We'd had him for about 18 months, I think. He was a real character: bad tempered, cantankerous, an escapologist, a tyrant. He fitted in with us so well. I still remember trying to get him out from under the rosemary with a golf club, only to hear his jaws snap shut around it as he dragged it almost out of my hand. He loved a good chunk of banana and would occasionally nip my finger if it was late coming, or didn't come. We'd just trained him to come to the back door for snacks when he called; I think my favourite thing to watch him eat was parsley, which we'd feed him stem-first. He'd nibble it up like spaghetti until he got to the part where the stalks divided, whereupon it would fall all over the ground. Funny EVERY time.
He liked to get out of the garden when possible, and it would be quite a shock to see a pair of ears going across the other side of the fence. He'd stopped doing that lately, though, and was concentrating on being Lord of the Garden. He'd managed to keep the lawn mown (I haven't cut it since June and it's perfectly neat) and the weeds and brambles down around the edges. He developed a habit of running at the mitten and then stopping short, right next to her. She did not enjoy this. In fact, she had started batting him in the face. We are sort of worried they might have fought over the weekend which caused his untimely demise, but I guess we'll never know. From Saturday he was listless and off his food and we didn't think he'd last the night. We gave him water from a dropper and some bunny massage and on Sunday he seemed slightly perkier. By Sunday night he had showed signs of digestion and was eating, but that was his last parsley.
He was a bit of a nause when he was hiding under the wood trolley, or hopping back and forth from his favourite spots under the camellia and under the rosemary, avoiding being put back in his penthouse hutch (which he loved after he finally plucked up the courage to use the ramp to change levels, which took months), or thumping late at night when he thought it was probably time for some banana. But he was our bunny and I am quite sad that he is gone. Glad he's not in any pain anymore though: he did look quite sorry for himself over the last day or two. Now he's chowing down on the big banana in the sky, with as many cats to chase as he wants.
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