Farewell "Spaghetti Jones" and "Meatball"

It is with a very heavy sad heart that I write this post. I am not sure if I mentioned that we found 2 baby bunnies a week before Easter. We took them in, as we did not think they would survive, because they were so little. I did not plan on keeping them. I had always heard rabbits attract mice, they smell and are a pain in the butt. I can honestly say 2 out of the 3 are correct. I did not notice any mice while they were around. Once the children gave them names, I knew I was doomed. They named them "Spaghetti and Meatball" because one was skinny and well the other one was not. As time went on, of course as is with most pets, guess who handled a major portion of their care. Yep, the M O M. I did some research and was getting them to be played with, slowly working on introducing them to our dogs and then I got real. I knew it was going to be too much, and we were not being fair to the rabbits. I know you have heard of people that have "vibes" with animals. Call me crazy, but I feel I am that way. If I did my anatomy check correct spaghetti is a female and meatball is a male. Spaghetti is a firecracker. She would bite, and would only settle down for me. I did manage to get her calm while holding her, and she only bite me once. If anyone else tried to get her, I could guarantee they would get bit. She was also, the wild one. Always jumping, wanting to explore and looking around. During my time with her, I added to her name "Jones" and she became "Spaghetti Jones." It somehow suited her.

I spoke to the kids and we decided that we needed to release them back into their habitat. It didn't work. I did what I read about and the rabbits didn't go any further than about 4 ft in almost 5 hours. It started to get dark and we were under a tornado watch, so we brought them back in. I thought we would try again this weekend. Saturday came and we noticed that Meatball was bleeding. Of course the children get very concerned. Being the nurse, I examine him and find his foot and hind leg have been injured. His hind leg was pretty bad. I cleaned him up and tried to put a bandage on, but he would have nothing to do with it. From the get go, I sensed something was different about him. He was a cuddle bug. He would cuddle into me and I could hold him for hours. He never bit. I feel both rabbits knew their names. They would raise their ears when we said them. It was so cute. Back to Meatball, sorry. We separated them, cuz I thought I had seen them fighting earlier that morning. I put Meatball on a towel and we gave him water and his pellets and a carrot, and I was afraid he was not going to be alive in the morning. Thank God, he was. We found Spaghetti had created a hide out for herself and was completely under the Timothy Hay and we could not see her at first glance. Talk about giving me a heart attack. I did try to find a rabbit vet Saturday night, and that was a learning experience in of it self. The closest one was over an hour away. JOY. When we got home from church today, I got back online and looked into rescue facilities for rabbits. I managed to find some organization that had 24 hour volunteers. I called and left a message. They called back and connected me with a "rehab-er" not too far away. We had a family meeting, and explained to the kids we had to do what was best for the rabbits. Interesting how even in a not light hearted situation, out of nowhere comes something funny. As we were discussing the plan, my daughter says, "Mom, you keep talking rehab, like Lindsey Lohan and Brittany?" I really needed that! Perspective of an 8yo. We all came to agreement. I could not bring myself to go drop them off. My husband and son went. The lady that took them, said we could call and check on Meatball tomorrow to see how he was doing. She did compliment us and said they looked in good condition and had been well taken care of. I will miss them. I already do. Doing the right thing, really s*cks sometimes.