In November our beloved girl Clover died suddenly when her kidneys stopped working, ( a genetic condition we didn’t find out about until near the end). Tonight we lost our old man, Nolan. Clover was the sweetest creature I have ever met. Nolan was a rascal, highly opinionated, and easily offended, and he has been my best friend for nearly eight years. He had shown signs of rapidly aging soon after Clover’s death. We took him to the vet twice since then, once after he didn’t quite make a jump onto the sofa, he seemed less mobile in the days after his fall. X-Rays showed no broken bones or dislocations. He continued to have good days and bad over the last month. A few days ago his bad days started to happen more frequently. I took him to the vet today to see if it was just old age, depression at losing his mate, or something else. It turned out to be the something else. Nolan had a large tumor in his abdomen that had gone undetected during multiple vet visits. We hoped surgery to remove the tumor was a possibility. We were waiting another vet’s opinion on this f this was even practical when he died suddenly and seemingly peacefully tonight. We have had three rabbits over the last decade, all rescues, and all as unique from each other personality wise as the last. Luna, our first bunny was my daughter’s , they had their own special bond. Clover seemed to be all of ours. She was as joyful a creature as I have ever seen. Nolan was mine, and I was his. I work from home and the buns live in a spare bedroom that is also my office. I was with them anywhere from 6-12 hours a day 7 days a week on average. Nolan like to hop up on the stool next to my desk and look out the window. Eventually he hopped from the stool to the table nearer my desk. I would rub his face with my right hand while attempting to type and use my mouse with only my left until he fell asleep. I could always tell without looking when he was asleep. The “purring” turned into snoring. I would return my right hand to the keyboard until he awoke and would “boop” my arm with his nose and the process would start again. The thing about bunnies that is hard to explain to non-bunny people is broken down into two related parts: #1 they are high maintenance to care for, more do than dogs and cats. But, the three bunnies we have had did something, almost magical: every night we would let them out of their room to roam most of the common areas of the house. Somehow during that time they would filter out any negative issues from the day, anger, hurt, sadness, all would be gone or soothed by the time they would hop back to their room a few hours later. It was the most refreshing and wholesome experience. I love dogs and I like a lot of cats, and if you have ever had this happen with a dog or a cat that’s awesome. For me it had only happened with bunnies. Good by my friend, may you rest well. You were loved beyond anything you could imagine. Thank you for all you gave us in return.
by TunaFishRollup