an obituary

Susi Bunny 

Susi and some hay. Will she eat it? Only if she feels like it.

Susi, a blue-eyed white Mini Lop, was born to a bunny breeder in Urnäsch, Appenzell Ausserrhoden on August 8, 1999. She came to live with us in February 2000, just before the pandemic started. She and her cousin Lino (they came with those names) were shy at first - I still remember them looking at the 3-inch cage lip as if it were a castle wall and wondering whether we were going to have to build a...rabbit ramp? But no, they were soon hopping around in a species-appropriate way, exploring every nook and cranny and worrying me more for their ability to jump up high and to fit through every tiny crevice. (Will they somehow launch themselves off the balcony?? They never did. It should be noted here that my main contribution to the bunny project was anxiety; Daniel did the actual caretaking.) Susi and Lino were Caroline's emotional support animals during the lockdown - I don't know how she would have handled it without them. 

The bunnies lived a hoppy life on the balcony, with plenty of hay and straw and food and treats, and eventually litter boxes in every corner possible corner. (You can't train bunnies to pee in one particular spot, you can only notice which spots they pee in and wishfully put litter boxes there. Susi made something of a game of finding unprotected corners. Bunny pee is gross.) Every so often there was a health scare - one bunny or the other would stop eating - and we'd take them to the vet and get the speech about how rabbits are prey animals and really not good pets and prone to dying without warning, and there isn't much you can do for them beyond filing down their teeth - but as a rule ours would get their teeth filed down and bounce right back. Lino did die in 2021, for reasons we never learned, possibly due to internal injuries after a bungled leap over the cage edge. And as it is illegal to keep pet bunnies alone in Switzerland, Susi got a new companion from the same breeder, who we named Sniffles. Thus began three-and-some years of generally uneventful bunny co-living, punctuated only by the occasional emergency vet visit for teeth-filing.

Susi's favorite things were high jumps, humping her companions (we speculate that she wasn't paying attention in bunny sex ed, also both Lino and Sniffles were castrated), hazel branches, and raspberries. She never grew big - at her heaviest she weighed just under 3 pounds - but had no trouble communicating, whether by hopping over for a pet (Daniel ONLY), honking (Bunny swear words!), scratching at the door (dinner late, again?!), or making herself Very Hard to Catch.

Last year, she started dragging one and then both hind legs. The vet thought she was done for but said we could try an anti-parasitic, which miraculously seemed to help. She never hopped well again but she could get around. Until she couldn't, but a second round of anti-parasitic at the beginning of this year only seemed to make things worse. Oh and did I mention the cheek abscess? Both vets at our local practice told us kindly but firmly that this was the end for Susi Bunny, but she soldiered on, healing and eating and drinking and pooping and peeing and generally acting like life with only two front paws was No Big Deal. So we soldiered on too, propping her up twice and then three times a day for meals and trying to keep her reasonably clean and groomed. Until yesterday, exactly on her 7th birthday, when we found maggot-infested wounds on her hind legs and decided that euthanasia would be kinder than letting her die of being eaten alive. So we made an emergency appointment at the university animal hospital, where she died in the afternoon, after being appropriately spoiled with all the raspberries she could eat.

She is survived by her companion Sniffles, who we hope will find a retirement home but at this moment is soldiering out the heat wave in his customary spot on the balcony. And by her humans, who will miss our cute and cantankerous white friend.

Rest in peace, Susi.