Well the last of our baby bunnies died today. 🙁 Actually he wasn’t a baby anymore, he was almost 7 years old.
We found his mama just roaming Kyle’s parent’s neighborhood one night in February 2002 after visiting his parents. Liesl was driving Kyle and I home, and we saw the rabbit just sitting there by the side of the road. I said to Kyle “I dare you to go out and pick it up.” Liesl stopped Kyle got out and the bunny didn’t even try to run, she just sat there. So Kyle had no problems with picking her up and brought her to the car. The next day while Kyle was at work, my mom came over to visit and to bring a bunny cage for our new pet. She picked up the bunny and was petting her and said “Uh, she’s pregnant.” Since I didn’t know how soon the bunny was going to have her babies, and mom didn’t bring a nesting box because this was kind of unexpected, I decided to put the bunny in our bathtub with some towels so that she would be comfortable and have a place to have her babies. THAT DAY, later on, she had her babies. EIGHT of them. As they got bigger and started to show personalities, I named them. We called the mama Esther (because it kind of sounded like Easter bunny), and the babies were Rolly, Spot, Spaz, Nippy, Turbo, Blinky, Precious, and Jewel. Spot was the only girl of the bunch (aside from Esther). The bunnies grew and were lots of fun. They were our first babies. Our babies before we started having babies.
Nippy was the first of the bunch to pass away. It was summer time and he just got too hot. Kyle and I were out of town at the time and some of my family were taking care of them while we were gone. When we came home there was one less bunny. 🙁 When we had to move out of the house in Fullerton, we took our bunnies over to my parent’s house because we couldn’t take them to our apartment, and I went over to do laundry about once a week and visit the bunnies. And then time passed on and Kyle and I (and now Ethan) moved to Utah, and we left the bunnies with my parents until we could get a place where we could bring them up to be with us. Every time I went to California I would go out and check on my rabbits, and feed them and spoil them. One by one, over time they all died, except Jewel. Which was interesting to me because Jewel was the only one of the bunch that had been neutered (that is another story). When Jewel was the last one, I decided that I would just put him in the van and bring him home with me. And he lived quite happily with us here in Eagle Mountain since then. He was completely content to stay in his cage. He didn’t care too much to be loose, I guess he felt safer in the cage. He had a bunny litter box in his cage and was very good at using it.
The past few days he just hasn’t been acting normal though. I would look over and he would be in a weird position, looking up and breathing slow and his teeth would be showing. When I would go over to look at him he would hop over and snap out of it though. Today he didn’t. Kyle took him out of the cage so he could just sit on the floor and strech out and he just flopped on the floor. The back half of his body wouldn’t cooperate with the front half of his body, and he was kicking and sqeaking (which he hasn’t squeaked since he was a baby). Then he just stopped breathing. 🙁 Kyle picked him up and asked Ethan to go get a towel to wrap Jewel in, and he just held him for awhile. I was just so sad, and in tears. I knew he was a senior rabbit and someday he would go, just as I have had the thought that Chewy is getting pretty old and won’t be with us forever. I just started calling vets to see if I could find one in today that could help. But the ones that could help weren’t in today. After calling around to find out what we should do with his body we have decided that the best option that we have been given is to just bury him in the backyard. Of course there is a lot of snow out there and the ground is most likely frozen, but that beats taking him to the animal shelter and paying them to take him. I am so sad, and I just can’t believe my bunny is gone. So Jewel bunny born 27th February 2002, died 27th December 2008 around 2 PM, 6 years 10 months old. Goodbye our cute fuzzy friend.
