Parker Bunny

Parker Bunny

RIP

a beloved member of our family

January 2, 2003 - July 13, 2009

Parker came into our family completely by surprise. We were at a park in Tampa, FL meeting up with some friends that I had known online since being pregnant with Alex. Sabrina & I had met and had gotten the kids together. We were both meeting another mom, her husband & her son for the first time. While there we discovered some boys messing around with something near a dry drainage ditch. They had found a rabbit...and you could tell it was a pet rabbit not a wild one. It wasn't their's and so we picked him up and kept him with us. He snuggled with us (and ate gummy bears...it was all we had) until we found a box. Corey and I decided to bring him home with us. We researched rabbits, bought stuff for him and that was that. Corey came up with the name Parker because he was rescued in the park. Parker was a good bunny and would have been a free-roaming house bunny except for his LOVE for electrical wires. For his safety, and our's, we bought a special bunny pen that gave him plenty of romping room. We had a friend in FL that bunny sat for us when we went out of town and I swear PB (Parker Bunny) loved going over there. He handled the move from FL to TN very well and became Corey's office mate since Corey was then full-time work-at-home. A year ago, Parker developed torticollis caused by a bacterial infection. It was scary to look at but antibiotics helped. I wouldn't say he was ever 100% after that but I don't know if it was just his age or not recovering completely. Last Thursday, July 9th, Corey asked me to come down to his office because Parker had suddenly started acting strangely. His neck was all twisted and he was scrambling around off-balance and almost appeared to be having a seizure. He wasn't...was just trying to regain his footing & right himself. He had torticollis again and this time it seemed worse than last year...and came on faster. We got him in to the vet and we discussed our options. He was given an injection and we were given syringes and medication to give him over the weekend. Rabbits are pretty frail animals and it was pretty much 50-50 if he would even respond to the medication at all. The injections Fri, Sat and Sun were to give him the best possible chance. Unfortunately, they did not help. We knew by Sunday that it wasn't looking good. We talked with the kids and we all knew that it was time to let him go. Monday we took Parker into the vet and had him put to sleep. I love our vet & all the staff. They are so wonderfully supportive. They knew we had tried all we could and that Parker had lived 6 1/2 great years with us. We don't know how old he was when we rescued him but even 6 1/2 is good for a small pet bunny.

Our little bun is romping in a huge field of fresh clover with all the other buns. We laid him to rest in the backyard and the kids made a marker for him. We love you Parker Bunny!