My sweet Bellatrix passed unexpectedly nearly three weeks ago. I have not been able to bring myself here or talk about it until now. 

We lost her to GI stasis. I found her limp and weak Sunday afternoon 9/3 and started feeding critical care. Unfortunately, it was a weekend and I called every hospital for miles and no one had a rabbit vet on call, not even the major hospital in the big city. 

I knew she wasn’t going to make it, she was barely breathing. She passed only an hour later. It was not peaceful.

I should have noticed she wasn’t well that morning. She was a snobby bunny and usually hid from us when we go to see the buns. I just assumed she was being a snob, not that she was sick. If I had noticed earlier, maybe I could’ve fed the critical care in time. She must have eaten some stuffing from a bed. It had been in the room forever and they had never torn it up but it was torn up that day. After she died, I took her back to see her bondmate, then I held her for nearly an hour. I just couldn’t believe she was gone. 

We buried her in our pet cemetery out back. She is the first bun I have lost and was only a year old. I can hardly bring myself to look at her photos. All the pets I have had, dogs, cats, hamsters, ferrets, birds, I have never mourned like this. She was so sweet and beautiful and funny and fat. She had the cutest little nose and the silliest play habits. 

Her bondmate is doing ok. He was bonded with me well before we got her and he has reattached himself to me fervently. He runs and jumps in my lap when I come into the room and will sit there forever if I let him. We moved the baby next door, the one who hasn’t been spayed yet (our only other rabbit). They can see each other and that seems to have helped him AND her, who had been alone before then. He mourned for several days and I had to coax him to eat. I was so scared I would lose him, too. I’ve let him and the baby have a few play dates and I think they will get along splendidly after the spay which is mid-October. It’ll be late November before I will consider bonding. 

My bunnies mean the world to me and you all are the only ones who would understand how attached I am to them and how much it hurts to lose my Bellaltrix.