Hunny

Hunny Faith Dreamer, my beloved bunny, has joined her siblings Freddie, Skippy, Trixie, Missy, Rex, Junior and Shadow over the Rainbow Bridge.

Hunny lived a good life ...

She was adopted from the Kildonan Place Petland, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on July 18th, 1996. A week prior, I had adopted an African Pygmy Hedgehog, who didn't take to my household and had to be returned. Shortly after adopting the hedgehog I named Reilly, I was at Kildonan Place, and spotted a small, blonde rabbit sitting all by herself in a little glass cage. It was at that moment, I believe, that I fell in love with her.

I was horrified at myself, for making such a rash decision in adopting Reilly, and not waiting a few more days to have seen the blonde bunny. Luckily (for me) Reilly was not well adjusted to my home, and had to be returned a week later; and on July 18th (the day after I returned Reilly), I was given the go-ahead from my folks to adopt the blonde bunny, whom I had already named Hunny.

Odd thing here: upon seeing the rabbit, I started calling her Hunny (in my mind, at least). I don't know why, really, other than the fact that she was a "honey" colour. The odd spelling doesn't come from Winnie the Pooh's "hunny", but rather because it was spelled like bunny.

Of course this was all corny, but I told myself that if events were to change in my favour, and the rabbit were mine - I would call her Hunny. So a week later, when I took her home, she was given the name Hunny Faith Dreamer.

The petstore workers told me that she was roughly two months old (although a vet later put her at 3 months - so I made her birthday April 24th), and they also told me she was a he. Having always owned female animals myself, I wasn't ready to break the chain with a male rabbit. So I adopted the rabbit anyway, and decided to hope for the best.

Sure enough, a few months later, the vet confirmed my belief ... Hunny was a she.

Hunny had many milestones in her short life - such as eating a well-wishing bag (which contained an elastic, eraser, marble, and two Hersey's Kisses) ... when it fell upon her cage - this resulted in one freaked out Mummy, a trip to WinRose (Hun's vet), and a week of vaseline. As well, she was spayed after I learned that 99% of female rabbits die because of uterine cancer. So I had to leave my baby at the vets, after surgery. When I went to pick her up, I found that not only had she chowed down on Lamb (the bunny toy she is pictured with above), but she had eaten everything the assistants had placed in her cage ... newspaper, towels, etc. She finally was given a bowl of food, and that was it.

Hunny's life was short - and although I understand that for a rabbit, 5 years is not short - I say this because as any mother, I assumed my child would live forever. Rabbit handbooks had book the estimated rabbit life at 8-10 years, so I was preparing for much longer.

I had already planned out Hunny's 5th birthday party, planned Christmas gifts to get her, tricks to teach her, etc. It's hard to believe that she's already gone. Five years were not enough!!

Pictures - isn't it funny, but after they're gone, it always seems like you didn't take enough pictures? I don't think I did. It's like the "2nd child syndrome" where it always seems like the second child doesn't have as much of their lives documented as the first child. In this case, Hunny was the 1st child, and yet her pictorial history is sadly lacking.

But that's just the heartbroken mother in me talking. Hunny will go down in history as the "best daughter" ... even thought I've yet to experience *real motherhood*. Hun truly was the best child ... she was playful, cuddly, sweet, outgoing ... and a real joy to be around. She brought sunshine into my life, something that has since seemed not as bright.

If I could bring Hunny back, I wouldn't think twice about it. If I could have had her forever and a day - I would have welcomed it with pleasure.

Hunny, you are sadly missed.

Blessed Be.