It may not have cable television or mints on pillows, but the grateful guests at this motel get plenty of scratches behind the ears and all the hay they can eat.
At Star Gazing Farm, a non-profit sanctuary for neglected and abused farm animals in Boyds, business at the bunny motel is hopping.
‘‘July’s already all booked,” Anne Shroeder, the farm’s operator, said last week.
Rabbit owners pay a small daily fee to drop off their pets at her home on the farm, which Shroeder named after Star, her first rabbit, she said. Though July is the motel’s busiest month, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter are also popular times to check in, she said.
‘‘It’s very informal,” said Shroeder, who also goes by ‘‘Farmer Anne.” ‘‘It’s basically done on a trust basis.”
The farm is home to an abundance of animals — four goats, three dogs, two steer, two turkeys, a goose, a pot-bellied pig, a chick, a horse, a mule, several sheep and a diversity of ducks — but while many of the sanctuary’s non-human inhabitants have free reign of the farm, the rabbits get their own private room.
The motel’s three pens and two multi-level ‘‘bunny condos” can accommodate up to four sets of rabbits at a time, not including the motel’s four permanent residents — Matilda, Betty Boop, Chucho and Juancito. Since rabbits are territorial, they can either have an area to themselves or share it if they’re part of a bonded pair, Shroeder said.
Shroeder tends to the rabbits seven days a week by administering medications, cleaning their scent glands and keeping an eye out for stress behaviors, which can be hard to spot because bunnies, like many prey animals, are fairly stoic, she said.
‘‘She’s very attentive. It’s a bit of a hike, but it’s worth it,” said Andrew Keenan of College Park, whose bunnies, Glory and Farley, are repeat customers. ‘‘...She’s great — not that anybody offering to take care of rabbits would be a bad person.”
The motel is just one of Shroeder’s many jobs. In addition to taking care of farm, she shears sheep, teaches English at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Boyds and runs a multilingual Web development company, Language Works.
Shroeder began her career in cottontails about five years ago by bunny-sitting for friends she knew through the Washington, D.C.-area chapter of the House Rabbit Society, a non-profit that finds homes for abandoned bunnies, she said.
It’s hard to find temporary board for rabbits because many people don’t know how to properly care for them, Shroeder said. The bunny motel is well air-conditioned since bunnies have trouble regulating their body temperature and can overheat, and the rabbits also get a balanced diet to prevent digestion problems, she said. The floor is covered with interlocking foam mats to protect the rabbits’ paws, which don’t have padding, she said.
‘‘They’re very delicate animals,” she said, adding that while some rabbits need lots of affection, others like to have more space. ‘‘...They’re social and intelligent. They need to interact.”
Rabbits often get spooked at kennels because of all the noise, and a lack of veterinarians specializing in bunnies further complicates things for pet owners, she said.
‘‘It’s hard to find a veterinarian because over here, a bunny is an exotic pet,” said Gabriele Quisenberry, who’s from Germany but now lives in Arlington, Va. She plans to drop Dilbert and Adelaide off at the motel this week before a trip to New York. ‘‘...I would not go to any other place.”
