Sugie Bunny...Love Never Ends

Well, this is not exactly what I had in mind to write about for my Easter Post, but it seems it shall be. Please bear with me and this long post, but I feel this story needs to be told.

Yesterday afternoon I lost my precious Sugie bunny to her Mega Colon Syndrome. Many of you have commented on how fat her tummy looked in recent photos. That was actually the progression of this disease. She in fact was almost all bones when I petted her back and hips while her stomach was bloated and large.
Some of you know how Sugie came to live in Bunnyville, but for those that don't, this is the story.

Sugie came from the most awful and horrible place. A man was raising lots of bunnies in his backyard to sell to pet stores and to sell as meat. He had over 100 some rabbits that kept breeding over and over again. The rabbits began to dig out under his fence and he got tired of trying to catch them, so he would sit on his front porch with his shotgun and shoot them as they tried to get away. Sugie was one that managed to get away and was found by a neighbor. She was pregnant at the time.

The people that captured Sugie called some folks that lived close to me. They came and got all the bunnies from the man. Then they carried them to their home, where there were lots and lots of bunnies out in horrible hutches in 100 degree heat. They placed the bunnies male, female, male, female in the hutches so they wouldn't fight. However, the males kept spraying Sugie from either side with urine to "mark" her. Her beautiful white fur was stained yellow and orange from all the urine. She sat there miserably covered in pee, in a hutch with that dreadful and painful wire floor, in 100 degree heat and had given birth to the babies who were now in a separate hutch.

I had just lost my Chloe bunny from a fluke problem called, root rot and was really not ready to get another bunny as my heart was so broken. But Razzy missed Chloe so much and my friend, Paula with Cape Fear House Rabbit Society, sent me the above picture of Sugie. One look at that scared, sad and pitiful face, I had to go get her.

My friend, Michelle (Captain as I call her) went with me. We were both on the verge of tears when we saw Sugie's living conditions and I about passed out when the man got her out of the pen by lifting her by the scruff of the neck!! WRONG!! I grabbed Sugie and she immediately snuggled into my neck. Captain was freaking out too and kept telling me to " just get to the car Shell, get to the car!" I noticed some very strange looking poop in the cage, but all I could think about was getting Sugie out of there.

I had her spayed and then introduced her to Razzy for the bonding process. You can read about it in the August of 2009 archive if you would like. It's a pretty funny story. (That's Razzy in the photo, not Harrington)

As Sugie got older, her poop started getting worse and worse. Her belly also started to get bigger and bigger. All of it stemming from what I later found out to be Mega Colon disease, which is a genetic disorder that probably came from all the inbreeding of bunnies that the stupid man did. Sugie has had two other hospital stays since the one yesterday. I have spent well over $3,000.00 on vet bills and medications, which I'm not complaining about, as I believe in being a responsible parent. But, I have sell a lot of patterns and embroidery floss to pay for these bills. My friend, Paula, told me that Sugie's life expectancy would not be good. In fact, if she made it be three years old, it would be amazing as most bunnies with this disease don't. Sugie was almost three.

Sunday afternoon I made her a new cardboard cottage and got her a fresh blanky. Her old cottage was suffering some structural damage from a bad renovation. ;)  Sugie adored her little cottages and loved to fix her blankies just so. She would stretch out in there and lick her front paws to show her happiness.

I will miss kissing her soft cheekies and telling her how pretty she was.

I will miss watching her take a nap with ther footies stretched out behind her.

I will miss her loving, sweet heart but most of all, I will just miss her presence in Bunnyville.

Harrington is now acting EBO (executive bunny officer) of Bunnyville. He is not very happy about it as ya'll know he would rather party in the poo poo bucket. However, we know that Easter is coming and lots of adults will make irrational and poor decisions to purchase bunnies as Easter gifts for their kiddo's instead of purchasing chocolate or stuffed toys. The children will grow tired of the bunnies in a few weeks and the parents will not want to have one more responsibility to their already over-committed lives. So like it happens every single Spring, hundreds of domestic bunnies will either be set free into neighborhoods where they will die because they don't know how to live in the wild, or they will end up in rescues waiting for a forever home where someone will love them and care for them no matter what.

Harrington, Sugie, Razzy, Chloe, and Rosey were all Easter bunnies that were no longer wanted. They all found their way to me and even though I never really know how long I will have with them or what illness they may have, my life is always better because of them. Love is patient and kind...

Love never ends.

xx, shell and harrington