Jake The Bunny

Yesterday was a sad day in the Ginther household. Well, maybe just for me. We lost my bunny rabbit, Jake and sadly I feel a bit responsible for him going so quickly.

Over 5 1/2 years ago I rescued Jake from a house a few blocks over who left him in a cage IN the street with a sign on it saying Free. Seeing the guy who lived at the house I could tell this bunny was not well cared for. There were a few other rabbits in the yard in cages along with a few dogs and cats. Kind of part zoo, part junkyard.The guy told me he found Jake hopping around outside with the stray cats. Me being a sucker took Jake in. He started out as an outdoor bunny at our house. Then winter came and I just couldn't leave him outdoors so we brought his cage inside.

In the beginning (pre-kids) we let Jake run around the house. My funniest memory with Jake was the morning that my water broke while I was pregnant with Kieran. I can't remember why Jake was out of his cage that morning but once he was out he was impossible to catch to get him back in. I remember it was time to leave to go to the hospital and I was trying to catch him. Every time I leaned over to get him I would squirt out amniotic fluid. Bend, squirt, bend, squirt. I know, TMI, but I was hysterically laughing as it was happening. I could only imagine how stupid I looked 9 months pregnant. Not to worry, nothing got on the floor. I was properly padded. :-)

He also was one of the only rabbits I know of who loved climbing up and down stairs. With having the front and back staircases it was always a challenge catching him when it was time to go back in.

After the kids were born poor Jake became more of a caged rabbit. I didn't have time to chase him and Kieran would more or less harass him. So in the cage he stayed. He was spoiled, though. He got all kinds of yummy treats throughout the day and lots of love.

Not knowing how old Jake really is I'm sure he was pretty old. Back in November he stopped eating for 3 days. When I took him to the vet she found some sort of mass in his spleen area. Knowing that anything invasive can kill a rabbit, and knowing how expensive it is for x-rays and so forth for an animal that you can't really do anything for we opted to create a sort of hospice. We didn't expect him to last the week. He did. He had become very frail and was having a harder time breathing than usual. The vet gave me pain meds for him to keep him comfortable. When I picked him up yesterday he must have been too frail. I think that was the nail in the coffin. He freaked when I picked him up and jumped back into the cage. He sat in the corner for a minute or so and then just fell onto his side. He was struggling to breathe and I knew this was it. Within a minute he was gone. My poor bunny is in heaven now. Thanks for the great years, Bunbun. We never thought rabbits could have personalities until I rescued you.