BrianJarrett.com

At one point in time we had four rabbits, two males and two females. Despite the fact that a rabbit can live as long as twelve years or more, three of ours didn’t make it past age four or five. Only one rabbit, Opus, our first and last rabbit, has survived until now. He’s now nine years old an I’m beginning to think he’s immortal.

At age nine he gets around pretty well. He doesn’t do much hopping anymore and he usually just stays in one or two spots. He eats, he sleeps, and does the kind of things rabbits normally do. I think he’s deaf now since it seems he can’t hear us coming until we pop into his field of vision. [Now I'm pretty sure he can still hear but just decides it's not worth the effort to react to the sound.] Such is the life of a rabbit, I suppose.

About a week and a half ago we found him in his litter box, looking half dead, apparently unable to get up. We figured this was the end (he is nine years old, after all) so we tried to turn out the lights and not disturb him so he could die in peace. A rabbit usually goes down pretty quickly so we figured it wouldn’t take long.

So, after a day passed and no death occurred I began to get suspicious. At a minimum I figured I was going to have to have him put down by the vet so I tried to unsuccessfully to get a hold of them. When that failed I went down to check things out and evaluate the situation. He hadn’t drank any water or eaten any food for 24 hours so I gave him a drink. He almost attacked the water bottle which made me believe he still had some fight in him. I tried to lift him back to his feet and, surprisingly, he seem okay after he got back up. A little wobbly but okay. Earlier in the day I’d remembered that once or twice in the past he’d fallen and had had a little trouble getting back up. Initially I’d considered this was hat happened but he just looked so sick that I blew that idea off and figured he was dying.

Now I think I was wrong. It’s been over a week and a half and Opus has been going strong. He got rehydrated, ate, and is now back to his normal routine. Apparently he’d just fallen and couldn’t get back up again. Looks like it’s not yet the end of the line for this rabbit.