Above is a picture of Bambi. I can't find one of Blackberry unfortunately.
A few months before Tori's 15th birthday I had finally gotten the motivation to go take the class at our local animal shelter to be a volunteer. I have always loved animals, probably because I never had any till I was 8, and then the dog my parents got me was a high bred border collie, very nervous, and although he loved me a lot, he bit everyone else, snarled and growled and bared his teeth, and wasn't a very pleasant pet. I was always afraid he would hurt someone, and once when he got in a fight with another dog, and I was trying to get them apart so Patch wouldn't kill the other dog, I got bit by both of them and almost had to have the whole stomach rabies injection series......because we couldn't find the other dog's owner right away.
The cats my 3 older sisters brought home never lasted long, and I was unlucky enough to find one of them dead one morning, hanging on a rope leash above my sandbox, because someone had tied them to a long leash in the yard so they could play, never thinking they might climb a tree and then try to jump down off the wrong side of the branch. Ah, well.
Patch lived till I was 22, and my parents took care of him after I left for college. One day my Mom let him out like always and he never came back. They never found him.
So I took the class. But I didn't start volunteering for a month or two. I can't remember why.
In the meantime, Leo was my all and all. But the more I read online and in books about bunnies, the more I discovered things I was not doing right.
One of the things that got to me were the books that said bunnies needed a playmate. Another bunny. Well, Scott was already upset about 4 cats and 1 rabbit, so it really didn't occur to me to try to bring in another rabbit. But another part of me kept reading the pet section of the Penny Saver magazine whenever it came in the mail-box. There was always a few ads with bunnies that needed homes. I always wondered why people got bunnies, and then gave them away. They were so cute.
Part of the answer to that was that I didn't know anything.
Leo had not yet hit adolescence.
Every time I read the Penny Saver, I circled the ads. But I never called. But then one day there was a plea from someone who had to move from their home to an apartment due to divorce and the apartment wouldn't allow bunnies. I felt so sorry for the owner. I wanted to help her by taking the bunnies and keeping them for her so she could still see them.
I made the mistake of calling. She was such a nice girl.And she only wanted $50 for both of them and the cages. I went to her house thinking maybe Leo needed a girl-friend...that I would be helping the girl AND the bunnies.....but telling myself the whole way there.."no matter what, you MUST say you have to think about it first...you may not bring them home today. Just look at them."
2 hours later there were 2 bunnies in my trunk with 2 huge cages and food and bedding and toys and more. The girl gave me everything for free because she could see I loved bunnies.
They were the cutest sweetest things and one of their stories broke my heart.
Blackberry was a little black-haired boy with a lot of spunk and a sweet heart. Bambi was a little gray and white Dutch girl with the most beautiful cornflower blue eyes!
I got them home, set up the cages, separate from Leo, in my guest room, and played with them each one at a time. Blackberry was playful and curious. Bambi was shy and very very nervous.
I waited for Scott to come home and have a heart attack.
Bambi's Story:
(to be continued after I finally get some sleep)
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