We've Always Been There

This little cottontail has an amazing story! One dark night he was hit by a car and rolled up underneath the car's body. Although the driver stopped he was unable to locate the rabbit … until the next morning when he started his car and heard a huge racket somewhere in the body of the car. He called us to help. When the cottontail was extricated from under the car we had to give him a chance to live out his life after having survived such a horrific accident. He had to have a leg amputated and one eye removed. But still this brave little cottontail wanted to live.

This is just one story in another year of rescues for us. Here are some more:

Little Joey was found wandering in someone’s backyard. He came to us in horrible condition, but is doing very well today with his guinea pig & rabbit friends.

Jack Frost was rescued with four badly abscessed feet and could barely walk. Today, we’ve helped Jack Frost recover with three good feet with one that will unfortunately always be deformed. But that hasn’t affected his good humor.

Bridget came to us with a broken back and requires our help routinely.

Taffy, a friendly guinea pig, has many internal lumps that are beyond surgery.

We took in three chinchillas from another shelter, and found two of them, Muffin and Suzette (pictured) have misaligned teeth requiring trimming by a veterinarian every other month, at the cost of $200 a treatment.

Horatio was returned by his adoptive family and appears to have adrenal disease requiring a costly ultrasound and soon a surgery.

We've rescued degus, sugar gliders, chinchillas, gerbils, hamsters, mice, rats, ferrets, guinea pigs and of course rabbits - 144 animals in all! 97 of them found homes, 11 were returned (once rescued our animals always have a home with us). And we have over 200 animals living in peace and safety in our beautiful permanent sanctuary, Rabbit Meadows.

We also help our local wildlife. Since most wildlife centers won’t accept orphaned mice and rats, caring humans often approach us with injured or orphaned baby rodents. (Yes, we will accept them.) We’ve helped many Eastern Grey Squirrels who have fallen out of tree nests when their mothers were killed by cars, or as in one case when a baby squirrel (with eyes still closed) was finally removed from a group of school children after they’d been mishandling the baby squirrel. We’ve helped cottontail rabbits close to death when they arrived, but amazingly pulled through.

Over the last year more than 600 hours were spent on the phone or Internet answering questions on how to trap a rabbit abandoned in a neighborhood, to deciding what type of animal would be the best family fit. Over 100 hours were spent educating public animal shelters about rabbit care, behavior, housing and adoptions. We’ve driven over 3,000 miles to transport our rabbits and rodents to and from veterinary appointments, or from other animal shelters. Moreover, we made numerous pre-adoption home visits, picked up donated veggies, hay, and ran miscellaneous errands. Our travels took us all over the Puget Sound to educate communities on the methods of trapping rabbits who were unlawfully released in neighborhoods and on public lands.

The Animals Need Your Support

We are a no-kill animal shelter that relies heavily on the generosity of the public’s donations. This tough economy has hit our budget hard and difficult decisions have become even more difficult. Our population of animals includes those who will be with us for the rest of their lives. In addition, with the tough economy many families have unfortunately had to make very difficult decisions to return their adopted animals to us.

Difficult Decisions

To manage costs, we have made drastic changes. We gave up more than half of our building at the Lake City location to reduce our monthly expenses. We moved our adoption center and foster animals to Rabbit Meadows our feral rabbit sanctuary in Redmond. Animal supplies are still available at our store on Lake City Way as well as at our Redmond location. However, donations fell by $12,000, the boarding income fell by $10,000, and the largest of our expenses, veterinary costs, have increased by leaps and bounds. We are as dedicated and committed as ever to continuing our life saving work for the animals, but we need your help to do it.

Dedication At It's Best

We’ve been able to continue our work only because of the kindness of the animal loving community with monetary donations and volunteer work. Monetary donations go directly to the care and support of the animals, and we work hard to make each dollar go a long way. Alternatives to monetary donations such as volunteer help or donate items are just as important. Phone 425-836-8925 or e-mail Volunteer@RabbitMeadows.org if you can volunteer. We have tasks to be done for pretty much anything you might want to help with:

• Photograph animals for our website and newsletter
• Transport animals to/from vet visits
• Pick up donated veggies
• Transport large trash items to King County disposal site
• Help maintain the grounds of the sanctuary (mow the lawn, weed, landscape, etc.)
• Clip rabbit/guinea pigs’ nails and brush them
• Grant writing/fundraising help
• Keep web page updated with adoptable animal photos
• Bookkeeping/monthly bank reconciliation
• Every 6 weeks clean Bunny Barn
• We need a volunteer to run our 2009 Silent Auction program. (1st meeting in January)
• Anything you can think of?

Without volunteers we wouldn’t exist. Volunteers make a huge difference to our organization, so please indulge us as we take a moment to thank those valuable volunteers we have today. Their dedication and donations have helped the animals more than they know.

Zoe Kluge has volunteered two days a week at the Best Little Rabbit Rodent and Ferret House in Seattle for the past year and a half. Please thank her the next time you’re in to buy supplies on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Art Land, Kristen Fraser, Tracy Mullen, Patty Anderson, Sarah and Katie Struble, and Todd Hanamoto volunteer once every six weeks to clean our bunny barn. We cannot put into words our appreciation for your hard work. Kristen also took on the task of organizing our silent auction & dinner for the past two years with very successful results! Erika and Matthew Parsons come by once a week to clean cages, and they spent two days at Microsoft during the once yearly “Giving Campaign” recruiting more volunteers and soliciting donations. Cara Shaughnessy, volunteers her time ear cleaning, nail clipping, loving and playing with our senior citizen ferrets. Gayle Schneider brings two cases of veggies and other snacks each week to feed our animals! Gerrie Margell for making soup for our ferrets, and Union Bay Signs for new signs for our Seattle store and James Andrews for arranging this.

Cheryl Julian, a graphic designer at Sweetlight Creative Partners, www.Sweetlight.com, donated her time to create a new logo for Rabbit Meadows [logo]. Thank you Cheryl! Sue Brennan of Rabbit Haven donated a table saw that has helped with our numerous projects at Rabbit Meadows. Thank you to our local Whole Foods in Redmond for their daily organic veggies and for including our organization in their 10 cent refund program when customers bring their own bags. (We received a check for $767.60!) Peter Weisberg comes to Rabbit Meadows once a week to groom and pet our rabbits and guinea pigs. Vicki Nelson, who helps with anything and everything, every time we ask! Thank you to the generous donor who financed the purchase of a high efficiency washing machine which was needed to reduce water and power usage with all the laundry we do each day.

Some years ago, a caring person donated two fenced dog kennels that we turned into a large wildlife pen to house Rollo and Jack, two cottontails unable to be released due to permanent injuries as a result of being struck by cars.

Last time, we inadvertently left off a thank you to Kristen Kirkham, the comedian who lives with her rabbits and did a standup routine during the Silent Auction dinner. So, thank you Kristen! We send our huge gratitude to all who have so generously donated your time and money. Thank you!

If you wish to donate in other ways, please consider book marking the Internet search page “Goodsearch” at www.GoodSearch.com and entering the Best Little Rabbit Rodent and Ferret House as your choice of charity. Each time you make a search via this site, our organization receives 1.3 cents and it costs you nothing. Also, shopping through www.GoodShop.com (accessible through Goodsearch) gives us a percentage of your purchases--again, it costs you nothing.

The Best Little Rabbit Rodent and Ferret House, and Rabbit Meadows are small, no-kill local organizations for small animals. We have visions of continuing to save many animals in the future, and finding loving homes for those who are adoptable. But, we cannot do it alone. We rely very heavily on donations of money or useable items, and by volunteer help. With your help, we’ll be there for the animals far into the future.

Many, Many Thanks to all of you for all you've done! Your contributions truly make a difference in the world!