Update: January 2, 2008 Happy New Year to everyone! We recently received this update on Mimi Chai and her babies from her foster home:

I am happy to report that everyone is doing very well. Everyone, including Mama, eats hay, kibble and greens with wild abandon. Mama and at least two of the babies have figured out the water bottle and all of them almost always use the litter box to urinate. Mama Mimi Chai (nickname Lizzy) continues to be a very good mother. The babies often sleep beside her in the litter box and if need be, she jumps on top of them to protect them.

I x-penned off a quarter of the pen for Mama & babies while mine got their usual exercise. I sat for a bit with Mama and babies and all the babies climb on me; socialization is going very well. Then I put everyone away and Mama got full use of the pen. She is very curious and brave and obviously anxious for exercise. She explored and ran for a good half hour then came to me and let me pick her up.

I intend to move them from a cage to an x-pen this weekend. They get along in the cage very well but I know they would appreciate more play space. I need to get linoleum and another x-pen first.

Mom loves to climb on stumps and boxes and the babies think everything is marvelous.

December 3, 2008 On the 3rd of December we received an urgent call from an area shelter - the frantic shelter advocate had a new bunny who had just given birth to four lovely kits. This created an emergency situation as that shelter does not allow kits. The family had to be rescued immediately to save their lives. We went into action posting for assistance and arranged for an immediate rescue to take place. With the help of Haven and shelter volunteers we orchestrated rescue of the new mother Mimi Chai and her new family.

We began posting throughout our network of fosters and rabbit caretakers and luckily one of our very best sites stepped up to care for this tiny mother. A super bunny savvy foster mom in the Bay area would care for her! All our medical and standard foster sites were full and an opening in an excellent site like this for Mimi was a miracle! This site was approximately two hours north of the shelter Mimi came from, so a special transport volunteer was needed to bring mom and family to safety. Thank you Leslie! Jack of HRS in Oakland pitched in to open HRS during a typically closed time frame to shelter our new mom and family while they waited for the next leg of their journey.

Blessings to sweet Terry, of our San Pablo medical site who dropped everything, left work and went to pick up Mimi, settled her in at her house where Mimi and kits would stay until their final trip to her permanent foster mom. By December 4, the first stage of transport was completed and Mimi Chai and her little ones were calm and well cared for without any problem. Mimi was very hungry - she devoured all her food and wanted more. Sadly we had to leave Dante her mate behind as there was no room anywhere for him. The shelter assured me that he would be safe and I would be notified about his whereabouts in case future reunification was possible.

Mimi had to know we all loved her. She was so calm throughout the entire experience. What a loving gentle little girl. She focusing on her litter and her food. Everyone went out of their way to help Mimi - Her rescue went smoothly and the outcome was excellent. What a fantastic little bunny!

On December 8 Mimi went on to her final foster site with our T touch TLC foster mom. Dr. Harvey is aboard to care for Mimi should any problem arise and her super foster mom can handle most any issue, however there has been nothing - just a precious sweet family joining her for the holidays.

On December 12, Mimi's foster mom in Oakland reported that the babies were fat and sassy. Three are very dark and one looks like his mother. Mimi Chai is very dear and takes good care of her babies. For some reason we do not yet understand, Mimi will not eat hay. She also resisted the water bottle which we had hoped she would use while her kits were moving about in the Marchiaro (no swimming for them!) Mimi loves cilantro and any kind of dark leafy green. She is very good about using the litter box, but she is a breakout artist so we have to carefully secure her enclosure. She happily runs free at night for a bit of exercise. All of the kits have now opened their eyes and are all gaining weight and are active as normal bunnies will be! Love to Mimi's foster mom who wishes to remain anonymous.

Mom and babies will return to The Haven when the babies are 7 1/2 weeks old. Then they will enter our standard foster system as they are absolutely healthy. Once the babies stop nursing, mom can recover and then after two weeks rest she can be spayed. Mom and her babies will be housed side by side as Mimi recovers. We are hopeful that Mimi's mate will still be available then in the hope of reunifying the family. Many of the little ones have interested fosters - depending on the sex of the babies we will place them in pairs.

Love to each and everyone for helping Mimi and her family live to be here with us for the holidays. If you wish to sponsor a baby or contribute to Mimi's spay, you can donate via Paypal, or donate by check.