On our last day at Best Friends, I got to volunteer at the Bunny House!
"The Bunny House is home to around 130 rabbits and a few guinea pigs, too. Some were abandoned outdoors — but domestic rabbits can’t fend for themselves outside! — while others were victims of hoarding or excessive breeding. Some have injuries or special needs. And all of them just want to be loved. Rabbits are some of the softest, gentlest creatures on earth, and here at the Bunny House, they get companionship with other rabbits, expert rabbit vet care, delicious fresh veggies year-round, activities and places to dig, and most importantly of all, the chance to heal and feel safe as they wait for their very own forever homes."
During my shift, I was in charge of cleaning out all of the indoor bunny runs. Volunteering at the bunny house is hard work, much harder than any of the other areas I volunteered at during the week. But it is definitely rewarding work, and I got to spend the day with fluffy bunnies so it was worth it. First, I would gently usher the bunnies to their outdoor runs and plug the entrance between the two with towels and blankets. Then I would clean out the whole run, sweep, mop, empty their litter/feed box (yes, it's the same box...) then cover the floor of the run with fresh linens. Each run got three layers of linens, a towel, a fluffy, topped with a fleece blanket. Lastly, I would refill their hay, give them fresh water and removed the blankets from the entrance so the bunnies could come in and enjoy their freshly cleaned run.
One saying they often use at the bunny house is never look back, bunnies are messy and they will dirty up a run you just spent 10 minutes cleaning in a matter of seconds. So, to keep volunteers from getting discouraged they tell us to never look back at the runs once we let the bunnies back in, I thought that was pretty funny since it was so, so true.
Each volunteer shift is 3 hours long, at the bunny house I worked the entire three hours with a quick 15 minute break half way through. I'm defnitely not complaining, that's the whole reason we were at Best Friends, I just found it interesting how each animal area has it's own pace. At Cat World, a majority of the time is spent playing with and socializing the cats, with a couple of chores mixed in. At Horse Haven, it was pretty evenly split between work, and playing with the animals. At the Bunny House, it is majority work with 5 minutes at the end of the shift to interact with the bunnies. Bunnies are shy and fragile, so volunteers aren't allowed to hold them, but at the end of my shift, I was given a bag of bunny treats and was able to give out the treats to as many bunnies as I wanted for 5 minutes.
The bunnies were sooooo excited about the treats!
After my shift at the Bunny House and the Griffin's shift at Cat World, it was time for lunch. Since we had a little bit of a longer lunch break today, we decided to go back to the Thunderbird, so Jenny and I could try the rest of the ho-made pie flavors.
Then it was back to the Bunny House for an afternoon tour. The kids were excited to see some bunnies!
Normally, they don't take any of the bunnies out for tours, but since it was just the 5 of us we were lucky enough to get to pet one of the velvety soft bun buns.
After our afternoon tour, we hit the road and drove home. We had quite the mix of weather during our drive, but for the majority we had blue skies, and fluffy, white clouds.
The bunnies were so adorable! and the pie...that really looked good. I love pie but seldom have it, so that looked like a really good piece of pie there.
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