Little baby bunny

The little bunny I named Peter, died today of an infection from a little wound it got on it's nose last week trying to get out of his cage. I thought, it's not a very big wound it will heal, and it will be okay. I forgot to take into consideration how tiny this little bunny was. He weighted about 10 oz. Much smaller than the little orphaned kittens I sometimes feed and raise. So he couldn't handle any infection, since he was so little. Poor Maddy found him, and Kevin thought is was asleep. Joe had to tell him the truth, and Kevin buried him where I made my garden last year under the Ficus tree.

New Addition

Well, I do have to say this blog entry is for Caleb. He will enjoy this the most. This baby bunny was found at my husbands job site. Clearing away brush, and having probationers helping, this tiny baby bunny was found under a wood pile. I am calling it a he, because he reminds my of Peter rabbit. It is one of my favorite children's book, and very true to life.

Well I think Peter was taking a nap (Bunny nap, not cat nap...LOL) when he was disturbed by a girl doing community service and cleaning up with a pitch fork! I think this tiny little bunny was in a state of shock. As a prey species, they inherently play dead in hopes the one holding them will loosen their grip, and he can scurry away. Well, by that point my husband had it in a hard hat holding it.

Of course animal rescuer that I am my husband called me and I met him on the shoulder of the freeway to save this scared cold and hungry little bun. He didn't do much for several hours when I got it home. I gave it a little of everything I give my domestic rabbit and left it alone. After about six hours I couldn't keep enough food in it cage. It was hungry, and now it was pooping A LOT! I was amazed at how much one tiny, 8 oz. little thing could eat and poop.

As a vet tech I know the most important thing for a rabbit to do is eat. If they fast for any reason, their gut will shut down and they will die. If a rabbit is eating, then they have to poop also, because what goes in, must come out. They have very fast metabolism, so it doesn't take long.




The worst thing you can do when you rescue and rehabilitate any orphaned or wild animal, is give them a name. There is a 90% chance that it will never leave your house. Everything in me is yelling to go release it ASAP. It is not injured, it is eating and drinking, so it should be okay. They other part of me is saying fatten it up a little then go release it somewhere safe. Not by the side of the freeway were I found it. There will be another blog soon with pic's of when I released the bunny and I am sure it will be much happier, and I will have my blog and pics to remember the little bunny I helped.

She's home!

Well she survived and so did I. It was really funny though. I was not really used to Maddy being gone. I seemed like the week didn't go by fast enough. Looking back it really wasn't that long. Maddy had a blast at science camp. Her camp counselor was Emily. She was so nice to help Maddy with her hair! Thank you GOD! She really didn't look to bad when she got home. But everything is covered in dust. They learned lots of camp fire songs. One was just like Father Abraham, except it was called The penguin dance!? They roasted marshmallows, she had Chickadees come and take food from her hand. How awesome!

The night hike was really cool. Maddy saw Jupiter through the Telescope. Her counselor told them stories at night before bedtime. She had a great time and I would recommend all children to go and learn about things, that I think are the funniest subjects to learn about.

Saddness

It is with great sadness that I make this blog entry. The wonderful mother of a family of 5 children was tragically killed in a n automobile accident. I thought long and hard as to wither or not I should make this blog entry. I know for some it will be very hard to read this, it is very hard to write it. Asada Kalar was a native of the country of Liberia or the Ivory coast I am not to sure. She came to the United states and lived near our Church. She was invited to our church when we were having outreach one Saturday, and having children, we invited them to our Sunday school. Frank and Sabrina Peavey were wonderful at making contact and going to pick up the children up for Sunday school. Of course having been the teacher of Tarley, my heart aches for him the most because I was the closest to him. They were having hard times, living in an apartment, and trying to keep up with the demands of a family of 5. Asada always had a smile on her face. She didn't speak very good english but she would always smile and nod at your questions of her. Her children were always very hungry for God. They always participated in sunday school. I had many questions from Tarley, always searching for answers about things of God that he didn't understand.

I remember one time Sabrina and Philana took them some groceries. She never asked for anything from our church, but when we gave, there was always a tear in her eye. Asada was always very grateful for everything our church did for her and her family. You could tell she really loved all her children. One time I gave them some children's clothes. I thought Asada was going to cry. She grab me and hugged me and just kept saying "Thank you, thank you" She couldn't say much more in her broken english. I remember thinking how much we have, and how much we take for granted.



When we heard they would be moving to the midwest, we were all sad. I remember thinking if they'd just stay a little longer, the boys would be filled with the Holy Ghost. They were really searching for God at this time, and even got Baptized in Jesus name before they left. I was so proud of them. They were very excited too. The move was going to be good for them, better job opportunity and cheaper rent.

We are still not sure how the accident happened, all we know is that Asada is gone and has left behind a husband and 5 children all under the age of 12 years old. Please pray for this family in there time of need, especially the children.

Out Door Science Camp

It has been a week of getting ready. Does she have enough socks? Will she be warm enough? What if it snows? All these questions and more have been going through my mind for the last 48 hours. The mad scrabble at the last minute to get everything done.



Joe was home this morning when I took Madison to school, to see her off at the bus. It was nice because he was able to get Kevin to school so I could take Maddy. She was so excited, and nervous. Then he was able to get to the school before she left to say goodbye. Thank God for state holidays. (For those of you who are not state workers... it is Columbus day, all state workers are off today.)



I'm glad she's had so much practice going to our sectional Jr. Camp. I don't have to worry about her getting home sick. I do worry about her hair though. She is not the best at taking a quick shower....well, to be truthful, 30 minutes is not unheard of, but she does have a lot of hair. At camp they are allowed 3 minutes showers. 3 minutes! I will be praying that God helps her get all the shampoo out of her hair. I'm sure I'll have fun, washing and brushing her hair when she gets back. LOL



The offical Yahoo weather for today says that Running Springs, California: high today is 78*F and the low tonight will be 41*F. They will be going on a night hike sometime this week, to study the stars, and nocturnal animals, etc. I hope it gets warmer.

FREEDOM

Freedom is a wonderful thing
I wish I could be free
but for a bird it is not good
being stuck in a cage forever
I've got to be free so I can really fly
the cloudy skies above.

It would be good to fly again to get out there
and fly away so high that I can see everything below me
It would be fun to get out there with other birds.

But I can not have freedom because I am stuck in this cage
until the door opens,
I will have my freedom to fly away.

Kevin Hall Oct 1,2007

My son wrote this today in English class and I just had to put it on my blog. He was excited when I picked him up from school and said "Mom, I wrote my first poem today." It is based on a poem by Maya Angelou, called CAGED BIRD but his spin on it was freedom.


Freedom means a lot of different things to different people. To some it might be being able to come and go as they please. To others it might be being able to say what they want, when they want to say it. To even others it might strike the picture of a Marine standing in the desert of Iraq, but to those of us who are Christians it means being able to worship our God without the threat of being arrested or even killed. Reading this poem, reminds me that we all have the freedom, the freedom to fly. We can all spread our wings and tell others, or better yet show others the freedom we have in Christ.

Spider

This blog entry has been working on me for about 10 days. It is really hard for me to talk and think about spiders, and I guarantee my skin will be crawling after I get finish with this entry.

A couple of weeks ago, when it was still very warm in So Cal, my plumeria plant was looking very withered, and being in direct sun, I decided to move the plant into a partially sunny area of my yard. In the process of moving it, I noticed a very large spider running up it's now torn web. She was caring a yellow egg packet with two legs and running on six. I only saw her for a couple of seconds and now she was hidden under a leaf somewhere. The days passed and I kept thinking about her and the egg, wondering when it would hatch. The thought of thousands of little spiders, that, one day would be big like her was a bit overwhelming.

Then one day I noticed something, one of the leaves was kinda rolled up and spider web all around it, she had placed her egg right there and you could see it in full view. If you looked closely, you could see her hi dding behind it. She had yellow/brown legs with black strips on them and a very big abdomen, off White/stone color with tan spots. I guess someone who studies spiders might have been extremely excited but I was kinda grossed out. One of the most interesting things about her was her egg packet, unlike anything I have ever seen, it had spikes all over it.



So after deciding I couldn't kill her, I went with plan B. I wanted to know if she was poisonous. If she was then she would have to be killed but if she was a harmless garden spider then I would have to go with plan B. So I put the previous pic's on the web and a guy e-mailed me to tell me she was a "Brown widow spider" cousin to the black widow. They come from Africa, and their venom is poisonous but when they bite, they inject so little venom that no human was ever hurt by one. They came to So Cal about 5 years ago in shipping containers. Their numbers are not that numerous but they give away that this was my spider was the egg sack. No other spider has an egg sack with spikes all over it except these spiders. He sent me this pic



I looked at Joe and said "That's my spider!" So plan B consists of calling my friend/manager/co-worker, Angel who's son is really into these things. He has all kinds of incests and spiders at their house. She was excited to hear about my spider and said she wanted it. So Joe helped me get it into a plastic bottle. I took it to work and she came and got it. She's not scared of these things (I think she's a little desensitized!) LOL. Now I am waiting and she is feeding her crickets and waiting for the egg to hatch. She will send me pic's of the as it happens and I will be posting more about the spider I gave up for adoption.