I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have started writing this post in the past couple weeks and I ended up deleting it because I was so distraught that I couldn’t think straight let alone see straight. This is not going to be a cheery post but hopefully it will teach you something. Something that I didn’t even realize that I needed to learn until it was too late.
A couple weeks ago one of my friends was out of town and I was babysitting his pup, Twister, for a few days. This dog has been to my house many times and has always had a great time playing with my dogs and running all over my house and in and out of the dog door. If you have read some of my other posts you know that I have rabbits, 3 of them named Tina, Gene, and Louise, after Bob’s Burgers. They have their own room in my house with a baby gate in front of their door mostly, so my dogs don’t go in there and steal their toys or the treats, because every time they get the chance, they do it! Because Twister had never shown any interest in my bunnies before I didn’t think much about this. I figured that everyone would be fine. I was at work and I got a call from my brother, who was home at the time, and I had this sinking feeling in my gut that something was wrong. I answered his call and he told me that I had to come home. He went to go take a shower and when he got out Twister had jumped over the gate and attacked one of my rabbits. I left work and, on my way, home I called my husband to tell him what happened and asked him to find the closest emergency vet and text the address to my brother and myself and tell him that I would meet him there. When I was a few minutes away from my house and I hadn’t gotten an address, yet I started to panic so I called my husband and asked where I needed to go, and he told me that I just needed to come home. He was there when I got home and was taking care of everything. Tina had been killed but Gene and Louise weren’t hurt. I was beyond devastated because this was my fault. I know that Twister can jump but because he didn’t show any interest in them all the other times, he had been at my house I didn’t think he would do anything and that was so stupid of me. Because I trust my own dogs doesn’t mean that dogs that haven’t grown up with rabbits know not to attack them. I wasn’t ever mad at him. He was just being a dog. I should have shut the door and not taken any chances. I suppose the fortunate thing about this is that I think if Gene would have died instead of Tina, I know that I would have lost Louise pretty quickly after because she would have died of a broken heart since they have been bonded for so long. When I was driving home, I assumed it was Gene since he is always the first one to run up to the gate and greet anyone that comes into their room. Gene and Louise have been very depressed since this happened. They haven’t been eating much and they have been hiding more, but I’ve been doing the same thing and I understand how they feel, and it sucks.
I only had Tina for just under 2 years. I rescued her from my friend Lois’s yard. Her grandson Blake and I ran around trying to catch her because her neighbors on the other side of her cal de sac were having a graduation party for their son and she was worried that someone was going to run her over. She had been feeding her for a few days and looking for her owners thinking that she had escaped from a backyard, but no one ever claimed her. I took her home and to the vet the next day to make sure that she was healthy since she was in a house with 2 other rabbits. She was absolutely beautiful so I didn’t think that it would be that hard to get her adopted. Little did I know of the major bunny dumping issue that Las Vegas was facing at the time. Literally thousands of rabbits that people had bought for Easter or presents for other occasions were being dumped anywhere with grass. Rabbits that have been born and bred in captivity cannot survive in the wild. They will die. Any animal that didn’t come directly from the wild will die if you just let it go. You’re not doing the best thing for that animal. You are murdering it.
After I realized that I was going to keep her I got her spayed and she moved in with Gene and Louise. Since right now it is kitten season, I wanted to bottle feed motherless kittens to help me heal. I had fostered a kitten for a couple months that Tina absolutely loved. His name is Bitty, and he got adopted by a little girl and her mother. I filled out several applications so I could take a basket of tiny kittens and feed the around the clock. Between my husband, brother, and myself there isn’t much time that there isn’t someone home or awake. I didn’t realize that most of the time about half of the kittens that aren’t fed by a cat die. There is this massaging thing that cats do to their kittens that helps the digest and when humans do it it can be either too much or not enough and they can develop a blockage. After this experience with Tina I’m not sure that would do very well with that, but if I get the call from a rescue you can bet that I will be taking those kittens.
My point in this is hug your pets and shut the door. Even if you don’t think it’s going to be an issue.