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).

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.

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.

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!

Korra's 3rd year

This month on August 10th we celebrated Korra-Soleil's 3rd year homecoming anniversary.

Our beautiful dutch girl is 6.5 now

and she's doing great though she does have a bit of arthritis in her hind-legs,

which seems to be a common problem with big buns.

We have so far been able to keep on top of that with no medicine &

just making sure she gets out in the yard for a lot of exercise.

Korra had a sad beginning.

She was apparently at a badly run shelter in Quebec that was shut down

and on the transfer day to a better shelter her bonded mate died

so she had to face another lengthy shelter stay with a broken heart

(to this day she sometimes still looks melancholy & sad).

She has the sweetest face though and she's often uncoordinated which makes us laugh all of the time.

She was one of the buns that we just had a connection with immediately upon meeting her.

We were at the shelter adopting another bunny and we met her and fell in love

but at the time we couldn't adopt her, we didn't have proper space for her at home.

So she sat there waiting for a home, we kept tabs on her but she was finally adopted out

only to be returned to the shelter to absolutely no fault of her own,

after a year the people who took her decided they were too allergic to her!

So as soon as we saw she was back,

we zoomed to the city to adopt her and we're so glad we did.

She has since then bonded with our Emmett, who passed away from a stroke last year

so sadly she's lost a 2nd mate & now doesn't seem interested whatsoever in bonding with anyone else

which is okay, we won't force her to do anything she doesn't want to do.

She's content having her Daddy in his office all day long & she enjoys laying at the gates with

Henrie, Leisel & Yuuji (but she seems to hate little Misa and Flynn!).

We love you our big redheaded girl.  You've been a blessing to us XO.

My Girl Back In Spring

I am so behind getting my photos ready for the blog because I am just not on my computer much...

I think I'll be posting summer photos in the middle of winter!

BUT I LOOVVEEE editing my photos when I do get to it, I think it's why I love blogging so much,

I get to share and show you guys all of my favorite photos from this enchanting life.

So here's a few new ones from this past Spring, I don't think you guys will care when they are from...

it was the first time this season Misa was a big brave girl

and went outside for only her 3rd or 4th time.  She's loving it more and more

& I never get bored of watching her be brave and explore further & further...my girl XO