Rescue Me!
First, Happy Birthday Monty!
Okay, so I spent today doing something really worthwhile. Hatboro has a rescue fair every year at the Baptist church-no, they aren't out to save your soul, it's for animals. So this year I was manning the booth for The Rabbit Habit which is the organization I volunteer for. It was me, Kerry, Margie, new volunteer Julia and spokesbunnies Luke and Dori. Though hot, it was a nice day and the turn out wasn't too bad.
Now, every time we do an education event we hear the stories that start out, "I had a bunny once..." followed by the most horrible tales of rabbit death you can imagine. I've hear everything from eaten by a dog, grabbed by a hawk and even attacked by bees. This year however as we braced ourselves for the worst after these words were spoken we heard wonderful stories of beloved pets who lived to ripe old ages. It was very refreshing.
Unfortunately we didn't escape the insane person (who can be male or female), and as usual I was the one who got him. Call it a skill. So this elderly man walks up and asks how he can get the rabbits out of his back yard. After ascertaining that they were wild rabbits our first idea was "stop feeding them." He denied encouraging them to loiter on his lawn, so I suggested he get a bird feeder (bird feeder=birds + squirrels= cats which will scare away everything).
I was sitting with spokesbunny Luke on my lap and it was about this time that a little girl walked up to pet the bunny. Now the man started asking about chasing geese. I made the comment that geese make excellent guard animals and would probably chase him back (he then informed me he chased them with his CAR). The little girl thought we were talking about bunnies and asked what they would do if someone came into their yard. I explained that a bunny would probably just run away, but we were talking about geese which would chase away strangers. It was then that the man mused how he wanted to paint the geese different colors and see if they would be ostracized by the other birds. I'd had enough of the conversation so I told him I wasn't sure if geese weren't color blind and turned my attention to the growing group of kids surrounding me and Luke.
It's amazing what parents will let their kids do. I watched the 2 year old with crumbled cookie all over her hands pet the white bunny, and was mildly surprised that mommy had no issue with this (not that it was hurting anything). But I thought for sure she'd say something as the child resumed eating her cookie with a fur covered hand. Oh well, not my kid. I got the crumbs off Luke and set him back into his pen to clean himself. I swear Dori was laughing at him. She is his sister after all.
So other than those events the day was a success. We got a few donations, gave out a lot of information and will hopefully find some very nice adopters for our charges. Of course, spending 7 hours bent over a rabbit pen does have its draw backs: I really sun burnt the back of my neck. Let the redneck jokes begin!
Okay, so I spent today doing something really worthwhile. Hatboro has a rescue fair every year at the Baptist church-no, they aren't out to save your soul, it's for animals. So this year I was manning the booth for The Rabbit Habit which is the organization I volunteer for. It was me, Kerry, Margie, new volunteer Julia and spokesbunnies Luke and Dori. Though hot, it was a nice day and the turn out wasn't too bad.
Now, every time we do an education event we hear the stories that start out, "I had a bunny once..." followed by the most horrible tales of rabbit death you can imagine. I've hear everything from eaten by a dog, grabbed by a hawk and even attacked by bees. This year however as we braced ourselves for the worst after these words were spoken we heard wonderful stories of beloved pets who lived to ripe old ages. It was very refreshing.
Unfortunately we didn't escape the insane person (who can be male or female), and as usual I was the one who got him. Call it a skill. So this elderly man walks up and asks how he can get the rabbits out of his back yard. After ascertaining that they were wild rabbits our first idea was "stop feeding them." He denied encouraging them to loiter on his lawn, so I suggested he get a bird feeder (bird feeder=birds + squirrels= cats which will scare away everything).
I was sitting with spokesbunny Luke on my lap and it was about this time that a little girl walked up to pet the bunny. Now the man started asking about chasing geese. I made the comment that geese make excellent guard animals and would probably chase him back (he then informed me he chased them with his CAR). The little girl thought we were talking about bunnies and asked what they would do if someone came into their yard. I explained that a bunny would probably just run away, but we were talking about geese which would chase away strangers. It was then that the man mused how he wanted to paint the geese different colors and see if they would be ostracized by the other birds. I'd had enough of the conversation so I told him I wasn't sure if geese weren't color blind and turned my attention to the growing group of kids surrounding me and Luke.
It's amazing what parents will let their kids do. I watched the 2 year old with crumbled cookie all over her hands pet the white bunny, and was mildly surprised that mommy had no issue with this (not that it was hurting anything). But I thought for sure she'd say something as the child resumed eating her cookie with a fur covered hand. Oh well, not my kid. I got the crumbs off Luke and set him back into his pen to clean himself. I swear Dori was laughing at him. She is his sister after all.
So other than those events the day was a success. We got a few donations, gave out a lot of information and will hopefully find some very nice adopters for our charges. Of course, spending 7 hours bent over a rabbit pen does have its draw backs: I really sun burnt the back of my neck. Let the redneck jokes begin!
posted by Liz @ 5:52 PM
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