Long Eared, Chubby Cheeked Friends

Besides being bored out of my mind without any school since December, I've been volunteering at a rabbit rescue shelter. The Vancouver Rabbit Rescue & Advocacy is a shelter run out of the founder's own home. The rabbits take up residence in her backyard, garage, and basement. It's amazing!

I've been going there to help clean cages twice a week and if you've ever had bunnies as pets, you'll know that they enjoy taking part in recreational pooping. You have to clean their space & litterboxes everyday otherwise it gets really foul. Not a glamourous job at all but getting to see all these friggen cute faces makes it soo worth it!


Noms? This is Stewart. He was very bitey (not just on the cage) the day I was taking photos of him. He also particularly enjoys ripping up the newspaper laid out on the bottom of his cage and making a big mess for us to clean up.




This is Larae. Such a beautiful colour! She lives in her cage with her sister Harlow.


Barnaby. I've been told that he's really silly and does funny things but I've yet to witness his antics!


Ronnie, Herbie, and Sandy. Okay, these three are real characters. Ronnie rarely moves. Herbie is a cute Lionhead who a bad case of fur mites previously and is missing large patches of fur and the other two always have to groom his fur for him. Sandy has a lung problem and often holds her head up in a certain way and makes noises when she breathes. They're all sort of misfits but they love each other & they're ALWAYS huddled together like that. It's so cute.




Gavin has the softest fur EVER!


Cute face.


This girl arrived at the shelter last week. She was found abandoned in East Van. I don't think she has a name yet but everyone compliments her on her beautiful coat. It's like a gradient!

The bunnies live primarily in their cages in the garage and in pens in the basement. They get rotated out to run around and play in the backyard twice a day, which is when we go in and clean the emptied our cages. There are at leaaaast 40 bunnies here! A number that's both amazing and sad at the same time because it means they've all been abandoned in some way.

On each of their cage doors, there's a a little white board that tells you about their personality and how they ended up at the shelter. I can't count how many times it has said that they were neglected due to uninterested children or abandoned because they were too much work. That's pretty much a direct result of buying rabbits from a pet store for a child or as an impulse Easter/other holiday gift. It's so sad :/

Self-Hugs

Talk about a fail.





Of course I would fill the muffin tins way too high thinking that the cupcakes wouldn't rise much. Of course I was wrong. Of course that meant I would have to cut off all the tops of the cupcakes to de-mutate them. And despite my little oopsie, I'm proud to say that my V-Day cupcakes turned out very well! Not too bad for my first time!





Valentine's Day. The love-it-or-hate-it holiday. One much more important lesson I've learned today - more important than the flowers, chocolate, and cutesy gifts - is the importance of self-love. I've seen it come up a few times today while reading my blog feed and it couldn't be more true. I can't put my heart into anything or anyone else without first being confident in myself, knowing who I am, and accepting everything about myself. Without being the mess that I am in my own head. I think I may have lost myself and my esteem along the way. Now more than ever, I need to rediscover & re-appreciate my lost self-love. I hope that all of you, whether you have special people to celebrate the day with or not, use the day (and everyday, for that matter) instead to give yourself a hug for everything that you are and everything that you do.

There should be a holiday for that.



P.S. my cupcake recipient approved :)