# Farewell my friends, Pixie and Button, you are sorely missed



## MrB (Apr 22, 2016)

ok

It's been a long time since Pixie died. He was only a few months old but he was taken in a horrible manor of cruelty. I was just reading someone else's loss and I realised I never gave our little friends the tribute they deserved

"*Pixie*" was little but cute. He was my daughters first pet and met a tragic end at the hands of cruel folk. The pain of your demise is gone but not the memories of you, even though we only knew you for a short while. We hardly knew you but your life should not have been cut short like it was. May the person who ended your life so horribly find out first hand the incredible love and companionship one can get from Rabbits and that you are changed forever in a good way

"*Button*", you are sorely missed.
You were a naughty, mischievous rabbit with no limit to your antics and you Houdini like escaping skills. Button-Houdini was in fact your nickname and for good reason.
Your constant probing of your wire cage walls to see how you could escape into the night kept us up constantly and escape you did, many times!
When you escaped, it was not to seek out cables to chew or carpet to claw, it was to hop up onto the beds of those whom you were fond of so that you could lick their faces and nudge noses in the dead of night.
You sought human companionship at every turn.
Keeping still was something you never mastered, your constant jumping, moving and darting about as though looking for lost treasure was a real pain but now that it's gone, it leaves a strange emptiness that can not be fulfilled.

Button suddenly started drinking excess water, which was rare for him. The vet looked at him and noticed he had a swollen testical. He was placed into care overnight and by morning they were ready to desex him since he had made an astounding recovery. The vet career's asked was he normally this active to which we replied, 'yep, that's button!'.
He was put into sedation and we waited for the phone call announce his triumphant return - alas, it never came.

Instead, the phone rang while we were out driving, my wife took the call and then I saw her face and the tears welling in her eyes. I pulled over and she announced that Button was extremely Ill and that the prognosis was not good. We were given the agonising decision to not let him wake or to proceed with expensive surgery that had a 5% chance of success. I didn't care about the cost. I said I wanted to give him every chance. It was my daughters pet whom she cherished like nothing on this earth. 

I called back the surgeon and she explained that they found puss all through his body and that she had attempted to see how far it went but could find no end to the infection. I wanted to know what his chances were and she said 5%, at best. I asked her directly, what would you do. She nearly chocked as she said "I would seriously let him go". 
I then asked if we could wake him up to say goodbye but she almost cried herself and said "please don't put him that pain". 

She is very experienced with Rabbits and said if it had been an infection around the face that his chances would have been a lot better but the fact that it was throughout his abdomen his changes of survival was extremely low and most Rabbits with similar infections died within weeks, even on strong anti-biotics.

We sat there and cried. I tried to call my daughter (it was her Rabbit) but we couldn't get hold of her. Time was ticking, Button had already been sedated for too long. We made the call and asked that he be allowed to go peacefully in his sleep. My God, may I never have to make a decision like that involving my kids!!!

It was doubly hard when we got him home and unwrapped him. Here was our Button, with no life left in him. I was so used to him jumping up on us that I just cried again and said "oh no, that's not our Button, that's not him". But it was, minus the life that we had grown to love so dearly.

He is buried next to a tree out the back. I had to Jack Hammer the rock to be able to dig him a resting place but I reckon it would have taken rocks to hold him still in real life so his place of rest is quite fitting.

My daughter lived for her Rabbit but she has been incredibly stoic and is a realist. I said I was sorry for not being able to bring him back to say goodbye but she said "That would have just been mean to him". She is right. She recognises that none of us, humans or Rabbits know how long we have and that we just need to enjoy each other and our pets while we can.

Goodbye Button, not a day goes by that I do not miss you and your antics 

May all those who have lost pets and/or loved ones find comfort in their memories and shoulders to lean on while the pain resides, until all you are left with is memories without the hurt


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## Nancy McClelland (Apr 22, 2016)

So sorry for your losses. They enrich our lives so much and leave such a hole in our hearts when they are gone.


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