Sunday, December 24, 2006

Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot?

We don't think so. So we're thrilled when Red Door alums send in recent photos of themselves. What better way to ring in the New Year than remembering some dear Red Door friends?

Here are Katie and Roy, a bonded rabbit couple. deeply in love.

And then there's Redford and his new girlfriend Abbey [the former Tinkerbelle].

Redford celebrates the new year by tossing a little hay on his head.

And Timberlake, who's not even a Red Door dog--just the beloved rescue dog of a Red Door supporter.

Thursday, December 21, 2006

Party On

Board member Toni Greetis and her husband Brian love their animals. So no wonder they're planning a New Year's party with all of them.

Toni submitted this photo to the Oxbow Hay Holiday photo contest and--no surprise--she won: a $100 gift certificate. Now that's something to celebrate.

The Not-So-Wild Goose Chase

It was that first week in December--after the sleet storm, after the snow had fallen and turned to ice--that Red Door went out to rescue a goose.

We'd noticed a gray goose hanging out in a large yard in Rogers Park. The goose was happy swimming in the backyard koi pond at night and standing under a pine tree during the day. It appeared to be a juvenile Snow Goose or a white-fronted gray goose...in other words, a wild goose. So every day we'd check on it, expecting it to take off as the weather began to turn.

But it didn't. When the sleet and snow hit, the goose stayed put. So we knew we had a problem.

Thanks to the help of Flintcreek Wildlife Rescue, the goose was rescued the first day after the snow fell. We were slipping around and stumbling through the snow, and the goose was running around the yard, stopping periodically to turn around and hiss at us.

Finally, he was captured and driven off to Flintcreek. Where we heard, a few days later, that the goose was probably a hybrid of a Chinese goose and a wild goose--which, in the world of wildlife rescue, made this a domestic goose instead of a wild one. We also learned that someone had clipped his wings, so he couldn't fly away.

Thanks, Flintcreek, for leading us on this you-know-what chase, and for re-homing the beautiful gray goose.

Monday, December 04, 2006

First there was one rabbit....

The Czarnecki familly in Wheeling phoned the shelter to say they had found a domestic rabbit outside. He was a beautiful lavender-silver color and very friendly. They agreed to foster Silverado, as they called him, until the shelter had room--a time period thought to be about two weeks.

Imagine their surprise when one morning seven days later "he" had had a litter of baby bunnies. Silverado became Honey Momma and the Czarneckis were very understanding that now the mother and babies couldn't be moved to the shelter for another six weeks.

Finally, the day arrived when they all came to the shelter and we couldn't resist taking of a photo of all the babies piled together. The mother, now named Lilac, is happy to be done with her baby-raising time and she's ready to move on to a new life with an adopter. The five bunny kids are looking for individual foster homes--are you interested in taking on a baby bunny for a short while? Red Door provides equipment and hay; the bunny provides the fun; and you give the love.