Fostering Commitment

Rescuing rabbits is a vital part of our organization. Without our rescue efforts, many more rabbits would be set loose in the wild or euthanized at shelters each year. Through the dedication and commitment of our members we've been able to rescue many rabbits and find them good indoor homes.

When a rabbit's time is up at local shelters, or they are surrendered to us, we make arrangements to rescue that rabbit (if we have space in a foster home). We take the rabbit in, spay/neuter, provide other medical treatment if needed, litter box train and socialize in order to place them into good indoor homes. This work involves the efforts of both the organization and the foster home.

In order to effectively cover all the needs in this process, it helps to spell out expectations of both Little Miracles Rabbit Rescue and the foster home. Responsibilities shall be broken down as follows:

Little Miracles Rabbit Rescue shall:

• Provide for the spay/neuter of the rabbit(s)
• Provide any medical care needed
• Advertise the rabbit(s) for adoption or sponsorship
• Perform adoption interviews and referrals
• Receive the adoption donations
• Assist in providing cages for foster homes

The foster home shall:

• Provide for the day to day needs of the rabbit. This includes, but is not limited to, hay, pellets, fresh greens, litter, nail trimming, grooming and toys .
• Socialize the rabbit(s) .
• Contact the Little Miracles Rabbit Rescue liaison if veterinary care is needed to arrange an appointment.
• Work on litter box training.
• Supply the liaison with general information on the Foster’s personality as well as updated pictures.
• Be available to answer questions about their foster rabbits.
• Be available for prospective adopters to meet the rabbits.
• Make at least one follow up phone call to the adoptive home.

If your foster rabbit is seriously ill or injured and requires emergency care, by all means take him/her to a veterinarian right away. But other, less critical medical conditions should be discussed with someone on the Board. We have access to discount services, spays/neuters, and medicine. Working with the Board will save Little Miracles Rabbit Rescue a significant amount of money. Emergency situations should be brought to the Board's attention as soon as possible.

Please let us know when you will be away. We understand that everybody deserves a vacation, and we appreciate it when our foster homes are proactive enough to find acceptable alternative care for their rabbits. We simply need to know who to refer prospective adopters to—or, if a rabbit needs to be pulled from the active list for a week or two because their bun-sitter isn’t comfortable with the interview and follow-through process, we also need to be informed so that we can let people know that the rabbit that interests them will be available after X date.

Please do not independently pull rabbits from shelters and bring them into Little Miracles Rabbit Rescue foster care. If we pull a rabbit from a shelter operating at a comfortable population level while another shelter is facing overcapacity, rabbit lives will be lost! Taking overflow rabbits from shelters is, of course, a large part of our mission. But it needs to be done with knowledge of the big picture. There needs to be central responsibility. We also need to have a good balance of males, females and pairs. If you would like to pull a rabbit from the shelter, please contact the Board and discuss it first.

Since we want to avoid confusion among potential adoptive homes, foster homes are expected to only have adoptable rabbits from our organization and not be fostering for multiple rescue groups. It would be too confusing for someone to go into a home and be told that they are allowed to adopt some rabbits, but need a different screening process for others. Sanctuary, temporary fostering of other rabbits (such as litters until they are old enough to be fixed) and volunteer activities for other organizations are fine.

Naming rabbits- the first foster home for a rabbit gets to name the bunny. Once the name has been set, then it must stay the same even if the bunny changes foster homes. We need to have consistent records with our database, website and veterinary bills. Changing names only causes confusion and makes us look less professional.  All names need to be Okayed with Kristie.