Earlier this year, an animal rescuer named Tolo noticed something unusual near the dumpster outside her home in Athens, Greece. As she looked more closely, she realized someone had abandoned two cages next to the trash bin — with bunnies inside.
It was immediately clear to Tolo that the rabbits locked in the crates weren’t doing well.
“They were in very bad shape when I found them,” Tolo said in a video for The Dodo. “Their teeth and nails were painfully overgrown.”
Based on the bunnies’ condition, Tolo could tell that they’d likely spent their entire lives confined in the small cages they’d been abandoned in. Sadly, rabbits being neglected in this way is all too common.
“It’s so sad to think that many people treat rabbits as mere toys for their children or as a fleeting source of entertainment,” Tolo wrote on Instagram. “Once these animals grow larger, they’re often discarded, left to suffer and fend for themselves.”
As a team member at Takis Shelter, Tolo typically rescues dogs and cats, but she didn’t hesitate to help the rabbits. She decided to name them Bunny and Clyde and immediately took them to the vet.
After the bunnies got the medical care they needed, Tolo took them home with her. When they first arrived at her house, they were terrified.
“Their nervous system was so used to the small enclosures that the outside world just didn’t really make sense for them,” Tolo said.
At first, Bunny and Clyde spent most of their time hiding from Tolo. But slowly, as the days went on, they realized they were safe.
“Clyde was the first one who allowed me to pet him,” Tolo said. “And he started enjoying it right away.”
Before long, Bunny and Clyde were happily hopping around Tolo’s house. They even got along beautifully with Tolo’s dog and foster cats.
As much as Tolo has fallen in love with Bunny and Clyde over the months she’s taken care of them, her goal is to find them a forever family. But she’s going to wait until the absolute perfect owners come along.
“I’m still looking for a beautiful home for the two of them, and I really wish to find them a place where they don’t have to live in cages, where they will be loved and taken care of properly,” Tolo said.
Leave a Reply