A few months back I wrote a story called “The Rescue of Casey: What do we teach our children when we mistreat animals?” I had such a huge response from readers, I wanted to write a follow up.

Casey was adopted by a local family with two young boys at the end of March. The couple had previously owned one rabbit before when their first son was just a baby. That rabbit, however, ended up getting GI statis and died very quickly. They decided to wait to get another pet. After having a second son, and waiting until they were older, they felt that the time was right to once again share their life and home with a bunny.

Great Lakes Rabbit Sanctuary Adoption Coordinator Carol Micallef said, “While other rabbits were cordial to them, it was Casey that stole their hearts. Casey let the youngest son sit and hold him, and would follow the boys around. I told the boys that Casey had a rough life, and they had to promise me that they would take good care of him. They promised, saying they would make sure he always has hay and love.”

As adoption coordinator, Carol matches up the person or family with the rabbit that she thinks would be best suited based on their personalities. Sometimes people come in with the preconceived idea of what they want, but it isn’t always what they really want. For instance, they might think they want something really small, cute and cuddly, but the cute and cuddly is not always “oh so small.” She said the cute and cuddly that they are looking for might really mean something a little bit bigger in the form of say a Californian, like Thor. He often gets overlooked because of his size and his red eyes. Getting over appearances is sometimes difficult. Carol relies a lot on instinct and her knowledge of the rabbit residing at Great Lakes Rabbit Sanctuary to successfully place rabbits in loving homes.

“Some bunnies are harder to say goodbye to than others, even though I love them all. Casey had always tugged at my heart for being such a sweetie after all he went through. When they were getting ready to leave, I was hugging Casey and kissing him goodbye. When the youngest boy looked at his mom and said, 'Can we bring him back to visit Miss Carol?' That little boy could tell I was going to miss him and wanted me to be able to see him again! It was then that I knew, deep in my heart, that Casey has found a home that will never put him aside like yesterdays garbage. I did explain to him that pictures and updates would be fine, that he didn't need to bring Casey to visit me.

If you are interested in finding out more information about the Sanctuary, you can visit our Web site at www.rabbitsanctuary.org. Or, if you are interested in learning about the rabbits we have available for adoption, please visit www.petfinder.com.