Mooshi-Haroo's 1st Year Homecoming

It was one year ago today that we found our Mooshi-Haroo outside in the freezing cold, eating birdseed to survive, in our very own front yard...it was the eve of my honey's 1st big surgery, a deep resection of a highly aggressive bladder tumor and the worst possible night for a rescue but how could we just ignore him...we couldn't, there wasn't any second of a doubt.  The odds of us seeing him was a miracle really, I just happened to spy him from the front window as I was sitting down to eat dinner & yelled to my honey, "Quick, Jonathan hurry, there's a bunny in the front yard" and out I dashed in my socks, in the sleet and snow, only stopping to run back inside about 40 minutes later because I couldn't feel my feet!  A neighbor called out their door "Is that your bunny" and after we caught him, I went to talk to them and found out that Mooshi was actually seen running around the neighborhood for at least a whole month and apparently he had a friend! He was seen with a bigger white rabbit!  Well I'll tell you the rest of that story on Friday, how about that, it's quite the tale ha ha!.

There was at first a desperation to catch him because I knew if he left our yard, it was unlikely we'd see him again since this was the first time we'd seen him at all and I am a bird watcher so I watch out the windows often!  He was elusive and wiley at first and my heart was in my throat as we tried again and again to approach him with no luck, he clearly didn't trust people.  But I quickly realized that he would follow Jonathan and I said "Babe, go to the back slowly and open the gate" and he did so a few steps at a time and sure enough, like the Pied Piper, Moo followed him cautiously but surely and then went straight into the backyard which is when we were able to close the gate and feel some relief because at least back there he couldn't escape.  It took another 10 minutes to corner him and pick him up.  He wouldn't eat or poop for 3 days after, he just wanted to drink bowl after bowl of water.  It took everything in him to survive out there.  The next day and night was a freezing cold blizzard, one which he wasn't likely to survive, talk about serendipitous timing!  I didn't want to keep him at first honestly, I wanted to get him healthy & find him another home because things were just way too much with my honeys diagnosis (and mine infact) but my honey without a doubt said we had to, "He was meant to be".  I am so glad we did.  He's a chewer for sure but he's also so so happy & dances all the time for us, he comes when called and has such a gentle warm personality.  We sadly suspect he was an Easter present tossed outside.  I wanted to call him Haroo, Jonathn wanted to call him Mooshi so Mooshi-Haroo it became, a brand new family member.

Happy 1st year homecoming Mooshi-Haroo Saile-Peterson, we love you so much buddy XO  and everyone don't forget that you can see Mooshi-Haroo on our rabbit micro-sanctuary stream on Instagram.

 

More From Winter

Spring is here I know but I am so behind in posting photos from Winter!  I am always sad to say

goodbye to Winter because Summer brings so many more stresses with bring the buns outside.

Leisel is a difficult rabbit, always will be I think.  She went through alot before softly

landing here with us & that's okay, that's her, she's still magic to me, especially her fighting spirit.

I love bringing her outside the most I think because it's where she seems the most care-free.

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).

Barnaby's Surgery

Our little wild wookie Barnaby Fizz went through his neuter surgery yesterday.  He's healing well.

Any surgery for a rabbit is dangerous because of how fast their precious hearts pump BUT

It's SO important to get your rabbits 'fixed' because their chances of reproductive cancers are so

much higher without & their hormones rule their little bodies so so strongly & unkindly if you don't.

My Half Lop Love

All of the rabbits are special and amazing in their own very unique way, we love them all...

but my Misa, oh my sweet little half-lop love, she is a best friend to me, she's extraordinarily special.

Lydia & Her Room

Lydia and I are trying to figure out where to put our little pink Xmas tree this year...

Desk space is at a premium & we do have to keep light cords away from those nibbly teeth!

My External Heart

No words...

Just perfection.

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.

Korra-Soleil Gotcha Day

This month we celebrated Korra-Soleil's 4th year adoption day from the Toronto Humane Society...

This year she is 7.5 years old.  She's a big gal and has arthritis in her legs but she's doing really well.

Rabbit Distractions

A little closer to the end now...I can not wait to do a test run of this beauty...

Misa thinks she helps to keep me on track but her cuteness is the ultimate distraction!!

Fizzy Is Doing Great

Barnaby Fizz went from a shaking little malnourished neglected leaf to a cuddle bug supreme...

He's doing great & is so much fun to have around.  I am completely obsessed & in love with him.

Barnaby Fizz

So our little Barnaby has been waiting for us for awhile.

Long story short, I was involved in a rescue of a wild cottontail baby rabbit that did not end well

and it was super traumatizing for me (more on that later perhaps)

but since we were going to make room in our home for this wild bunny had they survived,

We realized we had room for the little bunny that a woman at the vet knew was being severely neglected and who needed a home.  She had been asking us to take this bun for over a year now.

So the day after I had to decide to euthanize the wild bun,

we called the woman and said we'll take the bun.

We didn't know what too expect, just a 2 year old girl.

We didn't have any need to meet the people who were neglecting this animal.

We set it up so the woman at the clinic picked her up for us

and we met at the animal hospital to pick up our new baby.

(didn't he look like a baby wookie!)

He was a ball of mats and knots, we couldn't even feel his body underneath all of it.

I have never seen matting this bad.

Before we got there, the woman at the vet cut the fur around his eyes because apparently he couldn't even see whatsoever either and his nails were all curled in on themselves so they cut the nails too.

He looked so so scared and just so so tired.

We realized that he couldn't move the front legs without it pulling on the back end so we decided to start shaving off the mess right away.  It took about 5-6 hours that first day to release him from his fur prison.  The poor little soul was covered in sores and rashes underneath it all

because the matting was so bad.

At this point we didn't consider him just a neglect case, to us this was a case of abuse.

Than shaving very very carefully around the bum area....one little testicle popped out than the other!

Our little bean had beans!

It wasn't a girl at all, it was very clearly a boy.

We originally, when we thought he was a girl, called him "Mimzy" so a name change was due.

The poor little guy was running into things, he just wasn't used to his proper eyesight.

He was also having a hard time with balance because he was just so used to being in a tight coat of knots that kept his mobility limited...even now about a month later, he still wobbles a bit.

At first he was a complete ball of nerves.

He shuddered when we touched him.

But it seemed as though he instantly understood that we were trying to help him

and he was so so good and patient for the shaving off of his fur.

Apparently he was never handled, just stuck in a small cage in the corner, forgotten.

He lived in that cage every day, he never got out!

Why on earth would anyone think an animal wants to live like that!

(just like our poor Lydia).
They want the freedom to move and express a joy for life just as we do...exactly as we do.

Unfortunately about the 3rd day after he came home, he almost died!

He was never given veggies or hay!

So we know to give new bunnies very small portions and only the basics at first.

Well even the tiny amount of veg we gave him was too much for his malnourished tum.

He went into full blown super bad stasis!

After what I just went through with the wild bunny, not being able to save him,

if I had lost Barnaby, I never would have forgiven myself.

My life would have changed forever, I don't know that I would have trusted myself with rescue again.

Thankfully, 2 sleepless night later, 3 emergency vet visits &

almost 1 grand later, he started eating again!

We still need to get him neutered.

He hasn't been fixed and as much as I don't want to put him through a surgery,

it's crucial for his best emotional well being and for his health

because unaltered rabbits have a very high risk of cancer.

So we've been giving him a chance to settle in, fatten up abit and than we'll book his surgery soon.

When he first came home, about a month ago now, we could feel every single rib.
Every single precious segment of his spine...like a little row of pearls.

We could even feel individual cecotrops in this track!  That's how skinny he was.

No animal deserves to be treated or kept in this way.

I just don't understand people, I just don't.

But I am just thankful that this woman at the vet recognized he needed out of that place

and that they agreed to give him over...I'd say give him up, but they clearly didn't care for him.

Am I hard on people?

Yes, absolutely because animals deserve so fucken more than what most people dole out to them.

Rescue life is amazing and rewarding but it's super hard too...

it's hard to keep positive about people and not hate everyone after you see what we see.

So this is Barnaby all shaved up.

He's possibly not a rabbit but some magical fluff of a mystical creature, part wooky, part magwai!

It's been an honor to watch him learn to trust his body.

To learn that he can move his body.

To watch him learn to play.

To trust us in taking treats.

Learning to eat hay.

He flies like lightening around the house like a race car driver, again and again for hours,

it's really pretty hilarious and all kinds of wonderful.

He's very very smart.

He's very affectionate.

He likes all of the buns in the house, except for Flynn and especially Higgins!
He just has an effervescent personality...hence the "Fizz"...our little Fizzy Pop.

We absolutely adore him...so so much.

He was meant to join our furry crew.

Maybe that cottontail came into my life every so brilliantly but briefly so that he could come home!

Welcome home Barnaby Fizz...welcome home you all kinds of wonderful baby you XO.

Rescuing Lydia-Loo

Hi Everyone,

so it's way WAY over due for you all to 'meet' someone very extraordinary & special,

our newest family member and newest rescue

Lydia Loo

(We added 'Loo' in memory of our late Betty-Loo).

We rescued Lydia way back last summer on August 25 of 2018

Lydia's story was a stressful one for me and I think that's why I put off telling it for so long!

This photo (above) was us completely stressed out on our way to get her...

I had a bad migraine that day and all week prior, my honey had calls he couldn't miss all day long

but we were determined to get on the road and get her into our hands as soon as possible.

She was reported as an urgent neglect/abuse case by a fellow rabbit rescue place,

so once we knew we could extract her from her situation,

head-pain or work were not going to deter us that day no matter what.
It took us over two hours to drive to her, she was on the outskirts of some little country town and
we weren't sure if the woman would pull out of the agreement etc etc, so it was s-t-r-e-s-s-f-u-l!

But I am getting ahead of the story....

So, I was sitting there on my phone one summer afternoon, having my coffee,
looking at a rabbit rescues pages, which I do way more often than I really should!

A fellow Ontario place popped up, I never heard of them & I was over the moon to see that they
were only about 8 hours away from us, not really close but not impossibly far either.

So I was surfing their page to see what they do exactly etc,

They have no shelter or any actual building but operate on a foster care system,
which is great, they help a lot of rabbit this way and I really respect that.
So there amongst ALL the beautiful deserving buns waiting for homes was this little baby bunny....

there was something in her face that made me stop and stare (and keep going back to look at).

Unlike all of the others listed, she was at the time the only one listed as an URGENT case.

We were not whatsoever looking to bring another bunny home.

We were still heartbroken from loosing Betty-Loo so soon after adopting her from the THS shelter.

We didn't really have any free rooms or areas at the time

and I want to bring ALL the bunnies home, every single one, every day, enough is never enough!

We do this life with rescue rabbits all on our own, just us two, we don't get any help,
finacially, physcially or emotionally.
We never ever get a vacation and we don't ever get money or donations from anyone whatsoever,

soooo at the end of the day I have TRY to accept that we are doing ALL we can & that has to be that!

BUT!
this face on this little bunny, I couldn't let go, I couldn't forget...

I mentioned her to my honey....he immediately said 'no we just can't right now'.

A week later she was still constantly in my thoughts

and I just really deep in my bones felt like she was meant to come home to our little warren of wayward misfits....so I talked to my honey again, explaining my feelings to which he said

"Well if your gut and heart are feeling sooo strongly about it than okay let's do something about it"

(Yes, I know, I have the most amazing supportive guy...however there have been times in the past believe it or not when I was the one feeling unwilling to bring more home & he had to convince me!).

(I am going to make this long part of the story shorter!)

So in our house we take turns filling out adoptions forms because they can be lengthy (& annoying!)

and so it was my honey's turn.  So he immediately contacted this rabbit rescue telling them we were interested in this urgent case bunny and they said great 'fill out the forms'....so we did...

and we were turned down! With no explanation at first just a 'sorry you didn't qualify, goodbye'!

What The Fuck!!!

After 24 years of caring for and making rabbits our #1 priority,

we were told we weren't a good enough home!

At this point I was feeling desperate (and definitely quite angry)

I felt so strongly about this little bunny being meant for us,

that I felt like my heart was going to disintegrate....

It didn't matter one single fig to this person at this place that we had years and years of experience.

That our vet himself wrote a glowing recommendation for us

saying we are one of thee best homes he's ever seen....

that the shelter we've been working with for years now wanted to write a letter on our behalf

or that a farm sanctuary we volunteer at also gave us such a glowing beautiful recommendation

Nope, this place was so stuck on policy they couldn't see past that to any of the good.

Policy is good, it definitely without a doubt has it's place, it's a necessity,

but when it's a special urgent situation there needs to be room for movement & discussion too,

especially when it involves the well-being of a defenseless animal in a bad situation.

But this place was not willing to communicate or budge whatsoever period.

   

Than it turned out that they listed this bunny on their page but she wasn't even in their care!

They just 'heard' about her, they didn't know where she was exactly! (or that's what they said).

And because this place operates solely on fosters, all of their foster people were full up,

so they apparently had no room for her at all and they were actually going to leave

this little bun in a bad situation that they themselves deemed an 'urgent abuse/neglect case'

just because they didn't like the way we filled out one section of their form!

Well we weren't at all okay with their
"she will sit there until a foster home opens up & no we don't know how long that could be"

So when we found out that they didn't know if or when a foster home would open up for this little being and that she was infact not even under their care whatsoever, we decided to try to step around this rabbit rescue which clearly had no respect for all of our rabbit experience & willingness to help!

We even had a friend who was willing to lie for us, to drive the 7-8 hours one way and all the way back to adopt her under their name, only to give to us but we didn't want to lie, it didn't feel right.

We even asked, since winter was fast approaching and this little one could not be left out there in winter waiting for a foster home to open up, if they could give us the contact info for this person who had her but they told us that they didn't have it & didn't even know how to get in touch etc. hmmm!

When we sent pictures of the room/area this bunny would have to herself in our home

(where there's a will there's a way and we figured out a great new area for a new bun after all)

They just wrote back 'oh cute room but everything's going to get chewed'....um okay!!

This rabbit rescue had no interest in working with us whatsoever, which truly made me really sad

and is a real shame because we should all be working together, not fighting each other to be the only rescue around, which really ended up being the feeling of ours and the feeling of others in fact after we chatted with some other people who know and how dealt with this place also.

Soooo anyhow, ha ha, we took a chance, copied this little sweeties photo from the rescue site

and we put an ad on the internet in the area we believed her to be and basically said
'We are looking for this bunny and anyone who has info about her please contact us".

We heard from someone within the hour!

The whole time this is happening my heart is racing and squeezing and I am so so stressed out.

I truly felt like I had a baby lost out there in the big mean world and I couldn't get to her!
I was truly feeling feral about it.

We talked to the lady who had her, we made arrangements to go rescue this little bunny,
we were hoping for not as bad a situation as we imagined,
we hoped it was really not a neglect abuse case but
what we saw and where she was was sadly absolutely a desperate situation for this bun to get out of.
The second I saw where this little babe was my heart rested instantly knowing
that we were doing the right thing & I am glad we took matters into our own hands.

She was in a tiny metal cage, the cage was on a sloped hill,
the cage was surrounded by dog shit and flies,
it was not on grass, it was on mud and moss
(and when it rained she would have had a river of mud running under her feet).
I noticed when my honey crawled into the cage which was difficult for him because it was so low, that there was inches of poop built up, there was no water, no hay, no pellets, no food whatsoever,
and when he opened the door to this awful cage, about 3 inches of moss scrapped away
that alone right there told me that that door had not been open for some time.
There was no shelter from the rain or the sun...it was without a doubt no kind of place for any living being and whiles I wanted to punch this woman in the face and tell her exactly what I thought of her for keeping this rabbit in such a situation, my job was to distract by listening to her talk on about all of her life's woes whiles my honey extracted the bunny and got her into the carrier.

When we got her in the carrier and into the Jeep, I just said to my honey
"Get us the fuck out of here"
I just wanted to be away from that woman and her awful place.
We drove down the street a ways and than pulled over and got Lydia out of the carrier
and just held her and told her "We found you baby, we found you"
and that we were her new mommy & daddy and we were taking her away
from that awful place forever and almost instantly she just melted against us.
I think she felt the love right away and I feel like she knew she was finally safe and loved.

I remember posting on Instagram "We Got Her.  She's Safe Now.  She's skin and bones and in a situation no animal ever should be kept in but we found her, we got her and we're coming home".

I wish people would just make the connection that animals are just like us.

That rabbits should not be kept outside in the heat and the cold and the rain,

they don't like it anymore than a person would like it.

If you can't give an animal what it deserves than don't take it on.

And as angry as I was at this woman,

I am also super super grateful that she was willing to part with and give Lydia to a better home.

Pretty soon after we had Lydia extracted we got super hungry.

I don't think we ate much from all the stress for the few days before.

We drove to Huntsville, stopped at an all vegan fry stop and pigged out

the woman there even gave us a nice little lettuce and carrot snack for Lydia so we found a quiet

place in the shade of a tree to part and rest and eat for a spell and when Lydia started eating

right away we knew she was going to be just fine.

So that's Lydias story...

sorry it's coming soooo late, yikes, my bad ha ha!

So everyone, officially please meet our Lydia-Loo Saile Peterson,

rescued from a situation no bunny or animals should ever be in...

around 6 months old (now almost a year old wow!)

and she's so so amazing, I can't even tell you all,

she's so affectionate and kissy and huggy

(although she hates being pick up still to this day)

She feel like an angel bunny, whose rescuing us as much as we did her.

You can feel that she's grateful and I am so beyond glad we went with our gut.

Welcome to our lives Lydia-Loo, we loved you before we even met you XO.

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.

Heart Attack For Henrie

So on Monday night around 9pm our handsome Henrie suffered a small heart attack.

We were sitting watching t.v. and heard a ruckus in Henrie & Flynn's room so we went running

to find that Flynn was sitting off by himself perfectly normal but Henrie was all stretched out

unable to stand or get up, breathing super hard with a super rapid heart beat.

He was perfectly fine and active and hungry all the day and evening, it was super sudden.

He refused to eat, he didn't want to open his eyes

and his body language held all the signs of a bunny about to die...

We rushed him to the vet

(thank goodness our vet is always there for us no matter the time of day or night)

and suddenly at the vet's office he perked up, to the point where

all 3 of us clearly could see it was not a situation of having to help him pass.

The doctor said he didn't seem to be in distress or pain but his heart did sound full of liquid

and the most likely answer was that he did indeed suffer a heart episode/mild heart attack!

So he was given a shot of a heart medicine that helps the body pass the liquid away from the heart.

We brought him home, laid with him all night long, not sure what was going to happen...

and suddenly around 5am, he popped up without falling over and started to eat!

Now it's Thursday, 3 days later, and he looks like nothing has happened at all.

The doctor said that the attack clearly happened on the side of the heart where he can survive.

We are still holding our breath...he is 9 years old and for big bunnies that is considered quite old.

He's on the exact same heart meds now, twice a day, 12 hours apart just like our Jelly Bean Jaks.

That's thrown me for a loop I tell ya! 

(It hasn't even been 6 months since we ended that whole routine with our Jaks)

To be on that 12 hour cycle again with heart meds, well I admit I had a good cry about it.

BUT, if it means that it keeps our Henrie comfortable and with us and Flynn awhile longer, so be it.

We will adjust and adapt for him, like we've done for so many other buns

because he deserves the best and longest life that we can possibly give him.

People gave up on him before...

that's why he ended up in the shelter system at 4 years old with his sister Elsie.

We'll never ever give up on him...no matter how exhausting...no matter what...

he's too precious and too awesome and he's our boy.

So right now everything seems to be okay...

we're on eggshells but today he's with us so it's a good day.

and now our Henrie Biggins officially has joined the Tough Nut group!

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.