Pets are family too

You won’t find pets in the family tree but they are certainly part of the family. And our family lost a member last Friday. Our last pet wasn’t a dog or cat. It was a rabbit, and he found us, showing up in the neighborhood the summer of 2014. He looked like a domestic rabbit, not a wild one. No one knew who he belonged to. For a couple of months, he went up and down the street, scrounging for food at the different houses. We periodically gave him food and water so he kept coming back. At the time, I telecommuted on Friday’s and remember looking out the front door to see him looking inside a few times. Rabbit visited every day, sometimes playing in the flower beds.

My husband Charlie started playing with him and the next thing you know, Rabbit followed him around the yard like a puppy dog. 

Summer came to an end and it started getting cooler outside. One morning Charlie walked across the street to get coffee from 7-Eleven. As he left the store, he saw Rabbit sitting on the street corner, like he was waiting for Charlie. That scared Charlie. Because Rabbit followed him around, Charlie was afraid it would try to follow him across the street the next time. Charlie stopped by a local veterinary practice to ask a few questions about rabbits and cold weather. They told him a rabbit could survive outside with temperatures between 37 and 85, but otherwise, needed cover. That was when Charlie decided it was time to adopt the rabbit and bring him inside. Our daughter-in-law named him Dopey because he had one floppy ear but she was the only person to call him that. The rest of us just called him Rabbit, or Wabbit. 

Our niece donated a cage she no longer needed and Rabbit stayed outside until it got too cold. The vet had given Charlie a crate and that became his home in a corner of our dining room once we brought him inside.

Charlie did some homework to learn which vegetables rabbits ate. From then on, Rabbit got a plate of fresh veggies and fruit every night. He even at the plate! There was always dry pellets, hay, and water inside the crate. Rabbit’s favorite food was bananas. He always ate them first. We eventually learned he could eat parsley and then that became his favorite food. He also loved a treat that looked like Fruit Loops. He’d go crazy when you walked past his crate so I often gave him one—that’s all he needed to be happy.

We didn't let him roam the house much but did learn he could go up the steps on the rare occasion that we let him loose.

A year after Rabbit found us—standing on the inside looking out.

For the most part, Rabbit lived like a king. But his life was not without trauma. Wanting to give him a little room to move around, Charlie bought chicken wire and made a playpen for the backyard. That didn’t work out too well though. One summer we had a fox roaming the neighborhood. As Charlie left for work one morning, he saw the fox walking down the sidewalk, heading towards our house. Charlie said he thought to himself, this can’t be good, and quickly turned the truck around to go home. By the time Charlie got to the backyard, Rabbit, who was inside the playpen, and the fox, who was outside the playpen, were staring each other down. Charlie chased the fox off and a crisis was averted. We also noticed a hawk hanging around the yard, watching Rabbit. The tarp Charlie used to provide shade helped avert that crisis.

 

Another niece gave us a chicken coop. It was like a penthouse for Rabbit, providing a safe environment from the prey, as well as protection from the weather while we were at work. 

But it wasn’t perfect. One day our son heard dogs barking behind the house so went outside to see what was going on. He found Rabbit laying on his back with a big dog’s jaws locked around his stomach. The cage was damaged so apparently the dog had tried to get inside and Rabbit ran for his life. Thankfully Chris was home to save Rabbit from that crisis. He wasn’t hurt, just traumatized. Another time I got home from work and noticed something sitting by the front porch chair, only to discover it was Rabbit. His playpen had turned over somehow, probably the winds catching the tarp, and he found his way to the front porch. I opened the front door as quickly as I could. Rabbit ran in the house as soon as the door opened—he couldn’t get inside fast enough. Still another time, I heard a racket outside only to discover two beagles harassing Rabbit inside his cage. That traumatized him as well! 

One time it was Charlie who was traumatized. He couldn’t find Rabbit in the coop and had a moment of panick thinking Rabbit had gotten out somehow. Turns out, he had jumped up inside the coop house and was chilling out in the straw.

Charlie upgraded the indoor cage a few years ago. I don't know if Rabbit liked it better, but he had more space.

Rabbit liked to have his nose and ears scratched. Did you know rabbits lick a person like a dog does? We didn’t! As Charlie gave Rabbit his nightly cuddles, he’d start licking Charlie’s arm. The harder his ears were scratched, the more he licked.

In the seven years we had him, Rabbit was only sick one time, with a urinary tract infection. It cost us an arm and a leg to take him to the vet. We learned he’s considered an exotic pet and not all veterinarians handled those. Like the pet, the price tag was exotic as well! 

Rabbit comforted my father-in-law during in his final year when he lived with us. Charlie brought Rabbit to him before or after taking him outside. 

He brought joy to others as well, both young and old.

All seemed to be going well until last Friday. I’ve been working from home since mid-March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but that day had to go into the office. Mid-way through the day, Charlie called and said he was taking Rabbit to the vet emergency room. Rabbit was unable to move his left rear leg and something told Charlie it was serious—he didn’t have a good feeling about it he said. The vet told Charlie it could have been several things and none of them were good. There was a 90 percent chance he wouldn’t recover and he was in pain. Charlie made the decision then to put him down and brought him home for burial in the back yard beside our Cocker Spaniel Barney.

We would never have considered getting a rabbit as a pet, but as mentioned earlier, he found us, we didn’t find him. He was a good pet. I hope he never regretted picking us to be his adopted family all those years ago.