Dear Friends,
This week, I got an urgent call for help for a young bunny named Fiona.
Dr. Harvey, our Health Director, came in to her clinic on her day off to consult on Fiona’s complicated case.
Fiona was found stray last Saturday and taken to the Alameda Animal Shelter. Due to her severe dental disease – multiple jaw abscesses, bone loss, overgrown teeth – the staff at the shelter had to make a tough call. But Fiona was loving and friendly, charming everyone she met. If you didn’t look inside her mouth, you would never know she was critically ill.
Dr. Harvey said, “I just talked to the shelter. Fiona will likely need lifelong special care, and the shelter gave permission to euthanize. But they also gave me permission to find rescue. Do you know anyone who can foster Fiona? Is there someone who might donate towards her medical care? Is there an angel out there who might be able to help?” She thought Fiona deserved a second chance, and she was willing to donate a surgery to make sure it happened.
“Let me make a couple of phone calls. I’ll call you back,” I said.
When the volunteer who had been fostering her picked up the phone, he was crying. He was on his way to the vet’s office to hold Fiona as she was being put to sleep. He didn’t want her to be alone.
When I asked him if he was willing to continue fostering Fiona, and that House Rabbit Society was going to give her a second chance, he continued to cry with relief. He agreed to foster her through her treatment and recovery.
Fiona immediately went into surgery. Fiona’s abscesses and loose teeth were removed, long teeth were filed, and antibiotic-infused packing was left in. She is recovering well – she is alert, happy, and aside from her big incision, you would never know she went through major surgery.
For the next 4-6 weeks, Fiona will go under anesthesia every Wednesday and have the antibiotic-infused packing replaced. With these procedures, months of antibiotics, and loving care in her foster home, she is expected to have many years of a happy bunny life ahead of her.
What I told our volunteer on the phone when, crying, he thanked me for saving Fiona is what I want to tell you now:
It’s because of thousands of people who love rabbits that House Rabbit Society is able to help. I’m just the one who gets to say, “Yes.”
That’s why I’m writing to you today. When you join the Bunny Brigade with a monthly contribution of 20, 50, or 100 dollars, you empower House Rabbit Society to save rabbits that no one else can. Your monthly contribution to help Fiona, and others just like her, allows House Rabbit Society to continue to say “yes” to rabbits in need.
Please, join me in saying “Yes” to Fiona, and make a monthly contribution to House Rabbit Society today.
For the bunnies,
Anne Martin, PhD
Executive Director