Monday Memories - 4
Bunnies at Easter
I didn't take T to have her photo taken in a studio setting very often - maybe 3 or 4 times because I really don't like the studio shots, but at Easter there was always a special deal AND they had live bunnies, plus grandparents like those cheesy studio portraits. T loved animals of all kinds and bunnies were no different so she enjoyed these photo shoots and posed nicely for the man behind the camera.
With Easter just around the corner, this Monday Memories has me remembering the year I gave T a live bunny in her Easter basket. What a surprise it was for her on that 3rd Easter celebration. I put the little lop eared bunny right in her basket along with the stuffed chick. Aren't baby bunnies the cutest thing ever? She didn't realize it was real until it jumped - she squealed with delight. Aw so cute.
She named him Brambles and she loved that bunny. As he got older, and fatter, we put him in a cage outside. She would feed him carrots and let him jump around in the grass, attached to a leash.
Brambles lived for about a year and it was because of me that he died. As the temperatures dipped in the winter months we would cover the cage with a warm blanket to keep him warm, but one night it got extremely cold - in the teens I think - and I had not thought about the bunny or the fact that it was going to be much too cold for him to stay outside. Not until early in the morning that is - I jumped up and ran outside to check on him. I was relieved to find him breathing, but he was very lifeless. I picked him up to bring him in and as I was walking back inside he had some sort of seizure and I think he stopped breathing. I rushed inside frantically calling my dad (we were living at their house at the time) and he calmly gave that little bunny CPR and pumped his heart back to life. We put him on top of the clothes dryer with it running - Dad said the motion would stimulate his heart and the heat would help him thaw out. I thought Brambles was doing a little better but then he went into cardiac arrest again and Dad couldn't bring him back. I let T's bunny freeze to death while she was away. T had been at her dad's for the weekend and was coming home soon. I didn't know how I would tell her - she was only 4. We talked to her together and she cried and cried but she wanted to see him. We thought that it was a good idea for her to see him just looking like he was sleeping peacefully and had died in his sleep (not that I froze him to death). Sitting there on the floor in the laundry room, she held him, tears running down her little cheeks. We told her we had to put him to rest in the ground - this made her confused really, we tried to explain and finally she said, sobbing, "well, if you have to bury him, can you at least leave his head out so he can breathe?!!" aw poor thing. I felt so terrible and it broke my heart to see her so sad.
Next time I let her Dad be the one to get her a bunny. I think it lived longer.
I didn't take T to have her photo taken in a studio setting very often - maybe 3 or 4 times because I really don't like the studio shots, but at Easter there was always a special deal AND they had live bunnies, plus grandparents like those cheesy studio portraits. T loved animals of all kinds and bunnies were no different so she enjoyed these photo shoots and posed nicely for the man behind the camera.
With Easter just around the corner, this Monday Memories has me remembering the year I gave T a live bunny in her Easter basket. What a surprise it was for her on that 3rd Easter celebration. I put the little lop eared bunny right in her basket along with the stuffed chick. Aren't baby bunnies the cutest thing ever? She didn't realize it was real until it jumped - she squealed with delight. Aw so cute.
She named him Brambles and she loved that bunny. As he got older, and fatter, we put him in a cage outside. She would feed him carrots and let him jump around in the grass, attached to a leash.
Brambles lived for about a year and it was because of me that he died. As the temperatures dipped in the winter months we would cover the cage with a warm blanket to keep him warm, but one night it got extremely cold - in the teens I think - and I had not thought about the bunny or the fact that it was going to be much too cold for him to stay outside. Not until early in the morning that is - I jumped up and ran outside to check on him. I was relieved to find him breathing, but he was very lifeless. I picked him up to bring him in and as I was walking back inside he had some sort of seizure and I think he stopped breathing. I rushed inside frantically calling my dad (we were living at their house at the time) and he calmly gave that little bunny CPR and pumped his heart back to life. We put him on top of the clothes dryer with it running - Dad said the motion would stimulate his heart and the heat would help him thaw out. I thought Brambles was doing a little better but then he went into cardiac arrest again and Dad couldn't bring him back. I let T's bunny freeze to death while she was away. T had been at her dad's for the weekend and was coming home soon. I didn't know how I would tell her - she was only 4. We talked to her together and she cried and cried but she wanted to see him. We thought that it was a good idea for her to see him just looking like he was sleeping peacefully and had died in his sleep (not that I froze him to death). Sitting there on the floor in the laundry room, she held him, tears running down her little cheeks. We told her we had to put him to rest in the ground - this made her confused really, we tried to explain and finally she said, sobbing, "well, if you have to bury him, can you at least leave his head out so he can breathe?!!" aw poor thing. I felt so terrible and it broke my heart to see her so sad.
Next time I let her Dad be the one to get her a bunny. I think it lived longer.
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Julian