Buddy, our beloved family rabbit

October 10, 2001 – May 5, 2009

Buddy, our family rabbit, is no longer with us. She had been to the emergency vet the night prior, given pain medication, and then brought to her regular vet this morning for further evaluation. X-rays showed that she had an enlarged bladder, either from a stone or crystallized calcium. From what the vet could determine it was most likely a stone which would require surgery, but due to Buddy’s condition and age it was not advised. So at 10am this morning she was put to sleep. She will be cremated and returned to us. They will be making a paw print in plaster for us as well.

Buddy started out her life with Amy as a classroom rabbit in 2001. It was Amy’s first class. Buddy spent summers in Amy’s apartment, and one winter, after I moved in I created a 4 x 3 foot cage for her with carpet and a ledge. It was my intent to make sure the cage could be dismantled and brought between school and home, but it proved too large for a classroom, and we were happy having her home. In effect, she retired from being a classroom pet in December 2003.

She was litter box trained so she had a litter box in the corner and kept the carpet clean. She did have a few accidents in that apartment when she was roaming free so we always supervised her from then on whenever she roamed free.

In the apartment she was in the living room, when we moved to the townhouse her cage was in the loft. Her favorite roaming place was what was then the office, which is now E’s room. We joked that when E came along she didn’t like the screaming kid that stole her favorite room.

Eventually she warmed up to E as he would pet her almost daily, and say hi and bye to her in the morning when we left for daycare. E loved watching her romp around the house as well as feeding her the fresh greens of carrots, parsley, and escarole. All I had to say was “Feed Buddy?” and E would go to the refrigerator, open the door and start giggling, clapping his hands, and jumping. He always went upstairs with his own piece of parsley to give her.

At the beginning of April she had her last romp around the upstairs, as well as a toenail clipping. Yesterday morning Amy said E went over to Buddy’s cage and she came up to him in order to let him pet her. There was nothing that told us she was going to get so sick so fast. Today the vet said that since rabbits are animals of prey they are usually strong until the very end. They don’t have the luxury to be sick for long periods of time because in the wild they would be eaten quickly.

Last night around midnight I noticed she hadn’t moved, even though I had given her some more greens, kind of an offering for what I figured could be her last meal. I also cleaned her litter box to see if she would use it by morning and to make sure she was comfortable. I repositioned her on a towel in her cage and put her food right next to her. She remained there until morning.

It was a sleepless night for us, in many ways. First E went to bed late, then I stayed up looking after Buddy, going to bed around a quarter ‘til 1. At around 1:40am our sirens went off, waking up E. We checked on Buddy at that time and she was still not moving around. Breathing, but not moving around.

Side Story: Frustrated that our weather alert didn’t sound and there was nothing on WCCO TV or the National Weather Service web site about severe weather I called the Sherriff’s department. Actually, I called the wrong number first and woke up some poor guy, then I called the Sheriff’s department. When they answered she asked if I was calling about the sirens and informed me that it was a malfunction.

Rest of the night E slept with us and had nightmares at least 2 or 3 times.

I had taken today off to take care of Buddy. After she was put to sleep Amy called me wondering about what had happened at the vet this morning. We had already discussed the options earlier. We cried on the phone for a while and tried to figure out how to explain it to E. He is already concerned about her being sick as he went up to her cage today and said, “Buddy sick.”

I’ve vacuumed out the cage now, wiped down the sides and it sits empty with a few toys. We will most likely dismantle it later tonight as a family. Every time I went to turn on the vacuum today I gave a little thought about if Buddy would be scared when I turned it on. Then I realized she wasn’t there. I also exited our bedroom earlier glancing at her cage to see what she was doing.

It is going to be weird not hearing her drink from her water bottle, or rattle her balls with bells. Even as I type this at my desk I keep glancing over at the cage expecting to see her. She kept me company when I sat at the computer late at night putting pictures up online or fiddling around wasting time.

Getting up at night to go to the bathroom will be less interesting because there will be no rabbit to startle which in turn startles us (I’m not quite sure why WE never had an accident on our way to the bathroom in the middle of the night). Our refrigerator will now have an empty space where her fresh greens took up half a shelf, and who knows what will become of the corner of our loft her cage currently sits in.

We still don’t know how to explain it to E. We don’t even know how to explain it to ourselves. It happened so quick, without warning.