Bye Bye Bunny

We brought Easter home right before Easter 2006. He was still a baby. We gave him to the kids on Easter morning. We've not ever been easterbunny parents - Easter is about Jesus. Anyway, the kids loved him and we've had him for almost four years.

They've learned a lot about taking care of a pet - cleaning up after him and feeding him daily. We've done silly things like take him to the beach with us... we've brought him in on cold nights to play with. The kids have taken him out to granddad's garden to have a veggie.

Yesterday, Jedediah went out to feed our bunny, Easter - and he was gone. Not missing gone, but dead gone. So we got to spend a good portion of our day processing death from a child's perspective. Bless the kid's hearts - they really are good kids. I got asked good questions, like, "Will I ever see him again?" and "Will Easter be with us in Heaven?" Oh, how it all pulls the heart strings!

Something I realized awhile ago, is that Jed is closer to me emotionally than the rest of the kids. He reacts the way I naturally do. Things affect him/effect him (whatever) the way that things effect me.

So when Jed came in and said that there was something wrong with Easter, I had Josiah go out and check. Yep, he's gone. Jedediah took it so hard. Hard enough, that the rest of us felt so bad that we didn't need to be upset. Jed was carrying that burden for us all. Like I said, that's something that I would do, he reminds me of me!

Last night, I printed six or seven pictures of the kids with Easter. Hoping that that would help the process along...

So, immediately the plans of having bunny babies in the spring fell. I let the kids know that we'll just need to get two bunnies now to have bunny babies instead of a mate for Easter. So, begins, the process of looking for new bunnies. I think I'd like to get dwarf bunnies again, Easter was such a nice manageable size.

Lord, thank you, for using pets, as a way to teach us about the real things of life.