tlcwrites
Mama Doe
Dear Lelantos,
I keep thinking about how I let you down. How I should have read the signs. How I should have done more. How I could have managed to save you.
Yesterday night, I had a stinking migraine, and made a horrendous misjudgment. You paid the ultimate price.
Your litter habits went completely awry late yesterday evening and you'd been such a good little boy in the short time you'd been with me. I should have urged the family to get you to a vet. I shouldn't have just cast it aside as being an overindulgment of a greedy little mini rex. I should have done more. But I was ill too.
I still am. The migraine hasn't cleared and now I am heartsick too.
You were a flash in the pan, you burned so brightly and now you are gone.
I should never have acquired you in the first place. You were the last of your litter in the petshop, your brother having been sold a week previously. How you had been left behind in the shop for so long is beyond me. You were a stunning wee boy and yet, somehow, you'd been passed over for the vast majority of your short life.
21st December, that was when I found you. You were hiding in an igloo, refusing to be seen. I asked to see you. The fact you were a mini rex buck had me intrigued. Then I saw your colouration; a perfect chocolate brown. I couldn't resist, not after the dream I'd had months ago.
The dream where my OH had been dragging me around a dog show to see puppies, and a chocolate rex bunny had been planted there by him, in a litter of chocolate labrador pups.
And somewhat prophetically, you were born around the time when dear Archimedes passed on.
I'd promised myself, no pet shop bunnies, I couldn't. But there were so many signs. So of course, when we saw you, my OH bought you. An early Christmas present, he said.
You were so shy and skittish on that first day home. That was where your name came from; to move unseen. You kept jumping in an old pie dish that had been used as a base for a plant, hiding behind a table. I supplied you with an igloo and you hid there for most of two days. On that first day, you managed to get behind the washing machine, of all places, when the door to the laundry cupboard got left open. It was such a palava getting you out of there and I held you so tightly once you were safe.
But after a couple of days, around the 23rd December, your true personality began to shine. You were cheeky and bold. You would approach almost anyone for fuss. You loved it when we stroked your nose, your big eyes fluttering shut every time it was touched. If there was any chance of food from someone, you'd approach them. If I was sitting on the floor, you'd come up to me and place your front paws on my leg. And your coat was softer than the softest velvet, like nothing else in this world. You were my stunning, chocolate mini rex and you were perfect in every way.
You were the greediest little thing too. I thought, at the rate you managed to steal food, you would become my perfect porcine mini rex. In the short time you were here, I have a mammoth list of foodstuffs you stole, including: carrot tops, Brussels sprouts, cabbage leaves, the skin of a potato, Iams cat food, cardboard, a good nibble on a wooden table that is older than I am. You once managed to scale some dizzy heights to knock down not one, but two, boxes of Fibafirst. You left a nibbled hole on the bag of Science Selective. You could persuade anyone to give you just that extra bit of veg or a Fibafirst stick.
Despite all the food you investigated, Fibafirst was by far your favourite. If there was any chance of you getting some, then you would inevitably make sure you could get it. You'd become putty in somebody's hand if Fibafirst was involved. You acted like it was heaven from the first mouthful.
You've left me far, far too soon. You weren't even with me for three weeks, and yet, you've broken me. You were such a special wee thing and I loved you and loved you hard. I still love you. And it hurts, the fact that I am having to write this so early this year, and for you, the newest arrival of all my buns.
In the short time you were here, I did my yearly re-read of Watership Down. You'll always be connected to that book now.
I'm glad you didn't have to die in a pet shop. I'm glad your last nineteen days were filled with love and joy. As it should have been for so much longer.
But special things are sometimes too special to last. I guess the Moon Rabbit, or Lord Frith, needed you for some more important task.
Even so. my heart has joined the thousand, for my friend stopped running today.
I'm sorry, Lelantos. I love you.
xxx
I keep thinking about how I let you down. How I should have read the signs. How I should have done more. How I could have managed to save you.
Yesterday night, I had a stinking migraine, and made a horrendous misjudgment. You paid the ultimate price.
Your litter habits went completely awry late yesterday evening and you'd been such a good little boy in the short time you'd been with me. I should have urged the family to get you to a vet. I shouldn't have just cast it aside as being an overindulgment of a greedy little mini rex. I should have done more. But I was ill too.
I still am. The migraine hasn't cleared and now I am heartsick too.
You were a flash in the pan, you burned so brightly and now you are gone.
I should never have acquired you in the first place. You were the last of your litter in the petshop, your brother having been sold a week previously. How you had been left behind in the shop for so long is beyond me. You were a stunning wee boy and yet, somehow, you'd been passed over for the vast majority of your short life.
21st December, that was when I found you. You were hiding in an igloo, refusing to be seen. I asked to see you. The fact you were a mini rex buck had me intrigued. Then I saw your colouration; a perfect chocolate brown. I couldn't resist, not after the dream I'd had months ago.
The dream where my OH had been dragging me around a dog show to see puppies, and a chocolate rex bunny had been planted there by him, in a litter of chocolate labrador pups.
And somewhat prophetically, you were born around the time when dear Archimedes passed on.
I'd promised myself, no pet shop bunnies, I couldn't. But there were so many signs. So of course, when we saw you, my OH bought you. An early Christmas present, he said.
You were so shy and skittish on that first day home. That was where your name came from; to move unseen. You kept jumping in an old pie dish that had been used as a base for a plant, hiding behind a table. I supplied you with an igloo and you hid there for most of two days. On that first day, you managed to get behind the washing machine, of all places, when the door to the laundry cupboard got left open. It was such a palava getting you out of there and I held you so tightly once you were safe.
But after a couple of days, around the 23rd December, your true personality began to shine. You were cheeky and bold. You would approach almost anyone for fuss. You loved it when we stroked your nose, your big eyes fluttering shut every time it was touched. If there was any chance of food from someone, you'd approach them. If I was sitting on the floor, you'd come up to me and place your front paws on my leg. And your coat was softer than the softest velvet, like nothing else in this world. You were my stunning, chocolate mini rex and you were perfect in every way.
You were the greediest little thing too. I thought, at the rate you managed to steal food, you would become my perfect porcine mini rex. In the short time you were here, I have a mammoth list of foodstuffs you stole, including: carrot tops, Brussels sprouts, cabbage leaves, the skin of a potato, Iams cat food, cardboard, a good nibble on a wooden table that is older than I am. You once managed to scale some dizzy heights to knock down not one, but two, boxes of Fibafirst. You left a nibbled hole on the bag of Science Selective. You could persuade anyone to give you just that extra bit of veg or a Fibafirst stick.
Despite all the food you investigated, Fibafirst was by far your favourite. If there was any chance of you getting some, then you would inevitably make sure you could get it. You'd become putty in somebody's hand if Fibafirst was involved. You acted like it was heaven from the first mouthful.
You've left me far, far too soon. You weren't even with me for three weeks, and yet, you've broken me. You were such a special wee thing and I loved you and loved you hard. I still love you. And it hurts, the fact that I am having to write this so early this year, and for you, the newest arrival of all my buns.
In the short time you were here, I did my yearly re-read of Watership Down. You'll always be connected to that book now.
I'm glad you didn't have to die in a pet shop. I'm glad your last nineteen days were filled with love and joy. As it should have been for so much longer.
But special things are sometimes too special to last. I guess the Moon Rabbit, or Lord Frith, needed you for some more important task.
Even so. my heart has joined the thousand, for my friend stopped running today.
I'm sorry, Lelantos. I love you.
xxx
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