Bunny Comes and Bunny Goes

I bought Marie a bunny for her birthday.  She always wanted a small furry creature to call her own.  She’s had several hamsters, but they always managed to escape from her.  I thought a bunny would be slower in hopping away.

Marie’s bunny was a “pigmy” bunny.  It certainly looked like a pigmy bunny when we bought it.  It was a great orange color and she named it “Pumpkin”.  Pumpkin ate and ate.  Pumpkin grew to be a VERY large pigmy bunny.  Marie enjoyed giving it “treats” to eat.

One late afternoon, Marie came to me screaming and crying hysterically.  Pumpkin was choking!  I tried my best Heimlich Maneuvers on it to no avail.  Marie dragged me to the car with my car keys to drive it to the nearest vet.  By this time, Pumpkin had gone limp and no longer appeared to be breathing, but Marie’s hysterical tears told me I had to  take it to the vet so they could tell her they tried everything but it was dead.

When we got to the Vet’s, they were closing and leaving in their cars.  Marie jumps out of my car when it is still running, and she runs as fast as her feet can take her over to the vet who just happened to be lucky enough to be driving a Volkswagon “bug” convertible with the top down.  Marie jumps up on the side step of her car and shoves the bunny in the car right in the vets face.  The vet and another staff person screech to a halt in their cars, grab the limp, obviously dead bunny, and rush into the office.  All the while, Marie is screaming at the top of her lungs.  They rush the bunny into an examining room, and I see them doing CPR on it, and then they shut the door.  5 minutes they come out gloriously happy.  Pumpkin is ALIVE!  She had been eating a fruit mixture, (obviously given to her by Marie) and she choked on a banana chip. They had quickly performed surgery on Pumpkin and removed the offending banana chip.  We ALL start crying with relief.  They said so many times people come into the vets with their animals near death and they can’t save them and it is very discouraging to the vet.  This was the first time someone brought them a dead animal and they were able to save it!  Marie being deaf and so darn cute, had tugged at their heartstrings, and they were excited that they could bring back her precious pet.  They sent us on our way home and a happy Marie gripped the bunny so hard I had to tell her to lighten up or she would kill it for sure!  I was instructed to make an appointment for the next day to bring her back for an exam.

Once the bunny got home, it looked no worse for the wear, except it moved very slowly and listed to one side.  We thought the excitement had gotten to it and it was too scared to move!  However, the next day, when the vet examined it, she took me aside and very apologetically, said she had some very bad news.  I started to laugh because I knew what she was going to say…the bunny was brain damaged from the lack of oxygen.  It didn’t matter, I told her.  All Marie expected was for Pumpkin to be a companion for her.  If it listed when it semi-hopped, never regained its previous enthusiasm for life, and had a vacant look in its eyes, it didn’t matter to Marie.  She had her pet back to love.  As we were leaving the vets, she gave everyone a hug and a kiss and she signed “thank you” to them.  I went to pay and they said they provided her treatment free of charge!  2 wonderful outcomes, a live bunny and several hundred dollars stayed in my pocket.  Life was good!

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