Hello all,
And I’m a wordy person.
I apologize for incorporating my Introduction with my question, but what I thought I had settled in my brain, I am now second guessing.
I am a dog groomer, I have been for 35 years, I currently work from home (the past 12 years) and groom dogs on my sunroom.
Despite what might immediately spring to your mind, my clients are regular, the dogs, (generally about 6 a day, Mon-Thurs) are well behaved and it’s not a barking zoo here. The noisy parts of dog grooming (blow drying) all happen downstairs in the basement.
I also (currently) own multiple Siberian Huskies (5) and 3 lazy cats.
25 years ago, when I managed a dog boarding kennel, an AC Officer that inspected us on a regular basis, called me out of the blue, pleading for me to take the last 8 of 200+ rabbits confiscated from a neglect situation. This group of Bunnies were considered unadoptable for one reason or another, all valid reasons back then and slated for euth at 8 pm that night.
Blah, blah, blah, I drove my questionable Chevy Citation to the Shelter in a snowstorm, and the AC gal essentially snuck the Bunnies out the back door in cardboard cat carriers, we loaded them up, and Home they came with me.
2 *pelted* Angoras that could barely move, several aggressive biters, and my dear *Flash* – who I NEVER figured out why he was *unadoptable*, beautiful, sweet, Burmese cat colored “Flash”.
Super fast forward, over 20+ years.
I’ve always ended up adopting 2 *unadoptables* because one of my clients was a head of AC in the County I’ve now lived in for the past 18 years, and he would call and appeal to me.
I’ve never been happy with my Bunny’s environment. Never.
Since the original overwhelming group of 8 passed away (natural attrition, old age, mammary cancer in 1) I’ve kept on with 2 “unadoptables”. Typically Bunnies that were turned in to the shelter as “Biters” (lol..ok…but they of course were NOT,)
My Bunnies do not hop around the house happily like a cat or dog (as they would be killed), but rather spend 90% of their lives in 4X4X4 cages. 2 cages, 1 atop the other. They are set up in my sunroom, where I am all day, but due to the overwhelming number of cords, they just can’t bop around loose.
They have always been fed a Bunny appropriate diet, even before that came to light, as my partner was a vet.
The little kids that accompany their parents when dogs are dropped off for grooming, have always ONLY had eyes for the Buns, and I’ve allowed them to give the 2 *resident* Buns a baby carrot, etc.
So, to sum.
I lost Sunny Bunny, a red Loppy something, 1.5 years ago. She was 13 yrs old, I had her from about 1 yr old one.
I lost my second of the 2 *Rescues*, Jack, (ironically, also a reddish Loppy type) last November, at the age of nearly 15.
I have not been able to take their double-decker *apartment* off/out of my grooming room, even though it’s been 6 months since Jack died.
I was so close tonight, but then started struggling with the whole “quality of life”, living in a cage 90% of their lives, vs….giving a doomed rabbit another decade of comfortable life, but not necessarily “quality”…as in bopping freely around the house?
Please, do understand, I am NOT, nor have ever been, set up to provide a safe environment…cords, huskies, cats, for a Bun to hop freely around my home.
I would love some un-bashing input, but my gut tells me…let the Bunny Habitats go, let Jackwabbit be the last one I saved?