* Extended through 1/31/19 *

One of our adopters and members is generously offering to match all monetary donations in memory of her beloved Petal.  What a wonderful gift for our foster bunnies!  And the timing is doubly perfect as we're currently thanking individuals who donate $50 or more with a 2019 rescue rabbit calendar (while supplies last).

We'll let Cynthia tell you all about Petal, the reason for her match, in her own words:

Petal’s name was Petal because she had a white, petal-shaped mark around her nose and mouth. It, along with the one partly white paw, as though she’d dipped it in white icing, made a striking contrast with her chocolate-brown fur. She had tiny, pointy ears. She was a beauty.

And she knew it.

From the day she first arrived—having been rescued from a very unfortunate living situation, culminating in an incident involving a boy, some hunting dogs, a gun—she had attitude. She wiggled out through the holes in the patio fence, not in order to run away, but to check out the neighbors’ digs and tease Palmer, her mate (also an adoptee from T.H.E. Rabbit Resource), because he was too big to fit through. The holes were soon fixed, and no matter, because Petal was soon too big herself to fit through them. She was a girl who loved her dinner.

Also from the day she arrived, Petal was head-over-heels in love with Palmer, and vice versa. As soon as she was fixed, they bonded, and they were, for the next three years, inseparable. Palmer was undoubtedly the alpha of the pair—I can really claim no credit for litterbox-training where Petal is concerned, because Palmer pretty much took care of that. But, maybe because he was older and wiser, he let her be the humper rather than the hump-ee (for up to ten seconds, after which he’d let her know he’d had enough), allowing Miss Petal to exist under the happy illusion that she ruled the roost.

Miss Petal riding the Bunderground on the day of her rescue.

Petal Memorial Fundraiser All Donations Matched up to $500!!

And because Palmer was three years older than Petal, she was destined to become a widow. One of the saddest things I’ve ever seen, and I know her pet-sitter/-auntie Karen agrees, was when we brought Palmer’s body home from Cornell, prior to cremation, so that Petal could understand what had happened. She thumped and thumped, and ran around the room like a mad thing, until we finally got her calmed down enough to approach Palmer. She then tried for several minutes to wake him, before finally accepting what had happened and resting her head, one last time, on his.

The next days were rough for Petal. She went on a hunger strike. She wanted me to hold her, and she wanted to bite me. After she’d refused food for two days, her Cornell vet suggested bringing in a new friend sooner than planned—if only to prevent him from getting all the food, she’d likely start eating again.

Sarge, whose dramatic dumpster-rescue story was featured on the website a few years back, arrived about a week later, and Petal did indeed start eating. But she was having none of Sarge. They fought—fights usually started by Petal, but Sarge soon learned to give as good as he got. They growled. They grunted. They bit, when placed in close enough proximity to do so. So they lived, for a year and a half, separated by an X-pen.

They did, though, eventually bond—their story was the focus of a Valentine’s Day fundraiser last February—and their happy union lasted almost exactly a year, until Petal died, suddenly and unexpectedly in June.  I always had the impression that, while she came to love Sarge, her true heart remained with Palmer.

Though it broke our hearts to lose her, she was fortunate in that she suffered for less than a day, before the decision was made to help her over to the other side. Petal is in our thoughts always, but she’s with Palmer now, wherever happy bunnies go. Sometimes, at dusk, they visit out back—just to say hello. Sarge has remarried, by the way, and is happy, but that’s another story. 
- Cynthia 

Please donate using the PayPal link below, or use any method you like on our donations page.  Your donations save homeless rabbits from brutal conditions so they can live in forever homes as wonderful as Cynthia's.

Miss Petal looking glamorous and living the glorious life
of a safe and beloved house rabbit.