Daisy Ducktoes

Daisy Ducktoes was such a special bunny. So special. She liked everybun and was bunwife and Nursey Bunny to two of our special loves, Puck, and Rufus Poofus Poofington. Puck was blind and grieving the loss of his sister, and Daisy cuddled right up to him and became his seeing-eye bunny and friend, and they bonded in less than a day.

When we lost Puck, we were going to bond Daisy to our Pickle. Well, Daisy Ducktoes had other ideas! Rufus, a newer arrival at the time, was in a small pen in her area. One morning I went out to the kitchen and found the pen open, and Daisy and Rufus snuggling and grooming like they’d been together forever. And they never changed. You see, Rufus was disabled. He was dropped by a hawk and his back broken (along with his jaw on both sides, and many of his teeth)—and Daisy Ducktoes became his everything (his everything who wasn’t me, that is!). She was his friend, his helper, his special groomer. His love.

Daisy Ducktoes had a really rough start in life. She was part of a rescue (and store closure) we started and facilitated. A store where they were breeding the bunnies in the back—some of them in large drawers. Daisy was by far in the worst shape.  Daisy had obviously had several litters, had dead kits with her, was emaciated, had an enlarged heart, and some of the worst infected hocks I have ever seen.  She also had an infected uterus necessitating emergency spay surgery, where a dead and rotting kit was removed. We truly didn’t think she would make it, but she looked at us with those soft, kind eyes and licked my hand (tears then… tears now) and all bets were off: we were not giving up on her, not ever.
It took months and months to get her anywhere near healthy—and several years to get her truly healthy and off heart meds, no recurring hock infections. What an amazing little trooper she was, on top of everything else!!

Where did she get her name? Those hocks! They were SO bad; she couldn’t hop, she waddled and spread her toes and paddled… like a duck.

Over the years, as Rufus became more debilitated (went from being able to *chase her* while on his cart, to being mostly immoblie), Daisy easily changed her role and became his groomer, his nurse, his pillow… she was such a good wife!!

And now she is gone from us.  Daisy Ducktoes was 10 or 11 years old. She was not ill.

On June 8, 2015, she’d eaten her salad in the afternoon, been in the hay box, been out of her pen and visiting the other bunnies. Kevin was doing yard waork and had been back and forth through the room, into the garage. Not 15 minutes had passed when he came back in… and Daisy Ducktoes was gone.

She left this earth quickly, and hopefully with as little pain as is possible. She had no prolonged illness. She was happy. She loved and was loved. I wish it could be this way for them all.

Still. Profound grief. The room feels empty despite there being seven other bunnies there. Rufus and Kevin and I are heartbroken. How can such a big, silly, sweet life force be gone from us? Our Ducktoes, our Yucky Ducky (when she peed where she oughtn’t and then hopped in it); our Acrobatty Bunny (she was an absloute lunatic when she wanted to be, doing the craziest and most acrobatic Bunny 500s, binkies, loops and flops and flios and hops!). We think she was Daffy Duck in another life.

We love you Daisy Ducktoes. And a day won’t pass that we won’t miss you. We promise to take care of your Poofy Bear (Rufus). Please be free and happy and healthy. We will all be together again, some day.

We love you, Ducky.

Rufus, mummy and daddy