Early morning I saw that the bunnies were out of their pen and asked Isaac to bring them back into the garage. As I left at 8:10 to go to work (from Mom’s house today) I saw a small animal lying in the road. As I got near I realized it was our bunny, Spice. She had been hit by a car. I pulled over and went to pick her up. She’s was clearly dead but had only a couple of signs of injury. I feel confident that it was a quick and painless death. When I picked her up she was limp but not stuff and there was still a little bit of residual heat suggesting that it had only been a few minutes. The reality is that she wasn’t there when I drove Savannah to school at 7:00.
I put the body in the empty garbage can outside, being careful that the kids not see me out the front window. I went in the house to ensure that the other bunnies finally got moved to the garage again. I told Mariah and Isaac about Spice but not the other kids. After school I told Alyssa and she broke down sobbing. Her grief was made worse because she hasn’t visited the bunnies for a few days. She was grief-stricken for at least half an hour even as she brought Coconut into her room to snuggle.
I finally told Noah about Spice when he began asking about the bunnies and he noticed that I said nothing about Spice. He asked directly about Spice and I simply told him that she died after being hit by a car. He immediately went out and told the other kids. Most of the kids took it in stride. They want Spice back but their grief is minimal. Ezra, on the other hand, began sobbing after a few minutes of processing. We allowed him to grieve but I also took him out shopping with me so that he had something other than Spice to think about. Helping Father groceries made it so that his hurt was more bearable.
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