![]() ![]() When Thumper arrived, that is, the day after the first batch of Chicago bunnies had come, a heat wave did too. and still treats me like ambulatory trouble.) One of them was so carnivorous that you couldn't even move her unless you could first get your hand over her eyes. Two of them were out to inflict bodily harm, and yet I was supposed to take them out of their cages for exercise once a day. They were fur-like aliens, maybe not even rabbits. Contrary to my expectations, these new additions were not mere copies of Pajamas. During that period, I was afraid of my house (it was built in 1927, and, in order to save money, I had not had an inspection) I was afraid of my new job I was afraid of the rabbits and I was aghast at Thumper. In August of 1991, I went from one bunny to 12 in one week. I went numb, knowing I was going to take them all. When I asked how many she had and she said ten, a wool blanket fell between me and the rest of the world. Could I take some, she wondered? I screwed my courage to the sticking place and said I guessed I could. She explained that because of landlord problems, she needed to find temporary homes for the Chicago foster bunnies until she and her husband, Franklin, could buy a house. She had been wonderful when my rabbit, Pajamas, had a serious fur blockage. ![]() THE MORE THE MERRIER A few days after I agreed to take this rabbit, Helen Lau from the Chicago chapter of the House Rabbit Society called me. Thumper the rabbit how to#In the meantime I wrote long letters and sent handouts to Thumper's current human, explaining how to improve her relationship with her bunny (litterbox training, etc.), hoping, of course, that she would keep him. Having no idea of the history of this rabbit, I agreed to take him on condition that he be neutered and held until I moved-one month later. I took the request as a test of this romantic notion. Nevertheless, I had always thought I might like to do some fostering. I was about to purchase a house, and I was changing from half-time employment at my college to full-time work with a heavy teaching load and a long commute. The impulse buy had turned into an inconvenience the mail carrier had hoped he'd be a nice surprise for her kids, but now they had lost interest, and she didn't really have time for him anymore. Lower teeth need to be trimmed! Rabbit is very depressed and prognosis is grave."Ī year-and-a-half passed, and the veterinarian called to ask if I wanted this rabbit, now named Thumper. Lots of dandruff, purulent nasal discharge. The medical file for that first visit reads, "Sneezing. "I wouldn't have given a quarter for him," the veterinarian later told me. ![]() The next day she took him to the veterinarian. There was no way anyone could have given this rabbit water, had they bothered to try. She remembered being told that animals are dropped off at the auction up to a week before they are sold. He was starved and dehydrated and bit her when she took the water bowl away to refill it. She spent two hours prying the clasps out of the wood. Thumper the rabbit free#Once in Madison she attempted to free the rabbit, but non-removable metal clasps held the wire hood in place. ![]() But the cage had no door and no opening to its wire top. The mail carrier bought the rabbit, and on the road she attempted to give him some water. A young gray Angora was auctioned off in a cage so small he could not move two bowls lay overturned onto the wooden bottom of the cage. Held in an old barn, the auction was selling such exotic species as llamas, turkeys, pheasants, cats, and rabbits. For a lark, she and her friend stopped at an "exotic animal auction" somewhere in Iowa. In October 1990, a mail carrier on vacation was returning to her home in Madison, Wisconsin. ![]()
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