Yesterday we said goodbye to Rosebud whose time with me came full circle.  Before Rudi and I had dogs we had rabbits.  When I first came to live with Rudi he only had a bird.  My dog Papoose stayed in Chicago with my brother Jimmy in our house the only home she ever new.  At that point to get another dog was unthinkable on many levels but Rudi knew that I needed an animal as this was what I was about and so one afternoon 11 years ago we went to a home that was selling baby rabbits.  In my mind we were only going to get one and I picked Dahlia a little white rabbit with black ears, feet and nose.  Rudi then said how can we only have one we need to get her a companion and he picked clover a sable colored girl.  This was in May.  In late September of that year the unthinkable happened when our two babies were attacked by two roaming dogs in our backyard from inside their raised hutch.  We found them in time and were able to get them to the emergency room where they were able to call in one of the exotic Dr's who performed the surgery that removed some of their limbs but ultimately saved their lives Dr. Hardy. 

Then in 2000 Rosebud and I found each other.  I had decided to leave the mortgage industry to pursue my 2 passions, animals and baking.  I took a job at a bakery in Barrington and applied for a tech. position at Dundee Animal Hospital with Dr. Hardy who was now our vet for Clover and Dahlia.  Lying on the table was a tiny little spotted rabbit with a gas mask over his face being prepped for surgery.  It seems as though this little boy had had a mishap with the family dog and gotten gotten the short end of the deal when his back leg was severely broken.  While his owner brought him in he did not feel that he was worth saving and did not want to pay for the surgery to repair the damage.  Dr. Hardy felt differently and luckily the owner relinquished the rabbit to the hospital.  Then fate stepped in that day I went in for my interview or should I say I did.  I was not looking for another rabbit but it was never a question that he was going to come home with me.  What better home for a rabbit with a potential disability because of leg trauma than with Rudi and me?  Dr. Hardy felt the same way and to his new home came Rosebud.

 From the first day he was a wonderful rabbit though not very social.  Clover and Dahlia we brought home as babies and they were treated like babies given lots of time, care and attention which made them very sociable with people.  Rosebud on the other hand was probably a year or older when we brought him home and did not seem to have had the same care and attention thus he was always scared around people and preferred the company of the other rabbits and surprisingly the dogs.  He was funny.  If I were to pet one side of him his body leaned the other way.  If you were to so much as turn the latch on the door leading out to his porch and he knew you wanted to pet him, not to come in and feed him he would run to try to get away.  He was a very intuitive rabbit as I think all animals are.  Besides his "sisters" he truly though I believed loved Oliver and Oliver in turn loved him.  It was a real gift to see the interaction between the rabbits and the dogs.  Oliver  never knew a life without the rabbits as we had them before him and so I do not think he knew that he was supposed to be a hunting dog and that these were not dogs with big funny ears.  He would sit on the couch with them, clean their ears, clean their bodies, lay on them like little pillows, pull them under him and more importantly teach the new dogs how to act.  Oliver our gentlest soul who is content to be in the background of things led by perfect quiet example and in doing so created perfect harmony and allowed Rosebud to see that not all dogs were to be feared and to the dogs that other animals could be their friends.

 In these past 9 years I have returned back to the mortgage industry, had to have said goodbye to my 2 of my 3 rabbits, have now 5 dogs and have had to say goodbye to 2 and now Rosebud.  If he would have made it to some time in October he would have been 10 years old.  A remarkably long life for a rabbit whose average time span is 6-7 years but never long enough for me.  He developed kidney failure and while we could have possibly sustained him for a bit longer I told myself and Rudi that I would not put him through what Dahlia went through and that he would go out with some dignity.  Yesterday he spent his last hour out in the yard free in the grass.  While my rabbits were never caged having had their own enclosed porch it was not like being able to run in the grass.  Rosebud was always too fast and would have gotten away.  Now that he was sick he did not move as fast so I was able to let him.  We then brought him to the same hospital where I met him and he was placed on the same table and the masked placed over him again for his final journey and his reunion with Clover and Dahlia.

 I have had rabbits for over 30 years now.  This is the first day in as long as I can remember not having one.  Rudi and I have talked and we will be going to a shelter to bring home 2 possibly 3 rabbits to give them a chance at a wonderful and long life, free of cages and worry.  What better tribute to my three. 

Finally I want to say Rosebud was a very good boy who never asked for anything just a gentle hand and love and who will be dearly missed by his Dad & Mom, Oliver, Miss Peabody, Tristan, Cinnabun and even Po'Boy

-- Jana & Rudi Frohlich

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