we lost my sweet (or not so) zelda today.
david was pacing thru the living room when he motioned me over to take a quiet look in the bunny cage. as i came over, we saw zelda laying on her side, in the way a contented bunny flops over.
we first assumed she was sleeping, but she didn't respond to us tapping on the cage, so as david turned on the light, i opened the cage door to touch her. i will never forget that touch and hope i never feel it again. she was cold.
after i sobbed my heart out (and it's still not empty yet), i thought back on this week. normally link and zelda reside together, but since i had an appointment for her to get fixed tomorrow, i separated them for a few days so she could try to stay in good shape.
see, for the past week or two, it seemed that perhaps link had been a bit agressive in his grooming of zelda, but now i'm not so sure. her fur had been and was very patchy; not in a bald way, but in a way that looked like someone had given her a haircut and not trimmed it all evenly. i was hoping she would look a bit better for the vet trip.
since i separated them and changed the under-cage litter pan, it didn't seem that she had been performing normal bodily functions. there was no signs of anything except for a few loose poops perhaps leftover from link. i noticed it at the beginning of the week, and then discounted the thought, thinking it had to be somewhere.
well, there are still no signs in the cage of any of her functions.
aside from those two facts, today when i went out to see her, she didn't move when i opened the door. normally she's very agressive and doesn't like to be touched. usually she would rear back and either nip at you or lunge to get you to back away. today she didn't move, but lay in bun-loaf form in the back. i didn't suspect anything, and thought that perhaps after several months, she was finally warming up to me. she lay there and let me groom her, pulling out several chunks of loose fur. afterwards, i decided to flip over her floor mat to a cleaner side. she barely moved, and i had to practically pick her up to get it in place. since she got very dirty from loose bits of food crumbs and hay falling on her, i decided to try her out for her very first bath. so i wrapped her in a towel (which was surprisingly easy, considering her agressiveness), and took her to a sink with warm water in it. my son and i tried to get her clean and again, she never moved. afterwards, i decided to put her in link's cage and swap them for a few days so she could have a slightly cleaner environment until she recovered from surgery. she hopped out and laid in bun-loaf form in the cage.
i took link out and bathed him too. he acted like himself, and kept hopping on to the counter to see where he was. (don't worry, i had at least one hand on him at all times!)
i thought nothing of anything, except for the oddness of zelda's apathy until we saw her flopped over this evening. i came undone.
after david and i discussed it, i first decided i would bury her out on the hill (we live in the back of a housing track which opens onto many miles of hills, valleys and natural land), but after some thought, decided on something different. (putting her in the trash was just out of the question). there are many coyotes out on the hill, who are struggling to survive because of constant development going on around them. i decided i wanted to give back to nature and let zelda return to it; trying to continue the cycle. i hope you know what i mean and don't think ill of my decision.
so david and i walked and walked until we got to a part of the path that was well out of the way of the housing track; maybe a quarter of a mile in. we then turned off the path for a long way, so you couldn't see the path anymore. along the ridgeline was a perfect spot of bushes forming a circle with a small clearing in the middle. it was the perfect size for her. david settled her down and arranged her peacefully, and we left.
after returning link to his cage, he seemed to know. he sniffed around a bit and then seemed very sad, and kind of put out with me. he's just been laying around, mostly, but still acting like himself, so i don't think it's something contagious to him.
anyhow, that's what happened.
i feel like crap because if i had been paying more attention to my intuition and the little signs, she might still be alive. as it is, i almost called the vet today because of her behavior, but just figured she was having mood swings, just a bit more severe than usual.
so moral of the story is: pay attention to the facts and listen to yourself. maybe you'll save your bunny.
edit: now that i remember, she also hadn't eaten all week either. i figured she was just being a picky eater and taking her time, since normally link hogs all the food and eats it in one go. maybe she was just old? we don't know her history, so maybe she had a decent or long life and this was just her time. if so, explains why she was always so cranky!