How to help your bonded rabbit with grief.

“For a good life: Work like a dog. Eat like a horse. Think like a fox. And play like a rabbit" George Allen

Emma & Geri Part 3.

Hello again and thanks for tuning in to read the third and final part of Emma & Geri the spice bunnies! So you’ve heard how Emma & Geri came into our lives and part of their daily routine. If not, you might want to go back and read my last two blogs. Now, to finish I just wanted to touch on how to help a bonded rabbit cope with grief.

During the time that we owned our beloved rascals, I would always read a magazine called “Rabbiting On”, produced by the Rabbit Welfare Association & Fund in the UK. There were so many well written articles about all things relating to Rabbits. It helped me enormously to understand our rabbit’s behavior and gave lots of tips on how to look after them.

Just to digress a while, having had 3 dogs when I was growing up, I was well aware of the anxiety that can be caused when you lose a pet, not only for me but for the other pets in the house. We had a situation at home where we had two beagle bitches from different litters that grew up together, Becky and Clio. Maybe a few years after we had them, we rescued a bulldog called Francis and they all got along well most of the time. Like all dogs they had the odd disagreement. Becky and Clio slept in the kitchen while Francis slept in my parents’ room.

When we had to have Becky euthanised I was very upset, I had grown up with her and it was a big blow to me. That night, I went to bed, my room was above the kitchen, I was crying and I could hear Clio crying too, this made me feel even worse. I couldn’t stand the pain so I went downstairs and took her to my room so that we could console each other. She continued to share my bedroom with me until I got married.

How does this relate to rabbits you ask? I’m just revisiting this experience so that you can see my thinking when we came to have our spice bunnies. They had such a loving bond, always nudging and washing each other I would often think about what might happen when we lost one of them and how the remaining one would cope. Until that is I read an article regarding this in “Rabbiting On”, it suggested that you let your rabbit spend some time alone with the deceased rabbit to allow him time to say goodbye. We did this for Geri when he lost his beloved Emma, I can’t say if it helped him I can only hope it did.

Something else we did to help him was to give him a stuffed toy. Each Christmas when we put up the decorations we placed some stuffed toys around the tv. One of these toys was a reindeer we called Rudi, as Geri ran past the tv he would often go over to Rudi and nudge him. Thinking about this after we lost Emma, we thought it might be a good idea to go in the loft and fetch Rudi down for him. Each night Rudi would be placed in the hutch with Geri and when he got up in the morning and came downstairs so did Rudi. Geri would often wash and nudge Rudi; Geri went on to live another two and a half years later until he was almost twelve.

As rabbits are social animals, this is something you could consider for rabbits housed on their own, you might be surprised how your bunny takes to a new friend!

So marks the end of the tales of Emma & Geri. For all of those bunny lovers out there I hope you have enjoyed their stories as much as I have in telling them. If you need your rabbit looking after when you are away, give K9 Walkies a call, I would love to help you. A 30 minute daily visit to your home to feed, clean, let them out to play and do a health check will be all they need, visits can be longer if required.

Moving on; while it was a wet week again at K9 Walkies, we managed to get some walks in all without getting wet, I didn’t need the wet weather pants even though I had gone out especially to get some! Luis, Blue, Sonny & Marley are all now regulars and we will have two more boys to join the pack this week. I’m really looking forward to getting to know them.

Unfortunately due to the current covid situation, we have had a few cancellations at the Doggy Hotel. If you want a change of scenery why not book a short break in SA, a two or three night stay at K9 Walkies Doggy Hotel is ideal for your dog to try us out, they will get one on one attention. I can guarantee; they will want to come back for more!

Once again, thanks for reading

Regards, Kath