Welcome, Phoenix Flannery!

I'm excited to share with you that we have a new member joining our furry little family.

Last fall, I received a Facebook message from a high school classmate, Nicole. She knew from mt postings that I was, well, the crazy rabbit lady (and proud of it!). She told me that their neighbors had recently moved away and left their pet bunny defenseless in the back yard. Nicole and her husband rescued the bunny and named her Phoenix (because they were going to make sure she had an amazing new life).

Nicole and her husband took amazing care of Phoenix, even building her a custom ramp that she could use to get in and out of her cage. They found themselves overwhelmed, however, since they were already caring for a toddler and baby of their own. They couldn't give Phoenix the time she deserved. So Nicole did the brave thing and contacted me, even though she loved Phoenix very much.

At the time, I wasn't looking to adopt another bunny. I already had three and didn't have the space to add another one to my home. But I told Nicole I'd be happy to foster Phoenix until a spot opened up at the Red Door.

Shortly after I received notice that Ref Door had room for Phoenix, Fitzi fell ill. I certainly wasn't expecting Phoenix to be the little helper bunny that she became. The vet had encouraged me to keep Fitzi moving in the hopes that it would help her GI tract. Poor Fitzi was feeling so bad that all she wanted to do was lie on the floor. Phoenix wouldn't let her, though. She gently nudged Fitzi's hind end to keep her going and followed behind her to keep moving along. She never nipped or fought with Fitzi. She truly just appeared to be helping her. I've never witnessed something like that between two girl bunnies. It was so precious.

After Fitzi passed away, I found myself unable to part with Phoenix after all the compassion she had shown Fitzi. She's now a permanent resident of the Kuhn warren (and I even tacked on a literary middle name - I couldn't help myself!).

This little Phoenix has truly risen from the ashes of abandonment to enjoy a life filled with love!

Rest among the Stars, Fitzi

F. Scott Fitzgerald Kuhn, AKA “Fitzi,” 2002-2012

On February 2, Fitzi left us to join her beloved husbun, Hemingway, on the Rainbow Bridge. Fitzi is survived by her mama, Laura, as well as her bunny siblings, Alexandria, Paddington and Phoenix.

Fitzi was born in the summer of 2002 and was adopted by Laura on October 13, 2002. In her nine and a half years in this world, she created an indelible legacy of laughter and love. She had a brief gender identity "hiccup" when she was a baby. Laura was told her bunny was a boy, only to find out she was a girl at her first vet visit! Hence, "Fitz" became "Fitzi" and her blue toys were promptly replaced with pink ones.

She loved to run, explore and sometimes get into trouble (like the time she tried to jump on the toilet lid, only to find out that someone left the lid open – splash! She enjoyed playing “bunny basketball.” Her mama would give her a jingle ball that she would nose up and down her pen until “dunking” it into her food dish and being rewarded with a “SLAM DUNK!” from her mom.

Fitzi had other unique talents as well. Early in her life, she developed the ability to produce a noise that sounded exactly like a percolating coffee pot and would make the sound whenever she was happy or had something to say. She also had an uncanny knack for knowing when her mama was trying to sleep and then choosing that exact moment to begin (loudly!) rattling the bars of her pen.

In 2006, Fitzi’s mom took her “speed dating” at the Red Door Shelter in Chicago. There, a bunny angel named Toni introduced Fitzi to a very handsome bunny named Hemingway. They become bonded and were inseparable until Hemingway’s sudden death in 2010. Hemingway loved to groom Fitzi’s ears and Fitzi loved to remind him who was boss by occasionally nipping him on his hind end. After Hemingway passed away, Laura took Fitzi speed dating at Red Door again to see if she would be interested in another husbun. She wasn’t, but she knew that her sister Alexandria had long wished for a mate. Fitzi feigned interest in a nice boy bunny named Paddington just long enough for her mama to adopt him and bring him home, where Alex quickly claimed him as her own.

In her later years, as she began to slow down a bit, Fitzi spent almost every evening cuddling with her mom. The two of them had a ritual of cuddling on the couch and watching TV together. Sometimes Fitzi’s mom would try to work on a craft project while they were cuddling and Fitzi would quickly remind her what was more important – snuggling the bunny! On Fitzi’s very last night, she cuddled with her mom in her mom’s bed. Both of them knew that the end was near, and her mama told her, “Fitzi, I will do everything I can to keep you comfortable and happy as long as I can. When you body becomes too weary, please know that it’s okay to join your Hemingway.”

Fitzi was an incredible inspiration to her mom. Because of Fitzi, Laura became dedicated to doing everything she could to make the world a better place for bunnies (including opening her home to as many of them as possible). She also inspired Laura to start her blog, Bringing Up Bunny, which chronicled Fitzi’s adventures (as well as those of her friends) and will continue on in her memory.

Fitzi was buried in Dixon, Illinois, alongside her precious Hemingway. Laura, Alex, Paddington and Phoenix thank all of you for your kind words and prayers during this incredibly heartbreaking time.

The next time you are outside in the evening, please look to the sky for two bright stars right next to each other and you’ll see Fitzi and Hemingway binkying together, forever.

Rabbits Don't Require Refrigeration

True, I should not have left the refrigerator door open while Paddington was zooming about. But does anyone really expect to find a rabbit in the fridge, trying to dig his way into a box containing a cherry and cream cheese galette?

Welcome to Laura's Butt-y Parlor

Ahh, the joys of loving an elder bun. If you had told me nine years ago when I adopted Fitzi that I would be spending future evenings gently washing, towel-drying and blow-drying the fur on her butt (sometimes she has a hard time staying clean), I would have said, "You're crazy!"

Now I say, "Anything for my precious girl!"

"Want to talk?"

"I'm all ears!"

Bunny Butt!

Paddington would be horrified to learn his butt is on the 'Net, but I thought this was too cute to not share! I love his amazing velvety fur.

My Velvet Elvis

I've been uncharacteristically quiet about a health scare Paddington has been going through, but now I feel comfortable enough to share it with all of you.

About a month ago, Paddington started pulling back one side of his face. You can see how it looks in the picture above - although adorable, it's definitely not natural. I took him to the vet in late December, who ran a blood culture and didn't see any problems. He thought perhaps it was a palsy and sent him home with Metacam, which didn't seem to improve the situation - although I discovered that Pad LOVES the taste of Metacam and will suck it right out of the syringe.

Last weekend, he started drooling A LOT and it was quite foul-smelling. I got the vet on the phone first thing Monday morning and got him in for an appointment. This time, the vet (Paddington's regular vet, who wasn't available last time - I'm kicking myself for not insisting that we see him back in December!) ran a series of skull X-rays and saw that the root of a tooth was inflamed and pushing on a facial nerve. This is what was causing him to pull one side of his face back (the vet agreed that the expression was endearing and labeled him "Velvet Elvis"). This uncomfortable facial position was causing the teeth on one side of his mouth to dig into his tongue, causing some painful lesions and an infection (hence the bad breath).

The vet put Pad under anesthesia and filed down the teeth that were digging into his tongue. He also performed a laser treatment to help ease the inflammation around his mouth and gave him an injection of a pain med. When they brought Pad back to me, he was awake, but high as a kite. "He was asking us for Funyuns," the vet tech joked. We played with him a bit to get him more awake and then I took him home, along with Metacam, Baytril and a homeopathic remedy similar to St. John's Wort that is supposed to help ease the tension in his face.

When we got home, he was still a bit glassy-eyed from his painkillers and flopped over by the couch. That went on until I opened the refrigerator door - then he was right there and ready to beg for food. I gave him a baby carrot, but in his "altered" state, perhaps he would have preferred Taco Bell takeout!

That was Monday. Two days later, I'm happy to report that the drooling has stopped. It's hard to tell what else has improved because through all of this, Paddington has been his normal, happy-go-lucky self. Even when he was drooling, he was doing binkies and begging me for a piece of the Papa John's pizza that my boyfriend and I were enjoying. Those buggers do such a great job of hiding sicknesses, don't they? When I lost Hemingway, I had no idea anything was wrong until the day before he died, and apparently his system had been shutting down for months.

Pad is going back to the vet next Thursday for a check-up. If he hasn't progressed, the next discussion we're going to have is about pulling the tooth that is pushing on the nerve. The vet doesn't think it's progressed to being an abscess, thank God. I warned him that I didn't want to hear the "A word," and thankfully he didn't have to use it.

Paddington has this uncanny knack for getting sick whenever my finances are finally looking up a bit. Last year, the process of diagnosing him with a severe iron deficiency wiped out all of the money that I had been saving up for a new couch. This time, he wiped out the money I had saved up to spend on a cruise next month. Que sera, sera. In my mind, there was no question that I was going to spend the money to get my boy healthy.

I have to send a shout-out to the wonderful people at the Red Door Shelter for offering up suggestions on what might be troubling Pad, and for talking me down off the ledge I always climb on whenever one of the bunnies is sick.

I'll keep you posted on Velvet Elvis's progress. I'd be really grateful if you could spare a thought for him.