Hervé the white rabbit

In November, 2013, I posted the following:

I  want to show you the new rabbit that entered my life. Like all my pets, he came to me through the rescue route. It was a few weeks after I lost Ringo (I will always be upset, I’m sure he was kidnapped or worse, and I put a lot of effort into finding him). Early one morning, a couple found a white rabbit in the middle of St. Antoine Street, just a few blocks away from me, near Georges-Vanier metro. They contacted Secours Lapins Quebec, who isn’t a shelter and can only network for rabbit rehoming. They gave them my poster to see if it was Ringo, but it wasn’t. The couple asked me to take him in anyway.

He is young, friendly, full of energy and curiosity, and he’s got a big appetite! It took a few weeks, but his name arrived: Hervé. Here he is on his Gotcha day!

One great thing about Hervé is that he actually likes being in the front yard, and his willingness to stay influences Kaori and Elizabeth, the girl bunnies, in a positive way. I’ve a lot fewer “escapes” – visiting the neighbours, or hiding under the car — than before. They then get to stay outside for longer.

He’s really fearless, actually. On Hallowe’en, he wanted out in the evening — no way! — and so was hanging around the front door. Kids came by to trick-or-treat, and he was trying to get into the bowl of candy. He taught Elizabeth to go explore the bedrooms upstairs. Naturally, he attacked a few houseplants this way, and cut down a stem of the ficus tree into a stump. I don’t know if it’ll recover (it took awhile, but it did).

He also humps my girls. They take it (most of the time) in the most unperturbed way possible. Girls can be worse for humping, as it’s a dominance activity. They’re all really happy together.

Update, December 2023

It is with sadness but satisfaction for me to report that Hervé has taken his final journey to the Rainbow Bridge. He was with me these past 11 years through a lot of adventures (trips taken!) and changes (a roster of bunnies, past and present). He was an unflappable bunny. While he sometimes seemed indifferent to me, he really wasn’t. He was a great companion to the other rabbits, and after his first energetic year of getting into everything, he was never any real trouble.

I got Parker in 2015 and he’s such a docile little boy, but Hervé had to assert his authority. As soon as their hierarchy was established, they became best buds – with the occasional flex, from time to time. For example, in 2019 I ended up taking Parker to Boston with me while Hervé The Bossman stayed behind. The end of that summer separation was actually a joyful reunion; Hervé being by himself for a full five weeks tempered his attitude. (It wasn’t like he was really attacking Parker, either – just being Hey You, I’m The Boss Of You all the time.)

After Willa came in, she integrated herself with Hervé and Parker, and it was such a lovely arrangement, until Parker went into hospital. As soon as that happened, Willa broke her bond with Parker, and became a total beeeyotch to him (way beyond I’m the Boss, more like I Hate You). Willa looooooved her husbunn Hervé, but Hervé was still friends with Parker, so she sensibly respected the afternoons that Hervé spent with Parker on the main floor. Downstairs was their territory, so she’d defend it against Parker. Not just against Parker either! If anyone gave Hervé attention whilst on the floor downstairs, Willa would rush and box them: “Don’t touch him, he’s MINE!”

Of course, this didn’t put any damper on me petting Hervé, because Hervé loooooved to be pet. Here’s part of the “bunny sitting” instructions:

Hervé’s decline

But age comes for us all, and in the case of rabbits, Hervé got dental spurs. He ended up on long-term antibiotics and, this year, a recurring under-eye abscess. He also got head tilt, and that eventually became exacerbated from an internal dental abscess. This meant, in his last few months, he could only perambulate in circles. It took me a little while to figure out that when he was most anxiously circling, it was because he needed to use the litter box.

As can be expected, Hervé became incontinent with old age, so I’d have to give him butt baths. At the very end, these past few weeks, taking him off antibiotics increased his quality of life, because it restored his gut flora – which meant his cecotropes arrived on a schedule he could handle, and he essentially stopped needing to get out of his own way (therefore, fewer butt baths required). He needed more physical support to be comfortable, buttressing him with blankets and companionship. Increasingly, he slept the day and night away. I’m sure the abscess did his brain and neurology no favours. He was very patient with (yet still protested!) my draining and cleaning his under-eye abscess with a syringe and catheter of saline solution, twice a day.

He’d had a good appetite and sweet disposition all throughout his decline, but the helplessness was real, and I didn’t want his end-of-life to become harrowing. I took him to bed with me for the last week to give him the body heat and support he needed, and for the first time in his life, he groomed me.

And so on December 1, I took him and Parker up to our long-standing vet in Laval, Dr. Woodlock. I wish I’d let play the music box they’d had playing in the room, but the tinkly lullaby started me crying (toughen up, Jane, it’s not about you). In the dim quiet of the room, sitting cross-legged on the floor with the bunnies in my lap, we bid a peaceful goodbye. First we gave him a sedative to send him off to dreamland, and ten minutes later, the euthanasia drug. Parker groomed both of us.

Then we put Hervé’s body in a burial bag to bring home. It was a long metro ride home, and then downstairs, I opened the body bag in Willa’s presence. I left them like that for a few hours, so that she would get used to the idea that Hervé was gone. And then, come dusk, I buried him in the back yard.

Hervé was a happy rabbit, and he made many other people happy too. Let’s remember him like this:

And remember, as well: