I'm beginning to feel a little cursed

[wags]

Awwww so sorry to hear this. Having had other animals, also, we have had several, guinea pigs, a bunny hamsters, I know what your going through , but having a fox possibly dig the bunny up now that's it draw the line there! Dang things they are so beautiful yet nasty critters. Maybe your village has some suggestions on how to rid the area of those menacing foxes meaning do they have a group or anything that can give you suggestions how to keep them off the lawn? There has to be something to put around to maybe just maybe keep them at bay. That's sad . Well I do hope you find some solution to the fox problem. We have coyotes and foxes also.

[Donna Little]

[QUOTE=swolek;126125]I'm very sorry for your losses :(. Rabbits go downhill quickly so sometimes there just isn't enough time. It sucks that the first vet sent you home, I wonder how experienced they were with rabbits. What brand of food did you feed? I know some breeders have had their suspicions with certain brands perhaps being contaminated but I'd think you would have seen more symptoms.

I also feel you on the fox issue. When we buried Sparkie (a free-range Giant Chinchilla rabbit who I adored) he was partially dug up overnight. The animal who did it left his ear sticking out of the ground, it was horrible. I remember coming back inside and just bursting into tears, it really bothered me.QUOTE]

My vet actually owns several rabbits and is the vet for Noah's Ark also. They have a number of exotics and small animals so she's very experienced with rabbits. I really wondered if his system was already down and then he got stressed from the ride to the vet and had a heart attack. I can't think of the name of their food but it's the same they'd been eating forever. I know several people at the House Rabbit Society and they are a wealth of info so I did have both a good diet. Just strange and sudden...
As far as the fox goes, my husband called a trapper, spoke to him about our options and was told that yes, he would kill the fox if he came out and caught it. It took a couple of nights before we got one of them. It was really pretty and I hated to think that was the only answer but I can assure you'd I'd feel worse if it attacked one of my small dogs or cats. There's still one at least on the property and we've seen it a couple of times but haven't trapped it yet. I would love for it to just go away but I'm worried that if it doesn't, and we can't trap it, that as winter approaches and food gets slimmer my dogs are going to look more and more like dinner...

[SerenityFL]

When I was a kid, I was given rabbits, dwarf rabbits as birthday gifts. It started off with Spot and Sniffles. A year later, I got Buck and Bunny. My dad built an elaborate hutch for them, like tiny apartments, with ramps leading up to wooden boxes for them to hide in or sleep in. Buck got a cold, (he was a baby), and despite my best efforts, he did not make it. Shortly after, Bunny got sick.

One day we had a terrible lightning storm with strong winds and even though my dad had attached the hutch to a stake in the ground, it still got knocked over. I came home from school to see it knocked over. Shortly after this, Sniffles died. She must have had some sort of injury we did not see.

So I was left with Spot. Spot I really bonded with and I would sit, legs outstretched and place him towards my ankles. He would run across my legs and jump from my waist to my shoulder and was happy sitting there. We would sit for hours, sometimes. He always sat by his door of the hutch, waiting for me. I feel guilty sometimes because I was a stupid kid who sometimes wanted to play video games instead of share time with my rabbit who always waited for me.

He lived for 7 years. I left in the summer to go to Basic Training and AIT. When I got back, Spot was there, at his door, waiting for me. I took him out, held him in his usual spot, on my shoulder, and we just were. I was there for a week and I spent much time with him. Still, not enough.

I then had to go to Germany for my permanent duty station. About two weeks later, I got a letter telling me he had died.

I firmly believe he held on long enough to see me one more time and then, knowing somehow that I would not be back, he died. Is it possible for them to die of a broken heart? I believe so for sure.

I loved that rabbit and I hope he knew it. I just think I was a selfish kid who didn't show him enough how much I did. But he waited for me that one last time, regardless.

When you say your 2nd one died shortly after that, if the vet could find no problems with the first one, then I believe your 2nd one died because of grieving. So many animals know more and feel more than we ever give them credit for.

[chowder]

I'm glad to hear that you got one of the fox. So far ours has not come back again. I'm hoping it's gone for good. Maybe your's will leave now that you got rid of it's pal. They really are pretty but they just don't need to be living in our fenced yards!!

Yesterday Shade just missed catching an Owl!! It swooped down right in our fence to catch something and Shade took off after it. It's been living in our yard and is huge, easily way bigger then Shade when it's wings are spread. Luckily he missed it but I'm afraid it could attack Chelsy, mistaking her for a rabbit or something. And some deer were INSIDE our chain link fence making a big trampled nest in the brush that Shade is now rolling around in so he stinks like old deer now.

I'm getting a little tired of wildlife to be honest!!

[Donna Little]

I'm glad to hear that you got one of the fox. So far ours has not come back again. I'm hoping it's gone for good. Maybe your's will leave now that you got rid of it's pal. They really are pretty but they just don't need to be living in our fenced yards!!

Yesterday Shade just missed catching an Owl!! It swooped down right in our fence to catch something and Shade took off after it. It's been living in our yard and is huge, easily way bigger then Shade when it's wings are spread. Luckily he missed it but I'm afraid it could attack Chelsy, mistaking her for a rabbit or something. And some deer were INSIDE our chain link fence making a big trampled nest in the brush that Shade is now rolling around in so he stinks like old deer now.

I'm getting a little tired of wildlife to be honest!!

I hear ya. In the years past if my husband even mentioned killing something I'd be against it. Now, I'm not having that much of a problem with it....
We also have a huge owl that lives somewhere nearby or on our property. It screamed right outside of our porch the other night and I thought my husband was going to crap his pants! I think they are beautiful and so long as it doesn't mistake one of my little guys as lunch we'll live together in harmony.
We have opossums, hawks, falcons, fox, squirrels, chipmunks, lizards, snakes, rats, mice, you name it living around my house. A little nature is okay but stay out of my house (we had an entire opposum family living under our garden tub once) and don't eat my dogs. Simple rules to live by I think...

[xellil]

We have nesting falcons. I know they couldn't pick snorkels up and carry her off, but they could sure attack her on the ground - they do it to the squirrels all the time although the squirrels seem to be able to hold their own.

And i wasn't great to my dogs when I was young either - when I went to college I got a dog which was great except I lived in the dorm. I spent alot of time hiding him, so he stayed in the closet alot. When I was discovered and got kicked out, I was afraid to tell my parents so my roommate and I (she also got kicked out) rented a single room that was a total dump so we could keep our dogs. I'm not sure what kind of life it was for them. But when I left school he had a better life.

My dad bought some ducks once to eat the grasshoppers. He/they were hilarious because he'd go out and call "chickie chickie" and these ducks would be waddling along behind him, all in a row.

Edited to add: if you are going to buy a dog from a parking lot and hide him in the dorm, you should probably not get a puppy who will turn into a 130 pound Malamute.