back up. Although I was angry, I’m secretly happy because I can’t imagine a life without them having not been with me. Since the bond with Zoe was so strong for Tucker, and I was finally able to take him off anxiety medication with her security to help him, I chose not to bond them all back as a group. Lacey and Nora have both passed away, and Simba lost another bond mate (my heart bunny Addie I’ll add into the Bridge Bunny post), and has been a free roam single bunny since.  He’s in the process of being bonded to Bazil which I think will be awesome but with Bazil’s surgery and a small scuffle over critical care (LOL!), I’m holding off on doing more until Bazil is healed again. He’s always loved having buddies though so I’m anxious to get him bonded back to somebun! Did I say this would be short? DOH. The pictures of his group when they were rescued from the cosmetic testing company is nauseating.  I truly have no idea how anyone with a conscience can do that.

@JerseyGirl, it is so weird to be back here without all my Tans! It’s literally the bunnies I was known for!  So funny now, Bazil has won the hearts of EVERYONE in the rescue community so he has more fans on my Facebook now than I do. (I wish I was kidding but I’m totally not!) I have actually thought/tried to bond Simba back to Fleury, but they both get into too many bickerments and I end up being a helicopter mom because I’m so worried about his blindness & EC.  I am such a guru at bonding everyone elses buns, but give me any of my own that has a disability/illness & I drive myself nutty! LOL. There is something soooo calming and amazing about NZ Whites!  Bazil had my heart before he even walked in the door. I’m going to be a sucker for them forever, I can tell!

The chinchillas are nutty little creatures! They are completely squirrels on speed/crack. LOL. They are beyond nuts. I love them so much. Much easier care than my bun buns, they are way more self sufficient and easier to clean their cages as well!  They have very diverse personalities like bunnies though!  Mollie never makes a noise but Pinot never shuts his mouth. He’s constantly chattering to himself. Jaxon is always barking at me! They have a huge variety of vocal noises though so half the time I have no idea what they’re saying/talking about or even if it means happy/sad. There are quite a few that are documented around places, but also a ton that no one seems to know the meaning of. Funny enough, I think the care standards of chinchillas are much like rabbits were 10 years ago – very little is known, the information you find is very very conflicting, and everything is very learn as you go and cross your fingers.  It’s a little unnerving sometimes!  Their big downside is they are even better than rabbits at hiding illness. My vet told me that if I notice something is off about one, it’s an extreme emergency and get them to an exotics vet immediately.  Like rabbits, emergency vets know little to nothing about them and taking them is usually more dangerous than not. They go downhill VERY quickly though. The only chinchilla loss I had – he was running around completely fine with 2 of my friends who were visiting (also from BB but I don’t remember their usernames, JR might!) and he suddenly just laid down and he passed away less than 5 minutes later.  Ollie was elderly though so it’s likely his was due to age, though chinchillas live up to 20 years!!  I absolutely love them though.

JR felt the need to list off all the random animals I’ve entertained in my apartment over the past few years LOL. Gosh, I don’t even know how to update everyone on ALL the animals that have been in & out. LOLOLOLOL. The bird….bahahahaa. My doctor is still complaining about that one.  *whistles unknowingly* Snails, birds, a random cat off the street, a star fish…. JR says I have a huge heart, but it’s probably more likely I’m just a sucker. 😛 It’s too weird/funny to see JR now, since I consider her one of my absolute best friends and know her as MC now. When she was JR, we talked all the time on here, but man… she has been through it ALL with me!!

 

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