I’ve been heartened by the depth of love and remembrance I’ve read in some of the other posts about beloved bunnies who have gone on to wait for us at the end of the Rainbow Bridge, so I thought I would type out a quick remembrance for my bunny, Betty, who passed away in January.

I got Betty in 2013 from a rabbit shelter in GA.  They didn’t know her age for certain, as someone had left her in a box on their doorstep.  As soon as I went into her enclosure and started to rub her head, she purred.  She was instantly my new kid   Once I got her home, I was amazed by how loving and intelligent this new bunny was.  I had never before had a bunny who not only accepted, but enjoyed interaction with her human caretaker.  She regularly purred and gently took treats from my hand.  Even in her many trips to the vet over the years, the vet would comment on how docile and social she was.  All the vet techs and vets loved bestowing rubs on my sweet Betty.  One worker even commented that she had always disliked rabbits because she had had some bad experiences with them scratching/biting, but she loved Betty.  In the middle of 2016, she went off her food, which was VERY unusual for this not at all picky bunny.  The vet diagnosed a gastric slow down, but I asked for blood work.  He found that her kidney values were off, but they quickly rebounded with fluids.  At that point, he decided it was probably just dehydration due to her not eating or drinking much for a few days.  A few months later, she again started slowing down her eating.  The blood work was similar, so at that point my vet diagnosed kidney insufficiency.  I had to give her fluids regularly (when her eating slowed down) subcutaneously.  Once I got through the first few clumsy attempts of giving her fluid, my sweet Betty would quietly and calmly allow me to give her fluids on a regular basis.  She was hospitalized a couple of times over the next year or so, but generally seemed to enjoy life.  Around Christmas of 2017, she again slowed down.  After consulting with the vet, I started giving her fluids more often, but she did not improve as expected.  She was hospitalized in the early part of January to give her IV fluids, but her blood work did not really improve.  At that point, they diagnosed her as being in kidney failure.  I took her home and gave her fluids for a few days, but her demeanor was not at all herself–she even avoided me at one point and was having accidents as well as not eating her pellets at all.  At that point, though it pained me to do so, with my vet’s input, I decided to euthanize her.  It broke my heart, but the vet said even with force feeding and twice daily subQ fluids, she would at best have a week or two.  I could not stand to see her hunched up, not eating much, and then force fed/stuck with needles just to keep her here that short a time.  I told her that I hope to see her again, as she was the best bunny I’ve ever had the joy of parenting for what was too short a time for me.