Always Sunny Sanctuary and Rescue, Shawnee, OK (2025)

05/26/2025

‼️URGENT VET FUNDS NEEDED‼️

Sometimes I think I ought to write a book that includes all the craziest stories I’ve gotten from people surrendering rabbits so that everyone can see, all in one place, just how insanely rabbits get treated. This story would definitely be one for the book 😮‍💨

I emergently took these bunnies in from Texas because I was informed they were living in a fish tank with a dog trying to eat them, oh and one was “missing a foot.” When I finally got them, the person who gave them to me let the story fully unravel and left me slacked jawed.

Apparently she originally found the bunny in the first picture, the one now missing a leg, and three of his siblings when they were just a few weeks old. Tragically, her dog killed his siblings shortly after but she learned nothing and left the remaining bunny (whom she was positive was a girl and definitely is not) outside with her dog. Her dog then ripped his entire leg off! Not just the foot, the whole leg. And instead of getting this bunny any help at the vet she SUPER GLUED the wound closed!!

How proud she was telling me this too, as if letting a rabbit get their leg torn off and not providing proper medical treatment or pain management was some kind of life hack 🙃

Then, despite knowing her dog would happily kill this rabbit and any others if given the chance, she went out and bought another rabbit to be “her” friend and had them both living in a fish tank! The second bunny actually is a female, so another month or two and there certainly would have been even more bunnies in danger, living in a tank constantly harassed by dogs, but thankfully this woman came to some kind of sense and decided she wanted to surrender them.

‼️The bunny missing a leg is “healed” now but badly needs vet care. The stump is clearly very painful (and I can feel how jagged the bone is under the skin) and he has extremely poor balance since he hasn’t had a chance to gain muscle and move around while living in a fish tank. You can see how stained his back right side is where the leg is missing, because he has no balance for cleaning and often rests on that side (no doubt in filth in that tank) when he gets exhausted moving around. He needs to see a vet and see what we can do to get him more comfortable. I also wouldn’t be surprised at all if he is dealing with a nasty infection since the wound was from a dog’s mouth and never properly cleaned.‼️

These bunnies are still just babies! They did not deserve for life to start off this way, but with your help we can make sure the rest of their lives are so much better. Any donations are so appreciated! If you can’t donate, sharing and commenting help too!

https://linktr.ee/alwayssunnysanctuary

05/23/2025

Say hello to Prawn 🦐

A few days ago I said goodbye to my senior bunny Shrimp and I was pretty devastated by her loss. Shortly after I got a surrender request for this sweet young man and it just felt meant to be. He is Shrimp’s same colors and his ears were groomed off by his mama when he was a baby.

For those who don’t remember, I have a special spot in my heart for “earless” bunnies because I also lost my number one soulmate bunny, Milk, who was also earless, along with his earless siblings, in a fire a few years ago. We also have another earless bunny who is a permanent resident here, named Beans.

I’m naming him Prawn in honor of Shrimp, of course, and he’ll most likely end up being a permanent sanctuary resident as long as he gets along with everyone once he is neutered.

05/23/2025

This sweet girl’s owner was deported and she was left with one of his coworkers. I don’t usually get political on here, but I just think everyone should take a minute to think on the severity of this situation.

Mass deportations affect more than just the individuals being deported. Most of these people are just regular people, with families and pets and jobs. What do you think happens to those pets when their owners just disappear? Shelters and rescues have to take them, or they’re hurriedly and unsafely rehomed to the nearest person or dumped outside where they face the possibility of death before hopefully being rescued.

If you want to argue that undocumented people shouldn’t have pets, sure, maybe. However, then I’d just remind you to think about how lonely it must be to be in a country that is not the home you know. Animals don’t judge your legal status, the color of your skin, the shape or abilities of your body, the amount of money in your pocket or just about anything else other than your treatment of them. Sometimes pets are the only ones we can rely on to love almost unconditionally. We just never know another person’s whole story, especially when they’re no longer here to tell their side of it.

I’m naming this sweetheart Esperanza, which is the Spanish word for hope ❤️

05/22/2025

Boop Update, sorry it’s a long one!

Well, we got some pretty bad news about Boop and the reason for his head tilt, however the good news is that there is some hope of recovery, it’s just going to take a long time.

So here is what we know and the plan going forward -

Boop had a CT scan yesterday because he was finally stable enough to safely go under anesthesia. With the CT it was discovered he has an extremely bad inner ear infection that has progressed into osteomyelitis which is infection eating into the bone. As of this moment the vet is prescribing 6 weeks of a stronger antibiotic that will pass through the blood-brain barrier and hopefully make some dent in this infection. As well as continue on his E. cuniculi treatment since he has EC symptoms secondary to the infection due to lowered immune system. From there he is pretty much guaranteed to need major surgery to clear remaining infection and dead tissue.

Boop’s costs are around $1500 so far between initial emergency appointment, bloodwork, medication, acupuncture and now the CT scan. He has at least one more vet visit and may need a second CT scan in 6 weeks, which is another $820-$1000. Plus the cost of his surgery which is a minimum $2020 because it’s a complicated surgery involving bone and a lot of nerves. Plus ongoing cost of laser therapy and acupuncture to hopefully give him back more of his mobility as he begins to heal. Bringing us to a total of up to $4500+ to help Boop get back to the healthy, happy bunny that he was.

Boop’s life is more than worth the money and our vet has said he will be very honest regarding quality of life before we attempt surgery. Between your donations and his very very generous foster we have been able to cover his bills so far but we have a long way to go.

We’ll post another big fundraiser as we get closer to surgery time but if anyone wants to donate in the mean time it’s so appreciated!

*And please remember, when it comes to rabbits, any symptoms of illness are an EMERGENCY and need to be treated by a rabbit savvy vet. Don’t wait. I know it can be expensive and times are hard, but that’s the price we pay for having pets. If you can’t, please don’t hesitate to reach out to nearby rescue organizations for help, but do it as quickly as you can.

This started with a seemingly simple respiratory infection or “snuffles” as the rabbit community, and even some vets, like to call it (and I hate, because it majorly downplays the severity). This actually was initially treated at the vet but unfortunately the owner couldn’t afford further treatment and testing and the vet wasn’t willing to prescribe more antibiotics in the mean time while the owner decided what they needed to do. Within a few weeks Boop had already gone down hill quickly. Sometimes we don’t even have a few weeks before they crash, so please don’t wait if you can help it.

https://linktr.ee/alwayssunnysanctuary

05/21/2025

Our raffle raised a total of $1960! Those funds will be split between Boop the bunny with the head tilt, the new bunny with malocclusion who will finally have a name after this and some storm damage repairs!

Our first prize winner of all the goodies plus naming rights to one bunny and piggie of their choice is: Ivie Foster!

Our other winners who will each get to choose one bunny or piggie to name are:
Cindy Taylor
Greg Bowman
Elizabeth Gustin
Samantha Peters
Chelsea Bullins
Jo Rainbolt-Gunter
Wes Wood

Ivie will get first choice but everyone else will get to choose based on who contacts me via messenger first ❤️ Thank you all SO MUCH for participating and helping us raise these much needed funds.

05/20/2025

Last night the world lost one of the best bunnies I have ever known, my sweet little Shrimp girl. 🌈💔

Shrimp was a senior bunny, at least 8 years old as far as the history I’m aware of, but most likely she was even older than that. She had been slowing down for a while now because she had pretty severe arthritis due to her 6+ years of life lived in a small cage before being surrendered 2 years ago. I believe her original owner dumped her on the people who ended up surrendering her and they then “didn’t have time” for her or something like that, but truth be told I can’t even remember for sure. What I do remember is how shut down and depressed she was, as senior bunnies especially tend to do when they lose their homes. She wouldn’t eat much. She barely moved. She just looked so broken.

Around the same time I happened to take in another senior, female stray who was also quite depressed and not wanting to eat. I took a chance and introduced them to each other and I truly believe they saved each others lives. They became Shrimp and Grits, the cutest pair of golden gals.

Shrimp then worked on winning my heart and it didn’t take long. She was the sweetest, most ideal bunny. Cuddly, polite, and oh so cute. Normally those are the bunnies I have no problem finding homes for, but after a few months of trying to find her and Grits a home, I decided they were already home with me. I introduced them to my group and they bonded in instantly.

Luckily Grits has a lot of other friends now but you can tell she is still looking for Shrimp today, and so was I. My little Swimpy was always the first (and one of the only) bunnies to run and greet me. She was also one of the only bunnies in the sanctuary group who let me pet her without any kind of bribe, since I tend to keep the mega shy buns.

Anyways, the two years I got with Shrimp were totally worth the pain of losing her. I’ll always stand 10 toes down on the fact that adopting a senior is the best thing anyone can do, for them and for you. Don’t let the idea of a “lack of time with them” keep you from making the best of the time you would be so lucky to have. There is still so much love you can share in the last years of an animal’s life.

05/18/2025

Today’s rescues are these twin boys (Tom and Jerry) who were originally posted for sale as meat in Texas. Their story has been a little complicated over the past couple weeks since then, but it started with Teresa of Koa's Korner saving them from being sold for dinner, with hopes of a forever home already lined up.

Unfortunately, that home ended up being an unsafe situation which left them without anywhere to go, as she wasn’t able to house them for long. No local rescues could help so I offered to take them, but then a local foster stepped up and took them after a few days, again with hopes this may be their forever home.

Again the misfortune continues though, because that foster ended up only keeping them for two weeks before deciding they needed to move on again.

No one else was stepping up for these boys so Teresa reached out to me to see if I could take them after all. I said I would and their foster drove them up to Oklahoma today, their final stop for a good while at least.

The last unfortunate thing is that these boys also managed to get a respiratory infection, likely because of all the stress of moving around and from whatever conditions they originally lived in. Teresa did get them a vet visit and medication, but the foster forgot to bring it with them so we may need to get them another vet visit if the meds I have don’t match what they were taking (waiting for the foster to send me pics of the medication label).

You join our raffle to help support these boys and our other medical cases right now. And you can also join the raffle on the Koa’s Korner page as they have pledged to help Tom and Jerry get neutered and healthy too!

Here are the links to both our raffles:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=998239705845387&id=100069781004150

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19iyYBnBEp/?mibextid=CTbP7E

05/16/2025

Like I said yesterday, rescue work never ends even if you’re technically closed. These are yesterday and today’s three new arrivals, two of which I agreed to before we closed and one that is a freshly caught stray staying with a temporary foster.

One of these bunnies is just a baby (darker gray in the first picture) who is going to need donations for dental surgery 🦷💔
For this reason I think I’m going to add all three of these buns to our naming raffle. Join the raffle with a donation of $5 per entry to win a chance to name these buns! The funds are for another bunny, Boop, who currently recieving care for a major infection and EC, but I’m hoping there will be enough to split between them.

Now a little more background on each rabbit:

🐰 Like I said, the first blue bunny is just a baby and she has some pretty serious malocclusion (misalignment) of her teeth. At least the fronts will likely need to be removed so she doesn’t need lifelong trims, but her molars may end up needing some trims throughout her life too depending on what the vet sees. She is a supposedly “purebred blue holicer” rabbit that was being sold by a breeder who was getting frustrated no one wanted her because of her teeth. Someone who bought her brother decided to temporarily take her in and find rescue help. Malocclusion is a GENETIC issue so I hope the breeder learned their lesson, but I’m doubtful. Just goes to show buying “purebred” animals doesn’t guarantee any kind of health. I did check the brother’s teeth and luckily he doesn’t have the alarming malocclusion this cutie does.

🐰The red eyed white bunny was found as a stray a month or so ago. The family who found her had hoped to keep her but medical issues in the family came up. She’s a very sweet, friendly, young girl who appears to be very healthy.

🐰 The last chinchilla colored rabbit was a stray that has been roaming a neighborhood in Tulsa for quite a while. Luckily someone caught her yesterday (gender not confirmed yet because she is with a temporary foster but foster isn’t seeing “trouble puffs” lol so presuming female). She is now safe, appears to be fairly healthy so far, and is also quite the sweetheart.

Link to the raffle info:

https://www.facebook.com/share/16ZBpqLory/?mibextid=CTbP7E

05/16/2025

It’s $5 Friday! Want to use that $5 to enter the raffle for a chance at this prize bundle and pig naming rights? Last couple days to enter!

Should I add the bunnies who just arrived to the naming raffle too? 👀

05/15/2025

I want to preface this post by saying I’m not complaining and absolutely none of these people are bothering me, crossing boundaries or doing anything wrong whatsoever. This is just a post to show the reality of “rescue never stops” even when you’re temporarily closed, or doing repairs, or sick, or on vacation, or not in the mood etc.

These are all the most urgent bunnies that I’ve been alerted about since we temporarily closed two weeks ago (and we still aren’t open because repairs aren’t finished). One of them I agreed to before the flooding, another pair I sort of agreed to several weeks ago but thought their situation was resolved and now it isn’t, but the others are strays in need of urgent placement with no one else to take them and very little help offered to help catch the three loose ones (all in the same place where we have already caught three others).

Yes, I’m going to help them even though I don’t have room because the reality is we can all make room if we really have to. Feel free to offer to foster though! Or volunteer to help catch bunnies in OKC!
I’ll take regular cleaning volunteers again once the bunnies aren’t in my house which should hopefully just be a few more days. 🙏

I think once things are done being repaired I’ll start a “day in the life” series showing exactly everything I do in a day from feeding to clean to driving all over the state and into other states to pick up animals. I think if people saw the amount of work going into rescues every single day, maybe some minds would be changed on how important this work is.

Anways, I know I’ve been complaining and rambling a lot lately, but this work is exhausting as it is and the constant added stress of having to pay for and physically complete repairs is A LOT to deal with. I just like being honest with you all for the good, the bad and the ugly around here. Things have been ugly and bad for a hot minute, but I’m trying to stay positive and keep moving forward so we can get back to good.

05/12/2025

The past couple weeks have been financially, physically and emotionally draining. 😔💔

Financially we are still battling storm damage repair costs and Boop the bunny’s medical costs. We have not received many donations and on top of that Facebook has flagged our page so we aren’t even able to get our small monthly amount from them. They absolutely will not give me a reason why other than that their “technology” flagged our page. Our raffle post only has 23 likes and has made only $55 in two days, and almost all shares are from me, because I’m pretty sure this flagging has shadow banned the page again.

Emotionally, our page and myself personally have been getting attacked for weeks. These are just a few examples of the comments and people I’ve deleted and blocked on ONE post about not adopting to the person who had meat rabbits. This started back in April when we did a news article interview for Easter, but it’s really been getting out of hand. I have blocked nearly 300 accounts bullying me about medical decisions I make for the rabbits as well as many many nasty comments about eating rabbits and personal attacks about my self righteous attitude. Normally these things wouldn’t get to me but it’s this ON TOP OF the storm damage and being shadow banned and not being able to reach our audience for donations that we need to keep this place going.

Today another rescuer asked me how I do it, because she is also exhausted and sick from overworking herself. The answer: I really don’t know if I am doing it, at least not doing it correctly. I feel like I’m fighting a never ending up hill battle.

I don’t post this just to complain, but to ask for your help in at least boosting our posts. And to show the real, raw, and often unpleasant sides of rescue that so many of us rescuers face alone.

05/11/2025

Raffle closed but stay tuned for the next one ❤️

🎟️RAFFLE TIME!!🎟️

We had someone ask us to do a naming raffle for the new pigs who arrived from California yesterday. We so had one of our lovely bunny adopters, Tawni, donate some items to help raise money for the bunnies. So why not both!!

🌟All donations will go toward our continued storm damage repairs as well as to Boop the head-tilt bunny’s vet bills (you can find more information about him posted on our page as well).
Edit: Adding that proceeds will also go towards the newest bunny we took in with malocclusion.

There will be SEVEN WINNERS! The first prize winner will get raffle items + naming rights to a piggie AND bunny of their choice, and six more winners will also get to name a piggie or bunny too.

What’s first prize?
• $50 Small Pet Select gift card
• Canvas bunny art
• Three tiered farm animal wall art
• “Talk to the fluff” bunny hand towel
• Banana flavored Healthy Snacks from SPS
• Papaya pineapple Sherwood snackies
• Oxbow cupcake toss and chew toy

Here are the rules:

🐰 Every $5 donation is worth one entry. You can enter as many times as you like. For example, a $20 donation is four total entries.

🐷 Those who donate $25 or more will get one extra entry for their generosity!

🐰 To enter you can use the link in our bio to donate or you can message us for the address to enter with cash or check.

🐷 We will ship anywhere in the US with no extra cost to you for shipping. If you are outside of the US you can still join but you may have to pitch in for shipping.

🐰 Raffle will continue for one week, closing on 5/18.

🐷 As far as the naming goes there are just a few limitations. It cannot be a name already in use at the sanctuary, and no names related to pigs being food (ie. Bacon, Ham and so on). No offense to those who do use those names, as we know some very loved piggies with funny names like Kevin Bacon etc. Just a personal preference is all. Any other foods are totally fine!

https://linktr.ee/alwayssunnysanctuary

💰$1960 raised so far

Always Sunny Sanctuary and Rescue

05/26/2025

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