Miss Bunny Bear is the little girl who saved my life! My ex-husband and I had been having some problems and I really wanted a little furry creature to keep me company and provide some comfort. Soooo against his wishes on March 15, 2009 I got this beautiful little puppy! (And yes...her little nails are painted pink).
But it wasn't as easygoing as it sounds. I found little puppy face on Craigslist on Friday, March 13th and emailed the girl Evelyn letting her know I desperately wanted her little puppy. I really didn't know much about dogs (she is my VERY FIRST puppy) and I wasn't even sure what kind of dog she was. But Evelyn emailed me back and told me that she was still available and I could come pick her up the next day! this was wonderful, since my little sister Madeline was flying into San Francisco that night and she could help me watch the new puppy while I had to work a couple days the next week.
So I went to my friends house after work on Friday but before my sisters flight arrived at 9:30 PM and went online to show her the cute pics of the soon-to-be-mine puppy. That is where tragedy strikes!!! I had an email in my inbox letting me know that Evelyn's mom had promised the puppy to one of her friends, so I couldn't have her. I cried. I was heartbroken that this little puppy face wasn't going to be mine. I had only thought she was going to be mine for a few hours, but the instant I had seen her face I knew that she was the puppy for me. And I really felt sorry for my sister because instead of being happy to see her, I was sad from the devastating loss of my little puppy face. I mean look at that little face...this is the picture that was in the Craigslist ad where I first fell in love with her.
But then Sunday morning came around along with an email from Evelyn letting me know that things didn't work out with her Mom's friend (enter horns!). So I told her that we would be over right away to pick up the puppy! But then she sent me a couple more pictures of the puppies (apparently there were two), and she was trying to get me to take the lighter colored one! Not that she isn't adorable (and now I wish I would have taken both of them), but SHE isn't the one I had already fallen in love with!
These are some pictures they sent me of Nala (the lighter colored pup) & Lapin (the darker pup).
Evelyn informed me that her family was going to keep one of the puppies, and they were planning on keeping Lapin. so I drove down to Milpitas anyways to meet both of the puppies. And as soon as I met the two of them I new that Lapin (french for rabbit) was for me! While Nala was a cuttle little thing, she was very energetic and bounced from person to person, while little Lapin just sat in the lap of one of Evelyn's family members. But I knew that she was the puppy for me! So i took her!!!
I didn't really like the name Lapin so I changed her name Coco Chanel. I thought that it fit her, and I was using an older pink Chanel bag that I had as her doggy carrier. But Coco just didn't really fit her. She bounced when she ran and she looked more like a little bunny than anything else. So I started calling her my little bunny and the name just kinda stuck. And since her name was "rabbit" to begin with, Bunny seemed to be the right fit!
I was really lucky that my sister was around for the first week I had Bunny, as she helped me SOOOOOO much! She was always with her to help potty train her onto puppy pads, and since my cats already slept with my husband and I, and I didn't want to add a tinny little dog to the mix. So my sister had Bunny sleep with her that first week to get her acclimated to not sleeping in our room (which didn't last long...4 nights maybe?). But I was soooo in love with her, I couldn't stand not having her sleep in my arms! I mean just look at how cute she is while sleeping!
She was really easy to fall in love with...quickly!!!
So on one Saturday I had to work in April, I decided to bring little Bunny Bear in to meet my co-workers, and my friend Lori brought in her 6 month old chihuahua Harley as well. Bunny was so cute trying to play with him...
And apparently her version of playing is kissing him! Such a girl...
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Look how cute her little face is!!!
Little Miss Bunny Bear used to be such a spunky little puppy...she LOVED to play in the grass!
What is really funny is that the grass she is in is only a couple of inches long...but she is so small that it half buries her. I think she is about 3 lbs here...
I love this picture of her because she actually looks muscular! Haha...my tiny little ripped baby girl!
Well when Bunny was a tiny baby her little ears were flipped over. and I loved this about her. I absolutely did not want this to change...but alas, she because a big girl and her ears started to flip up. I was so sad at first, but now I can appreciate just how cute her little ears are no matter what!
She really loves to hike, and she even has a little hiking dress that she likes to wear (but that may have something to do with the little pocket in the back that holds her treats!)...just saying...
Bunny is my favorite little creature in the whole world if you haven't been able to tell yet!
and here is here playing hard...
and then sleeping hard!
And Bunny was healthy and a good eater and a good player until mid July 2009. All of a sudden Bunny stopped eating and drinking and was really weak. Then she started throwing up and having really bad diarrhea. So I brought her into the vet and they though she might have Parvo, even though I had vaccinated her. So I waited while they tested her and THANK GOD the results came back negative! And the doctor thought it might be a parasite of some kind, so they took blood from Bunny, and a stool sample, and had to stick a needle in her belly to get a urine sample. Then they sent me home with some medication for her.
Well the test results came back and there was no parasite, but her liver levels where all wrong. So they hospitalized her for a couple days so they could run more tests and give her the i.v. fluids that she needed. Now I was already $700 into vet bills prior to the hospitalization, and so far none of the tests had given me any more information than I already had. Here is a picture of little Miss Bunny with her I.V. port all wrapped up. She was such a good sport:
She just sat in her little carrying case with me petting her while the Doctor did all the mean nasty things they had to do to her. I felt so bad for her. And she was really sick...she lost about 25% of her body weight in a matter of a week! Look at how thin she got...you can see every little node on her spine.
So while Bunny was staying at the pet hospital they ran some x-rays on her to see if she had any liver shunts. The x-rays came out looking pretty good. So they changed Bunny's diet for a couple of weeks and sent her home with me with slew of medication I was to give her, but warned me that she might have a congenital liver defect that cannot be fixed with surgery the way shunts can. And the medication they sent me home with sucked because none of them were liquid and the pills were all fairly large, so multiple times a day I was sticking my fingers down her little throat to get the pills in her. Not to mention I was force feeding her baby food from a syringe because she wouldn't eat. Well we went back to the vet a lot over the month of July and August and I rung up a bill of a couple thousand dollars (EEK!). So for the next few months, I had a monthly bill to the animal hospital for the remaining half of my bill for like $400. The amount was so high that I had to put my student loans on deferment so I could pay all of my bills.
Over the next few months Bunny started doing better. I still had to trick her into eating and sometimes force feed her, but there was a lot less throwing up and diarrhea. During this time my husband and I had decided to separate which was hard, but because I had Bunny with me...I was able to cope. In fact, she was so strong during her sickness that I started calling her little Bunny Bear (or Bunny B for short).
So Thanksgiving rolls around and Bunny Bear got her first period. And I hadn't gotten her fixed yet because the doctor was worried about putting Bunny under due to her under-functioning liver. But she went into heat and then I knew I had to do something about it...even though she looked so cute in her little diapers!
I started by putting her into the XXS puppy diapers that they sell, but even the XXS diapers were too large...she would just slip right out of them! So I went to Target and picked up the extreme preemie diapers for babies and just cut my own little tail holes in them. Even those were a little large so I used that self-adhearing bandage tape on her to keep them on. And it wasn't like she was bleeding that much and I was worried about the blood, but she was living with little boy puppies that had just been fixed but were still...mmm....fertile for the next few weeks. And since Bunny is not anywhere near healthy enough to get pregnant (not to mention was too young), I had to be extra careful. But in the end, one of those little buggers got to her anyway (while she had the diaper off to go pee) and let's just say that Bunny is no longer pure and innocent.
So after dealing with our vet and getting an ultrasound of Bunny's tummy to get a better look at her liver (which was like $500 that I didn't have in the middle of December) and dealing with the vet, I needed to get Bunny fixed and soon. There was a chance that she could be pregnant, and Bunny would not survive a pregnancy. This coupled with the fact that my vet didn't want to preform the surgery on Bunny because she might have complications due to the anesthesia, and the surgery would be further complicated by Bunny being swollen in heat. So the vet wanted me to go to UC Davis' Veterinary school to have the surgery done where an expert could do it. Long story short Bunny had to get fixed while in heat (which of course costs WAY more), she turned out to not be pregnant, and she did really well with the anesthesia.
Something that the vet and I decided to do while Bunny was having surgery is get a liver biopsy done. I wouldn't approve it back in the summer because exploratory surgery just didn't sound like a good idea for a sick puppy, but while she was already going to be "open" why not. The part of this that I didn't know was that they had to cut Bunny open an additional 4"-5" which left her cut from sternum to crotch. And because they were worried about bunny being put under and they wanted to limit her exposure to the anesthesia, they didn't keep her under to clean her up. So the poor baby came back to me all cut up and bloodied (and wil another multi-thousand dollar vet bill).
So to make her feel a little better I went out and got her a new bed that was soft and fluffy that she could burrow herself down into...she REALLY likes to do that!
She is my little angel!
Shortly after the new year Dr. Dana (our lovely vet) contacted me and let me know that bunny did have the congenital liver defect that we had discussed previously. Bunny has a liver defect she was born with called Microvascular Displaysia. What this means I guess is that Bunny's blood from her veins and her arteries mixes in her liver (they should never mix!) and her liver spends all of its energy fighting the blood contamination so it doesn't have enough energy to process the food she eats. So poor Bunny has a hard time breaking down proteins of any kind...and that is why she gets sick and stops eating. So Bunny is on special food now, takes vitamins daily, and only is allowed certain types of treats. And I feed her lots of table scraps, and weight is not an issue with Bunny, and as long as I am feeding her foods her body can break down, the vet is more than happy with me giving it to her (which works out great for both Bunny and me).
Bunny is a LOT healthier now that her diet is managed and she is monitored. And I definitely baby Bunny, but she is more like my kid then she is like a pet. I truly do not know what I am going to do when I lose her (her disease gives her a shorter life span). So for now Bunny comes every where I do, and I do not EVER leave her! She is my constant companion and my bestest friend! She even lets me dress her up to show her off! Just like a good friend should...haha...
This little jumper and matching skirt is my favorite outfit of hers!
And here is the whole family...including my other puppy I haven't really mentioned in this post (other then me talking about him deflowering little Bunny B).
And I will leave you of my favorite picture of Bunny...it is even the image used on my credit card!
