This page is dedicated to all the special needs rabbits we have had pass through the Hop A Long Hollow over the years. We will update with the individual stories of special needs/special rehabilitation rabbits when we have new cases. Currently we are working hard to get the little bunny Blossom nursed back to health. We would appreciate any donations towards her care and vet bills! Read her story below:
In a Garden of Love, a Blossom Blooms
by Kathleen Savage
On a blanket in a pen in Linda Thibault’s living room, Blossom is dining. Her little nose wiggles excitedly as she munches her “spring mix” of greens, and her ruby eyes grow dreamy with satisfaction. When she finishes at last, she hops across the floor to Linda with such perky determination that you might not even notice her crooked legs and bandages. Nudging Linda eagerly, she purrs the “tooth purr” that rabbits do, then flops down at Linda’s feet for a nap.
Linda lingers long watching her … thoughtful, grateful, and inspired. Blossom is Hop-A-Long-Hollow’s latest success story. A beautiful little colorpoint rabbit with sable ears like a chocolate Easter bunny’s, she is also the bearer of important messages—both sobering and inspiring—for rabbit owners and advocates everywhere.
A Look Behind: Blossom’s Story
Less than 2 weeks before she came into Linda’s life, Blossom, then nameless, was a head-down, huddled mass of fur and fractures. Cruelty cases are not new to the Hollow, but Blossom’s injuries were exceptional. 
She had been dropped off at New Haven Animal Control with a severe upper respiratory infection, unable to walk, with a broken thoracic spine of some months’ duration, suspected fractures on two legs, a dislocated right shoulder that caused the right front leg to splay backward, an injured jaw, and a huge abscess that made use of one leg impossible. All injuries were apparently intentional. “She had basically been used to play football,” says Linda quietly. Left alone in an unlocked outdoor hutch, the little rabbit reportedly had been taken out by neighborhood children for use in cruel sport.
Initially so miserable that euthanasia seemed the kindest solution, the bunny was given minimal emergency treatment, while being held as evidence for a potential animal cruelty case and kept in foster care until the court would release her.
In the hands of her foster caregiver Jeannie, however, the bunny’s luck began to change. Noting her reviving appetite and not convinced that this rabbit was ready to die, Jeannie brought her back to her veterinarian, who added to the treatment plan pain medication and stronger antibiotics. The rabbit’s spine was X-rayed and the huge abscess preventing use of one leg was drained to allow the situation to be further assessed.
Back in kindly foster care, the little rabbit continued to rally. To her amazement, Jeannie found that the bunny was not only eating but trying to groom a little and even to hop around and explore, despite poor balance that made her fall over if she tried to go to fast. Jeannie contacted Linda at Hop-a-Long-Hollow and asked whether the bunny—whom she perceived as a “sweet, loving, trusting bunny”—might be given sanctuary and helped further, or whether Linda believed that the kindest thing, given the severity of the injuries, would be to put the bunny to sleep.
At such a point, Linda notes grimly, animals with such severe injuries and prospective needs are often euthanized as a matter of course. However, Linda—who has “rarely had to put down a rabbit” and whose hackles rise at the often well-meaning but all-too-automatic words, “Why don’t you just put him down” —looks beyond the extent of the injuries and bases this difficult decision not on the damage but on whether the animal, in spite of the damage, shows a tangible will to live. In this case, Blossom, despite her discomfort, was eating, grooming the best she could, and even trying to hop, managing on twisted legs to reach her caregiver and to bestow nudges of gratitude. Linda unflinchingly took her on.
Several days later, the bunny was transferred to Norwalk and re-evaluated by Dr. Clare Fahy of the South Wilton Veterinary Group, the Hop-A-Long-Hollow vet, as part of Blossom’s admission to the Hollow’s care. There Dr. Fahy likewise sensed the bunny’s struggle to live and went to bat for her, prescribing another, stronger antibiotic and more effective dose of medication for pain relief.
And, to the joy of all who have watched her, less than 3 weeks after she was deemed unsalvageable, Blossom is gaining by literal leaps and bounds. Daily Linda witnesses the bunny’s journey of healing, as her little body—as if in answer to her will—learns new ways to compensate for the injuries that will take time to heal. With remarkable speed, little-used muscles are strengthening to take over for the ones that need to rest; and Blossom, on determined little legs, hops across her pen with astounding agility. Twice a day, she guzzles a deliciously flavored liquid containing meloxicam, a pain medication that she will need for life, now for the still-healing injuries and later for the arthritis that will develop. Sadly, her injuries and their aftermath may shorten her life; but to Blossom—and to all who have helped and rooted for her—that life is undeniably precious.
A Look Ahead: Two Vital Lessons Learned
While gazing with pleasure into Blossom’s brightening future, rabbit owners and advocates will want to take seriously the lessons—both cautionary and encouraging—that her story teaches. One vital lesson from her nearly tragic story is that outdoor hutch rabbits are particularly vulnerable. The other is that, even with the severest of injuries, euthanasia is not always the answer.
Lesson 1: Outdoor hutch rabbits are sitting ducks
As Blossom and other “special needs” bunnies at the Hollow can attest, rabbits in outdoor hutches are particularly vulnerable, in ways often unrecognized by their well-meaning owners. Remote from the household, once the novelty of the new bunny has subsided, the bunny may be forgotten, going without companionship or food for hours or even days on end. Diseases, which often go unnoticed in hutch rabbits because of the limited contact with household members, are another menace. Outdoor hutch rabbits are particularly vulnerable to infections and other diseases including pasteurella, an upper respiratory disease that, if not detected early and treated medically, is invariably fatal. Abscesses, also common in outdoor rabbits, are painful and may also quickly become fatal. Another lethal condition is “fly strike,” in which a fly burrows into a rabbit’s soft skin, lays its eggs, and produces maggots that eat the rabbit’s internal tissues, sending it into shock; these parasites also produce toxins and cause infection that, like pasteurella, can go unnoticed until the unsuspecting owner comes out to the hutch and finds the rabbit dying or already dead. Outdoor hutch rabbits are also completely at the mercy of the elements, an increasing number of predators, and, in a standard unlocked hutch, nefarious humans. As Blossom and numerous of the rabbits at the Hollow can attest, human cruelty—regardless of age or economic circumstance—is far more prevalent than one wishes to imagine. Maliciousness, ignorance, and superstition can all be at fault. Incredibly, unfamiliar features such as the lovely ruby eyes of a rabbit like Blossom make such animals targets of abuse by superstitious individuals, who call such red eyes “devil eyes” and mistreat the innocent animal accordingly.
Lesson 2: No matter how bad the injuries, euthanasia is not automatically the answer
If a rabbit such as Blossom is fortunate enough to survive neglect, cruelty, injuries, and disease, the kindly intentions of humans assessing the situation may be the final blow. However—as Blossom’s case clearly demonstrates—even in the most “obvious” instances, euthanasia may neither be necessary nor the most humane solution. In Blossom’s case, although initially assessed by a shelter vet as being beyond hope, once her injuries, wounds, and infection were treated and her pain medicated by a vet willing and able to invest a little more to give this brave bunny a chance, her improvement was dramatic—revealing a bunny who was not only capable of recovery but pluckily determined to live. Linda, who is as unwilling as anyone to condemn an innocent injured animal to a life of suffering, stresses that the key is to look beyond the immediate situation, no matter how severe, treat what can be treated, see how the bunny does, and then make the determination.
After a Leap of Faith, a Leap of Joy
And suddenly Linda is laughing. Like a little bunny rocket, straight up into the air goes Blossom, in that amazing quintessential rabbit display of high spirits or pure joy. “A binky!” Linda exults, adding quietly, with a smile, “A somewhat lopsided binky, because her little back legs don’t work as well as they should … but a binky nonetheless!” Once more Linda affirms her assessment of Blossom—the little bun who, less than 3 weeks ago, was believed to be beyond hope—and her caregivers’ leaps of faith in prolonging her life. “She eats and grooms, runs over to you, pushes her head against you, even does binkies … and makes it obvious in her actions that she is not yet ready to leave this earth.”
Indeed she is ready—in such as her present “garden” of love—to be allowed to blossom.
