Kaiko, the bunny has passed!
Yesterday afternoon, our pet rabbit Kaiko passed away after a short illness. We bought Kaiko as a dwarf bunny nine years ago, being told she wouldn’t grow any bigger than she was when we took her home from the store. This turned out to not be true, she grew to be huge, roughly 4 times larger than we were told by the pet shop assistant, which sadly affected her lifespan as larger bunnies live shorter lives.
Ultimately, this didn’t matter as Kaiko quickly became a loved member of our family. Kaiko had an amazing temperament, she loved to be handled, and was great with our kids. Although she was a fussy eater, not eating the majority of the food mix we bought and had the quirk of not liking fresh vegetables, she would refuse to eat lettuce or carrots, unlike all previous rabbits I have had over the years.
About two weeks ago, we noticed while handling her, she had lost a significant amount of weight, but she still seemed to be eating. At this point, we figured that she was coming to the end of her life, as she was almost nine years old. Kaiko took a turn for the worse last Tuesday when I noticed her laying oddly, Kaiko seems to have had a stroke as she could not move the left side of her body, leaving her immobile.
From this point, we were giving her water via a plastic kids’ syringe for medicine, to try to keep her hydrated and as comfortable as possible. Kaiko kept fighting, but stopped taking water on Saturday, and she had passed by early Sunday afternoon. I shed more tears for Kaiko than I did my father when he passed, but I also had a better relationship with my rabbit than I did my father, I miss Kaiko terribly, seeing the empty space where her cage lived ever since we moved into this house, seven years ago.
A couple of weeks before Kaiko’s passing, we had a new arrival in the Lewis household, introducing Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01, or Seven for short, yes, we do name all our pets after Star Trek characters. Getting a second cat was unplanned, my wife went to work to make a phone call and came back with a kitten, initially I did not want another cat, but my wife and daughter ganged up on me, and right now, Seven is under my desk sleeping next to my computer, having wormed her way into my heart.