Coyote Crossing

The Oblivion Bridge

We got Thistle’s ashes back today. Included in the little package the vets handed me were a cedar box containing his cremains, a plaster of Paris medallion with his footprint, and a certificate avowing that the crematory had handled him gently and

Goodbye.

Thistle – rabbit, lover, hero.
2001(?) – March 22, … (continues)

Holding the rabbit

When I first met him he was in a hutch, in the middle of a large chain pet food store doing their part to help the local shelter adopt out animals. He was locked in there, so I found a staff person with a key. The lid rose, he looked at me a bit

Desperately hope I’m wrong about this

I think he’s on his way out. Might be tonight, might be a few days. I don’t think it’ll be weeks.

I’ve been wrong about this kind of thing before, over and over again. Maybe this will be one of those times.

He spent 45 minutes sleeping in my

Thistle, again

How many times have I saved this rabbit’s life? Once by adopting him eight years ago, certainly, less than a week before his “deadline” at the animal shelter. Again a year later, the first time he went into GI stasis and I found him cold as death

Update on the non-dead pets

Both of the boys are safely in the Palm Springs place now, as shown in this completely uneventful video:

Confusing, right? It’s a cat, on the internet, but he’s not doing anything funny and there aren’t subtitles. Weird.

Anyway. Thistle arrived

A hare’s breadth

California counties in which Thistle has been, as of today:

• Contra Costa
• Alameda
• San Joaquin
• Stanislaus
• Merced
• Fresno
• Kings
• Kern
• Los Angeles
• San Bernardino
• Riverside

Note: any travels prior to April 2004 are undocumented and thus not

Granting Root Access

He’s not supposed to eat carrots these days. They’re higher in calcium than is good for him, according to his new vet. So he hasn’t eaten many in the last three or four months. But tonight I saw the carrots in the fridge, and I saw him looking at

An old one

… (continues)

Bunniversary

Six years ago this past weekend, a certain person came to live with me.

I guess that makes him about 9 years old now.

A couple months ago he was denied health insurance due to a pre-existing condition. If only we’d … (continues)

Thistle

And then when I woke up my pillow was gone.

When he came down to Los Angeles to live he had that head tilt issue, a common symptom of inner ear infections in rabbits. The corresponding dizziness made it hard for him to groom himself in the way

Significant absence of rabbit mortality noted

I seem to have left a few people hanging as to Thistle’s fate.

He’s recovered about 98 percent from the head tilt thing, and about 99 percent from Interstate Five through the Central Valley. All that’s left of either of those traumas is a slightly

Settling in

Though my ex- did get Thistle through the worst of his head tilt it’s still disconcerting. To himself most of all. He’s disoriented, his sense of balance is affected, and it’s clear whatever is causing the head tilt involves some discomfort.

The

Everyone’s moving to Hollywood these days

Settling into his new … (continues)

Thistle

Word arrives this morning that he’s feeling better. Thanks to those of you who’ve asked after him, and sent good wishes.

Looking for some email about him just now, I found this old comment I made to someone a few years back in a thread about

Hang in there, Thistle

A note comes from the dear ex: the rabbit is very sick and she faces a difficult decision.

Thank you, Thistle, for bringing me joy and occasional bites.

Thank you, Becky, for tending … (continues)

Five years ago this week

An excerpt from Walking with Zeke:

March 23, 2004
We’ve named the rabbit Thistle. Or he named himself: that was the one name he responded to at all. Smart bunny: the second-runner-up name was “Stu.”

Thistle was running around in the back yard