Our mission is two-fold: Education and Adoption. On the Education front, 2009 was a year of growth. MCRS offered education in a wide variety of formats, including 1000s of printed brochures, twice monthly Bunny Basics classes, hundreds of individual emails and voice mails answered by volunteers, several educational events, a full year of Hoppy Hours and on-going Rabbit Agility classes. Plus, lots of informal educational opportunities, particularly through those individuals volunteering to exercise the adoptable MCRS bunnies that live in the 15 area PETCO stores that MCRS partners with. We've even added a presence on Facebook and Bunspace!

On the adoption front, MCRS ended 2009 with an even 100 rabbits adopted on MCRS contracts, plus another 19 assisted into homes directly from other shelters, for a total of 119 buns in new homes! For the majority of the year, we averaged between 45-50 rabbits in foster care at any given time. However, we ended the year with 102 rabbits in MCRS care! In fact, MCRS set a record in December 2009 by taking in a whopping 66 rabbits, most part of a animal cruelty investigation that landed over 60 rabbits into the shelter system right before Thanksgiving.

MCRS receives all its rabbits from other shelters and animal organizations. They come to us for a variety of reasons - lack of space, a fixable health problem or behavior issue are all common reasons. A total of 150 rabbits were accepted into foster during 2009. In addition to taking in animals from the largest Minnesota shelter, Animal Humane Society, MCRS also received rabbits from three other metro area organizations, three rural Minnesota shelters, two Wisconsin organizations and one South Dakota organization.

Our heartfelt appreciation to everyone who gave so much of their time and energy last month to get these buns settled. Most are sterilized, healthy and ready to be adopted already. Several are already listed on Petfinder, with the remainder soon to follow. Keep checking as there will be a lot more new faces appearing in the coming weeks!

A portion of the bunnies needed medical care. Issues ranged from upper respiratory infections and bite wounds to more serious issues like abscesses and other major infections. So far, everybun has responded well to treatment and some are even all better already. The remainder will continue to receive treatment until they are healthy and ready to be adopted.

MCRS is also pleased to report that the first two bunnies from this group have already been adopted! Bubba, a male Checkered Giant who likes to chase his tail, was adopted at the December adoption event in Golden Valley. He was quite the charmer and popular with several of the visitors. He went home with a family that read about him on our blog and drove two hours just to meet him! Tulip, a female gold/white English Spot, went home just this past weekend. She seemed quite delighted with all the attention being lavished on her by her new family.

However, while the urgency of this situation has passed, there is still much work that needs to be done to get these bunnies into homes.

* If you have been considering fostering, we can still use you! Some of our current foster homes are doubled and tripled up, so additional foster homes would lighten their load. In addition, the "regular" intake requests keep coming and we need space for those bunnies as well.

* If you have time to volunteer, many of our PETCO locations could use help socializing the bunnies. We ask for a minimum of one hour, once a week - and you get to play with the bunnies during that time! We are especially short of volunteers in Maplewood, Maple Grove, Mankato and Woodbury, but there are openings at all of our 14 partner PETCO stores.

* There will be a number of educational & adoption events in the coming weeks to promote bunnies as pets and we'll need volunteers to staff them all. Most shifts are about 3 hours and you get to spend a lot of it playing with bunnies and answering questions from the public about what it is like to live with bunnies.

* Doubling the number of bunnies doubles the work in many areas of the organization, so if you can help in any way, we'll work to match you up with something that needs doing. Even if your only talent is a couple of hours and the ability to scoop litterboxes, one of our medical foster homes has several furry "patients" in residence and could use some assistance with basic bunny chores. There are just no end to the possible opportunities! :)

Please help us keep this miracle going til we can find homes for these bunnies. Let us know how you can help. Thank you!