The loss of a beloved pet

Last night Chris went out to bring the bunnies in and discovered Tiddah was dead. We're not sure why. She had no really obvious signs of being sick so I don't think it was anything bad like myxo or calici virus that she died from. I do think it was something to do with her digestion as rabbits have a very delicate digestive system. She's been having unformed cecotropes (don't read that link if you don't want to be grossed out!) for awhile but we changed the bunnies diet and stopped giving them the pellets and this seemed to stop so we thought all was ok! Ingesting too much fur can also lead to gut statis. Tiddah is an angora bunny and there has been an awful lot of fur in her cage lately so I also suspect she may have had problems from this too. I can't help feeling immensely guilty over all of this. I should have taken her to the vet at the first sign of the problems. At least then they would have been able to give me some advice on how to care for her and what the problems could be.

We've only had Tiddah a few months as we got her from a couple that were moving overseas but she was very much a part of our family. She provided company for our other bunny, Cheeky, who was lonely after her first companion escaped about a year ago. The children also loved her, both of them would call her by name and liked to give her cuddles. As annoying as it may have been, I'm going to miss giving her 'haircuts' and having angora fur floating everywhere around the house and on our clothes!! I'm even going to miss lugging her weight around to take her outside each day! I feel so sorry for Cheeky too as she's lost a good friend. We're trying to give her lots of cuddles and time with us so she doesn't get too lonely. She spends the evenings with us and the days outside with the guinea pigs. Last night she sat next to me on the couch and kept jumping up on me and licking me - so cute!

I guess this is as good a time as any to teach the kids about the cycle of life. Esme's still a bit young but I think Jacob is just coming into this sort of awareness. I haven't told him yet but will either tonight or tomorrow. I plan to bury Tiddah while he is here and talk about how she has gone to a special place, where she is happy. We'll just have to see how it goes...