A Bun's Life

Yesterday, I had to take my bunny Sebastian to be put to sleep. He had glaucoma in his right eye, and it was causing him pain. He was nine years old, and I wanted to spare him from all of those getting old pains that animals have. I stayed with him, rubbed his head and listened as the doctor spoke to him in a soothing voice while the drug began to shut down his system. It was hard.

Miss Sally Nouguat was Sebastian's bonded mate for the last eight years. She will miss him very much. We've brought her upstairs to live in the mud room, so she won't be alone down in the basement all day. The vet told me to expect a period of mourning where she won't want to eat or drink, so we'll need to keep an eye on her. Chase has already taken it upon himself to visit "Missus Sally" every hour.

I got Sebastian when I was a senior at WVU. Given how old I am now, that feels like forever ago. I remember he used to scare the crap out of me at night when he would climb up my pajama pants like he was burrowing into his personal little rabbit hole. I think I still have a few scars from his nails scratching my leg as he tried to dig deeper into my skin.

He was a well traveled little lop-earred bun bun. He got to see the sights of Ohio State when he followed me there for Vet school, then back to Morgantown, lived with my mom for a few months, and finally came to Virginia where he moved with us from the apartment to the town house to the Ladybank house to the new house and finally to our current house. That's a lot of packing for a little lagomorph.

He was a grumpy ball of the softest black fur you've ever felt. He'd stand on his hind legs and growl at Iverson. But, sometimes when he was really happy he'd do a little hop & twist bunny dance thing with his legs flying into the air. It looked so cute considering he was a fat rabbit who spent most of his days stretched out on his belly. One of my fondest memories of him comes from a summer day at the town house when my mom and I had taken Sebastian and Sally outside to enjoy the fresh air. He was hopping around the pond when suddenly he decided to jump straight onto a lily pad thinking it could hold his chubby self up. Of course it didn't, and thus into the water he fell. Did you know rabbits can dog paddle? Hi-lar-i-ous. What's even funnier is that he did the exact same thing the following summer. Daredevil bunny.

Here's a picture from when Sebastian was just a baby bunny. Well, it's a picture of a picture because I'm too lazy to go scan it into the computer and it was taken before I owned a digital camera.



I'm sure you're wondering about the hair--well it was my last dead week as an undergraduate at WVU. I was a little crazy from all of the late nights of cramming for tests in classes that I hadn't bothered to attend. So in a moment of sheer insanity, I had Carla dye it blond for me. Not a flattering look, so I changed it back soon after. Anyway, in case you need it, here's a reason why you shouldn't drastically change your looks the week before finals. You see, we had assigned testing seats for Biochemistry that were the same for every test we had that term. When I went to take my Biochemistry final, the professor kept staring at me. It was a little creepy and nerve wracking. When I turned in my test, he really studied my student ID before he told me that he thought that I had paid someone to take my final because I looked so different with my blond hair. I guess when the guy only saw me 4 times to take the tests, it would be hard to notice much besides my hair color. So there you have it--your lesson of the day: don't go having a major makeover before finals. Or I guess you could attend class on a regular basis. That would probably work too. Either or.