E aí Fuddão

Today I'm not going to complain about anything.  I'm just going to tell you a story about my rabbit, Fudd.  Since my last post, I've lost two bunnies.  Quélin, our daughter-rabbit whom we've had since soon after we got married, died of old age in September of 2012.  Patrícia and I were devestated.  After a few months though, at Christmas of 2012, my sister asked me if I wanted another bunny.  "No.  Not yet, too soon."  Her boss was giving one away, so it'd be like a "rescue bunny".  Patrícia and I talked about it, and finally decided we'd take it, only if it's a female or a neutered male.  We were told it was a female.  So on January 12th, Fudd came to live with us.

We used to let her out of the cage at first, but she'd go to the bathroom everywhere.  So we kept her in the cage most of the time.  Then spring came, so I'd let Fudd outside in the back yard so she can go to the bathroom everywhere outside, which she took full advantage of!  We were noticing though, that Fudd has some male "tendencies."  Turns out HE was a male, and un-neutered, so all the peeing in the house was him marking his territory.

One day in the backyard, while I was cleaning out his cage, he tried to mount my friend's dog.  That confirmed it, he was a male...  In Portuguese, "fodão" is a ladies' man, so that's where his nickname "Fuddão" comes from.  E aí (in the title) just means "what's up."

I used to watch him like a hawk in the backyard, fearing he'd escape into the hedge, or under the fence, until one time he did just that.  He went behind our garden shed into the neighbour's back yard.  I kept calling him, worried that he was gone forever.  He wasn't coming back, so I went into the house to get my jacket to go look for him, but when I came back outside, he was back in the backyard, looking at me with an expression like, "What?  Is something wrong?"  After that, I figured that if he knows where he lives, I wouldn't have to watch him so closely when I let him out.  And he seemed to know too, when he heard my voice calling him, he would appear from somewhere to let me know he was OK and then run away into the woods again. 

One day, my neighbour came over, and said, "Peter, your rabbit escaped and is on the lawn three houses down the street!"  I pretended to be worried, and asked him what the rabbit was doing.  Then he sort of laughed and said, "He's chasing a cat."  15 minutes later, Fudd came home. 

A few weeks later, another neighbour came over to tell me that while walking about a block away, she saw the rabbit and thought he was trapped.  I got on my bike and went where she saw him, and after about 20 minutes of looking and calling his name, I gave up and came home.  He was lying under the stairs at the back door. 

Another time, while I was in the backyard and Fudd was out exploring, I heard a dog barking hysterically all of a sudden, then 30 seconds later Fudd came storming into the backyard at about 100 miles an hour.  He was a shit disturber!  He probably went up to a dog that was tied up and taunted it.

When I would leave for work at 7am, Fudd would always be gnawing on his cage "asking" me to go outside.  Friday, September 6th was the same.  Fudd chewing on the cage begging me for the freedom of the backyard (and 10 backyards of the neighbourhood) and I said, "Not yet Fudd.  I'll let you out when I get home today."  I let him out that evening, but he didn't scramble down the stairs and into the wilderness like usual.  He just sat right beside me.  Then I noticed a little hole in his ear.  He was bit or stung by something that day.  We put disinfectant on his ear that evening, but unfortunately, he didn't make it through the night.  The ironic part is, out in the backyard(s), there were many dangers that could've killed him, but he died in his cage.

This story is to let you know how much the rabbit meant to me.  He made me laugh, he was loyal, he was smart.  Sure I only had him for 8 months, but it was a fun 8 months.  He left too soon.  He was only 3 1/2.