Bye Bye Bunny!!

This past week, we lost our sweet Himalayan rabbit, Vertigo. She was named after the Alfred Hitchcock movie and how she would practically give you vertigo watching her run around as a young bunny. Mommy and Daddy have had her for the past 7 1/2 years and she has been a wonderful pet. Go-Go (as C called her) was so gentle with Scout despite being a little afraid of C's more recent toddler ways. It appears that she passed peacefully and while her appetite had significantly reduced in the past few weeks, she still appreciated a firm nose nuzzle right up until the end.

Kevin found a nice place to bury her in our back yard and as were getting ready to go to sleep that night we remembered all of the fun times we had with her. Unfortunately, most of them were before Scout's arrival.

I bought Vertigo from a fellow 4-Her because she was related to rabbits in my line back when I was showing. When I got settled after college, I tracked the breeder down at the state fair and within months got to bring home an itty-bitty baby bunny! She was so little and had frosty fur all over her black markings. She looked so little in her cage the first night I had her and so I let her snuggle with a special FAO Schwartz stuffed animal had given me when we first started dating - from that point on the snuggle friend was "claimed". It wasn't long before she was flitting and frolicking around my apartment like the little queen that she was demanding our attention whenever possible. She would do mini-tricks for bunny treats like rolling a small ball or rolling on her side and would always let us know when she disapproved of something with a firm thump of her hind legs. All in all, she made a pretty decent house rabbit and learned to use her cage as her restroom, but we never could break her of chewing on chords. Kevin always seems to have had some task of replacing speaker wire or a phone cords from Verti's latest chewing debacle, despite our best efforts to keep them covered!

She LOVED bananas, apples, dried cranberries and any dead leaf she encountered outside. She was never much into eating the grass. When we watched movies (that used to be frequent before Clara) she would either lay down at our feet or right in front of the entertainment center and wouldn't move for the whole two hours or so!

Her last few years were spent running about in our laundry room going back and forth between her cage and a couple of her hiding spots. Unlike many of my other rabbits she had an independent spirit and never really liked to be held, but if you sat on the floor near her, she climb up on your lap and nudge your hand until you pet her.


Luckily Clara doesn't fully understand yet what has happen to Verti although she has asked about her every day. As she grows up I will let her know that the two of them had many fun times together. Once we feel ready, we anticipate getting another bunny for our girls to enjoy - hopefully as much as we enjoyed our Verti!!