Welcome to Rusty’s Retreat

For those of you who don’t know us we are Chris and Bo, and we live in Southampton with our large collection of guinea pigs and rabbits, we're now approaching a total of 50!

In March 2021 Chris brought his 5 rescue rabbits Zelda, with her daughter Oreo as well as Midnight, Willow and Hazel. Not long after we took a little lockdown trip to St Francis Animal Shelter in Fair Oak to look at rehoming 2 guinea pigs. We were quite taken with a pair of girls who Meg and Zack (our grand children) named Sugar and Spice. There were a pair of boars who had been there for over a year, so obviously we couldn’t leave them, and so our Rexes – Sid and Rusty came too. Oh and a lovely tabby cat we called Arlo. They settled in well but it wasn’t long before Chris wanted to go back and look at their rabbits, so we went for 1 rabbit. We took a liking to a lop-eared boy that the kids wanted to call Eevee, after a Pokemon, as he had a Pokemon ball in his cage. There was also a gorgeous velvety girl who had been there over a year that grandson Arthur wanted to call Dobbie.

So we have a boy called Eevee and a girl called Dobbie! We also brought home more guinea pigs. There were 3 girls who were the survivors of a herd of 80 that were attacked by a fox, lovely little girls who we called Lily, Wotsit and Wiggy. Along with a lone boar whose partner had recently died. In the shelter they called him the Hulk, due to his size, so we called him Bernie the Hulk (Bernie after Chris’s dad).

Not long after we also rehomed 3 boys called Dougal, Coffee and Rufus. Due to his annoyingness Rufus had to be separated from the others as they kept ganging up on him and biting him. He has since bonded with Marley and although they can’t live together, they are in a big cage with a wire separating them in the middle, so they still get to see each other safely.

This was the start of our animal family. Since then, things progressed, and we took in 3 guineas called Daisy, Charlie and Jemima from a customer at Chris’s shop. Also, two rabbits Buttons and Fluffy from another customer’s friend. Then Chris answered an advert for a run, but it came with 2 rabbits (!), brother and sister Nancy and Dodger. We bought a little hutch which also came with a guinea pig who we called Prince but later turned out to be Princess…… And rehomed a little boy guinea called Marley who lived in a beautiful gypsy caravan.

We sadly lost a few friends along the way. Bernie, Zelda, Spice, Fluffy, Daisy, Jemima, Charlie, Wiggy, Coffee and Lily all departed and are very much missed. But a few additions. Dodger got in with his sister Nancy and on 13 February she had 6 baby rabbits. They went to new owners, but little Peach stayed and is a great companion to Oreo who lost her mum Zelda in the spring of 2022. 2 of the babies, Roger and Reggie came to stay for a week when their new owners went on holiday in the summer, so Nancy got to see her boys again. We decided, because of his crazy behaviour, that it would be a good idea for Dodger to get the snip and he did so on Valentine’s day 2022, the day after Nancy surprised us with his children! We don’t think it worked properly as not only has he not calmed down much in his behaviour but after a little play in the garden with Nancy in the summer, we were away on holiday when Chris’s nieces Monica and Chloe rang to tell us there were 4 babies just born in a nest in Nancy’s hutch! We’ve decided to let the girls stay with Nancy and if there are any boys, we will find a new home for them.

2 new little girl guineas were rehomed to us last autumn called Freda and Freddie and yesterday a beautiful black and white boy made his way from the wild into some flats off the Avenue and after a few calls Chris took him in and he’s settled in well and is a character.

We took a large herd of 8 guineas and 2 rabbits from a young couple who moved into a flat and could no long home them sadly, plus another 2 single guineas who needed new homes as well.

After Christmas we bought an inside cabinet/hutch and so brought quite a few of the guineas in from the cold so we can watch their antics as well as the TV. There's 10 inside now and we can't open a packet of anything without a cacophony of squeaks from greedy little piggies nosing to see what's on offer! But it's cute and we love watching them interact.

All the hutches are sheltered under cover and get wrapped warmly in the cold weather. We let them out for runs around the garden every day and the guineas go out in covered runs, we enjoy putting them in a herd so they can mingle.

They get checked and groomed regularly and, thanks to our Olio collections and veg donations, from friends, family and neighbours they have a variety of greens for them daily. We have a happy animal family and enjoy their wonderful little personalities.

As we fund all their upkeep and vet bill ourselves, any donations, large or small from our wishlist are hugely appreciated, so thank you very much to all our supporters out there, we are very grateful to you all.