Earlier this week, our sweet bunny passed away. Bella was much loved and it was a hard day when he died. The kids and I cried a lot. They wrote letters to Bella and buried them with him in our garden. Processing grief is hard, especially seeing it through the eyes of your own kids. Writing has always been helpful when I'm processing any emotion so here are my random thoughts about the sweetest bunny I've ever known.
The best $10 we ever spent. We were hesitant pet owners, after going through several fish and a hamster, we weren't sure if we were ready for real commitment but the kids really wanted some fluffy to love. The previous owner didn't want the commitment anymore and I saw the post on Craigslist for this adorable lop eared bunny and although I was suspicious of why it was so cheap, I couldn't resist that fluffy face, the kids were squealing with excitement and holding onto the pet carrier on the drive. And that was the best $10 we ever spent.
Boy or Girl? When we got the bunny, the owner said he wasn't sure of the gender and they had been calling it Thumper. Nallie was 6 years old at the time and completely obsessed with the Rainbow Fairly Magic book series. She insisted that the bunny needed to be named Bella after the book "Bella the Bunny Fairy." It was over a year and a half later when Bella got sick that we brought Bella to the vet and they told us that Bella was a boy. It was too hard to change the name at that point so Bella became Bella-Boy and then just Bells. 
Bella inspired creativity like Nallie's poster project in Grade 2 and the song she wrote for piano class called "Ode to Bella". Bella kept me and the kids from going stir crazy during the covid lockdowns. Nallie spent days teaching him to do tricks and shared videos with her class.
Bunny dress up. Bella was such a good sport with being dressed up in various costumes. Bella had a costume at Halloween and was outside with us for the easter egg hunt. We even took the bunny out for walks to the park on a leash but I quickly learned that bunnies are prey animals and detest wide open spaces and will run at top speed into the nearest bush dragging the holder of the leash into the prickly bushes. After that, we didn’t take the bunny out to the park anymore.
Binkys. Zoomies. Bunny loaf. Bunny puddle. These are all words I know now. We know a lot more about bunny behaviour and bunny lingo that we did 7 years ago. We became experts at knowing when this bunny was excited, happy, mad and relaxed.
Lost and Found. Bella went missing during a rain storm in 2021. There were lots of tears that night thinking of all the dangers for a bunny. The next morning, I walked for hours around the neighbourhood looking under every car, bush and tree. I printed "Missing Bunny" signs and plastered them all around. The best phone call I ever received was from a lady who lived a couple blocks up and said she had found him. We ran up the street and rejoiced seeing our sweet Bells again. What a miracle.
Miracle bunny. Rabbits have delicate stomachs and one of the most common things that kills a bunny is GI (gastrointestinal) stasis. It is when there is gas trapped in the stomach and can kill a bunny in a matter of hours if untreated. The first time it happened, we were just about the go on a backpacking trip to Garabaldi, I brought Bella to the vet and was out of cell phone range for the next few days. My mom (PoPo) was the hero that brought Bella back from the vet and helped get the medicine to get him back to his hoppy self. The second time it happened was a few years later and the vet couldn't take him in and we had to google how to massage Bella's stomach to get the gas bubble out, administer medicine and Critical Care with a syringe. Thank goodness you can learn basically anything on YouTube. Bella defied the odds and after a week, he was back to his hoppy self. There were also so many times that Bella would dash out the front door to nibble on the strawberry leaves in our garden. Sometimes, Bella would run all the way up the front steps and hide underneath our vehicles and we had to lie down on the ground with hockey sticks trying to nudge Bella out from under the car so we could pick him up and plop him in the bunny bed in and carry him back inside. We called that the bunny burrito. 
Free roam means family. Once we learned that bunnies can be litter trained, Bella was no longer in a cage but roamed around the house and followed us everywhere. Bella was more like a dog than a bunny. He happy to see us when we came home, had a spot on the couch when we watched movies, had sleepovers with the kids in the living room, had 'cake' on his birthday and had his own stocking at Christmas. Bella would be sad and put her paws up on the door if we tried to keep her out of the kitchen. Bella did life with us and brought us so much joy.
Bella grew up and so did the kids. The kids were 4 and 6 years old when we first brought the bunny home and now they are 10 and 12. It’s quite a jolt processing how quickly time has passed. Nallie wore Paw Patrol pyjamas and had chubby cheeks when we first got Bella and now she's a few months from being a teenager. Noah was a preschooler with a bowl-cut and now he’s so grown up. 
I’m not sure if and when we will get another bunny. Bella was definitely the best $10 we ever spent and I don’t know if we’ll ever find another one with such a sweet disposition. Thank you Bella for bringing our family so much joy. When the south slope sun shines down on our carpet, we will remember that was always Bellas’s favourite spot and think warm fuzzy thoughts of the sweet bunny that hopped into our hearts ❤️
