June 12th, 2002 (revised)
Murphy is our oldest living
pet at age 7 and for a rabbit that's a really good age. Ironic
as he is a rabbit and rabbits have the shortest life spans of
all the animals we have.
Whoever came up with the concept that rabbits
are timid woodland creatures has never met our Murphy. He is
a Black and Tan dwarf bunny and is afraid of nothing. He can
outwit any dog in our house and will stand up to any of them.
He is a rabbit that will only eat Guinea Pig
food. He does not bark, howl, scream, yell, honk, or squeak.
Yet he can be the noisiest animal in the house as he will bang
and clang everything in his cage for no reason whatsoever.
In his old age now, he's getting a nasty little
attitude. About a month ago, while I was holding him, he decided
to urinate on my chest. It wasn't just a little bit either.
Thank God I was wearing a thick sweatshirt. I immeditately put
Murphy down and he happily ran to his cage.
Murphy loves to chew things. Paper, wood, leather.
All of these things are part of his diet. Specifically, paper
that you need, wood that you like, and leather that is very
expensive. Bastard. I love him. (little bastard.)
Update 7/3/2002 -
7 years to the day we bought him in the peacefulness
of his clean cage, with a full bowl of pellets and a clean litter
box, Murphy quietly passed away last night. My wife and I took
his body to my parents green backyard and buried him there.
7 years is a long time for a rabbit to live and
we are thankful we had his company for that time. We will miss
him.
I know there are some of you out there who are
not animal people or can't understand the relationship between
people and their pets. You may not be able to sympathize with
our tragedy. And that's okay. To each his own. My wife and I
are not "child" people and can't see why children's
deaths in the news are mentioned separately from the other casualties
in large accidents.
But you should realize this: Everything in this
universe serves a purpose of some sort.
7 years ago for us, having a baby dwarf rabbit
in our house made us happy. Letting a black and tan bunny (Why
do you think we called him Murphy? After Murphy's Stout) run
around our apartment and jump on the furniture brought us joy.
For me, I had never had a pet as an adult and this was our first
one. And for the price of a cage, a feeder, a water bottle,
two litter boxes, monthly guinea pig food and corn cob litter,
you can have the love and affection of a rabbit that will rise
to greet you before you go to work in the morning.
He did cause some amount of trouble though, eating
curtains, bookcases, leather goods, whicker chairs, whicker
baskets, and having to put electrical wires out of a bunny's
reach. When we went to the pet store to ask what we could do
about this, they said to put "bitter apple" spray
on the stuff we didn't want him to eat. That or use tobasco.
Our rabbit viewed all of that as condiments. He would look at
us every once in a while to say, "Thank you."
Well, it was worth it.
We'll miss him.
Pictures:
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