When people from a rescue center did find him, he did have four severe wounded feet, one of his hind feet did have a huge hole in it. His coat was matted and full of mites, and he was also thin and very depressed. I was having a look at the site of this animal sanctuary, and saw a photo of Jamie, the people from the sanctuary did ask for someone who wanted to give this black flemmie a caring and loving home. I did respond immediately, cause Jamie had captured my heart, I really wanted to make this poor flemmie a very happy flemmie again.
When Jamie was strong enough and the mites where gone, they took him to the vet to be neutered. A week later they brought Jamie to my place. Jamie was really craving for attention. He really loved it when I took him on my lap and brushed and petted him, while I talked to him. Jamie also followed me around like a little puppy dog, he is the sweetest and friendliest bunny I have ever seen. Especially when I bear in mind that he had been dumped and did have a very hard time.
I also did take care of his feet. The hindfoot with the hole in it was slowly getting better, the wounds on the other three feet where closed and healing very well. I decided to give Jamie some time to feel at home and to get a little rest, he really needed some extra care and attention too. Slowly he started to recover, but he still was very quiet.
When Jamie was looking a bit better, he was allowed to stay a longer time out of his large cage. He loved it, and he seemed a little happier, but still there was that sad look in his eyes. So I gave Jamie a large cuddly bunnytoy, he loved it, he groomed it and lay down next to it.
Two days before his birthday (february 15th) I decided to take Jamie downstairs to the room where my two other flemmies Rusty and Sparky live. They where both in their cage,so Jamie could explore the room safely.
He really enjoyed it, and finally he got to the cage with the two flemmies, they did sniff eachother, then Jamie hopped away again, later he came back and they started sniffing again, and then he and Rusty started licking eachother, soon Sparky also joined. To me it was clear that my flemmies would behave in a very friendly way to eachother, so I took both flemmies out of their cage. At first they did mount eachother a few times, but soon all three flemmies where grooming eachother, and finally they lay next to eachother as if they where friends for years.
Ofcourse I made some photos of all this. I did upload photos on the community webshot site. Jamie and his cuddly toy is in the album "more flemish pics" and the three flemmies together can be seen at the " three flemish giant" album.
You can find those albums by following this link or click here for album nr. 2 on my website.
One thing kept bothering me, Jamie did not gain much weight and the wounds on his foot would not heal very well. They seemed better at one time, and then suddenly they started bleeding again. The reason why came as quite a big shock to me. I was brushing Jamies coat one morning. Because the hair on his back and round his tail was still molting and also had a tendency to start matting.
I did feel several small lumps on his lower back on one site of his body. I had not felt these lumps before. When I did have a closer look, I saw that some of those lumps where small abcesses and others where small inflamed spots. One of those abcesses did burst open and there was a tooth paste like pus coming out and also a small lead pellet!.
It turned out that all those tiny abcesses and inflamed spots did conceal lead pellets. I was very shocked about this, it meant that during the time that Jamie has been dumped on the streets someone did shoot at him.
The X-ray of Jamies back showed several lead pellets in his body. All lead pellets where removed (15 of them). And Jamie had to start treatment for lead poisoning, the reason why his foot would not heal.
I was very shocked about this, the first day. I could not talk about it without getting emotional. Poor Jamie, dumped on the street and being shot at. And despite all horrible things that happened to him, Jamie still is the most friendly bunny I ever came across.He is a very special bunny to me, and it breaks my heart to know that he has suffered a lot. Now a half year later, Jamie is doing fine and he is feeling very well again. He is happy and has found some bunny friends and human friends as well, and he also still loves his cuddly toy bunny very much too.