Others Who Have Passed Through
Our Doors & Lives
Tulip the Rabbit written by her new family
Tulip was found wandering in a town near us
in the summer of 2000. She was taken to a vet
clinic, held for a period of time and eventually
scheduled for euthanasia because no one
wanted her. The Northwoods Humane Society's
shelter manager heard of Tulip's plight through a vet tech friend and
intervened. Tulip was taken into the shelter. Her name at that time was
Bobette and she'd been at the shelter for a few days when I first saw
her. She was a medium size California rabbit, somewhat shy but very
friendly. My family adopted her, took her home and built her a fancy
rabbit bungalow. She enjoys her new surroundings and always loves it
when someone brings her s special treat!
Our dogs really like her, particularly Sally and Tucker who shower her
with kisses. She likes this and runs to greet them enthusiastically when
they visit. These are interesting facets of animal behavior by species
with a traditional prey/predator relationship....especially when you
consider that Tucker outweighs her by about a 17:1 ratio!
Tulip continues to be very affectionate and enjoys cheek and ear rubs,
especially when accompanied by an apple slice.
The only health problem we've encountered was "ear canker", an ear
mite problem which was easily treated. (I learned to wear long, thick
sleeves when holding a rabbit for ear mite treatment!) She is a most
welcome addition to our family.
Iggie the Green Iguana Written by his foster family
Lurking on his favorite bookshelf, appropriately on the
reptile book, is a character who came to us in 1993. He
was a Green Iguana, about 3/4 grown to adult size. Like
too many of these guys, he's been purchased as a cute
baby and had, very quickly, grown to a size that was
screaming for larger quarters. His once proud owners
were not willing to stand the expense of providing the
housing and conditions he needed to continue on to
become a healthy adult.
Our family happened to have the large reptile home and all of the
accessories that Iggie needed so we became his foster family. We had
no idea just what a challenging critter was coming into our home. He
turned out to be in much poorer health than first glance indicated. He
was suffering from a long standing calcium deficiency due to poor diet
and poor conditions. How he had managed to live and grow as well as
he had was nothing short of a miracle and also testament to one VERY
strong little personality.
He turned out to be a male and, as we soon found out, a male with
some pretty glaring faults as far as being a sweet pet! He attached
himself to me and knew perfectly well that I was the one who mixed his
special diet and lightly steamed his broccoli and put him in his special
bath to soak. I took him out for his daily sunbath and was the one who
would always give in and let him roam the house. His favorite perch on
a bookshelf was where he always wound up, and you can just see him
glaring from his post in the picture. He would never eat one bite of his
evening meal until I sat down to eat also at my place at the table near
his reptile house. Then he joined right in and ate too...crazy guy!
In spite of this Heavenly sounding relationship I was also the person at
whom he aimed his considerable aggression. He would, in his marches
through the house, sneak up behind me every time he got the chance.
I'd hear him coming full speed and as soon as I turned to face him
down (I'm a LOT bigger than he) he'd stand up on his toes and puff
himself up to look as big a possible. He was a coward at heart but he
sure loved trying his sneak attacks!
It was his aggression that was his downfall eventually. He loved to
climb out of his reptile house and lounge on top of his light fixture
where it was nice and warm. He never just climbed out though. He
waited for me to open the top and then he rushed at me with his "I'm
going to rip your liver out" look just for the sheer joy of it. That done
he settled down to bask. But one day in the middle of one of his most
impressive attacks his fragile bones snapped and he had fractures of
his pelvis and back. His early lack of care had caught up with him. As
always, our local vets were wonderful. By this time they had developed
a grudging fondness for this little rebel in spite of a couple of good tail
lashings....he went to his vet visits in a pillowcase which did nothing to
improve his humor and when he came out of his confinement the poor
vet was his target!
He couldn't chase me any more! He could barely move around. There
was no way to know whether he was in pain even though he showed a
small interest in some of his favorite foods. We had him humanely put
to sleep rather than let him slowly die. Not a happy ending but I do like
to think he had a good bit of fun while he stayed with us. I know we
enjoyed him in spite of all his wicked ways.
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