DECEMBER 7th, 8th and 9th from 1:00pm-8:30pm! This year’s three day event will be the BIGGEST EVENT WE’VE EVER DONE!
Little Miracles Rabbit Rescue is located at 2308 Auburn Ave, Atco NJ 08004 – we are about an hour and a half from NYC, thirty minutes from Philadelphia and one hour from the shore points. Please come and visit us at our open house event!
Visit the Event Page on Facebook for Updates: https://www.facebook.com/events/420520114677333/ – RSVP to get updates!
View the Event page at http://www.thejingleball.com!
Special Events During the Jingle Ball:
Friday December 7th:
Bring your Gold, Go home with Cash! (See more info below)
Crafts for the Kids – Paint your Own Pottery from 2pm-7pm
Saturday December 8th:
Bring your Gold, Go home with Cash! (See more info below)
Crafts for the Kids – Paint your Own Pottery from 2pm-7pm
Home-Made Christmas Craft Sale 2pm – 7pm
Sunday December 9th:
Bring your Gold, Go home with Cash! (See more info below)
Crafts for the Kids – Paint your Own Pottery from 2pm-7pm
Home-Made Christmas Craft Sale 2pm – 7pm
– On September 9th, we spayed and neutered 16 bunnies that were high-risk for cancer, spraying excessively or waiting to be adopted. We performed those surgeries in our NEWLY COMPLETED MEDICAL ROOM.
-By September 4th, The medical room had the sub-floor installed, with water-proof, “impervious to moisture” flooring installed above as required by the department of health. We installed drywall, and painted the room, and purchased a new-in-the-box (but second hand, and therefor very inexpensive) surgical table. This was one of the most expensive construction projects because the entire floor needed to be built up to level before we could install “impervious” flooring.
-We rented oxygen for use for all future surgeries at the rescue.
-We completed the clean-out of all three storage sheds on the LMRR property and moved 44 bales of hay onto our property for consumption!
-Hampton had surgery, which was necessary to amputate his rear leg. Unfortunately, the cancer that caused Hampton’s broken femur had already taken such a toll on his body that the rescue had to say farewell to our beautiful spokesbunny. Many donors chipped in specifically to assist with Hampton’s surgery which cost $1053, in addition to the over $600 in bills prior to his surgery. We thank everyone who supported us during his surgery and after-care. We all miss him dearly.
-We paid off over $200 of our bill from past x-rays and surgeries with Evesham Veterinary, preventing us from paying any interest on the bill there.
-We paid of $1216 of the shelter’s electric bills from June and July – the air conditioning was repaired twice, and the entire unit serving one side of the kennel was replaced also!
-We purchased contractor bags and three months worth of sterilizing and cleaning products from Home Depot, as well as other cleaning products from Walmart and Target, such as replacement mop heads, two new mops and two new brooms which needed replacing.
-We paid $4050 in rent since we started the “Save Our Shelter” campaign, which thanks to the SOS donations, most of our adoption fees, boarding fees, etc were able to go towards our rent with only some assistance from the SOS fund!
-We replaced the mini-fridge that wasn’t working, and threw out the old one.
-We properly vented the washer/dryer unit so that we could continue doing laundry at the building.
-We applied for building permits which required professional SIGNED, SEALED drawings from an architect (that alone is a $3,000+ cost!) and then got approved for the building permits including an electrician, plumber and construction – each of which had to be paid to come out, draw professional plans for the construction to occur. The actual cost of the permits (NOT including hiring all the certified, insured & bonded professionals – all needed because we’re in a commercial building and CAN NOT do any of that work ourselves) – the permits were $216.
-We purchased a laser printer for the rescue, and in ONE round of new copies needed for adoptions, surrenders, boarding, etc- by spending $250 on the printer and toner – we already saved over $300 from just making copies and paying full price! YAY for clearance printer find!!
-We spent $260 at Petsmart on speciality products needed for all the small animals, including ferret food, rat, hamster and small animal feed, timothy pellets for the rabbits who require them, alfalfa hay and other products for the animals who have special food requirements, and carefresh litter while it was on sale.
-We replaced nearly ALL of the shelter’s litter pans which were in disrepair and were becoming extremely hard to fully clean, in addition to being badly chewed. We purchased back-up pans and installed hooks on all the condos that the rabbits poo / pee on the shelves so they could permanently have small litter pans to prevent staining of the shelves.
-We repainted all of the shelves and the entire floor of both kennels with epoxy-resin painting, making ALL surfaces moisture impervious to comply with health department demands. They were checked and found to be compliant.
-We replaced many of the expensive light bulbs that are in the fixtures that came with the building – we priced out replacing them which was far, far more expensive. We now have very few bulbs that do not work making it much easier to see all parts of the rescue all the time. We installed timers on all rooms so that the electric bill is not affected by lighting that is not being used at night when no one is in the building.
-We replaced the panel that controls our door-lock system. Our electronic lock panel was damaged by a storm over the summer. Our current system makes it easy to give volunteers access – or restrict access from a mobile device. Those who run the shelter can now shut off a key if a volunteer leaves or loses their key. We are working to employ the same system to prevent access to restricted areas, such as medication, offices, etc throughout the rescue.
-We created and documented an entire medication log with the help of our veterinarian who has made four visits to the rescue since August 1st. We ordered and replaced needed medications, and kept a new log, which also complies with the health departments demands. We also purchased a text-book for reference by both the staff and our outstanding veterinarian.
-We replaced 1/2 the water bottles in the shelter that have, over time, become damaged and leaked. We bought over 40 new bottles.
-We purchased 3 months worth of feed, and a pallet full of litter, in addition to fly-prevention supplies and mosquito control for the shelter’s yard.
-We purchased 5 ton of river rock, and 2 ton of sand for completion of the back yard runs and have 70% completion of the outdoor exercise areas, which will also be compliant with the health department when complete.
This was another one of the more expensive projects – when complete, this will include 388 square foot of interactive running/exercise space where 25 rabbits at a time can exercise in fully enclosed, fully protected runs while being supervised by volunteers. The runs include lots of places to run, jump, climb, dig – and will have floors “impervious to moisture” and able to be bleached and sanitized – newly compliant with the health department’s complaints that “natural” flooring on animal shelter runs is “not allowed” (Which is still an argument because every animal shelter we’ve ever seen has grass in the runs for the dogs- but we’re being told we’re not allowed to have sand/dirt/plants/grass for the rabbits to run on!
– Flea prevention and control was purchased for all rabbits to be treated as they are done quarterly for preventative measures. NO FLEAS HAVE BEEN FOUND IN OUR SHELTER ALL SUMMER – an outstanding record considering that this was a particularly bad flea season in NJ.
-The shelter paid for three months of cable for the building (we have the minimal package, which includes basic cable, but more importantly, internet and phone. As we’ve been asked before, having the triple package for businesses, it’s cheaper to HAVE the basic cable tv than NOT to have it. Total cost for three months – $256.
-We purchased enough choroplast and 16 boxes of neat ideas grids for completing 16/32 guinea pig condos which are used for housing all the shelter’s guinea pigs -including covering the pallets that raise them off the floor making everything easier to clean and sanitize.
-During the above time… we paid for FOUR pizzas for volunteers.. a whopping $36. We also bought four cases of water, three 12-packs of sodas (which the volunteers pay for themselves, reimbursing the rescue at $.50per soda) and had one ice-cream party (Cost, $26) for a group of 12 teens who came and worked 16 hours on a massive cleaning project. We also bought twelve boxes of benedryl, three boxes of band-aids, one of neosporin and one bottle of advil for $21 – all items used by the volunteers. Oh, and two cases of toilet paper.
-We’ve purchased 3 large cases of papertowels, because not enough were donated to use for normal rescue uses.
-We paid a gas bill for six months, paid totally off for the building, so now we only owe very small bills for the hot water for August and September -around $70.
-We paid all our sewer and water bills for over $300 to the landlord.
-We had our gas / hot water line repaired, which stopped working causing us to have to heat water in our microwave for cleaning for NINE days in the end of July – a major crisis which our volunteers took in stride, doing an excellent job.
-We’ve compiled a case for a civil attorney in regards to the harassment against the rescue, including now, cease and desist order for several individuals taking an active roll in the harassment of our shelter and shelter staff.
We’ve found homes for over 85 animals since July1st, including bringing our “current count” down from over 130 to 103 rabbits, and our small animal number down from around 60, to just around 30!
What’s going on now:
– We found a commercial dish washer, however we have not yet been able to pick it up – we need $500 to complete the purchase.
-We need to complete the new condos, replacing the entire current housing for the rabbits.- a project that will cost several thousand dollars and be the most expensive of the projects to complete.
-September & November, December rent – October’s will be paid by a donor at the end of October. Another $4050 before the end of the year.
-Completion of the back yard will cost about $500-$1000 before the outdoor runs are able to be utilized by the rabbits.
-We’re going to order the LMRR sweatshirts and the SOS shirts to be sent out to the donors, at a cost of about $1000 – believe it or not!
-We still need $1000 to cover the remaining cost of the retainer for our attorney.
-We still need to invest $800 in the upgraded security features for the building.
The remaining total needed to COMPLETE all the necessary changes is: $7300 – however, the URGENT need is for $2550, to pay off the lease and the electric bill before Monday at 1pm.
For your car or anywhere else… you know you want one! How Cute! Right now: Free Shipping!
Super cute and a little bit naughty!
STICKER #1
STICKER #2
| Spay & Neuter Bunny Decal |
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Sticker #1 $5.00 USD Sticker #2 $5.00 USD |
See updates and donate here:http://littlemiracles.chipin.com/save-lmrr
It’s September 24th, and we’ve been working our TAILS off to get things moving. We’re down to 103 rabbits – fantastic since just weeks ago, we had over 130 (with over 25 of those being in foster homes – not at the shelter). But we’ve now got almost ALL the rabbits actually IN the rescue, and we’ve got 103 adoptables, total! That’s GREAT NEWS. We’ve been working hard to spay/neuter big groups of bunnies, though we have many more to do. Pam’s working to coordinate those.
We’ve finished the isolation room, the painting of the floors – replacing many of the old cages that didn’t work well or properly, and re-doing the dog crate cages. We’re scaling down all the small animals, as well as cutting back our numbers of bunnies so that we can launch into the construction projects.
Next: We need to do all the construction in the small animal side – which will cost a total of $2500 after the permits are obtained (which is what we’re working on as of tomorrow when the last of that paperwork is turned in).
We’re also working hard to complete the outdoor exercise runs so that the rabbits will be able to stretch their legs and play when the areas are done. There’s only about $1200 left toward that project -the memorial garden will be done. To address concerns about the memorial garden: No animals will ever be buried on the property – the memorial garden will be 100% mobile – not that we intend to go anywhere anytime soon, but should we ever move to another facility, your donations will not go to water – the memorial is being built in such a way that your donation bricks and stepping stones are absolutely transferable.
Last but not least- the new condo designs are going to be in from the architect tomorrow. These designs will be posted in detail – and we’ll be looking for donors to help us launch the project. Our goal is to have these completed in a matter of weeks – to move ALL of the rabbits over to the new condos and completely irradicate the current condos, which as they have been used for 2 years, many are in disrepair and are just to the point where we can’t get them as clean as they need to be. The current kennel requires a HUGE staff and a huge amount of physical labor – we aren’t able to keep up with that, now that we are down to a bare-bones staff.
We are working hard to replace all the kennels at once so that they are easy to clean. Eventually we’ll rebuild our small animal section, complete all the renovations to the building such as the repair of the sign, resurfacing of the parking lot / parking area, new outdoor lighting and a property fence, improved security and even better indoor and outdoor security cameras. We’ve re-adjusted the total needed to complete the projects, originally estimated at $12,400. The new kennels will cost a total of $3700 – but as I said – will COMPLETELY replace the old system, as well as making cleaning 100 times easier- meaning less staff will be required, less time will be spent cleaning and more time can be spent socializing the animals, cuddling, picture taking and more.
We’re completely re-staffing the shelter over the next few months. We’re addressing past issues by having a completely hands-on system. Our shelter president and vice president are on hand at minimum 6 days a week, and will be involved in every step, from training staff to replacing key volunteers- like the volunteer manager, small animal manager, director of operations, education personnel and interns for the paid internship program. There’s SO much to do – and we’re hoping you’ll be involved with so much.
We’re also making HUGE plans for our grand re-opening at this year’s Jingle Ball. It’s our ultimate goal to have the construction complete before that time – but we can’t do it without you.
We’re asking for one final push. We need your help to SAVE OUR SHELTER. WE MUST FINISH THE LAST OF THE CONSTRUCTION IN ORDER TO REMAIN OPEN – if we’re unable to meet this goal, the reality is, we will be forced to close. We can’t keep up with the current load of animals without the new replacement housing units. We can’t wait to share with you the new final design – the new units are BEAUTIFUL and will have a much longer life than the 2 years we’ve gotten out of the current units.
Please join us for more news and updates at http://www.littlemiraclesrr.org and please, make a donation – save a life. Save MANY lives. Your donation to get us over this hump and reach our goal is a HUGE one. Your dollars have never counted more than they do right now.
Over the past two years, we’ve placed more than 700 animals into their loving fur-ever homes. We’ve battled cruelty and neglect, handled the mass rescue over over 300 rabbits from hoarding situations, rescued hundreds from death row in shelters both local and out of state – we’ve educated students at two dozen schools, participated in dozens of local community events and we’ve got HUGE things in the future for our shelter. THANK YOU for your support, we can’t wait to make Little Miracles bigger and better every day!
We will be holding volunteer training EVERY WEEK now through December -contact Pam@littlemiraclesrr.org if you’re interested! Volunteers 16+ please -we currently are not accepting any new junior volunteers without parental supervision.
See more here: http://littlemiracles.chipin.com/save-lmrr
Shelter President Kristie Corson and Vice President Justin Evans
Because of our reduced staff (with most of our staff going back to school, their free hours are severely cut back) – we’re scaling back our small animal rescue program. The two women who were working more than 30 hours a week combined, are now available for less than 5 hours total – so we’ve got to get our small animal population down until a future time when our staff can handle it. We currently have NO ADOPTION FEE for small pets – with the exception of chinchillas. There’s a $125 adoption fee for a pair of chinchillas, but they do come with a cage and everything you need (Dust bath, water bottle, etc) There’s currently 6 tanks of gerbils, 10 hamster cages and 6 tanks with mice – as well as 30 guinea pigs – but they are going quickly. We’ve had rescues step up, offering to take some of the animals if enough homes are not available immediately. Please contact us, especially if you want one animal in particular. We’ll be happy to send you to the other rescue if they’ve already been transferred!
We’re also working hard to get our bunny population back down around *80* which is our target # at all times! Because of all the spring-time babies, we have 110 bunnies still up for adoption. Most of our fosters have been returned due to school starting – so if you’re available to foster, please call Pam at 856 685 4061 as soon as possible. You can text her or leave a message. Be sure to let her know what you’re looking to foster – babies or adults – and weather you’re considering adoption, or if you are only able to foster for a set amount of time (we request fosters be available for at LEAST 8 weeks – to avoid moving the animals around too often)
**BUNNY ADOPTION SPECIAL**
Exciting SPECIAL for SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER: Adopt a solid black or solid white rabbit – OR anybunny under 6 months of age, and we’ll offer you the “Fall Special” – for $150 we’ll provide you Neat Ideas Cube grids, coroplast flooring, a gift basket packed with toys, food bowl, water bottle, a month’s worth of litter, hay and food. We’ll provide EVERYTHING you need – a GREAT special offer for first time bunny parents. Please contact Kristie directly via TEXT MESSAGE at 856 685 6217.
Lastly – we are definitely in need of adult volunteers, especially those interested in becoming key holders. If you are 16+, have reliable transportation and can commit to one day a week, 2 hours or more at a time, we’re looking for your help! Please help keep LMRR open and going strong!
Our shelter VP has set aside nearly $3,000 of the needed donations for him to complete brand new, easy-to-clean condos that are fully tiled. With solid bottom floors – these meet our needs and also comply with the Health Department’s requirements. We will continue using our current condos, while the new ones are under construction. New lighting will be installed in the new condos, to meet Health Dept requirements.
While not requested by the Health Dept, much like the civil attorney that we need – LMRR wants to spend about $800 of donations to improve our security. Most of our shelter currently works with key-card access, which records who is coming and going and when – our shelter VP has designed a highly technological system that will monitor access to the building, as well as upgrade signing in/out, task list completions, and access to the medical room, private office, and secured medications – this system is not expensive, and our VP has donated his time and supplies including the front door electronic keys which are great. A former volunteer can be locked out of the building from a remote location – it also allows shelter supervisors to monitor the rescue from afar. But we still have upgrades we’d like to make, and the cost will be about $800. Considering the threats and harassment, we feel this upgrade is necessary to the safety and security of our animals – and not a compromise we’re willing to take, it must be done if we are to remain open.
We’re desperate to get the permits from Waterford Twp finished – so that we can get back to work on the construction in the small animal room (the volunteer locker room/shower, Kristie’s new office (her office will be transformed to the store/adoptive family meeting room/education center) and the new isolation room). This construction will launch the shelter forward – giving us the ability to start taking vet appointments and setting up low-cost spay/neuter clinics for rabbits on site – bringing us income to help us stay open!
Additionally, we have about $1500 worth of supplies needed to finish health department requests, such as the ventilation of the dryer vent, purchasing steam-cleaning equipment, more paint needed to repair areas of walls that need to be re-touched and more.
We need to purchase (or have donated) more chain link fencing gate panels and contemplate the flooring situation for the outdoor exercise runs. If you have items that you can donate to help
We need a deep freezer and small medical refrigerator for our medical room – if you can help us find these free or inexpensive, we’ll happily come pick them up.
We need to pay the retainer for the civil attorney to protect ourselves from the unfair and abusive treatment both by our harassers and the NJ Dept of Health. While we hate to spend the money, it’s become necessary – as the harassment has escalated, we’re not in a position to tolerate any more of the vicious hatred and abuse, and we’ve got to take a stand to stop it and protect ourselves and our animals.
We still need to purchase some lighting and supplies for the isolation room in addition to caulk and some other minor things to meet with the Health Department’s requests.
We’ve finished building the NIC holding boxes, but we need volunteers to help with completing the bottoms, afixing them to the condos and moving the rabbit’s information clipboards up to eye-level.
We still need to purchase another large metal rack to fix/finish the dog crates being lifted off of each other.
We still need about $70 worth of high-gloss children’s bed room paint to touch up some of the condos and make them completely impervious to moisture and easy to steam-cleaning.
We need to pay the civil attorney and move forward on the two cases – protecting ourselves from unfair enforcement of rules as a result of false and malicious complaints – we need to obtain the “open records” and subpoena the fake complaints – and our attorney will want to start as soon as possible to put a stop to this.
We can always use a second pallet of wood store pellets ($212) to keep us up with and ahead with supplies to make litter-box changing more frequent and easier to do.
We need to make some small purchases from the Habitat for Humanity store- such as cabinets for medical supply storage, a new counter top, possibly an additional drop-sink. Installation for our regular dishwasher and medical sink.
We’re almost finished with the isolation room as it is – but we can still use two more sets of cages for the isolation room, as it’s converted to the medical treatment room, this will be very important. It’s not a rush-need however, our current arrangement does meet all the requirements.
We still need to pay for approximately $600 worth of needed medications- things like antibiotics, post-surgical pain medications. We’re sitting down with our vet Sat (8/26) to get this finished and order the medications.
We would really like to pay down the $735 to our old vet to avoid litigation or collections.
We also would really like to pay down some of the high interest Card Credit card that we’ve used for almost $2500 in surgeries for LMRR bunnies. This is lower-priority, since our staying open doesn’t depend on it, but the sooner we pay it off, the less interest we are wasting (it’s nearly 24%!)
In addition, we have over 45 animals needing to be spayed/neutered – and we HAVE to catch up. We’re going to specifically run a fundraising campaign to find sponsors for these special bunnies, and we’ve got a new low-cost clinic that can fix 15 at a time, so long as we can raise the funds. This will be a major focus in weeks to come.
We take your donations very seriously – we’ve made a serious commitment to making improvements to the shelter and our operations. We’ve put every dollar we’ve spent towards seriously important investments – in sustainability, in catching up, in making improvements that will improve the lives of our rabbits and in tackling the (mostly) ridiculous list of things that we PASSED inspection with last summer, yet the malicious false reports this year have caused the Health Department to give us a list of things to change.
It’s very important that we get to working with our lawyer, and on Monday, we will re-gain a serious search for an attorney that can take on our case and get things moving.
THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR HELP!
There are a lot of things that Little Miracles has been scrambling to catch up on, to update and fix for the Health Dept requests. Not all of the money we’re raising is JUST for compliance – there are some aspects of the rescue that badly needed catching up, like some utility bills that got behind over the summer, and other needs that are important for our day-to-day functioning.
Two of the major concerns brought up by the Health Department was the fact that our main kennels needed replacement or repair, and that floors throughout the rescue, including inside the bunny kennels, needed repainting with acrylic flooring to ensure that the concrete flooring is “impervious to moisture”.
We put out $331.56 in metal racks and shelving, in addition to coroplast to life and separate the dog crates that currently house about 20 of our resident rabbits – we estimate that we’re going to need at least one more $200 rack to sufficiently re-arrange the dog crates to meet their requests. The Health Department expressed concerns that stacking one small dog crate on top of a large crate is “insecure” or that “poo, food or hay can be kicked out of the sides of a dog crate, and land in another rabbit’s area.” – as such, we’re also working on acrylic “boarders” to mount inside each dog crate – preventing anything from accidentally being kicked out of the housing. We’ve estimated the acrylic left to purchase will cost about $300 to complete all the cages, total.
We purchased 7 cans of acrylic concrete garage floor paint (cost,$224) , and one bottle of etcher (cost – $20). We needed to etch areas of the floor that are high-traffic which needed re-touching before new floors could be painted. We removed all the rabbits and re-painted all the condo floors and shelves, although we’re in need of an additional volunteer day, and another $70 worth of paint (high-gloss, easy to wash, children’s bedroom paint (2 cans) – to be able to paint the sides of the condos that still need repair.
We had to purchase a pallet of wood stove pellets to help us increase the amount of litter box changes per week, although we still intend to fight the Health Department’s demands of daily sterilization. We are working with professionals to explain what is “normal” and “healthy” and looking into having a lawyer support that the NJ Dept of Health follow USDA rules for the care of rabbits, which we already meet and exceed, rather than trying to push us to follow rules obviously set forth and designed around the care of dogs in dog kennels. No, you wouldn’t leave dog poop on the floor in a cage/crate for 2-3 days, but it’s not necessary to change a rabbit’s litter pan more often than that, so long as you are sweeping and mopping the cage on a daily basis to keep their area clean and dry!
Another thing we’ve tackled is the issues with our isolation room – we had to remove all the items that were being stored in our current iso room – which will eventually be our medical room, when construction starts back up on the other side of the building. We needed to provide architectural drawings, both to the township for building permits, and as well as provide schematics of our ventilation system, the new construction, and the layout of our outdoor play areas.
In addition, we need to continue working on the outdoor play areas -as we get closer to fall, these exercise runs will be an important meeting place for new families to get to know their new families. We are considering the possibility of having to remove the sand boxes we put in, replacing these with all concrete, but we need to have our lawyer contend the unfair rules that they are trying to force on us- stating that dogs can play in grass / natural flooring yards at nearby shelters, but our rabbits can’t.
Speaking of lawyers – the fantastic civil attorney who had reviewed our case last summer just got back to us. Sadly, she’s no longer working in civil law and has recommended a few attorneys to us. We have no yet paid the $1500 – $2500 retainer any attorney will charge us to start the case against the Health Dept’s unfair rulings, and the people who are harassing us to cease and desist. As soon as we secure a new attorney, we will let you know. It pains us to ask for help to pay for the initial attorney’s fees – but it’s a necessary evil. Most of you have stated that you agree with our need to secure good representation and none of our donors have asked for their donations NOT to be used in part for securing the attorney to protect us.
Another expensive change was the isolation room’s floor. The health department told us that we needed to remove all the items inside – replace the medical refrigerator which was no longer working with a deep freezer and a small medication fridge – both of which we are looking for good deals to purchase one or someone who can donate one. The floor of the isolation room, we could either epoxy-resin paint, just like we have throughout the kennels, or we could lay down tile. We made the decision that the floor, although it needed to be leveled ($235.68 worth of lumber and supplies to level the floor, plus $238.74 at Lowes for the actual tile flooring and glue) – it was much better to level the floor and put down the acrylic tile so that the room is easier to sanitize. The room will house tools for sanitizing medical tools and equipment.
We’ve had several other stops at Home Depot amounting to $272.20 for supplies for the volunteer work day for construction, tools, supplies, large yard garbage bags, floor cleaned and sanitize. We’ll make those receipts public once they’ve all been scanned and stored into our accounting software – we thank you sincerely for giving us the ability to purchase all the supplies we haven’t had donated.
We also found an industrial dish washer (which we’ve gotten them to donate all but $500 of the asking price – down from $2500!). This industrial dish washer will significantly cut down on the time spent sanitizing food bowls, water bottles, litter-boxes, toys and medical items.
In addition to those important items – we sat down and made a medical book, listing and recording all of the medications that we have and use – we are meeting with our vet tomorrow (she charges $150 a month for in-house visits – which is NOTHING considering how much she does when she comes in, it’s far more inexpensive than taking individual bunnies to the vet one at a time!)
The medication log only cost about $20 to assemble, and medications that need to be ordered total about $600. We have many medications on hand which are getting close to their expiration date, and while the health department requires the log, and that we have access to veterinary care and prescription medications should we need them – our medical supervision staff working closely with our vet, has an important list of things that we should always have on hand. As you know, most medical needs don’t happen on Monday at noon- it’s always night time, holidays and weekends when you need them the most!
Other big expenses so far include:
While not an issue brought up by the Health Department, we knew we were in trouble with our building (and late) utility payments. Summer time, being as slow as it is, was taking a serious toll. Our rent was late for the first time, and three utility bills – the gas, electric and internet/phone were all seriously behind. $1216.12 was paid to Atlantic City Electric, to keep our power on. There’s $560 left to pay on Sept 5th. We paid off a $256.18 bill with Comcast. We paid off over $880 from an old gas bill. We caught up with our rent which was late – $1350 a month, so July and August are paid, and September’s is due again next week.
Before we launched the most recent fundraising campaign, LMRR invested in $200 worth of advertising through facbook – it increased our reach from our 3000+ followers, to almost 400,000 people. This advertising was critically necessary, bringing our mission forward, and helping us to lock-down supporters and professionals who can help us tackle the differences of opinion with the health department investigators, as well as network with other shelter and rescue groups that have been through similar situations.
We paid off a $200 veterinary bill at Evesham Veterinary, but we still owe nearly $2500 to Care Credit for spay/neuter surgeries from the rescue, and a $735 bill from our old vet, which we would like to pay before it goes to collections or litigation – an unnecessary cost for the rescue. It’s not our intention to use the money for the Save Our Shelter to pay vet bills – but if we find that we have excess money after the construction and physical changes are complete, we will apply some funds to the vet bills.
One of the most important things in saving our shelter, is building a plan for sustainability – investing in ways to keep money coming into the shelter, to keep the bills paid. We invested $548.19 in about $6,000 worth of product that will be sold through the rescue and keep money coming in for the shelter.
Several Home Depot purchases including repairs to the a/c / heater to fix a leak, and new filters – we bought 7 cans of the acrylic paint ($39 ea.) and a bottle of etcher ($20) for cleaning and prepping the concrete floors. We purchased $235 in lumber to level out the floor in the current isolation room, which will be the medical/surgical suite in the future. We spent $238.74 on the tile flooring at Lowes – we got an excellent deal on much more expensive flooring that was on close-out, plus the adhesive and prep. We spent an additional $272 at Home Depot on supplies and equipment for some of the smaller projects, including new zip-ties, grout, adhesives, lighting and gardening supplies for cutting back the yard growth as was required by the Health Dept. We removed all the growth and underbrush and volunteers helped us better prepare for the outdoor exercise areas, which still need some work before they can be used (and an additional panel and fencing, long bolts, etc).
We spent $207 at Office Depot, on the copies the Health Dept required for the architectural plans and layout and designs for the outdoor exercise runs and schematics for the ventilation system in the isolation room. We also purchased necessary organizational supplies to complete the new filing systems – new clip boards to display medical treatment plans for the animals in isolation and more – all items documented by the Health Department as changes they wanted to see. (Before, we were updating the animal’s records, but not keeping current medical orders posted in a manner they liked)
We spent $390 on a new laser printer and cartridges – this will save us over $2000 in copy costs every year! We got a $1500 printer on close-out clearance, and it was a deal we couldn’t pass up on. This allowed us to print and build new adoption books and improve our files and organizational sytem!
We also had to apply for permitting for the special animals that we keep such as dwarf hamsters and ferrets and more. That permit was $100.
We spent $260 on supplies at Petsmart for animals with special diet concerns: The ferrets, guinea pigs, sugar glider – special dietary needs for rabbits, like timothy pellet diet, different types of hay, as well as medical supplies such as vet wrap, probiotics and rabbit-safe butt-bath supplies. Petsmart is a regular stop for specialty items that feed supply stores don’t carry.
At the Walmart store, we stocked up on replacement mop head and mops, replacing equipment the health department felt was no longer useful – we also replaced some plastic storage bins and picked up cleaning supplies to keep on hand, in addition to stocking up on paper towels, tp, etc. All things needed for keeping the shelter doors open! We also replaced tons of water bottles and litter-boxes, a request made by the Health Dept that we upgrade some of our older or damaged equipment.
We spent $64 at Murphy’s Market on veggies – they have GREAT deals on citrus fruits for our guinea pigs, and fresh foods needed for our sugar glider.
We spent $561 stocking up on feed and litter, as well as over a dozen medications recommended by our vet to always have on hand -things like oxybendazole (for head tilt), tetrymicin and penicillan injectable (antibiotics) as well as ivermectin (for furmites/ear mites). We bought an entire pallet of litter to increase the frequency of litter-box changes, although we’re still intending to use our attorney to fight the NJ Dept of Health to enforce USDA standards for rabbit care, which we already meet/exceed rather than pushing unfair changes based on laws made for dog kennels on us. We don’t think it’s fair that a dog poops once, maybe twice a day, so their kennels are expected to be kept poo-free, where in reality, no person cleans their rabbit’s litter pans every single day, it’s unnecessary, overly expensive, and unrealistic.
In order to meet the Health Department’s commentary to remove the rabbits from their condos during the cleaning process, but not let them run and play in exercise pens – we’ve constructed Neat Ideas Cube holding boxes – we bought $225 worth of choroplast, and wiped out three K-Mart stores from their stock of NIC’s – spending $137.73, $141 and $111.93 – we also bought plastic storage containers to hold the hay, another point of contention that we want our lawyer to argue with the Health Department. (It’s unsafe to store hay in air-tight containers). We changed our signage all over the rescue to better reflect WHY not to use the alfalfa (Our sign now reads: Volunteers: DO NOT USE – this hay is for rabbits with special diets, please ask a supervisor) – this was a problem with the health dept before who felt that “DO NOT USE” meant that the hay in bins was actually waste or garbage. 😦
We spent $40 at Dambly’s Garden Center on items needed for the shelter’s outdoor areas, and to fix a leaking hose -a problem the Health Dept. had noted.
Friends and Supporters – It’s with a heavy heart that I bring you this message, our staff is very scared, and all the kill shelters who depend on us to prevent the euthanization of all the small animals they take in are all worried very much also. Losing Little Miracles would be absolutely devastating – thousands of rabbits will be impacted and there will be nowhere for them to go. And the 160 pets currently in our care? Their future would also be up in the air.
We need volunteers, now more than ever before. We need foster homes to support us and help us reduce the number of bunnies at the shelter during construction. And more than ever before, we need donations to help make all the necessary changes. We’ve already raise $3,000 and paid off a huge gas bill ($867) that had accumulated. We’ve purchased many of the construction supplies, gotten architectural drawings and permits to make the changes necessary. But we’re still nearly $9,000 short of completing ALL the things needed to keep us open. Due to a broken A/C unit – we have a nearly $1800 electric bill that must be paid down NOW. And we have obtained an AMAZING civil attorney who specializes in internet harassment, and libel and slander cases, who is willing to immediately fight the harassers, put a stop to the attacks and unlawful false reports, as well as fight the Health Department from trying to force us to follow statues that CLEARLY are outlined for DOG POUNDS, rather than the USDA’s national standards for the care of RABBITS and RODENTS. We need an experienced trial lawyer who is familiar with our needs and who has the power and ability to make those changes, and we’re confident we have the right woman for the job – but we still have to cover the $1500-$2500 retainer needed to immediately put her to work sending out hundreds of subpoenas and cease and desist orders to our attackers.
Each newly build housing unit will cost us roughly $84 (we’re building more than 70)- and for a donation of $100, you will receive a dedication plaque for a memorial to, in honor of or as a gift to any person(s) or pet(s). Donors over $75 will receive a S.O.S. Save Our Shelter T-shirt, so you can show off your pride and support of our work! For over $150 – you get an SOS T-shirt AND a Little Miracles hoodie (the awesome soft ones we sold last winter – they were a HUGE hit), and for over $250, you’ll get the dedication plaque, the SOS T-shirt, the Hoodie AND a gift basket for your pets. Your donation will help us AND get you some awesome goodies?
For years, Little Miracles Rabbit Rescue, and it’s founder, Kristie Corson have been the victims of internet bullying and harassment that has spilled over to false reports made to law enforcement and government agencies such as the SPCA, The NJ and Camden County Board of Health and more – the shelter has been inspected dozens of times and passed, but most recently, the state of NJ’s Health Department has received numerous complaints from a small handful of vicious and vindictive persons, whose goals are to shut down the shelter at all costs, regardless of the impact on the animals we serve.
We have found an attorney that is talented and experienced in civil law dealing with slander, libel and harassment. We’re retaining her services as soon as the $1500-$2500 retainer is raised. The shelter has to stand up and protect itself, and it’s about time that our shelter be allowed to focus on our goal – saving lives – rather than protecting ourselves from slanderous and libelous attacks day in and day out.
Please visit http://littlemiracles.chipin.com/save-lmrr to help us meet our goals – in addition to making changes and improvements to the shelter, as has been recently decided by the state health department, we’re also going to fight back against the unfair and discriminatory actions being taken due to the anonymous complaints made from COWARDS hiding behind their keyboards. We refuse to make certain changes that will put our animal’s lives, health and happiness at risk and affect what animals we are able to take in – because the Health Department is trying to enforce their opinions, based on the standards of care MEANT FOR DOGS – rather than looking at the USDA regulations set forth to govern the care of RABBITS, RODENTS and other small pets. We want justice – and fairness for our shelter’s regulations.
Please read our petition and sign – help us speak up and tell the NJ Dept of Health that RABBITS ARE NOT DOGS – stop trying to govern a rabbit rescue with old and irrelevant dog pound laws!
http://www.change.org/petitions/save-little-miracles-rabbit-rescue
Please help us meet our goals and SAVE OUR SHELTER!
This w
eek’s featured bunny is Chase, a spayed female English spot mix looking for a loving home.
Chase is mainly white with black spots. She is rather calm, and loves to have her picture taken! She is approximately 6 years old. When approaching her cage, she won’t run away from you. She is not territorial or cage aggressive at all. She loves snuggling under fleece blankets when she is cold. She is not scared of being picked up, she won’t kick you while in your arms if you are slow and gentle. Chase absolutely loves playing with brooms; she can’t get enough of scratching at one!
Chase is a very sweet bunny, she;s already spayed, and she’d do great in a home with other bunnies!
This featured bunny is brought to you by Little Miracles summer intern, Jenny O. If you enjoyed her post, let her know by writing to her at InternJenny@littlemiraclesrr.org
If you’ld like to adopt Chase, you can view her profile here: http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/20665656
Chase came to live at Little Miracles in the summer of 2011 – the shelter’s president and vice president were driving in Rancocas when they spotted a white blur run by and duck under some large pine trees. When they stopped the car, they found this beautiful (but dirty) bunny who was living under the trees near a dangerous curve in the road. Poor Chase was covered in fleas and ticks – she was filthy from oil and dirt from hiding under cars. She has a small cataract in one eye which doesn’t seem to impair her vision – it could be from her age (we estimate her to be around 5 years old, which isn’t a senior in bunny terms) or it could have been from a scratch or injury to the eye.
It took almost an hour in the middle of a lightening and thunder storm for them to catch Chase – ultimately trapping her under a clear plastic tote. She was wet and scared, but once “in custody” she was very lovable. Chase doesn’t mind being held – she will climb into your lap for cuddles. Chase holds a special spot in our hearts, she’s one of our favorite bunnies and would do well bonded with another bunny, or as a solo bunny for a first time bunny family. She adores attention, loves to cuddle and even likes being gently brushed. She’s short-haired so she doesn’t shed very much – and only twice a year (after summer and after winter).
We know that if you meet Chase, you’ll love her as much as we do! Make an appointment to see her by calling Pam, our adoption counselor, at 856 685 4061 or fill out an application for adoption at our website – http://www.littlemiraclesrr.org/rabbitapplication.html
LMRR News & Updates 