Last night was BunnYee's funeral service. She was around 4-5 years old and Rachel was her owner for about 1-1/2 years of her life.
Her little plot was located on the side of their house and next to the graves of their guinea pigs, Marley and Quantas.
BunnYee was kept in 'status' in a cardboard box in a freezer until this day. She's underneath the plastic brown bag with the roses on top with a portrait of her looking so darn cute.
Michael officiated the service sharing how BunnYee came into their family (through their neighbor friend, Kimbo) and that Rachel, BunnYee's main caregiver, spent $150 of her own money to pay for her 'surgery' (to have no babies).
Technology is wonderful.. see Jessie waving in Brian's hand?
Rachel's sister, Jessie, was at the service .. all the way from Biola University in So. CA. She could not miss saying good-bye to an important member of her family.
We had an open mic to share what our favorite memories of BunnYee were... and all were of how cute she was when she jumped around, how she splayed out laying down relaxing, hiding, eating or hopping around happily like all bunnies do.
Michael shared an appropriate verse from the Bible, "The godly care for their animals," (Proverbs 2:10a) and ended the service in prayer.
After all the girls dropped a flower onto her box, Michael covered it up with soil and laid her to rest.
Rachel
Emily
We brought a bunny statue that Emily picked to put on top of BunnYee as a 'tombstone' of sorts.
The family will plant Forget-Me-Not seeds that they got from their Auntie Caroline's memorial service on top of Bunn's grave. Hopefully they will bloom next Spring.
Good bye BunnYee.. thank you for bringing so much joy to both our families.
Now... Rachel wants another bunny... maybe even two!! Emily agrees wholeheartedly!!
"BunnYee died!!" Rachel sobbed as she and her mom came by unexpectedly this evening. What a shock! We were all trying to figure out what had happened to her.
From Angela (BunnYee's grandma): "She was normal all day, but didn't really want to eat her veggies in the afternoon, even passed up carrots. She seemed a little more mellow than usual so I checked on her a lot. I could see her move around while we had dinner, by the time we were done she was lying still on the ground behind a box (her litter box) that she pushed away. "
Emily sobbed, hugged Rachel and immediately went online to find out why rabbits die. She said she couldn't find anything. And sobbed some more.
So I went and googled why rabbits die and there were various theories:
- "When rabbits are about to die they hop less and eat less; Usually they want to hide themselves before they die." (Probably why she moved her litter box and sat behind it which was something she never did before.)
-"Because rabbits are prey species, they still may hide signs of disease until they are extremely sick. Rabbits hide their illness for as long as possible. So the rabbit was actually very ill even though you did not recognize signs of disease. This means that by the time an owner notices that their rabbit looks sick, it is very late in the process of the disease. In such cases, what appears to be an acute death is actually a chronic illness that only became evident when there was not much that could be done to save the rabbit"
- "Extremely rare cases, rabbits can have a blockage of the intestines, usually near where the stomach opens into the small intestine. This can be caused by ingestion of foreign material (like carpet fibers). The typical scenario is a rabbit that looks fine the night before and in the morning is not very interested in eating. Very soon afterward, the rabbit looks lethargic and may not even be able to ambulate well. Within the next 30 to 60 minutes, the body temperature plummets and the rabbit becomes almost non responsive"
- "Rabbits are very sensitive creatures and can die from stress, loud noises or fear."
Sigh... our first pet-that-wasn't-our-pet death. This was the first animal that both girls were 100% in charge of caring for. I was not involved at all. So sad and painful. Emily was like a second Mama to BunnYee.
But we were blessed to have had the short period of time (1-1/2 years since Rachel had her) to know her especially the last few times we got to BunnYee sit her.
BunnYee's last time in our home was when she was able to explore our kitchen.
This video is to commemorate the joy she gave our family while she was here:
The girls were so excited that our friends were going on vacation. That means they would need to find a bunny sitter for BunnYee..
She's been shedding... so Emily has been collecting bunny fur in a cup.
She got kind of 'plumper' while she was here the last time and we figured it was all the food we gave her and no exercise space. She just lounged around, ate and pooped.
So this time around we opened up our kitchen for her to roam. After securing all the spaces she could 'escape' through, she slipped and slided on the hardwood floor.
She was such a joy to have in the house! But she literally TOOK OVER the house! Boy, bunnies need a lot of space!!
I had always wanted a pet when I was growing up. We had fish (boring) and parakeets (a little less boring). Five parakeets actually. One after the other. When one died, my dad would get another one. They were kept in our living room and when they got too messy (or we were too lazy to clean out it's cage and area) we moved it into the garage. We were not a very pet-loving-family. I really wanted to have it sit on my finger and pet it etc.. so I'd always try to let it out of the cage (which I was not supposed to do.) It would fly around and always fly into our huge glass windows thinking it was a way of escape but it would just hit the window and fall onto the ground. Most of the time they would be okay but sometimes they would not. Then it was time to get another one.
We could not increase our pet variety because my mom was very anal about cleanliness. Especially regarding her home. She can be a bit OCD in regards to how she wants the house kept up. She was also very sensitive to smells. She's like a hound dog. We were also allergic to cats. So fish and birds were it.
Pretty depressing childhood huh?
So when I grew up and got my own place I told myself that I would get a dog! A dog shows unconditional love and affection, is fun to play with, and is man's best friend!
But when I got married and got our own home, I realized that it was hard enough to take care of a husband and a house. Matthew was a cat-person. He had three when he was growing up. He did not like how dogs smelled and shed. I did not like cats (allergic remember?). So no pets for us. Instead we had two girls.
The girls wanted a pet, especially Hannah. But my practical daughter, Emily, told her sister that she couldn't even take care of herself much less a pet. So Hannah became a stuffed animal owner. Lots and lots of stuffed animals ...dogs, bunnies, bears, giraffes, seals, horses..but no cats. Emily collects stuffed birdies! (surprising huh?)
These are just Hannah's Build-A-Bear animals.
So when we were asked by our good friends if we could take care of their bunny during Spring Break while their family goes to Rome to visit their daughter who's studying there, the girls jumped at the chance to have a real pet! FINALLY!
Now I was hesitant since we had never taken care of a pet before. (I mean we had a tiny turtle named Tuck that my mother-in-law got the girls a few years back in Chinatown but it died after a few days.) Our house is not as spacious as theirs so BunnYee (her name) could not hop around as freely as she did in her own home outside. Our backyard is filled with seeds.. and more seeds.. (due to Emily's multiple bird feeders). And I read that bunnies cannot eat nuts.. and seeds are a form of nut, I think. So we couldn't put her outside. Thus we needed to keep her indoors. But Angela assured me that she would be easy and non demanding.
Once Angela and Rachel came over with BunnYee's 'luggage', I realized I needed a much bigger space for her then just a 'corner' so she literally took over our living room.
Hannah playing on her computer AND keeping BunnYee company at the same time!
BunnYee loved hopping in and out of her little shelters.
I must say that BunnYee is THE most adorable bunny we have taken care of. (Of course she is the only bunny we have taken care of.) She is not aggressive (like some bunnies can be.. at least that's what I read). She just eats and poops all day long.
She is a Norwegian dwarf bunny around 3-4 years of age.
She is very very soft to pet and is as quiet as a mouse (minus the nocturnal running around sounds mice make when they are wake). Really... she doesn't make a sound (unless she's stomping her legs because she's mad).
The only real sound she makes is when she eats. Check out the video clip below. (Make sure you turn up the volume to hear her!)
Praying for her snack!
She just hops around and lounges around her caged area. The girls take turns lying with her on the blankets and she hops around them.
I was quite amazed with the sense of responsibility the girls had when given the opportunity to take care of BunnYee. Rachel (her owner) gave them specific instructions on how to care for BunnYee.
At 8:00am every morning she is to be given her pellets and to be let out of her cage. No later or she'll start stomping. Now this was Spring Break! Please... 8am to wake up? You're lucky the girls wake up at 10:00am on a Saturday! But lo and behold, Hannah woke up at 8am everyday without fail and without help from me to feed BunnYee. At 3:00pm, she had to be fed her romaine lettuce so we would always need to rush back home (if we were out) to feed her her afternoon snack. Her water had to be changed at that time and her hay pile had to be kept filled continuously. Her 'toilet' box needed to be changed and cleaned every other day. And the girls did it all on their own without my help nor reminder!
Below is a video Emily made in honor of BunnYee for Rachel while she was gone...
Now it looks like we are ready to get our own Bunny right? Nooooo... with our luck we would get an aggressive one that bites all the time and ruins my furniture. (I was told BunnYee likes to chew up electrical wires and towels.)
I'm good at us just being the official BunnYee sitter!
