by Ginny Greninger
My two lionhead mix rabbits, Basil and Clover, are stars on the big easel! The Santa Fe Animal Shelter and Humane Society (SFAS), located in Santa Fe, NM, created a wonderful fund raising effort titled, “Driving Change Through Art.” This effort focused on large artist-created original animal companion portraits, 4’ x 4’ and mounted on an 8’ easel lining the driveway leading up to the shelter’s Santa Fe campus. When seeing fabulous portraits of dogs and cats during my drive to the shelter for my volunteer shifts as bunny socializer and kennel cleaner, I spied one empty canvas. I immediately offered my donation to purchase the blank space for a portrait of Basil and Clover.
The bonded boys were surrendered to the shelter in August of 2015. Basil suffered from a fractured hind tibia and Clover was downright scared. The vets at the shelter
operated on Basil’s leg, set a pin in the fracture and put his leg in a cast. I was their medical foster and fell in love. NMHRS accepted them as fosters, and having been a bunny human for many years, I adopted them soon after.
Artist Leah Marr-Lyon of Santa Fe, NM, painted the fabulous portrait. She fully captured my bunnies’ sweet faces and demeanor. Iris Klimczuk, a long-time friend and rabbit rescuer took the original photo of the boys.
Since 1939, the Santa Fe Animal Shelter, a private, non-profit shelter, has been dedicated to its mission of supporting animals, saving lives, and spreading compassion. They are northern New Mexico’s largest open-admission, no-kill shelter. The main Shelter is housed on a 100-acre campus complete with walking trails and play yards for the daily enrichment for Shelter residents.
Rabbit residents number as many as 14+ at any one time. There is a dedicated cadre of bunny volunteers that come to the shelter to exercise and socialize the rabbits, clean kennels, facilitate speed-dates, and go out on rescue efforts.
I have been a volunteer with the shelter for 10 years logging 1000 hours. The rabbit volunteers are a valuable resource for the shelter as we have specific rabbit-related knowledge to provide to the bunny residents.
I am overjoyed seeing the fabulous portrait of my bunny boys mounted on an easel in the driveway leading to the shelter. Once the effort has ended, some time in 2022, the stunning portrait will be mine!
