We recently received these photos of Ruby. Ruby broke her back in February of 2009 and is being fostered while she is receiving on-going care from Dr. Harvey. Apparently she loves our baskets - so much so that her fosterer has to buy them in bulk! Ruby was rescued by the Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary.

Thank you to all who participated in the recent “Bunny Jumping for Joy” project. We raised $1542.84 for the rabbits at the Oakland Animal Shelter.

If you missed out on the fun go to Friends of the Oakland Animal Shelter and make a donation.

Happy Autumn to you all! Hope everyone had a good summer.

Now that the holidays are approaching we wanted to share some new items with you and let you know about our current promotion. We have two exciting things going on: a free gift with qualified orders and we are making a donation to Friends of the Oakland Animal Shelter.

Exciting thing number 1: Free Gift!

All retail orders with a merchandise total of $50.00 or more placed between Sept. 21 and 26 will receive a FREE Willow Tree basket in your order (Note: must be $50.00 subtotal BEFORE SHIPPING COSTS). We will add this item after we receive your order, so you do not need to add this to your cart (unless you want more than 1).

If you already ordered,  Don’t Panic! Any order that has not already shipped and meets the promotion criteria will be included.

Exciting thing number 2: 20% of proceeds donated to FOAS!

In the spirit of giving, 20% of the proceeds from orders placed between 9/21 and 9/26 will be donated to the “Bunny Jumping For Joy Project” of the Friends of the Oakland Animal Shelter. These donations will help improve the quality of life of bunnies at the Shelter. The funds will be used for a patio cover, lights and new bunny runs so that the bunnies can get fresh air, light and exercise every day! If you would also like to donate directly to this project, I know they would be very grateful! Every little bit will help them reach their goal. Here is a link to their site.

We have some fun new items that bunnies everywhere are talking about:

The new Maze Haven from Binkybunny is the hottest new item…
…the Timothy Bungalow from Oxbow is also quite the hit…
…and we now carry some new healthy treats from Critter Cookies that are the perfect bunny bite size treats.

We are now working on some holiday items:

We have these adorable Holiday Wreaths from Funny Bunny…
…and our 2008 Filled Playhouse Basket with $10.00 BunnyBuck Coupon for those super spoiled bunnies. Check our site in mid-October for some more new holiday items for bunnies.

For those bunny loving humans we have some new gift items such as:

The cute and useful Bunnies and Carrot Hooks…
…these adorable little Angel Bunnies…
…many great 2009 Calendars including the 2009 Rabbit Rescue Wall Calendar…
…and a new book to add to your bunny library When Your Rabbit Needs Special Care by Lucile C. Moore and Kathy Smith.

For the holidays we have…

…a new Holiday Kitchen Towel…
…many Christmas and Holiday cards that you will find in the Holiday cards section…
…and we are also happy to report that the 2008 Arthur Court Collectible Ornament is a bunny!

We are always thankful to our wonderful customers who have made our Busy Bunny business such a success.

Wishing you all the best this fall and winter season.

Many Thanks!

Lisa received this message today:

Can you post this on your blog? The fire depleted our bunny toy stash in a day and we are out! More evacuated critters are expected. Will be doing a regular order soon but need the basics ASAP.

WATSONVILLE ANIMAL SHELTER FIRE UPDATE

Supplies and Donations Needed for Evacuated Pets

The Santa Cruz County Animal Services in Watsonville is currently providing emergency shelter to pets evacuated or displaced by the Santa Cruz County Summit Fire. On May 22nd and 23rd 2008, the Watsonville Shelter received over 60 dogs, cats, rabbits, ducks, chickens, birds, and even fish displaced by the fire. As the fire grows, more animals are expected and we want to be prepared.

Immediate supplies needed include:

1. Heavy Ceramic Water Bowls
2. Bottled Water
3. Purina Rabbit Chow
4. Litterboxes
5. Cat Litter
6. Woodstove pellets (for litter)
7. CareFresh Litter
8. Fresh Vegetables for Rabbits and Small Animals
9. Straw for Bedding
10. Safeway Giftcards for Fresh Vegetable and Supplies
11. Gas Giftcards for Rescue Transports
12. Used Towels, Blankets, and Sheets
13. Cat and Dog Toys and Beds
14. Chicken and Livestock Feed
15. Snacks and Drinks for Staff and Volunteers

Supplies and Donations can be dropped off at:

Watsonville Animal Shelter
580 Airport Blvd
Watsonville, CA 95076

Donations can be made using PayPal at www.FOWAS.org

- or -

mailed to:

The Friends of the Watsonville Animal Shelter (FOWAS)
PO Box 1930
Watsonville, CA 95077

Thank you to everyone who participated in our Have A Heart promotion.

We raised $693.56 for the Columbus House Rabbit Society’s Make Mine Chocolate Campaign to continue educating the public on the challenges of properly caring for rabbits and to encourage the purchase chocolate Easter bunnies (or stuffed toy animals) rather than live rabbits.

Hopefully many of you were able to watch Oprah yesterday (Friday April 4, 2008). She did a complete show on the puppy mill industry. It was quite disturbing and very tearful, but I was so glad to see someone with her power and celebritiness (Is that a word?) discuss this topic.

Many of our bunny customers volunteer at and/or are members of rabbit rescues so this may be like preaching to the choir, but I still think we need these reminders. Hopefully watching a show like this will encourage and inspire each of us to start or continue working to make things better for all living beings.

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This article was written by our friend from 24 Carrot Lane, Tania Fardella:

Cute Bunny, Big Responsibility

Think twice before bringing home a live Easter rabbit

By Tania Fardella

Sweet precious faces, deep soulful eyes, unimaginably soft fur: If you’ve ever happened past a pet shop window and been charmed by the enclosure filled with adorable baby bunnies, and envisioned what a perfect Easter gift one of these enchanting creatures would make for your child, think again. It is imperative to know that there is much more to properly caring for a rabbit than meets the eye, and that, contrary to popular belief, rabbits are not necessarily suitable pets for children, and are definitely not good “starter pets.”

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Lisa has been bugging me about this for a while now. She asked me where the link to EARPS was and I told her that I had already added it. Naturally, she asked me where the link was - I looked throughout our site and could not find it. Not wanting to be a liar, I added it to our Blogroll and to our online resources link page.

The Watsonville Animal Shelter has been making videos for their rabbits so they get adopted. They say that Busy Bunny toys are perfect props and that cats like them too. See Smudge’s movie here. Other bunny movies are at here with lots of toys.