# House Letter for Christmas!



## AngelnSnuffy (Dec 24, 2009)

[font=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]




[/font]



[font=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Greetings! 






This holiday season, I wanted to share with you all an amazingly heart warming story from the St. Louis chapter of HRS. 

Have a wonderful holiday.

[align=left][font=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Margo DeMello, President
House Rabbit Society
[/font][/align]
[align=left][font=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]


The following story from _USA Today_ highlights the efforts of our volunteers, especiallyBobbie Shewmaker who started the whole thing and Pat Daly and Thelma Miller who have kept things rolling and been making deliveriesto the crisis center. We are so pleased that _USA Today_ featured our story; it's a wonderful feeling to be part of a group who would take this all to heart and do so much to help others.

[/align]
Happy Holidays!
Joy Gioia, Co-Chapter Manager
Missouri HRS, St. Louis


http://www.hrsmostl.org
[align=left][font=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]
[/align]
Rabbit Helped Woman Survive, Escape Domestic Violence














By Sharon L. Peters, Special for USA TODAY
It's the time of year when you sort of expect miracles.
And they actually do happen. Here's evidence.

In November, Joy Gioia, head of the St. Louis chapter of the House Rabbit Society, which takes in and re-homes some of the growing number of pet rabbits landing in animal shelters, got a heartbreaking call. It was from a woman who'd been abused by her husband for a very long time and had finally screwed up her courage in October to flee ... with nothing but her rabbit. (The woman's name is not being divulged here to protect her safety.)


She'd lived on the streets for a time, she told Gioia, making do with handouts. When food was scarce, she made sure there was enough for the dark-furred bunny she had named Ruby Angel because the white mark on her nose resembled an angel. Every night, when they were huddled in the dark, the woman would stare at the angel shape on the rabbit's nose, something that, for some reason, gave her hope. 
She'd found a place to hole up. There was no heat or running water, but there was a roof and four walls. The gashes and bruises from the last beating were beginning to heal. She was feeling a little more secure, a little more capable of thinking ahead to more than just the next morning. But when a sudden cold snap hit, she knew there were time pressures that couldn't be ignored. She worried the rabbit - her only friend, really - wouldn't survive months of hard winter. She had to figure out a way off the streets, something more permanent.

She had contacted a crisis center for abused and battered women and saw the place as something of a beacon, a chance to start a new life, but the center doesn't accept pets. And that's why she was calling the rabbit rescue group that day. She'd take the crisis-center opportunity, she told Gioia over the phone, only if Gioia could provide haven for Ruby Angel. If not, she'd stay on the streets and do her best to keep herself and the rabbit safe and warm.

"House Rabbit Society chapters rarely accept pet rabbits from individuals because there are so many abandoned, homeless rabbits facing euthanasia at animal shelters needing to be rescued," Gioia says. "There is always a waiting list" for foster care.

This, however, seemed a case worthy of exception-making.

A volunteer went to collect Ruby on a cold day. The woman she found clutching a rabbit wore no coat; her one blanket was wrapped around the animal. The scars from years of beatings were obvious, the bruises from the last one faded but unmistakable. Ruby, the woman said, had been her only reason for surviving. 

It was painful beyond words for her to give up the companion that had meant so much to her for every minute of the four years they'd spent together. But she did it.

Ruby Angel is now safe, basking in loving attention at a foster home. Her front teeth, knocked out by the woman's husband in one of his rage-filled moments, have grown back. (Rabbits' teeth grow continually.) But that's not the end of this story.

There are at least two holiday-season wonders connected to the events that transpired after that cold-day phone call. Because Ruby gave a desperate woman hope, now, perhaps, she can move forward through a violence-free future. She's working hard on making that happen. 

The woman's escape timing was fortunate for Ruby, too. The rabbit was saved not just from more abuse, but from cancer. When Ruby was spayed two weeks ago, as is the practice when HRS accepts rabbits, she was found to have uterine cancer. The cancer had not yet spread, so Ruby has a future. 

But miracles have a way of snowballing forward, and this one seems to have done just that. The woman's story inspired members of the House Rabbit Society in St. Louis to help others like Ruby's owner.

They've collected vast amounts of clothing and other necessities for the women who seek crisis-center refuge, often with children, usually without notice or means or a single possession. The numbers are escalating, and the center has an ever-growing need for the essentials that allow the residents a little dignity. Things such as toothpaste and a decent sweater.

Every few days, HRS volunteers have been delivering mounds of donations. "So many women will benefit from Ruby Angel's story," says Gioia. "She has truly touched peoples' hearts."

And the outpouring has meant the world to the women and children at the shelter. "This kind of support is just wonderful," says shelter director Jessica Brandon.

There's yet another twist. The woman who stepped forward to care for Ruby, unbeknownst to society members, had escaped domestic violence herself. She and her family will give the rabbit a loving home while Ruby's owner tries to extricate herself from the horrors of her history and set a new course. If she's unable to take Ruby back, the bunny's current home will become permanent, a place where she'll always be warm, well-fed and loved.

Which is how it should be for a rabbit who has already inspired so much goodness for so many people.

[align=left][font=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif][font=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]About House Rabbit Society 
[/align][/font]




House Rabbit Society is an international, volunteer-based rabbit rescue and educationorganization with two main goals: torescue rabbits from animal shelters when their time is out, and to educate the public on house rabbit care via ourwebsite, the House Rabbit Journal, our educational materials, and our classes. We operate an adoption and education center in Richmond, California.[/font]


----------

