Pet Cemetery "DEAD BUNNY"

It all started late yesterday afternoon as Madison was feeding her puppy. I was in the house watching some TV show and Madison busts through the door and yells "guess what I just caught!" I figured it was the lizard that lives by the A/C unit that Grant is dying to catch so I asked and she said she had caught a baby rabbit.

Well, actually our 2 dogs had caught the rabbit and had already done the damage but it was still alive. She was on her way to feed the puppy when she saw that Molly and Skip had something and it was squelling, so she went to see. She kicked the dogs off and rescued the bunny from the torture of 2 dogs ripping it apart. So she scoops it up and brings it to show us.

By this time she could tell that it was hurt, she wasn't too upset because she has lost 2 bunnies that I caught for her last year after they died. She had been whining about wanting a bunny and I was able to catch one in the yard last year. We were told by several that it would never live but we were going to try. A couple days later I caught another one, most likely the sibling to this one and had hopes that together they might live. Madison cared for them with everything she had, each day she would sit and hold them, feed them and actually took them out in the yard to play after a week or so. Well.....they didn't last long, about 4 weeks tops when the first one died and a few days later the second one died. Madison and Grant were heart broken.

So this time they were at least prepared with the knowledge that the bunny would not live, especially knowing that it was hurt. Well it lived for approx 1/2 hour or so, just long enough for them to comfort it, as it was dying Madison worked to keep it alive but alas it died anyway. Nothing really new to them, we have lost several pets over the years and in the wake have created a small pet cemetery.

So off to bury the bunny, I went and got a shovel and Madison and Grant picked out a spot under a large walnut tree in the back yard. We had a short grave side service, a bit of silence, as the kids covered the bunny back up and Kelli sang a hymn. The ground was a bit hard and I could not get it very deep, I just hope I don't come home this afternoon and find it dug up and fur all over the yard.

In a way I am glad that my kids have been able to experience death of something that they have cared for at a young age. I never experienced it until later in life, first was my Grandfather, I didn't know him that well, he and my Grandmother had separated before I was born and he lived in Memphis. I only saw him once a year so I really was never close to him. My first real experience with grief was when my dog Brandy died. My dad got her for me when I was 1, she was my best friend before anyone else. She was there for me when I needed someone; she saved my life when I was very small, my dad was burning some stuff and I wandered a little close to the fire, she knocked me down and held me down until my dad came to get me; she comforted me, she had a nice big dog house that I ran away from home to a few times and stayed in with her. She died when I was 16, and I cried like a baby for weeks over her, she was my first real loss. I did not understand death at that time and I had always just thought that she would always be there. I have only lost 3 other family members, my cousin Rebecca, my Grandmother and my other Grandfather.

Over the 9 years that Madison has been around we have buried at least 1 dog every 2 years.
1st Jack, a Jack Russell Terrier "he was like a son"
2nd Glitter, a Westie "she was like my daughter"
3rd Skipper, a Shipperke
4th one of Molly's pups
Additionally there have been 2 bunnies and now a third, and another Jack Russell "Brownie" that just wandered away.
So she has had her fair share of loosing animals, each time a dog died we would take it together to the back of my lot and bury it in the fence row, say a few words over it and have a prayer together. I believe this has helped her at least to understand that things don't live forever. She is able to deal with it, even though she still gets a bit upset, she gets over it quickly and moves on with life. Grant on the other hand is very soft about it, he balled over this dead rabbit, he only saw it less than a half hour and all he could get out between the tears and anguish was "I sure miss that rabbit".

I hope that bringing them up in Church and them knowing God will help them as well to cope with deaths in the future. My wife's grandparents are getting old and I don't think they have many more years left, I am thankful that they have had as many with them as they have and are as close to them as they are. It is hard to explain how close knit the family is, the entire family is only about 3 miles from each other and typically see each other on a daily basis so we are very close. I dread the day that they pass on, it will be hard not only for them, but for me as well since they are as close or even closer to me than my own family. I know God and I am thankful to know that most others I love so dearly know him as well. Just another reason to bring those around us to know Him.