A home for a bunny...

Our street rabbit was killed sometime last night.

I saw his wee little body in our kerbing on the street this morning before I left for a drive to pick up kids from an event last night.

We called him "Thumper" or "Bunnykins". Who knows how many names he actually had though seeing as he didn't really belong to anyone in the street - he was just the streets rabbit. Constantly visible in a garden or outside the kerb of some dwelling place.

He had "escaped" from some neighbours place about 6 years ago and was never successfully caught. As time went by, kindly neighbours got to know him and used to feed him proper rabbit food so he was quite large and fat and healthy instead of being the little undernourished runt of a thing he was when he first escaped captivity.

And so it was that Thumper became somewhat of a legend in our street. I think we all enjoyed seeing him nibbling on grass or hunkering down against the cold in the evening hours. He avoided our place though because of Billy our cat. In recent years he had become almost tame enough to be patted not that I ever got that opportunity but the kids did and they would remark on how lovely and soft his fur was to the touch. Mostly black with white and speckled markings on his throat and underside he was quite handsome and looked positively enormous some evenings with his ears up and elert for prowling miscreants on four legs :)

How animals know that there is someone gone from their kingdom is a mystery but after Billy died, Thumper used to enjoy sitting on our nature strip and watching the passing of the hours.

I'm quite sad now. He was a lovely rabbit and probabaly one of the easiest "pets" we ever had.

I do hope his death was instant and he didn't die in too much pain or discomfort last night. How awful for him after the rather idyllic life he has led thus far.

He brought along some friends this past couple of years so I think there are a couple more semi-wild rabbits in the neighbourhood somewhere.

Fare thee well Thumper Unknown. May you find your home at last.