Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary

Riley is a beautiful and sweet female French Lop rabbit who was sitting in a central valley shelter with a massive abscess on her face. She was pulled from the shelter and came to Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary for medical treatment and some TLC. She is currently on antibiotics and pain medication but will need surgery in the future. We are looking for some caring individuals who would like to make donations toward her surgical costs. Checks can be mailed to:

Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary, 14741Wing Levee Road, Stockton, CA 95206 or an on-line donation can be made through the sanctuary website at www.harvesthomeanimal.org.

Please help us get her the surgery she needs. Thank you,

Karen

Last week was a busy one and this weekend has been non-stop. We are trying to get caught up with our spay/neuter list so last week Shirley, Rosie and Sami were all done at VCA Bay Area. They are all back at the sanctuary, safe and sound, just minus a few parts! We also have a visiting baby with us who we are treating for an upper respiratory infection. 

Tomorrow we will have a workday with volunteers from East Bay Animal Advocates. There is a ton to do this time of year. The occasional rain mixed with beautiful sunny days is a recipe for growth in the pastures as well as weeds everywhere. We will clean the chicken barn, rake up the outside enclosure to the rabbit building and work on the stalls in the front barn. If there is time we’ll take a look at the pastures. 

No bad news this post. Isn’t that wonderful? (Except that it was 94 degrees here today.) Ug 

It’s been a while since I’ve written and I have a lot to share. We have had some beautiful days and evenings here with the weather change. Everything is green and the trees have leafed out.
 
Our new rabbit residents include Rosie, Cappy, Arthur, Riley and Tapioca. They all have very different and unique stories to tell. Arthur and Cappy were in a Bay Area shelter for almost 5 months. Tapioca was running loose on the streets of Modesto and Riley was in a Central Valley shelter with the biggest abscess on her face that I’ve ever seen. Rosie came from a South Bay shelter and is an absolutely beautiful mini-lop who will soon go up for adoption.
 
The months of March and April have been difficult for us here at the sanctuary. We have had a number of deaths of both large and small residents. We lost two rabbits last month. Benton, a Hayward rabbit, passed away suddenly. He fell ill one evening after dinner and was gone by 1:30 the next morning. Benton fought an upper respiratory infection for quite a while and was on and off drugs for a number of months. He died in my arms while we watched the late shows together. He knew he was loved. When I walk into the rabbit building I always look to my left in the litter box he claimed as his own. I still expect to see him there, grunting at the other rabbits if they dare come near. Benton was the “pest” of the rabbit building. He would routinely run up behind other rabbits, give them a nip on the butt and then run like hell. Don’t think he didn’t have friends, because he did.
 
Our other rabbit loss was Christopher Robin from the Tri-City Shelter in Fremont. Christopher R. went through many episodes of bloat during the last 3 months he was alive. He lived in my dining room and provided me with a great deal of enjoyment, companionship and humor while he was here.
 
In March we lost our beloved donkey, Bullwinkle. He was 27 years old and an absolute dear, sweet soul. He fell ill one evening from a feed choke and spent three days in Pioneer Equine Hospital in Oakdale. Boy did he hate that! The doctors there were wonderful and he received the best of care. When he returned home we knew he wasn’t responding to the medication and that we were slowly loosing him. He passed away in his pasture with Phyllis and myself by his side.  
 
The month of April brought us more grief when we lost Rainbow, one of our potbellied pigs. She was 12 years old and a great companion to Mohawk. She came to us 2 years ago and was certainly a pig with a lot to say. She enjoyed eating, snoozing, very short walks, eating and snoozing and then snoozing some more.
 
It’s quite unbelievable the void these sweet animals can leave when they are gone. Benton, Christopher Robin, Bullwinkle and Rainbow are all dearly missed.