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Old Bunny

Today I realised just how old my rabbit is. I got him when I was nine years old and he's going to be nine in April. It's kind of phenomenal to think about how long he's been here - he's older that about half of my cousins and he's just always been there.

Me and Thumper after his cleaning session. ^_^
Being the nine-year-old-disney-loving-carefree-child that I was, along with my best-friend-and-next-door-neighbour-in-crime-Laura, I named him Thumper Cinnamon. He was going to be called Cinnamon but we thought Thumper suited him much better. He is one of many rabbits that bear this name, poor soul.

He's always had a problem with his eyes, I think it's a genetic trait of over-bred-mini-lops and pet-shop rabbits in general (let me take this moment to say PLEASE ADOPT.), and as he's got older that has got increasingly worse. Earlier this year he got ill and had something called e. cuniculi and as a result suffered a stroke in half his face and lost a lot of strength. Regardless of his age he did pull through, thankfully.

For the past couple of nights we've been having him inside, cleaning his face, trimming the matts and clipping his nails. At one point in his life he would have struggled back and fought us and not had any of it but he just sat there, letting us bathe his eyes and clip his nails.

We're doing this so much more than we used to now, just to keep him comfortable. His placidity and calmness whilst we cleaned him up made me realise how much he's grown up; how much I've grown up. I hope he sticks around with us for that little bit longer.


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