Supplies & Bunnies & Sun Oh My!

Is there anything quite like a box arriving with fresh new art supplies...

and a sun-filled studio...

and a sweet little rabbit in your studio to share your excitement with! Don't think so!!

Bladder Stones

We've been having a really hard week.
My honey's first cancer treatment was absolutely awful
and then on top of the stress & pain & exhaustion from all of that
we found ourselves racing Flynn to an emergency vet appointment last Sunday afternoon.
He fell backwards off of a short bench, not even a foot high
and at first it looked like he hurt his foot but he was using it so we were watching him closely...
but then he started doing this weird shuddering movement and it became
clear pretty fast that he was in pain and
it also looked like it wasn't able to pee so we rushed him in.
Even though these emergency vet visits are crazy expensive, we always appreciate our rabbits
doctor meeting us at a moments notice because we know they don't do it for all their clients/patients.

It was not an easy visit, he needed x-rays, the vet tech
and I had to stretch him out and pin him down on the x-ray table
and it clearly painful for him and I had a hard time to settle him down etc ugh.
The scans showed bladder stones!
(Seriously bladder stones on top of Jonathan's bladder cancer, WTF!)
Ugh.

So what probably happened was that little tumble backwards most likely made some of the
smaller stones go through the urinary tract and it caused him pain and trouble to pee.

So he's currently on a strong pain med
but he's suddenly doing way better which leads us to believe that he passed a stone or two.
BUT there's definitely a couple more in there too big for him to pass which require surgery....
but he's over 9!  So we are trying to decide what to do.
The doctor said if he was two or much younger, he wouldn't hesitate to operate & get the stones out
but because he's nine years old and it's a huge surgery maybe we should just be keeping him "comfortable" for as long as he's happy & eating etc...gawd I hate this part of it all so much.
It doesn't matter how long I've been doing this or how many times we have to decide about
a precious animal baby's path, it doesn't ever get any easier.

So he's peeing like normal again which is awesome.
He's eating like a bear again which is super duper great.
He doesn't seem to be in any pain anymore thank goodness...
His ear infection is all cleared up phew!

But do we go ahead with the surgery? We don't know what to do...
especially now with my honey's cancer treatment underway.

I know one thing for sure...life has never felt so fucken raw or rough then it does right now
(I say that with a superstitious fear that it's all going to keep being raw & rough for quite sometime).

Still An Infection

In 26 years of being a caretaker of animals, this past month was the first times ever that I had to go

to vet visits by myself because Flynn was suddenly sick and my honey was stuck in a hospital bed.
(and for Higgins because it looked like he had a slash on the top of his eyeball but he was just fine!).

Well today we had another visit for Flynn & I was so happy to have my partner back by my side...

This guy will move everything around so that he can be at every rabbit appointment,

so I know to be stuck in that bed & having me rushing Flynn to the vet that one night by myself would have been even more stressful for him that it was for me.

To say he's one dedicated Papa doesn't cut it!

Let's hope he never misses another one again!

It's funny to us when people suggest that we have to take care of 'us' now.

That we shouldn't worry so much about the rabbits cause they are just rabbits...

These people clearly don't understand that the rabbits are part of us...they are our family.

So we will continue to find a way, no matter how hard, to take care of all of our stuff AND theirs.

There are days for sure where I doubt we can keep doing this...this rescue life.

But my honey reminds me that this/they are who we are & we have still atleast 9 still counting on us.

So Flynn is doing just fine...still a bit of an infection in that right ear unfortunately

so he's on another month long antibiotic protocol but he's doing really well and has put on weight.

It's Back

The night of my honeys' 2nd surgery, I came home to find Flynn's head tilted & right eye

constantly scanning and I said "FUCK" because

a) I knew instantly that his ear infection was back and

b) it couldn't have come back with any worse timing, I was completely exhausted.

I called the vet right away, it was 12:30 at night and he didn't agree that it was an emergency

BUT we know our rabbits, we've seen just how fast the infection spread in Flynn last time.

So I had to disagree with the doctor and insist for an emergency visit (and yes that cost $300)

because whiles I do not want to piss our trusted vet off etc,

I will always first & foremost advocate for the animals under our care

and I knew waiting all night to get meds into him would just make things worse for Flynn.

So by 1am, with my honey worrying from his hospital bed,

I was at the animal hospital with the vet administering the meds Flynn needed.

He looked bad & wouldn't eat for over a week but just started eating today actually, YAY.

He was completely stressing me out though because he started to give us a really hard time

when it came to the critical care feedings. He's already 9, he's already skinny

and we couldn't afford not to have food in him tummy,

especially with such a strong antibiotic dose going in every 12 hours.

I don't know why the timing is always like this...

just when you feel like your at your ropes end, that's exactly when one of the rabbits will get sick!

The night of the first surgery, our newest rescue showed up (more on that soon).

The morning of the 2nd surgery, Leisel wasn't eating...then Flynn that night

(when I should have been checking myself into the ER for my heart, more on that later too!).

The other night we were tired from all the stress of what Jonathan is going through and were so

looking forward to crawling into bed early & of course, guess what!

Misa wouldn't eat so we were up with her ALL night.

This rescue life it hard...

and I could do without all the sleepless nights but even now going through everything we're going through with Jonathan, we curse often yes absolutely, but really at the end of the day,

we wouldn't want to be doing anything else, caring for these amazing animals together is just "us".
It's really unfortunate and sad that other people don't see the magic in it all.

A Star-Gazer named Whimbley

I started this image awhile back of a star-gazing frog named Whimbley.

I put it away for awhile because it made me miss Henrie too much.

I am ready to get back to it now and finish it off & conjure up Whimbleys tall tale

but I sure do miss looking down from my desk to see these two snuggled up next to me.

Flynn & His Flower

Just one of my favorite shots ever our our Flynn eating a dandelion.

It's been a very rough week, more on that later, but this sweet face cheers me up.

The All Clear

Awesome news you guys.

We took Flynn to the doctor this past week for a recheck on his ear

(I am posting these photos of him and Henrie because we all miss Hen so much)

and we have kicked that infections butt, whoot whoot.

The hole in the eardrum is a lot smaller too so it's possible that he'll get his hearing back afterall yayy.

Flynn Update

So we took Flynn back to the doctors last Friday

and we got good news and bad news.

His nasty ear infection has completely cleared up

but the infection has busted his ear drum and it's completely detached so he's deaf in that ear now.

Apparently sometimes the eardrum can repair itself if the gap/hole isn't too big but the doctor

showed me the inside of his precious little ear and the hole is pretty darn big so we'll have to see.

He goes back in a month for another check up to make sure the infection isn't reoccurring.

Otherwise he's back to his rambunctious awesome adorable self.

Setting Up With Flynn

It's been a long month plus healing Flynn up from his nasty ear infection,

he's still on antibiotics and will be for at least another 3 weeks before going back to the doctors...

This week is a better week though, last week a bit rough with his eating not being great

but this week he's feeling peppy & hungry so it's nice to have him with me as I set up his deck.

Red Star Delight

Well we've been having a heck of a time with me and with the buns, especially Flynn.

More on that soon but for now I needed to share my newest piece with you all

(Flynn was indeed the model for this one so I thought it was fitting given all we're going through).

"Red Star Delight"

You'll find prints in my shop.

The original is not available at the moment.

I am hoping to get it on t-shirts etc but I am still looking for a place I am comfortable working with.

I am really really happy with how this one turned out

and Flynn made a most spectacular model if I may say so myself!

Flynn In Lino

I can't get enough of linos lately, I carve pretty much every morning.

Those who know my little family know right away that Flynn was my model for this one.

Flynn's Carrot Theory

Flynns thinks he has cracked the world's problem to happiness, he thinks it's pretty simple...

A safe warm home where you can be yourself & most importantly of all a giant carrot for everyone!

Worth The Work

It was a pretty wet season with horrible mosquitoes early on.

Now our nights are getting too cold and the flowers are dying out but I love the cooler weather

So we've all been outside more now that the mosquitoes are gone. Flynn had a nice long season enjoying his newly refinished deck, he's one spoiled bun, a deck all to himself, he loves it!

The Sweet Things are the BIG Things

It's so often the small sweet things in life

that end up feeling like the really big important stuff.

 

 

Like coming in from the kitchen to find your honey fast asleep with your bunny.

(They were both fast asleep like this for 30 minutes, ha ha)

 

 Happy Heart Sigh.

This Week

It's felt like abit of a rough week...

I think mostly because every day I was plagued with either a headache or migraine, ugh ugh ugh.

It's the weather mostly...so up and down in temperatures & so much cloud & gloom.

I've had more pain than not these last 2 months, ugh!!!

Trust me, if your pain-free and don't get headaches or migraines, be thankful!

 

But there's been some lovely lovely days this week too with lots of bunny snuggling going on

and artwork being made in small snippets of time when my throbbing head would allow!

A surprise visit from my sweet 10 year old niece...who has deemed Teela her favorite new bunny.

 

Flynn is doing well but his ISC syndrome is still acting up which is abit of work for us

and hard on the poor little guy because he LOVES food but right now he just can't eat the usual.

He was on medicine twice daily for 2 weeks & he may have to go back on for another round

but he doesn't seem to notice that anything is wrong so that's key I suppose.

 

Can you believe that this week marked my 5th year of blogging...wow.

I ve composed over 800 blog posts.

We have over 150 followers & over 50 thousands page views!

I took some time to scroll back through my whole blog this week &

I really feel like I've found a great routine & balance of what I am sharing in regards

to rabbit goodness, artwork & studio happenings & snippets of a sweet life.

I think I'll keep doing what I am doing & just keep hoping that my followers grow and grow

& that my blog continues to inspire & spread joy (& harness opportunities too!).  Yay.

 

Well we'll see you all next week, as always I have new stuff to share with you of course.

I hope you'll join me and don't forget that your comments feed my blog, so keep them coming.