walterny

Two and one half years ago we rescued a beautiful white (broken with
grayish-brown spots) rex from a pet store in Greenwich Conn. We saw
her there locked in a tiny Plexiglas cage a few weeks earlier. My wife
was sad at first site but I said we did not need a rabbit. Two cats
and a dog were enough. I had never had a rabbit and wasn't interested
in learning about them. Seven weeks later we went back to that store
and I saw that rabbit still in that box. I told my wife to get a cage.
I learned that until you've experienced a rabbit close up, you don't
know what you are missing. We called her Honey Bunny. She was a genius
bunny, able to think well and figure things out like other normal
bunnies could not. That one-year-old bunny had not had a good life in
this store and probably before that and was not happy being picked up.
Her pig like snorts were cute and not very dangerous sounding in my
mind. She wanted to act tough but deep down she was a loving curious
little girl who simply liked things on her terms. Lay on the floor and
seconds later you had someone on your back sniffing your ear or seeing
what was on the other side of this mountain.

As we learned more about caring for lagomorphs we realized a companion
would be great for Honey. We found a seven-year-old black Dutch Rex
mix named Chloe. She was at a local shelter we support. A
schoolteacher who said she bit a student brought her there for
adoption. One can only imagine the horror Chloe faced at the hands of
those children as it would take more than one could give her to get
her to bite let alone nip. About the most nipping she does is to my
wife's pant leg when she is demanding something to eat or attention.
Chloe was not as tough or as smart as Honey so we wondered how they
would get along. Who knew that Chloe would take command of the
relationship the day she bit squarely into honeys leg on one of the
first days they finally were allowed to be together. The scream from
honey was worse than the shriek of a child being struck by a car and
brought my wife to tears and me to my knees in respect for rabbits and
their hierarchy. Both eventually found each other and had full run of
our living room in NY and their own room in our home in Mass. The
loved each other doing the grooming thing and mostly just loafing
together. In the car Chloe made the perfect head rest for honey.

Two and one half year later tragedy struck. We always talked about the
day Chloe, the older of the two at seven would pass and what we would
do. That day never came. Rather Honey went into digestive stasis this
morning. She's done it before and some gentle nursing always cleared
her up and had her eating her favorite parsley and dill a day or two
later. But today was different. She wasn't getting any better and at
the end of the afternoon was starting to let her head fall to one
side. A rush to the vet confirmed the worse. This was bad. Her core
temperature was down to 97, a clear sign of something terrible. She
had something we could feel in her belly. She was too young at three
to have anything but some sort of blockage. Could have been a poop, or
something else. The x-ray showed something it was hard to tell. The
x-ray did show Honey had tremendous gas bubbles in her. Some seemed
outside of her digestive tract so she might have ruptured here
intestines. The vet made it clear, Honey was more than likely not
going to make it through the night. My wife did not feel she had
closure with Honey so we opted to take her home, asking the vet to
give her a serious dose of pain killer. We took her home knowing the
worse but like all rabbit companions hoping for the best. Honey was a
fighter and perhaps she might fight this one to. It was up to her
although we attempted to help by trying to bring up her core
temperature and continued massage.

Honey died in my wife's arms at 9:50 pm. She went out fighting to
breath. She was tough but this time her diligence wasn't going to be
enough. I listened to her heart stop with my stethoscope. The magic
beat of a rabbits heart is like a wonderful rhythm not unlike the
beautiful rythmic sounds of a summer night. Right till the end that
rhythm resounded until it finally faded never loosing that magical
dance right up until it faded away. She threw her head back a few
times and let out her last gasps and that magical light that brought
so much to our lives died with the people who gave her as good a life
as she could have ever had. When I sleep tonight, the room will be
that much darker because my little Honey Bunny who greeted us every
morning, both ears pinned on our movement, desperate for the day's
first meal, will no longer shine. I know we will feel more joy
tomorrow than sadness for we took a girl who had a miserable existance
and gave here more than she ever had the capacity to understand, but
we knew, and that is what mattered. I also know that for the next few
weeks and maybe longer, I'll see a flash of white light in the corner
of my eye, and will think of my little white bunny whose hair was
softer than the softest material you could find in heaven, until now
that is.

In a months time I put my 14 year old lab to sleep, a week later my 20
year old cat, and now three weeks later my lovely Honey Bunny. If this
is a test then I hope my wife and I have passed as I'm running out of
tears and space in the yard. Hopefully we will graduate to some new
place in our life after all the sorrow and the love and joy we have
been given by our lovely friends will go towards some lonely
lagomorphs and some more beautiful kitties and the unconditional love
that only a dog can bring. Hopefully our lab Lucy is greeting honey
tonight, and our cat Prinni is there to watch it all, albeit form a
distance.

Thank you honey for making my life a better place.

bunnygirl333

Dear Walter and Wife,

I understand your tremendous pain. I too went through the same exact
thing less than one month ago with my beautiful baby Cadbury.
He was also 2 1/2 years old and an absolute joy to my life. I
understand the horrible scream. Cadbury ended his short life with this
anguished sound and it is a sound that will make your heart burst into a
thousand pieces. May God Bless you and your wife. Many comforts and
blessings to you. Honey Bunny is now over the bridge with mine and all
the other beloved bunnies that have gone to bunny heaven.

Sincerest thoughts and prayers,
Candice and the late Cadbury

tenncavs

My deepest sympathy but what a beautiful tribute to the love you have had for
all your pets. Though her life was not as long as you would have hoped, Honey's
time on this earth was clearly filled with love. I am so glad that you are
planning to honor the love you had for Honey, Lucy, and Prinni by giving a
second chance to other animals in need.
If only everyone on this planet had the compassion for and devotion to their
pets that you have.
Karen
Bunny Rescue
Nashville, TN

nona

Walter,

Thank you for a beautiful tribute to the joy and insouciance that only a
rabbit can bring into your life.

I am very sad for your loss of the softness and toughness of Honey
Bunny.

I hope Chloe will give you comfort, and you her, in this time of tears.

Thank you for giving Honey Bunny a chance at life, and a wonderful home.

Nona

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

cypherpunk

Hopefully this troll will not show up:

# From: Dave Balderstone (dave***@balderstone.ca)
# Subject: Re: OT: Does anyone get me ??
# Newsgroups: alt.pets.rabbits
# Date: 2003-07-03 06:05:32 PST
#
# Everything dies. Everything.
#
# djb

In 3.5-4 months I'm going to have a batch of weaned baby-pies.

Perhaps by then you'll be ready for another pair of furballs of love?

anita

Walter, rabbits can have such a fragile hold on life. Each day I realize
that something could take Jessie away from us very quickly. Maybe this is
what makes us so protective. They have sweet, sweet spirits that are often
not with us long enough. It is like they have somewhere else they have to
go and have a limited time that they can spend brightening our lives.

Honey Bunny had a wonderful home. I'm sorry that you only had 2.5 years
with her before she crossed the rainbow bridge.

Anita and Jessie

mixter

you have had more than your share of sorrow lately. i hope that chloe
doesn't grieve too long. it's so sad to watch a bun that has lost it's
partner.

don't be surprised is chloe loses a bit of her appetite. give her lots of
love and hopefully, she will be better quickly.

what wonderful parents you were to honey. she is now doing binkies at the
rainbow bridge.

as far as gi stasis goes, if you don't already have it, please pick up some
simethicone and keep it in your medicine cabinet. i use gerber baby gas
drops. you can't overmedicate. this really helps when a rabbit has gas and
starts to go into stasis. i have learned the hard way. my rabbit morgan
had it twice. i now give all three of my buns about a tablespoon of FRESH
PAPAYA each morning. so far, so good. i've been doing it for 3 years now.

i'm so sorry for your loss.

mickey

walterny

Thank you all for your kind words. Those words bring me to tears and
comfort me.

With the loss of so many wonderful friends in less than a months time,
I got to doing some thinking. Why do we humans live so long yet these
animals that give more than ten humans could, live such short lives. I
look at it as what I call the bright light theory. The more energy you
need to burn a light, the shorter the time it burns. Now transpose
that word 'light' with 'love'. Is there such a thing as an animal that
does not give you or I anything but the most incredible love? For
four**** years, every time I came home my lab Lucy greeted me with a
stuffed animal gift, whether I was away for hours or simply returned
because I forgot my car keys. And if I wanted to get up at 3am and
take a walk, was she ever not accepting and excited to do so? And what
about my cat Prinni? Was there ever a time when she didn't see an
outstretched hand and fit her body under it not to get love as much as
to give it. And dear Honey, that face, the way she ran to the gate
when she heard you coming. Oh, that tooth purr which said, ‘this is
like heaven'. No human could give such love and to think they never
even have to speak a word. Now THAT is communication!

Every now and then some person we know dies that we looked at as a
great person, always before his or her time. I knew a wonderful woman
who recently passed two months after a diagnosis of cancer. She was
the model that I aspire to be as a person. But her life was cut short.
And like animals I see some association. Those that burn the brightest
live the shortest. In such deaths you hear "They were a great person",
and "always happens to nicest people". And like animals somehow the
energy must simply be too much to maintain. I know that was true for
Honey, and Lucy, and Prinni, and in human terms for my friend.

When someone says they are sorry to me for the death, I say, I am not.
I am saddened at the loss, but ecstatic that I had my life enriched by
these creatures. So to say sorry isn't always the best thing to say
for me because I have nothing to be sorry about, but a lot to be
thankful for.

Thank you all. We are in a special club for bunnies need a great deal
of care and understanding and to be in this club that sees knows
lagomorphs are some of the most giving animals in the world is
special. I often found one of the most ironic things about rabbits was
that for an animal that doesn't make a sound most of it's life, they
sure have one of the most elaborate languages I've ever seen.


A little thought that makes me smile. Honey died on 9-11. I often see
an icon of remembrance for the human tragedy of two black towers
representing the WTC. Now my icon of my personal tragedy for that day
are those two little bunny ears sticking up. If you saw them and how
she used them you'd understand.

If you wondered what my girl looked like, we always thought the HRS
stole Honey's picture and used it as the rabbit in their logo next to
the clock. That was honey.

Thanks again,

Walter and wife Beatrice

walterny

I do have it but do not have papya. So is paypa a daily treat each
morning or only when things get bad?

Walter

shan

Dear Walter,
I would have so many things to tell you....but nothing is going to ease your
pain now,I'm so sorry for your loss..
The loss of a pet is that type of pain that only a true animal lover will
understand.Here,on APR,I believe they all are true animal lovers...that's
why I like this group so much...!Sometimes things get out of control,they
are literally beyond our control,when we can't save one of our pets...or
when age...unf****ving...comes to claim them from us....!You are absolutely
right,their love is unconditional...it's the purest kind of love ...the most
innocent....! As I said yesterday to Ms Noah,I do love animals more than
people....I only feel 100% comfortable and myself around animals...it
doesn't matter if it is a dog or a cat ,or a bunny ...or an elephant.....as


I know how painful it must have been to have to bury your dog...and your
cat...and now...your bunny...I have very recently lost a ferret to an
incurable tumor.......I keep crying for her.....and I keep torturing myself
looking at her pictures...all the happy moments shared together ...and all
the dark ones are all so vivid in my heart....!I love your post.....it's so
heartfelt.....you are a beautiful person.....please stay in the group....!
Lots of ((((hugs to you and family)))) Shan
"WalterNY" <walterny@msn.com> wrote in message news:ef6a97e5.0309112132.58f761ce@posting.google.c om...