Coffee - good to the last drop.

We are sad to say, that our beloved bunny Coffee, has died.  But her last day was spent roaming free in the grass, sunshine, and fresh air.

Yesterday, as we were cleaning the cages, Coffee was "restless."  She has always been a bit skittish and difficult to "deal with."  So much so, in fact, that the kiddos had trouble getting her out of her cage to play or what-not.  But this day, she was impossible!  So, we put the cage on the ground and opened the gate.  As she started to come out, we had a dog crate waiting.  She hopped from her cage, into the dog crate. 

Our plan was to just leave her there, clean the cages, and then move her back. 

Popcorn was already in the crate, so we thought this would be a great opportunity for mom and daughter to spend some 'quality time' together on Mother's day. 

Took us about 30 minutes to clean the cages.  And during that time, we noticed that Coffee appeared to be fighting with Popcorn.  She was mounting her, and "growling" at her.  So much so that I thought "OH NO!!  Did we mistakenly put the male black Rabbit (Pepper) in the cage INSTEAD of Coffee?!"

So I immediately went to investigate.  I opened the crate, and reached in.  And Coffee bit me!!

This time, she's not pregnant.  Nor is she unfamiliar with us.  We've hand fed this bunny for months (almost a year).

So we decided to let her roam our safe, enclosed yard.  Maybe she's frustrated being in the cage so much?  After all, the kids don't take her out as much as the others....

I took the crate to the backyard, opened the door...and she immediately hopped out.  Popcorn, on the other hand, did NOT.  So we moved Popcorn back into her (now clean) cage.  And everything seemed okay.

Later in the day, Ian went out to feed Coffee fresh veggies.  Coffee wanted no part...stomped her hind legs, "growled", and ran away. 

So we left the food in our outdoor rabbit hutch, with water, and an open door so she could come and go as she pleased.  The outside temperature was perfect in the 70s, and overnight lows in the high 60s.  Plenty of shade, shelters, and cool dirt available.  No predators present.  So we felt okay giving her a bit more space to move about. 

Towards the evening, we noticed that she barely moved from one spot.  BUT...maybe, she was afraid of the wide-open space that she wasn't accustomed to? 

***
This morning, we went out to check on her, and she was still in the place were we last saw her about 12 hours prior.  Stiff.  Dead. 

In retrospect, maybe she was ill?  I tend to think that she was actually older than we anticipated (with her cataract, perhaps she was elderly even?)  Nonetheless, Coffee is gone.

And then there were TWO.