Petunia

This web page was the hardest one to do in light of the sad life Petunia has had.

I found her at a no kill shelter "sanctuary" I used to volunteer at. When I first heard of this place I thought that it was a haven for abandoned animals. I like the fact that they did not euthanize the animals. I have heard that some no-kill shelters can be like concentration camps and that the people who run them can be borderline "collectors". I never realized how true that was until I walked into this place. Where the rabbits are is crammed with cages all over in a converted gargage. A pre-Civil War building. There are big dogs on the bottom and small dogs and cats on top rows. You have to turn sideways to get though the aisles. There were six bunnies on a top row in the back of the room. Right amoungst the barking dogs. In the "back room" was a narrow room where two bunny pens were. There were five altered bunnies in there in pens. There was a restaurant tray across the top of the open pen with caged bunny on it and a small cage inside the pen in the corner with a bunny in it. The smell was overwhelming. Everytime I left there I could not get the smell out of my nostrils or off of me. My hair and clothes smelled like it.

The bunnies all just sat there day after day, year after year looking dazed. They didn't get any hay unless I brought it and never got out of the cage for any run time. I went there for 2-3 months and in this time four bunnies died of medical neglect. I would tell them about a sick bunny, write a note on the cage and one up at the front desk and ask them to attend to the bunny immediately. There is a full time vet tech and there was supposed to be two staff vets (not bunny savy), that I never saw. I found a bunny in cage that appeared to be in pain and physically searched for and located the medical person and told her about the bunny. She said that she would see to her the next day. I found out the next week that she waited five days to have the bunny taken to the vet and the bunny died at the vet office. There were about three other bunnies that this happened to.

Petunia was one of the bunnies in the back in the open pen with a companion. Her companion looked just like her, only smaller, and was probably a littermate. He (or she) was a cute little bunny who would always stand between me and Petunia and bite my pant leg whenever I came into the pen to pet them and feed them hay and veggies. Petunia would run to the end of the pen and glare at me nervously and he would run and sit in front of her to guard and protect her. Who knows how long they were there. They had an almost zero adoption rate for the rabbits (unless a volunteer adopted one once in awhile) and Petunia was already about 4 years old.

A raccoon got in the cat door by squeezing itself between the building and the fencing and killed Petunia's companion in front of her. It must have been a terrifying experience for her to witness. The next day they put her in the other pen with three other bunies. No slow, gradual bonding sessions to make sure that she'd be safe, they just threw her in there to fend for herself. Luckily they worked out their hiearchy without any injuries, but they still would chase her away from the food bowl all the time.

This is a photo I took of her and her companion while at the shelter. Petunia is on the right.

The Dept. of Agriculture was always on their backs about the ventilation system and the flooring. So when they put new flooring in they took down the bunny pens and put Petunia in one carrier and her companions in another. They stayed that way for two weeks. Some guy came along and took 7 of the bunnies out of there for his "hutches" in a barn in Michigan. He took her companions, but not her. After they finished the flooring they decided not to put the bunny pens back up and to turn her room into a sick room for cats. One wall was lined with cages of sick cats and the other wall with tons of litterboxes for the free range cats. They stuck her carrier in the corner and that's where she stayed until I took her home. I had her treated for fur mites, fleas and a skin infection she got from sitting in her urine on the non-absorbent newspaper.
Now she is home forever. She's my girl!

Petunia is a somewhat traumatized bunny from her past experiences and numerous vet visits to get her healthy and will not come out of her condo unless I force her to. When I do make her come out she runs under the coffee table and stays there until she hears her condo open and then she runs back in there.

She enjoys our many snuggle sessions at the condo door and runs to the edge of her condo for pets and treats. She is content and happy in her condo and feels secure. She plays with her toys, rings her bell and rolls on her side after a good treat or snuggle session. I am now slowly introducing her to Addie and Dove so that they can all have companions to live and play with. Maybe this will make her feel braver.


UPATE 5/4/00!!
The Illinois State's Attorney has filed a lawsuit on this shelter! There are allegations of mismanagement of funds/donations (1.6 million dollars in 4 years with nothing to show for it) - unsanitary conditions and unethical practices. Their web company has shut down their web site because they repeatedly refused to give them a list of adoptables that could have increased their monthly adoption rate by 500%. (Refusing adoptions is one of the indications of "animal collecting").

Time to snuggle, Mom? How 'about a treat?

Petunia's a real hay muncher!

Afternoon snooze-time for Petunia

Learning to be friends.