Happy 1st Year Homecoming Higgy

Last week, February 11th.  marked the day one year ago

that we adopted our Higgins

otherwise known as Higgy-Buttons

(or at the shelter as Buttons).

The Toronto Humane Society reached out to us asking if we were able to take him

and at first we said no, we were full up at the moment but I asked about his story anyhow...

I firmly believe that every single animal has a story and that it's important to tell & hear those stories.

Apparently he was a surrendered as a stray, but the shelter questioned that & wondered if he was just a bunny bought as an Easter gift that the people ended up not being able to handle.

He was somehow also missing a part of his cute little button nose.

He hated the shelter and everyone in it...

he was there awhile and the shelter was out of options for him in regards to foster families to give him a shelter break etc and they were worried he was going to be there for a really long time.

Because of his behavioral issues, they were not able to adopt him out to a family that had children because in that case he very most likely would have been returned or possibly worse.

He was ferociously territorial over his shelter pen, he was biting all of the volunteers

and even some of the potential adopters who stuck their fingers in his area

(that's on the people not him however in my opinion!).

Every time this little guy bite someone,

it had to be reported & a city official had to go all the way to the shelter to put a 'bite quaratine'

on the animal, which meant a big orange sticker was placed on their pen doors

and for 5 days straight no one was allowed to go near him...

(He was not potty trained either & made big messes in his pen)..

Higgins was put on FIVE bite quarantines!!!

We ended up calling him 'The Terror Of The THS"!

BUT thankfully someone there at the shelter believed in Higgins

& saw he had a sweetness under those teeth

and he reached out far and wide when their usual crew in/close to the city wasn't able to take him on

and that's when we were contacted.

The shelter knows we have a lot of experience with behavioral issue bunnies...

After I heard Higgins story, I asked to see his little face...and once I saw the pictures I knew in my heart, looking at his sweet little face that he was meant to join our motley damaged crew.

I talked to my honey, we looked around the house, considering his sex and age etc to see

where and how we could indeed fit him in comfortably with agreement that he had to spend

so many hours upstairs every day and once we had that figured out we said 'Well adopt him".

A week later, with arrangements made, we made the 8+ hour drive to go get our little guy.

Nowadays he's doing soooo much better.

He's sectioned off in his own big area in Misa's big room

and after a year they have finally started to bond and

now almost every night they spend 3-4 hours together.

It's going to be awhile before Misa allows him to be in her set of rooms but we think it'll happen

and than we'll be able to happily converge his area with hers but already they play outside together

and cuddle and play during their time upstairs and it's so so amazing to witness and watch.

I managed to get him potty-trained in less than two weeks too.

I just realized that he wanted to pee on blankets, not on hay or litter,

so I spread hand towels where he was peeing the most and every day moved them a bit closer to potty, than I started putting the hand towels into the potty letting him pee on them in there,

than I slowly started adding just a bit of hay and wood pellets at a time and

eventually I started pulling the towels out and voila he was trained to use the potty...

I admit I was pretty proud of him and myself for getting that done ha ha

because one of this things we were dreading, even in a way more than the biting teeth!

was the mess in a room that we and Misa usually keep very very clean

(but we weren't about to not bring a needy little soul into our home just because he was messy).

We are so so so glad that we took the plunge

& trusted that we could handle him & make him feel loved.
I'll never forget it, when we were leaving the shelter with him,
it spread quickly that it was Buttons who was being adopted
and suddnely a big wave of cheering & applause broke out, everyone was so happy for him, ha ha.

He can still be a little bit naughty when we are in his area cleaning

but you can tell as soon as he nips, he knows he's done a mean thing,

and he doesn't nip as hard as when he first came & even then he wasn't too too bad to handle.

Out of his area, he's a golden nugget, he never bites out of his area

and he loves to be picked up during the day for cuddles,

he closes his eyes and leans into my body, and it's than, every time

I see that comfy dreamy look in his blue eyes and feel the pressure of his precious body

press against mine that I am flooded with pride at how far he's come...

and at us for this life we live with these amazing precious strong animals.

So yes, that was a long story! ha ha,

a very very Happy 1st year homecoming to our Higgins...

we love you baby XO.