Hop A Long Hollow

Hop A Long Hollow is a not-for-profit, no-kill rabbit shelter located in Norwalk, Connecticut. It was founded in 2004 by Linda Thibault, who serves as the corporation's president. Hop A Long Hollow is committed to the care and adoption of homeless rabbits, as well as to educating rabbit owners about proper care and treatment. Their slogan, aptly enough, is "Where some bunny loves you!"

Here, Thibault talks to Paw Nation about how such a small shelter can hop to it when it comes to carrying out large-scale animal rescue.

Why bunnies?
I had a rabbit as a child. Now I know, unfortunately, how badly we did everything back then.

What's different about what we now know about rabbit care?
Diet would probably be the main thing that has changed drastically over the years. Back then we didn't give them hay, just a plain, old dish of rabbit pellets every day. Hay keeps the gut going, the intestines. Rabbits are prone to something called gut stasis. It's probably the most common cause of death in pet rabbits, often brought on by stress and frequently by improper diet -- which means too many carbs.

Carbs as in, say, carrots?
Yes! Carrots are actually very bad for rabbits. The green tops are great, just not the orange part.

How did your one-woman rabbit rescue operation turn into Hop A Long Hollow?
About four years ago, I started taking in foster rabbits for another woman who did rescue. I took in eight in a small area at the back of my garage. Fortunately or unfortunately, people kept coming in and bringing in strays. It's like, once the word gets out, suddenly everybody's got a stray rabbit. And then I managed to place a couple rabbits in adoptive homes, and those people said to me, "Would you like any help?" So then I started getting volunteers who would come in regularly, one day a week to clean some cages. It just grew from there. The more volunteers we got, the larger we got.

But you're still operating out of your garage?

Yes, it's still a garage, but now at least it's a garage with heating and air conditioning!

With those space constraints, how many rabbits are you able to help?
God, there's thousands literally that I turn away. I turn away five rabbits a day, sometimes more or less. You have a limited number that you can take care of properly. We have a maximum of 70, although I try to keep it to 50.

And how often are you able to place them in adoptive homes?
I have had weeks when I have placed 15 rabbits, but I've also gone two months only placing 15 rabbits. We average about two adoptions a week.

You must get tons more requests for rabbit adoptions around Easter.
We absolutely do. Some shelters just won't adopt out rabbits around Easter. We still do, but everybody gets scrutinized even more than normal. Normally, we want a veterinary reference -- it doesn't have to be a rabbit vet, but the vet has to vouch that this person or family has taken care of existing animals, had those animals properly vaccinated, etc. Without a vet reference I will still adopt, but then I'd want two or three non-family references, like a work reference. But we get 95% of our adoptions through Petfinder, and it's very, very rare that I get a candidate from there who I do not accept.

Do you only take in rabbits?
Our vice-president has expertise in all small animals. She used to run her own small shelter, Brandee's Bunch. When we met, she was at a point where she wanted to have a child and I wasn't sure how much farther I wanted to go with all this. So we joined up. We also have a friend who does hamsters. Just today, Brandee took in 30 hamsters. We do try to place other small animals, but we do about 95% rabbits. We concentrate on that because that's mostly what we know.

Do most of the bunnies you receive come to you because they've been abused, or simply because the owners didn't know how to properly take care of them?
Ninety percent of what we take in comes from either animal control or from someone calling and saying, "I just found a rabbit in my backyard and don't know what to do." We try not to take owner surrenders because, frankly, it makes it too easy for someone to just give up on the pet. Our thought is that you should honor the animal.