Hi my name is Freddie.  I am a resident at Furrytail Bunny Rescue.  I have lived at the rescue for about 2 years.  Our leader, Katie, takes real good care of us.  She is always saying she couldn’t do it without the help of all the volunteers and donations.  I am not sure what that means, but she is very happy when there are other people at the rescue helping take care of us.

I thought I would tell you what a day in our life looks like.  I live in a condo that is a pen, hay box, litter pan and there is always a carboard box to hide under.  We also have blankets to snuggle under. Most of us have 2 or 3 friends that live with us.  Some of my new friends have a single cage when they arrive. Our mornings start out soon after the sun comes up. 

Me and my 250 friends like mornings.  Some days there are a lot of people that arrive to help and other days it is just our fearless leader.  On days that it just our leader, it takes a lot longer for us to get the care we need. 

The first thing that happens is someone comes through and fills all our hay bins.  I overheard someone say that we go through 80 to 100 pounds of hay a day.  We are always excited to get fresh hay.  Did you know that hay is the main food for rabbits?  We mainly eat Timothy Hay and people can donate a bale through Discount Feed (602-919-2373) and Scottsdale Livestock (480-515-1800).

While we are munching away on the hay, someone comes through and dumps out our water dish and picks up and cleans our pellet dishes.  They have the nerve to put the pellet dishes somewhere that we cannot reach for the rest of the day.  We sit all day waiting for that pellet dish to come back. Some of the nice people pet us while they do this, others will take a moment to pick us up to snuggle.  Some of the bunnies hide because they haven’t been here long enough to trust the people.  One of my friends, Oswald, waits for a finger to bite. He makes sure everyone respects our sharp teeth.

Sometimes after the dishes are picked up they take away our litter box. This doesn’t happen every day.  I overheard our leader explain to one of the people that the boxes are dumped, washed and once dry set up with litter and hay.  I am not sure what that means, but when it comes back it is all clean and smells so much better with a fresh coating of litter and hay in it. 

Then the noisy machines start.  They suck up all the droppings and hay that we spread throughout the pen. The people move that hose all over our condo.  Occasionally, the hose will get too close to me, and it attaches to my fur!  That is kind of scary, so I run away and hide.  I do not come back out until the person moves to the next condo. Some of my friends just sit there and the people must move them.  It is kind of funny watching them.

After my condo is all clean, the person puts my water dish back and fills it all the way to the top with water.  We always rush to the bowl and start drinking immediately.  We just like to make sure it is fresh water.

The rest of the day we play with cardboard boxes that magically appear after we chew the old one to pieces.  Sometimes someone donates fresh veggies and we all get a special treat. 

As the day ends, someone comes around and fills all our hay bins again.  Of course, we just stare at it because we are more interested in the pellets.  We know after it gets dark someone comes around and puts our pellet dishes back down and then they put a scoop of pellets in the bowl.  We all rush to eat it as fast as we can.

After everyone is gone and the lights are out, we snuggle in for the night.  Sometimes we chase each other around and other times we snack on the hay.