Many of you made comments and sent me messages about my 25 Factoid item about the rabbit. The majority of you are probably not aware of the backstory that provides a nexus between me and rabbits. I used to raise and show rabbits for about three years or so while I was in my mid-teens. I have a special place in my heart for rabbits – I think they are the cutest little animals on the planet. They’re very entertaining and when grown have the mental capacity of a two-year old child (with about the same disposition, I might add). I tend to anthropomorphize rabbits quite often as well, which sometimes confuses or irritates those around me.
I never really won much with my show rabbits; I had a couple that won Best of Variety or Best of Breed, but never had one win Best of Show or anything that glorious. I showed mostly in local or regional shows around middle Tennessee, and showed each year at the Tennessee State Fair in Nashville. I also volunteered at the Fair most years to help run the Rabbit Exhibit. That basically entailed taking care of the 200+ rabbits that stayed in Rabbit Barn the entire 10 day run of the Fair. I’d feed and water them, answer peoples’ questions about them, and occasionally take one out to allow a kid (and the occasional adult) to pet them.
We also sold rabbits at the State Fair – many of the showers would sell off their less than show-worthy rabbits as pets, some for as little as $5. When we sold a rabbit, I’d explain to people how to care for the little bugger, box him up, gather up enough food for them to feed him for a few days until they could get to the pet store, and tell the little bunny he was going to a nice new home.
While I probably raised over a hundred bunnies during my tenure as a rabbit keeper, I only had five of them actually become pets in the true sense of the word. I don’t want to say I was dispassionate about the rest of them, but those five stood out to me for a variety of reasons. One of those pets was a little boy rabbit named Hansel – the male of the first pair I bought.
Hansel was a chocolate otter variety of Netherland Dwarf. Dwarfs are probably the cutest breed of domestic rabbits, though they tend to be cantankerous and don’t generally make for good lap pets. Hansel was cuteness embodied. For the first couple of years of his life Hansel was raised with a female rabbit, a Chinchilla/Dwarf mix named, you guessed it, Gretel. They were a bonded pair, living in the same cage, always cleaning each other,1 and occasionally fighting with one another. (They were fixed, by the way)
Hansel - Little Man Bunny
One summer, Gretel escaped from a pen we kept set up for them in the backyard of our house in Franklin, and ran off into the woods. She would occasionally come back into the yard, but was too fast for us to catch. She’d come in just enough to be close to the hutch she shared with Hansel. She’d be out there teasing him that she was able to raom about freely while he remained penned up. He’d see her and get all excited and stuff.
When she wasn’t around, he’d mope in his cage, just sitting in his litter box not doing anything. He was, quite literally, depressed at the loss of his companion. It was so sad to watch. When we finally recaptured her a week later and put her back in the pen with Hansel, he spent hours tending to her because he was so happy to have her back.
In his third summer with me, we allowed some friends to keep them while we were out of town for a couple of weeks, and made the mistake of letting them keep them in separate cages. When we retook possession of them, we couldn’t put them back in the same cage again because they’d deacclimated from one another and just couldn’t get along – rabbits are very territorial and they just couldn’t readjust to one another again. That was so sad, especially for little Hansel. He was so enamored with Gretel. So it was painful to watch him be abused by Gretel when we tried to put them back together. In the wild, male rabbits don’t live with the females and the babies. They show up, do their malely duty and go on about their business. Mama takes care of the babies until they’re ready to leave the warren (the nest).
Hansel would accompany me to the State Fair every year. We had a table set up so people could come by and touch the rabbits to see how they felt, ask questions and what not. He was used to being handled and was a showman on the order of P. T. Barnum, so he spent a good deal of time on that table. He’d stand on his hind legs and show off his little white belly, and after someone would get done petting him, he’d clean his face. People always found that to be so cute. He had a particular fondness for being on my shoulder as well. Any time I’d approach the table, he’d try to jump up onto my shoulder. He’d hop up there and lick me on the ear and just look around – he liked being upwhere he could survey all that was his. People always got so tickled at him for doing that. As I said, quite the showman.
Here’s a couple of old videos of him. In both of these, he’s playing in a pen with Gretel, his original companion. In the first video, he’s nibbling on a little flower, and in the second, he has to show Gretel who the boss is. Gretel had been harassing him a bit, and he finally got tired of her shit! 
In October of 2003, Hansel almost passed away. Rather than explain it outright, I’ll post an e-mail I sent to friends of mine about what happened shortly after it occurred. There’s a reference to a rabbit named Princess in this – she was my third pet, and at the time was Hansel’s periodic playmate.
I’m sending this to those of you who’ve had the pleasure of meeting Hansel, our little chocolate-colored male Netherland Dwarf rabbit.
As you know, he’s normally a little bundle of energy, always curious, extremely entertaining, and one of the most expressive rabbits I’ve ever seen. Those of you who’ve had the opportunity to see him “perform” at the State Fair know what I’m talking about – he’s always been the hit of the show because he’s terribly cute and really shows out for everyone.
As is typical for sunny, relatively warm days, we put Hansel and his little playmate Princess (the black-colored dwarf female) out in an outdoor pen to exercise. They play with each other and act like little pinballs – running around the cage and into one another, at which point the other one runs around the cage similarly. We did the same thing Friday.
That afternoon, I noticed that Hansel was not his usual self. He was sitting off on his own with his eyes just as wide open as they could be and he just didn’t look “right.” I brought him in and noticed that he seemed unusually noncombative, but attributed it to him being tired.
I went back to his cage and checked on him about 30 minutes later and he was just laying lifeless in his litter box. When I picked him up, and turned him over, he made no effort whatsoever to right himself (highly unusual for a rabbit). I knew something was terribly wrong with him. We put him on the couch and checked him over and found nothing outwardly wrong with him. His breathing was shallow though and he was very limp, so we decided to get him to the vet ASAP. We contacted the vet to make sure they had a rabbit vet available and off we went.
As we sped toward the hospital, my little boy got more and more lifeless. I was painfully concerned that he would not make it to the vet – we had no idea what was wrong with him, so we had no idea what to do to make it better. I held him in a towel to keep him warm. He hardly moved at all during the entire trip.
When we got him to the hospital, the vet checked him over and we could find nothing wrong other than he was slightly hypothermic – his stomach wasn’t distended and wasn’t making any weird noises (signs of obstruction or gas build up – fatal to rabbits). The only things that came to mind were sepsis (systemic bacterial infection) or kidney failure. We elected to have some blood tests run on him, which take 20-30 minutes. If it was kidney failure, there’d be nothing we could do, and we sure didn’t want him to suffer any longer if that was the case.
While we waited in the room with little Hansel, his breathing became more and more shallow, his big brown eyes were rolling back in his head, and his breathing became “gurgly”. The little nose that is in almost constant motion had stopped wiggling. Mom and I were literally in tears, crying over what appeared to be the dying breaths of the little rabbit that has entertained us and many others for the past 4 and half years. We petted him and cajoled him to hang on as we awaited the lab results.
The doctor brought in the results and laid them down and said he’d be back in a minute. I went over and looked at them – his BUN (blood urea nitrogen) and creatinine levels were significantly elevated. I knew that this was an indication of kidney inefficiency. I told Mom that it looked like his kidneys had failed. We both cried as we prepared for the worst.
The doctor finally came back and said that he had consulted with another rabbit specialist, and that, although his levels were elevated, they were not high enough to indicate kidney failure. Talk about instant relief. He indicated that we should try antibiotics for a few days to see if we could alleviate any infection that was present. As Mom remained inside to pay our bill, I took little Hansel out to the truck and waited for her to get in. I kissed him on his forehead and asked him to hang on for a little bit longer. He just looked at me with what I interpreted as an “I’ll try.”
We got him home and gave him some medicine, fixed up a temporary recovery cage for him in the house, and went and bought him some of his favorite treats – apples, carrots, and parsley. We had to get some food in him to keep his digestive system from quitting altogether. We also had to keep him warm to help get his temperature back up. Overnight, I absolutely could not sleep. I kept having dreams about having to have him put to sleep and woke up crying. I went and checked on him several times and he still had not produced any litter (pellets). When a rabbit’s digestive system shuts down, it quits producing waste. This is called “stasis” in a rabbit, and is lethal. In fact, stasis is the most common cause of non-traumatic deaths in rabbits – it can be caused by a variety of things, most commonly digestive blockage (rabbits don’t vomit, so if they swallow something, it is in there until it passes or is surgically removed). It can also be caused by stress, trauma, or an infection, though.
As of 5:00 Saturday morning, he still had not produced, and 12 hours is the magic “window” at which it becomes critical for the rabbit. At 5:00, he hadn’t produced since about 2:00 PM the previous day (15 hours). I went back to bed concerned that we were still not out of the woods yet, even though he was now up and moving around a little better. At about 8:30, Mom got up and went and checked on him. She came back and said he had finally been “productive.” Another relief. During the 4 or 5 hours after we got him home, though, I had read many posts from other rabbit owners about their rabbits seeming better and then dying unexpectedly, so I remained concerned that he was not out of danger all day on Saturday and Sunday. I probably went out and checked on him every 30 minutes since yesterday morning.
At any rate, as of this writing, little Hansel seems to be doing just fine. He’s been quite “productive” over the past few hours and has resumed licking my finger and nose like he always does (he only licks me like that – he’ll lick Mom’s finger on rare occasions, but that’s it). He’s gotten combative when we give him his medicine, and he’s started digging after we give it to him. One of his more characteristic traits is digging on whatever surface he’s on when he gets irritated. Most rabbits dig all the time. Not Hansel – he only digs when he’s irritated at something – he’s so hilarious when he does that, especially on a towel. I don’t think he appreciates us laughing at him when he does that, though.
I write this to get some of the stress from the past two days off my chest, and to remind you to love your little pets if you have them. You never know when they won’t be there any more. We went through that a little bit with Pepsi, our Schnauzer in the summer of 2001, but she had gotten in bad shape over a period of months, so we knew her time was coming and was as prepared for it as we could be when the time came. Little Hansel was the life of the party and then all of the sudden, he was sick. We’re still not sure what his problem was, although we suspect he might have gotten a bug from a scratch or something. Many of you have followed the travails of Hansel in the past, and I thought I’d give you an update.
Hansel got better over the subsequent days, as I indicated, and continued to be source of love and entertainment until June 13, 2004, when he unexpectedly passed away while I was out of town. This was my journal entry about his departure from this world:
Hansel, my little Netherland Dwarf rabbit, died on June 13, at around 3:00 in the afternoon. He was at a friend’s house being rabbit-sat while we were headed out of town for the weekend. I knew something was wrong when my mom answered the phone and said “Oh, no, what happened?” I could tell from her side of the conversation that one of the rabbits had died, and something told me it was him. It was.
Hansel was my baby – if I could have taken only one thing with me ever again, it would have been him, he meant that much to me.
Since we were headed out, we couldn’t go back to pick him up. I told mom to tell them to freeze him until we could come back home and get him and bury him.
I cried like I have *never* cried before all the way to Memphis. I listened to my iPod – the soundtrack from The Last Samurai, over, and over, and over again. Track 7 has become (to me) Hymn for a Small Rabbit.
I could not wait to get back and get little Hansel. We drove straight back from Memphis to their house. We went in and checked on the other two rabbits (Gretel and Princess) and then they brought him to me, wrapped up in plastic bags.
When I got in the truck, and we headed back home, I opened up the bags and felt of his fur. It was just as soft as it was when he was alive. I kissed him on his little forehead and began bawling again, and stroked his little head all the way home.
When we got home, dad went out in the back yard with me to pick out a spot where we could bury him. Dad spent an hour digging a 2-foot deep hole. I wrapped him up in a pillowcase, and put a toilet paper core (his favorite toy), some oats (his favorite treat), and his little ID tag in with him, placed him in the hole, and watched as dad covered him up.
Mom had gone to Lowes to pick up a couple of flowers to plant on his grave, and she got back just in time for us to plant them.
I sat next to his grave for 3 hours crying. Gosh, I miss that little rabbit.
We still don’t know what took him from us. My guess is the stress of the heat, and the fact that he never really regained his old self after his bout in October, and his little body just gave out. I am so *incredibly* pained by the fact that I was not with him when he died. I pray that he died peacefully and without any pain.
There are probably those who wonder how someone can become so attached to a rabbit. Those who’ve lost dogs or cats will know, but a *rabbit*? Hansel was an incredible little animal – so full of life, energy, and emotion. He was the only rabbit I’ve ever seen that could literally frown when he was unhappy.
Rest in peace, Little Man Bunny. Someone in heaven needed a little bunny to keep them company, I suppose. I know you’ll make them just as happy as you made me.
As I indicated above, there was a track from The Last Samurai (Hans Zimmer’s gorgeous soundtrack for the movie) that I played over and over as we drove to Memphis. It became a hymn for Hansel to me. I wrote an additional entry in my journal describing what goes through my head as this music plays. You can download the track and play it as you read through my characterization of what each motif within it meant to me.
Safe Passage (Zimmer) – Hymn for a Little Rabbit
As I stated in my entry about Hansel passing away, I listened over and over to Track 7 of the soundtrack from The Last Samurai. I really enjoy orchestral music, and use it to soothe me when I am down about something. This piece really spoke to me as I sat in the back of the car recalling all of the good times I’d had with the little guy. Each part of the music represents some little piece of him, and it became, to me, Hymn for a Little Rabbit.
NOTES FOR “HYMN FOR A LITTLE RABBIT”
The beginning development is haunting and mysterious – reflecting my uneasiness about raising and caring for rabbits for the first time, and Hansel’s uneasiness in a new environment.
At 0:56, the soaring theme represents the development of my relationship with Hansel and him becoming Little Man Bunny (this is what I called him, affectionately).
The percussion at 1:06 represents his binkies! 2
At 1:44, we hear Hansel enjoying a full, rich life in his new home. The wooden flutes (known as Shakuhachi) represent Hansel’s simple, child-like spirit!
At 2:12 you hear the period when Hansel got sick and we thought we were going to lose him (Oct., 2003). The point where you barely hear the music is when he was in the doctor’s office and we thought he was fixing to pass on right then.
At 2:53 we hear his recovery begin in earnest
At 3:48, the harps are a perfect representation of Hansel’s playful, innocent curiosity – perhaps his most defining characteristic.
At 4:13 we hear a celebration of Hansel as a rabbit, soon superimposed over Hansel’s theme (from 1:44) – a full celebration of the little rabbit that brought so much joy to my heart.
At 4:53 the celebration is cut short rather abruptly, though peacefully. The music simply trails off almost without notice, just like Little Man Bunny’s passing. It leaves you wanting more of that celebration you’d just been through.
A perfect musical representation of my little rabbit!
Even now, almost five years later, very few days go by where I don’t think about that little rabbit. I’ve had pets before, and some of them have passed away of course. Even with our family dog, who died after being with us for 14 years, I wasn’t as upset as I was when this little guy left me. I honestly don’t know what to attribute it to other than the meshing of two little souls.
Regardless, he’s left a lot of good memories for me to cherish. 
- Rabbits bond with each other through grooming one another [↩]
- Binkies = little spasms rabbits have – they jump several inches into the air, contorting their bodies. It’s a way of expressing giddiness [↩]
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
AWE!:(
and your bunny isn’t just a bunny, it’s a bunny that brought you a lot of love and happiness and from your writing had a sweet and interesting personality that made you enjoy him dearly. but it looks like god has a wonderful bunny keeping him company! :)
aww. thats so sad. i honestly cried a little. i used to have a big black rabbit when i was little. he supposedly lived to be really old.
“I am so *incredibly* pained by the fact that I was not with him when he died.”
This part made me burst into tears because I have been there. Wait, I’m still there, actually. My pooh-bear, my dog of 15 years died on April 1st last year at my parents home. I couldn’t take him with me when I moved because of his size. But damned if I still don’t feel guilty that I wasn’t there holding his paw when he left this world. I want another dog and I love playing with other people’s dogs but honestly I’m still in mourning. That wouldn’t be fair to a subsequent pet because I will probably treat them as the rebound dog.
Great, I’m still crying! I love rabbits, though I’ve never formally had one. But my parents neighborhood had lots of wild rabbits and so I’d look online to see what they could eat that we had in the house and I would set it out for them. We love our pets, don’t we?
I was like that with my nethie gizmo, he was almost 10 when he died last november, i loved him more than family.
he had gottem over gi stasis a month before and soldiered on, one monday morning he was lying on my chest while i was reading a book when his little heart gave out on him. it was very quick and i was so glad i was there.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bestiaries/3038422680/
everyone who knew him loved him, he was a little sweetie like your guy. i don’t think we ever forget our little angels, i love remembering the cute little bunny things only he used to do.
Kim.
Thanks for your comments, ladies.
Aspasia, I’m sorry for your loss. I know how you feel – we lost our dog, Pepsi, when she was about that age. We had to take her to the vet and have her put to sleep because she was diabetic and had lost control of her bladder. It was so sad. And I think it was way cool that you feed the neighborhood rabbits!
Kim, I’m sure he was comforted in his last minutes being there right next to you. He was a cutie.
Wow. I’ve never cared for rabbits, but your description of your love for this little rabbit and your love for him really makes me feel both your love and your loss. That little guy was lucky to have a friend like you.
Wonderful music with the Last Samurai. I personally am moved by The Dances With Wolves soundtrack and Gorecki’s Symphony #3, Sorrowful Songs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miLV0o4AhE4 which actually made it into the European Top 40 during the millenium change and Virgil Fox’s Adaptations of Bach’s Komm Susser Tod (Come Sweet Death) .
And then, I get charged up and feel in control again. You should do a essay on music in relation to libido. The emotions are so very similar.
What a touching entry. Hansel is so adorable! Thank you for sharing such an intimate relationship.
Beautiful. Also, your story has odd similarities to end of Leeloo , now forever tied in my mind to the song that was playing on my ipod when I found her sitting in the rain, in pain. Too bad – used to like Blue Oyster Cult.
Another odd coincidence – a week later I was in a temple in Kyoto, near where they filmed some exteriors for The Last Samurai. In anguish, I left a note on a wooden plaque to be burned by a shinto priest: “For the soul of a rabbit”.
Thanks for sharing that, Steve. Very interesting about the plaque. I am so sorry for your loss.
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