Walk along the east side of the main business corridor in Bixby Knolls and you’ll come to a building with a blue Allstate Insurance logo above a curving line of second-storey windows. But step inside and you may find yourself going down — or in this case, up — a rabbit hole unrelated to life/home/auto coverage.
That’s because, as of June 1 last year, the second floor at the northeast corner of Atlantic Avenue and Cartagena Street has been home to Sunshine Rabbit Center, the passion project of a university professor and a staff dedicated to filling a gap in the world of pet care.
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Bo Ruberg remembers it like it was 17 or 18 years ago…which it was. A pair of her friends got engaged and decided to adopt a rabbit “to represent their love.” They named her Georgie.
“And then they promptly broke up, and neither of them could bear to look at Georgie because it represented their lost love,” Ruberg recalls, “so they suddenly had to find a home for her. And all of a sudden I found myself with Georgie, living in a small apartment in San Francisco and learning about rabbits as indoor pets.”
After Georgie passed in 2016, Ruberg was rabbitless until 2022, when they adopted a pair of siblings. Not long afterward, Ruberg started volunteering at Long Beach Animal Care Services. A year later, they had two more bunnies and was also volunteering at the nonprofit Rabbit Rescue in Paramount.
So by 2025, when it became apparent that Rabbit Rescue would be closing (though it would later re-open under new management), Ruberg knew a thing or two about the world of rabbit care — and what was lacking therein.
“There just aren’t the same kind of support services that there are for dogs and cats,” they say. “So even though lots of people in the area have them, you just don’t see that much community around them, you don’t see that much help for medical issues, and you don’t see as much education and outreach. [… Rabbits] need a place to have grooming done [and] to board [when owners are out of town]; and also, we just need to educate the public about why they’re wonderful pets and deserve the same care that other pets get.”
Resolved to create their own rabbit-centered community hub, Ruberg and about a dozen Rabbit Rescue staff members and volunteers — none of whom had ever started their own business or nonprofit organization — commenced an extensive search for the right Long Beach location. Six months later, they leased the former Allstate Insurance office, which, with minor renovations, became a “happy, airy, bright space where people would want to spend time, [which] opened up the possibility of doing work and events where people could be invited in.”
In addition to providing a full range of products and services — grooming, vaccines, adoption (about 100 so far, with 12 to 15 available at any one time), a “bunny hotel” that accommodates up to 25 — Sunshine puts on a range of rabbit-related social events, such as “Doodle Buns: Learn to Draw Your Bunny” and “Drag Story Time…with Bunnies!”
“Anything you can do as a peaceful activity with bunnies present, we’ve been trying it out,” Ruberg says.
In year two, Ruberg hopes to expand Sunshine’s event roster, as well as to lock in certain events as monthly staples. This is because, although the business side of Sunshine has been “mixed, the community response has been fabulous.”
“The side of it that is not necessarily financial, that is about whether we were right that there is a need in the community to support one another and educate themselves around rabbits, has [proved] absolutely true,” Ruberg says. “We’ve had a really fabulous response from people who come to our events. People find an excuse to come by about something small so they can just stand here and talk to us about their rabbit. It’s a younger and more diverse version of this community than I’ve seen anywhere else. And that’s awesome. Financially, we’re kind of still finding our footing and finding the most consistent, reliable way to bring in money to pay our rent and utilities and staff.”
Bixby Knolls in particular has been “a really helpful community,” says Ruberg. “We’ve done a lot of collaborations with the other businesses and nonprofits up and down the street,” including events with ABLE Arts Work, the Long Beach Historical Society, and even an Easter-themed event at Eclipsed Emporium, the goth/alternative fashion boutique up the street.
“We have been very impressed with Sunshine Rabbit Center since the minute they moved in,” says Blair Cohn, executive director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association. “It’s a clean, friendly space, and the organization hit the ground running with collaborations with their neighboring businesses. They have set a new standard for partnerships in the neighborhood. We also see the care and attention they give to the animals and those who come to adopt a bunny or participate in one of their social events. They are a fun addition to the neighborhood.”
Ruberg says another of Sunshine’s goals is “broadening our network of collaboration.” A recent step in that direction was Sunshine’s first event with the LGBTQ Center Long Beach. And that broadening includes pertinent political engagement, such as trying to get City to change codes so (for example) there will be City money to help offset the cost of spaying and neutering rabbits — as there is for dogs and cats — since owners often have to shell out more for rabbits than for the Big Two pets due to the veterinary industry’s classification rabbits as “exotic” pets.
To say that Ruberg is all in on Sunshine is an understatement. Not only did they put in a significant amount of seed money (“a [five-figure] investment that will take a long time to come back”), but they serve as team lead in Sunshine’s day-to-day operations — this while holding down a full-time professorship at UC Irvine.
“My family thinks I’m a little crazy,” Ruberg says. “[…] I don’t sleep a lot, and I haven’t for a while. [… Sunshine] is a big leap of faith and a big risk. And as the person who carries a lot of that particular kind of stress and responsibility for the organization, there are days when that’s really scary, for sure. And then there are days when it feels really rewarding. For me, I kind of hit a point in my ‘actual, official’ career where I was doing quite well and feel quite competent in what I do, and I think I needed to feel challenged. And I need to feel I had a community around me that wasn’t just fellow professors. That has meant needing to learn a lot, hitting midlife and needing to learn a lot of new skills, and it’s very humbling. And still scary, because I have no idea if that money will come back to me. It’s my own little very productive midlife crisis.”
But Ruberg is quick to point out that Sunshine Rabbit Center “is possible only because lots of different people are bringing together their expertise and their passion” — a team ranging from Audrey Poole-Brown, a groomer with three decades of experience, to 18-year-old volunteers who just went to prom and are “bubbly, friendly advocates in the community.”
Another valued team member is Elsa Sanchez, a veterinary assistant who leads what Ruberg calls “speed dating for rabbits.”
“Rabbits are social and like living in pairs, but they’re also territorial, so two incompatible rabbits will fight, even to the death,” Ruberg explains. “So if you have someone who wants a partner for the rabbit they already own, we kind of set them up with three or four ‘single’ bunnies who are available for adoption, and then the rabbit gets to kind of pick who they’ve got the best chemistry with. We keep them here for a week, when they go through what we call ‘the bonding process,’ where they become a pair, and then once they’re bonded they go home and they’re bonded for life.”
For Sunshine Rabbit Center, the human community is just as much a focus as the leporine.
“We’re here to help the rabbits and find them wonderful homes, but helping people is also really critical,” they say. “A lot of animal rescue organizations can get cliquey or judgmental, but it’s been really important to us to be educational. When somebody walks through the door who is new to rabbits and some of the things they are doing with them aren’t super safe, instead of being judgmental, we use that as a chance to welcome them and show them alternative ways to be. And it’s been a pleasant surprise just how well people respond to that. And they just keep coming back.”
Sunshine Rabbit Center, a registered rescue facility with Long Beach Animal Care
WHERE: 4202 Atlantic Ave., Unit 201, Long Beach 90807
WHEN: 11am–5pm Wednesday through Sunday
PHONE: 562.231.7116 (call or text)
INSTA: @sunshine_rabbit_center
WEB: sunshinerabbit.org