First, let me clarify that I will be talking about two Lucy's. Quincy is bonded to one Lucy. The second Lucy is the mother of the babies and she is the Lucy with health issues.

Still with me?

I am very pleased to announce that Quincy is home, eating, pooping, and hanging with his gal pal Lucy. So far, Lucy appears to have forgiven Quincy for his stinky hospital smell and altered appearance. Keep your fingers crossed that she continues to stand by her man!

If all goes well, Quincy will be on pain meds and Dicural for two weeks. Those are the only meds he will receive. Amazing, isn't it!

You may recall that momma Lucy has been suffering from severe bouts of wobbliness. She was put on Prednisone a few days ago to see if it might encourage some neuronal healing. Karalee reports that she showed immediate improvement. However, she did have another bad episode of worsened wobbliness but this round was not as dramatic as previous bouts. A trip to OSU showed that her ear drums are still intact. Karalee's hope is that the Prednisone reduced the severity of this latest episode. Only time will tell.

In the past, rabbits were believed to lack the will to overcome significant medical setbacks. The argument was that there was little point in providing "extraordinary" care because the rabbit would give up and die anyway.

Quincy and Lucy clearly demonstrate that this is just another silly rabbit myth. Keep the prayers and positive vibes coming for our energizer bunnies!

The star of my story is Quincy, beloved partner to Lucy and cherished member of the Cook family. A very spry and happy 10-year-old, he has suffered with an unrelenting series of problems in both eyes, which has left him almost completely blind. The loss of his eyesight doesn't appear to bother him, and his otherwise good health made surgery a viable option to finally end all the eye problems. So after much consideration the decision was made to remove both eyes.

Not surprisingly, Terri spent a nervous day waiting by the phone for news. Ellen Eder sent her a link to a Flickr site that documented another rabbit's recovery from eye removal. For many of us, one of the most difficult aspects of major surgery is not knowing what to expect. Terri found the site to be very informative and appreciated Ellen's sending her the link.

The surgery started late, I believe sometime around noon. Dr. Borders did the surgery and Dr. Herrli handled the anesthesia. They were the dynamic dual who removed my Molly's leg so I have a tremendous amount of confidence in them.

The surgery itself went well. However, Quincy tends to be slow to come out of anesthesia and he did so this time as well. Of greater concern, though, was the bleeding and erratic blood pressure. The severed blood vessels were slow to clot and a blood transfusion was required. Thankfully, another CHRS volunteer was there to help. Karen Winstead's Jenny was the donor. We owe Karen and Jenny a tremendous debt of gratitude.

Thanks to the tremendous efforts of Dr. Borders and Dr. Herrli, the bleeding stopped, his blood pressure stabilized, and Quincy was released to spend the night at an emergency vet clinic "just in case." Terri and Jeremy took him over this evening. I just got a report from Terri that Quincy is eating Critical Care and lettuce, so things continue to progress.

I once described CHRS as a small but mighty group of people. We're not so small anymore but we are still mighty, doing our best to look after each other and "our" rabbits. Because today, Quincy belonged to us all.

Thank you to everyone who was there when Quincy needed you.

10:30 update from Terri: "His temperature is up and his red blood cells are up to 29% (pre-surgery was 30%). He is eating lettuce and hay. And we have POOP!!!"

Second, people who agree with a message are a cost-effective way of conveying that message to a wider audience. Love your vacuum cleaner? You're probably pretty motivated to share that information with anyone who is interested.

Okay, what does this mean for the dumping problem? One surprising fact we have learned is that a number of people, including people who work at shelters, believe that domestic rabbits can be dumped outside with no harm to the rabbits. Hard to believe but apparently true. Granted, some dumpers really don't care what happens to the rabbit. But some subset apparently do not understand that domestic rabbits are fundamentally unprepared to survive in the wild. Education might be a way to get to these people.

Second, it may be possible to put out an email and watch it work its way throughout the country. A friend of mine at work is an excellent source of links to humorous youtube videos. Interestingly, a friend of mine from my previous job has forwarded the same links.

The obvious question is, is it possible to create an educational email, with a link to our web page, that could be distributed to all of our friends and the rabbit lovers we know, as an inexpensive way to start an anti-dumping campaign? That's what we intend to find out.

In the next week or so, you will find an email from CHRS in your Inbox. Please forward it to sympathetic friends and family, and encourage them to do the same.

It may not be much but it could be a small step towards reducing the number of dumped rabbits. At the very least, we need to do "something."

I have this weird quirk that I find comfort in doing "something." Whether that something actually accomplishes anything is, of course, debatable. But the act itself provides at least some modest comfort.

Not surprisingly, my initial response to the horror of the poor dumped rabbit was to start thinking about what we can do. I was stymied, though, by the basic problem of how do you get to the dumpers? After all, they're not the ones using Google to search for information about why dumping is a bad thing.

Ironically, a second dump case brought some resolution. Karalee heard about a dumped rabbit with a foot stuck in a drain hole cover and, as it turns out, a broken back. This time, the rescuer took the rabbit to Norton Road Vet Clinic where it was humanely euthanized. Clearly an improvement over the first case but we're setting the bar pretty low here.

We are all way beyond fed up with dumped rabbits - let's not forget Lucy and Blackberry who, thankfully, suffered no broken bones but continue to battle serious medical issues. Karalee's suggestion was to create web pages on both columbusrabbit.org and makeminechocolate.org that describe the likely fate of dumped rabbits and what caring people should do if they find a dumped rabbit.

In support of her strategy, we can also take advantage of a technique that marketers are exploring: viral marketing. I will explain what that is in my next post.

In spite of the delay, I do want to pass along the messages that people shared. They gave me a lot of comfort during a grim time.

One respondent expressed gratitude that this poor rabbit was no longer suffering and in bunny heaven. I'm sure we all take comfort that the rabbit finally made its way to Karalee and Chuck.

A second respondent shared a story about a momma duck whose ducklings fell into a storm drain. Passersby did rescue the babies. It's an important reminder that some people will do the right thing.

Another response was to encourage us to find satisfaction in our successes. Our own rabbits who have forever homes full of love and the loving care we give to every rabbit that comes into our lives, however briefly. Yep, I wholeheartedly agree with this. We cannot let situations like this discourage us from continuing our work and loving our rabbits.

One respondent wanted to know why the person who rescued the rabbit did not take it to a vet or to the shelter. The answer is, we don't know. When Karalee talked to him, she was under the impression that he was going to do what she suggested.

Let's be realistic here. Not everyone is willing to spend their own money on an animal that does not belong to them. I'm fine with that. My beef is that he wasn't forthcoming about it. You know Karalee as well as I do. All he had to do was indicate that he wasn't willing or able to follow through. Does anyone doubt that she would have offered to take custody of the rabbit? But he didn't.

So there we have it. Good advice from some of our members. Thank you!

Some of us have been discussing what else we can do to help reduce the number of dumped rabbits. Look for my next post for details.

Keep the faith, everyone!

I, along with some help from Lacey and Brie, appeared on Fox 28's Good Day Columbus this morning. The crew was thrilled to have our sweet girls on the set, and were gracious enough to provide space to set up an X-pen complete with a litterbox and toys. Terri Sullivan sat down with me for three minutes to talk about why rabbits make great pets, and what families should understand before bringing a rabbit into their home.

I focused on the fact that rabbits should be spayed or neutered to help prevent health concerns and behavioral issues. I also talked about the life span of rabbits, and the time committment that is involved. Terri Sullivan was very impressed with the fact that rabbits will use a litterbox. Of course Lacey and Brie stole the show, making sure the TV crew could see how much fun rabbits can be.

Three minutes goes by fast and I could talk about rabbits as pets all day long! Let's hope that Fox 28 will invite CHRS back again soon to brag about our beloved bunnies... and find them good homes.

Thanks to Karen Winstead and John Dean for their help with the TV appearance, and to Fox 28 for their support!

Karalee's reaction to Terri's congratulatory remarks. Karalee also received a book that commemorated her many accomplishments. The book was put together by CHRS volunteers, including Ellen Eder who did the graphic design.

One view of the CHRS timeline. Even those of us who helped to create it were surprised by its size. We've been very busy these past years!

One of Eileen Vorst's stations. Four stations were created for each of the major volunteer activities CHRS supports.

One of many raffle prizes, this one was created by Judy. The names of some of the rabbits who found forever homes through CHRS are stitched around our logo. I was the lucky winner!

More pictures to follow!

I had triple the pleasure tonight. Our beloved Blackberry, baby Maddie, and cutie Rupert have all been adopted.

Whoo hoo and major kudos to everyone involved!

I won't go into the gory details other than to provide the basic facts. The rabbit apparently had been hit by a car after being dumped outside. The man who found the rabbit received advice from Karalee at 7:45 that morning but did not (could not, would not?) follow it. He subsequently abandoned the rabbit that evening at the Blendon Woods Nature Center.

Karalee and Chuck picked up the rabbit and took it to Norton Road Vet Clinic where it was euthanized. Thankfully, the rabbit died in a loving environment - the only positive thing I can say about the whole situation.

Since I received the email, I have been trying to think of something constructive to say but remain at a loss. I do know that my rabbits will receive additional goodnight pets for quite a while. I also know that I will take advantage of every opportunity to tell people that rabbits should never be dumped outside. It's not much but all I can think of right now.

If anyone has ideas for how to turn this into a positive, send them to me and I will post them.

You would have thought that we had a CHRS meeting scheduled!

My apologies for the digression. Our very own Heather Dean will be on Fox 28 on Monday at 8:15 for three minutes. Be sure to tune in!

Be sure to tune in....

This is our first appearance at Wessie Fest so we're not sure what to expect. But it looks like a fun family event, with an emphasis on nature. If you're looking for something to do on the 21st, think about attending!

Kudos to our three intrepid volunteers! And don't forget to take pictures.

She was back at OSU today where she was evaluated by a neurologist. It now appears that her tympanic membranes are not currently ruptured, although they may have been in the past. The neurologist and Dr. Herrli are beginning to think that the cause of her wobbliness is some kind of protozoan infection, such as e cunniculi. The progressive wobbliness may be due to neurological inflammation.

I know this sounds really scary but...

The plan is to put her on a large dose of prednisone to try to reduce the inflammation. If inflammation is what is going on and if the prednisone is effective, the prognosis is good.

The plan is to start her on the prednisone next week.

What a rollercoaster ride! And major kudos to Sarah, who is looking after Lucy!

Contact me by Friday, June 20, if you are interested in purchasing your own copy of the Karalee book for $29.95 plus shipping. CHRS will receive $2.99 per book if we order 10 or more books.

You can order the book at a later time but the publisher will receive all of the profits so order now!

Terri Cook has been hinting for some time that the chapter needs a presence on Bunspace. A few days ago, she got downright insistent about it. The deal was clinched, though, when Terri and Karalee produced a volunteer whose enthusiasm about Bunspace makes her a natural for serving as the face of CHRS on Bunspace.

So, with no further ado, please visit our Bunspace page. Obviously, it's still a work in progress but it already looks terrific. If you're a Bunspace enthusiast, look for Mary Beth Parisi, otherwise known as chrsbunspace@columbus.rr.com.

Kudos to Mary Beth!