UPDATE 8/19/08: Joey’s story has a very happy ending. After coming into HRN care, he received veterinary attention (including being neutered), lots of love and has now been adopted. Yahhhhh Joey!
______________

As told by Kerry Quintiliani (employee at Edgewater Office Park):

I just wanted to let you know how the House Rabbit Network and employees from CBRE helped with a bunny rescue this past weekend. I don’t work with these groups and just met them, but just had to write to tell you this story.

As I left my job on Friday night, I noticed a floppy-eared white rabbit sitting next to my building. I had noticed wild rabbits in the area before, this one definitely stuck out as a
domestic bunny. While my sister and I tried to catch it, a gentleman leaving the building told us that a man had walked behind the building and dumped two domestic rabbits out of cages before running back to his car.

We got really close a couple of times but the bunny proved to be too quick. After a couple of hours, we left some carrots and celery out and planned to come back in the morning to try again. My sister found the House Rabbit Network online and sent them an email that night. Saturday morning, she received a call and email from Shannon, a HRN volunteer and bunny foster mom, who met us back at the office that morning to search again but no dice.

Shannon and a team of HRN volunteers met back to the office park at dusk on Saturday to continue searching. After looking around in the swamp and woods, a domestic brown bunny was found stuck in an air intake vent that was surrounded by cement and metal grates.
picture-4.jpg
Look Closely: “Joey” sitting on a bucket in the concrete intake vent underground. This is the 3 inch opening mentioned below.

There was no way into this space except a three-inch gap that the bunny had fallen through. The bunny responded to food and water passed into the space and seemed to be healthy so a plan was made to find someone who could open up the grates so he could be rescued.

Security contacted a maintenance man who brought his tools down and went to work opening up the metal shields.
picture-2.jpg

picture-5.jpg

After hours of jig-sawing and prying, a hole big enough for a person to slide through opened up.
picture-6.jpg

Then people slid in through the opening and grabbed the feisty bunny.
picture-7.jpg

It was a long five hours, but totally worth it to rescue this sweet bunny (named “Joey). Joey will be taken to the vet for an exam and to be neutered and will be posted to the House Rabbit Network site when he’s ready for adoption.
picture-8.jpg

It’s sad that the white bunny is still not accounted for, but I’ll keep my eyes open. It’s even sadder that these innocent bunnies were literally dumped out into the wild by a man who didn’t want them anymore. These two bunnies were most likely Easter gifts that grew up too fast and were given a death sentence since abandoned bunnies can’t adapt from domestic life. They are most often hunted and eaten by predators or, as was the fate of the brown bunny before he was rescued today, get trapped and end up starving to death – a very slow and painful way to die.

Special thanks to my sister Amy Ahern for finding and contacting the HRN for help; the HRN team of Shannon Cail, Tricia Hart, Tom McDonald, Suzanne Trayhan and Carol Youngclaus for volunteering to help rescue not just this bunny, but hundreds of bunnies in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut; to Jeff Baker from security, Joe Voto and Chris Caruso from CBRE, and Amy Felicani (who slid into the air shaft) for their willingness to help rescue a bunny on a bug-filled Saturday night. Thank you all for saving Joey!

Side Note: Joey was named after Joe Voto’s 6 year old son who told his dad that he had to leave dinner to go and save the bunny! “Joey” the bunny, is an approx. 3 lb., Jersey Wooley mix. Most likely a young “easter bunny” who was bought for children at Easter then released into the wild when the family and children lost interest.

Enjoy reading about Joey’s rescue in the Woburn Advocate: “Down The Rabit Hole” : http://www.wickedlocal.com/wilmington/news/x2043505582/Down-the-rabbit-hole