When Saorlaith’s pet rabbit died she said :‘ I’ ll miss her warm fur. I’ ll miss her’
I‘ll miss her warm fur, and her hopping, and licking my hand. I’ll just miss her. The words of my daughter, Saorlaith, as she sobbed into my neck this week after I had to tell her that her much-loved bunny, Raisin, had gone.
Unconditional love. I’m one of those practical people who disregards it sometimes when it comes to the animal world, but watching a child struggle to make sense of her bunny — here one day, gone the next — it hit home like a juggernaut.
‘I just want to know why she left me, mammy.’ I didn’t have the answers, except to attempt words that an eight-year-old head would comprehend.
I mumbled something about a happier place where bunnies have an endless supply of hay, and playmates. ‘But she won’t have me, and I won’t have her’, came the heartbreaking response.
I hugged her close and allowed her to cry. I also had to work out what to do with the rabbit that could offer closure, and the gentlest possible method, to work through her grief. Digging a hole wasn’t an option, so I turned to Google. Finding a place, I booked in for the next day, feeling like a complete eejit.
Had someone told me I would be standing in a funeral parlour for a rabbit, I’d have told them to get their head examined. Instead I felt like examining my own as I drove to Pets Farewell in Moira.
I was half-laughing, half-crying at the thought of it until we arrived. It was perfect.
The owner took Raisin as if she was her own, laid her on a blanket then left us alone, leaving my daughter to say goodbye.
My eyes burned as I watched tears dripping off her wee nose, wetting the brown and white coat she stroked gently, then the resignation came for Saorlaith that this was final.
We collected Raisin’s ashes later that evening in a bunny shaped urn, with clips of her fur.
The tears subsided and, as Valentine’s arrives, I am reminded that love isn’t always hearts and flowers.
Love, or loss of it, can hurt, and heal. A parent will always try to ease their child’s feelings. That’s love. Even if you have to organise a pet funeral.”