The Tragic Events of 6/22/09

Tragic events of 6/22/09
Originally posted to my Facebook on Mon at 11:59pm

we went out to do chores and found 55 dead rabbits. that is more that many people have in their entire herd. I have never in my 24 years raising rabbits ever seen anything like it.

Poncho
High Roller
Deja and one of her babies
Mousey and her litter
Litsa and her litter
China Doll's sister (dragon lady or geisha girl I'm not sure at this point)
Habenero and all but one of her 10 day old litter
Cannas and half of her litter
8t42 and her litter
43F and her litter
the beautiful Vienna Marked doe
so many babies i cant even count
does i dont even remember because they are all blurred together
2 guinea pigs one beautiful TSW Aby boar and a white teddy boar
Nest box after nest box full of dead babies
every baby poncho had sired for us
almost every baby Roller had sired
its a shockingly unreal feeling i have right now. i feel sucker punched and i feel guilty. I feel that i should have done soemthing more. More fans, more air flow, better placement, i shoul dhave gone out before and after work, i shouldnt have waited til evening to do chores. i shoul dhave done this or that or something else or different i should have know it would be too hot

i believe in karma and i believe in what comes around goes around but what have i done to deserve this? what have Amanda and i done to deserve to lose these rabbits in particular? And why Roller when the two rabbits on either side of him were fine? and why Habenero when Tippy my English Angora on her left was fine and Maddie the mini lop with 5 or 6 one month old babies on her all lived? Why Poncho? Why Mr Ponch and all his babies? I try to be a good person and I try to be fair and just and honest. Sometimes I make mistakes and i try to make amends for them. I don't understand this at all.

I feel like every time i end up doing well or having success in my life, my rabbits, my relationships anything some major set back comes up and crushes everything.

I can buy more rabbits but there isn't enough money in the world that would ever replace what those rabbits meant to me. I can breed more rabbits and raise more beauties, but nothing or no one could ever replace Roller or Poncho or Mousey or Habenero or all those fat faced beautiful orange and tan and otter and opal and chestnut and steel babies that never even made it out of the nest box. Those were OUR rabbits. That was Poncho who was a cigar smoking Italian mobster retired from the life of crime, living only to woo his lady friends and raise himself up a family of baby ponchos. That was our Roller who was just a lover and a pisser and the most beautiful baby we've ever seen and one of the most correctly typed and beautifully formed Dwarfs I have ever had the privilege and honor to have hop out of our nest boxes.

I feel like i dont even know what to do anymore. And I know i am still in shock because I really cant feel anything. My hands feel numb and my head seems like its floating.

We are getting up super early in the morning before daylight and going to see what we can do.

The worst part is we just made a bunch of changes to the barn and bought two new fans and rearranged. I shudder to think of what would have happened of we hadn't have done that on Saturday.

This is only June.