Doug's Rabbits -- Memorials   


"If having a soul means being able to feel love
and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans
... Wherever you are going, they are going too."

James Herriot, All Creatures Great and Small, Chapter 43.



Fooper 1984-4 Dec 1992

Fooper was the bun that got me started into house rabbits.  Fooper started out living with my best friend's girlfriend in college, against rules, in her dorm room.  The friend's friend, who was a year behind us at school, when making plans for her senior year, found that she was going to be living in an apartment with another girl who was allergic to most animals.  As the Foo Bun was a frequent visitor to our dorm, I was asked if I would be willing to take the bun.  I was.

Fooper was a really neat rabbit and was very laid back and easy going.  He did a lot of travelling with me and my family, starting with his trip home from college, which was a six-hour car ride.  He made visits with me to my elderly aunt's senior residence, where he caused a stir, he often travelled to the cottage with us, not being phazed in the slightest by having to ride in a boat.   I was teaching kindergarten Sunday School at the time and Fooper was an oft-visitor there, too, to the delight of the kids.  He'd romp about the Sunday School room with the kids playing with blocks and cars and was a neat object lesson about God's creation of creatures.  Fooper also went to school with me and started our school's now-annual tradition of being visited by whatever house rabbits are currently living with me.  Also, many a summer day would find the Fooper Bun in his harness and leash out in the backyard, sleeping under a rose bush, or munching a maple leaf or two.  He was a special bun.
Scooter ??-28 May 1998

I acquired Scooter when she turned up as a stray in our parking lot at work.  I never did locate her original owner.  Really sad that someone either let her go, or she was let out in a yard that was not well protected.  She was a bit of a feisty bun, and liked to growl and bat at anyone or anything that gets in her way.  This photo was taken when were out visiting, and she was in her travel box.  I love the look on her face, as if to say, "When are we going home???"

Scooter met her untimely end on Thursday, May 28, 1998.  She had been diagnosed with cancer the previous January at the time she was spayed, but there was no reason to be concerned at that time as it was believed to be a slow moving cancer.  She had been acting normally up until the morning she died.  I got home from work to find her in a bad way, so she was rushed to the vet where they tried to help her, but she was in too much trouble.  Rest in peace, my friend.


Ginger 1992-29 March 1999

Ginger came home with me from the SPCA as a not-yet fully grown bun, though the folks at the SPCA thought she was.  Needless to say, she got bigger.  She was 13 lbs of raw she-bun.   Right!!  A big wuss was more like it, a gentle giant, if you will.  She was very friendly, climbed stairs in the blink of an eye.  Did unbelievable damage to any unsuspecting and unprotected electrical cord or wire.

Ginger succumbed to advanced cancer which was first found as a huge mammary lump on her chest.  She died a few days after surgery to remove the tumor.  A post mortem showed that she had spots in her lungs and liver, which had been undetected.  Ginger fortunately had a swift end with a disease which could easily have been long and painful.


Brownie ??- Feb 1988

Brownie appeared as a stray on the doorstep of a friend's.  As this friend had several rabbits already, and let them play in a fenced area of the yard, Brownie was attracted to the brood of bunnies, somehow got in, and impregnated a bunch of the buns.  The friend later turned Brownie over to me as I already had a male at the time, and thus there'd be no problems with more baby bunnies.  I had Brownie only a short time, from the fall of 1987 until he died in early 1988.  He had just gone through a successful neutering procedure and was doing well, when he suddenly fell ill.  Depsite the efforts of the vet, Brownie died while undergoing X-rays at the vet's.  A post mortem revealed that he had had a perforated ulcer.  A true mystery to find an animal with an ulcer.

Buster   1991?? - 16 Dec 2003

Buster was a special bun.  I ended up with him after the daughter of a coworker turned out to be allergic to their new pet.  He was a Netherland Dwarf, and weighed in at a hefty 2 lbs, and loved everyone.  Stop by his cage and put your fingers in, and he would lick and chin each one in sequence a few times.  A great pick-me-up after a tough day.  Buster had some wild medical adventures in his long life.   He once injured his left eye playing with a heavy food dish during the night which resulted in a trip to the emergency vet.  He lost the sight in the eye, but managed to keep it so he still looked "normal."  Then another time he had a huge bladder stone.  He wasn't acting well and we went off to the vet's and they ended up operating on him, and removed a marble-sized stone from his urethra!  No wonder he was acting poorly.  He survived both of those major medical concerns and had a long, wonderful life.  If all Netherlands are like Buster, I want another one real soon!!


Nibbles   1996??- 25 Feb 2005


Nibbles turned up on the doorstep of work in the fall of 1997 and was adopted by one of the students at work.  The student had one too many animals and her mom said "enough!"  The student asked me about taking on another rabbit the day after Scooter died (see above).  Nibbles was named for her propensity for "nibbling" on everything -- bars of the cage, cardboard, rugs, etc.  She was rather skittish when I first got her, but turned into a very friendly bun, though she never liked to be held.  Cuddles and scritches on the floor were OK, and indeed scritches were always sought whenever anyone walked past her cage.

Midnight   May 2002 - 31 July 2006

Midnight was adopted from the SPCA with his suspected brother bun, Shadow.  They lived together nicely for a few years and then Midnight, who was always the dominant of the pair, got too aggressive and they had to be separated.  I always referred to Midnight as my "big, bossy, boisterous bun" what with his dominant behavior.  He wasn't big on scritches and cuddles on the floor or in his cage, but when picked up he'd turn into a big marshmallow and enjoy whatever attention you were giving him.

Midnight died unexpectedly apparently due to a Pasteurella-induced bout of pneumonia, (my vet did a necropsy on Midnight) which while rare, does sadly happen to rabbits.  See http://www.rabbit.org/chapters/san-diego/health/vet-talk/pasteurella.html for more information about this.
Bugs Bunny   21 January 2005 - 9 January 2008

Bugs Bunny came from the friend-of-a-friend whose home situation had changed and Bugs couldn't be accommodated in the new domicile.  Bugs was an adorable lop-eared bunny and was extremely friendly.  Even the day he joined the group here he was already looking for scritches and didn't mind from whom he received them.  Often, rabbits in a new situation will be pretty wary of everyone and everything until they adjust to their new environment, which sometimes takes days.  Not for Bugs, though!  He settled right in!

Bugs met his untimely end when he suddenly developed some intestinal distress, starting with a bout of diarrhea.  Knowing that diarrhea constitutes an emergency with rabbits, I contacted my vet immedately who said to bring him in in the morning if things didn't improve overnight.  This started after 5 PM, of course.  I got Bugs to the vet's office first thing the next morning and despite the efforts of the vet clinic's staff, Bugs died that evening.  The vet thinks that Bugs' teeth may have been growing out of line and causing irritation in his mouth so that he wasn't eating properly.



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Updated January 21, 2008