My Dearest Rusty,

My its hard to believe you've been gone over a year now. It seems like only yesterday I was carrying you around in my arms. I'll never forget the day I first laid eyes on you. I was surfing the internet and went onto a local breeders website and saw this darling picture of you...



I knew immediatly when I saw your picture you were the little piggy for me! I e-mailed the breeder I said I was very interested in meeting you. But then she mailed me back and said that someone else was going to be getting you, that they had bought your brother earlier but he had been killed by a dog. I was very scared for you going to home with a family that plainy wasn't too careful with how they cared for your poor brother.



A few weeks passed when one day I got an e-mail from the breeder again. She said your owners had kept you with a very big bunny and that is had hurt you! Your little ears had bee nibbled, your fur had been chewed and you had little cuts all over your body and were quite then. She also said that your "owners" had kept you in a tiny SHOE box for a few days until the breeders came and took you away from those horrible people! She said that after a few weeks I could come and get you if I was still interested. I was of course! After you had been fixed up and gotten your strength up I came on July 31, 2003 to meet you.



The second Mom and I laid eyes on you we fell so deeply in love with you. You were so tiny, you could fit in the palms of our hands, you were just about 3 months old and in that short peroid of time you had been threw so much! We took you home and loved you, cared for you, and slowly you began to mellow out and gain our trust.

After 2 weeks of being with us we decided to move you in with our bunny Dusty. We hoped you wouldn't be afriad of him with your bad experience with the last bunny you lived with. We knew Dusty would love you! From the moment we put you in his cage you two got a long great and were inseperable! I'll always remember this one time you were drinking from the water bottle and Dusty was licking you quite hard and you kept on nearly falling over. It was too cute! He sure did love you.




After we had had you for only a month and a half, something we never would have imagined happened. Your health was failing... one day I had gone out to feed you, I picked you up and was SHOCKED to find you had very thin and hadn't touched your food. Immediatly Mom and I moved you into a cage inside my room. You weren't eating... you were getting worse and worse as the days passed. After a week and a half of us trying to nurse you back to health you had gotten so thin and weak we called the vet. When we took you in we feared the worst...

The moment the vet picked you up she said you were one sick little piggy... I burst into tears. The vet told us that she thought your kidneys were failing... and that you "were suffering". Those were the words I had been dreading. I of course knew I didn't want you to suffer but I never knew just how hard it would be to say good-bye to you. The vet handed you to me and I held you against my chest stroking your dying little body... I held you for about 5 minutes until the vet and Mom said it was time. She took me away from you and went into the back room. I wanted to be with you when you passed but I was such a wreck. I'm so sorry I wasn't there for you...

A few minutes later she came out with you wrapped in a kleenex box. We brought you home and burried you behind Dusty's cage, so you would still be close to him. We all miss you so much, everytime I see a photo of you its so hard not to cry... I still don't understand why God took you away so soon, I guess you were needed at the Rainbow Bridge. I love you little Rusty, and miss you with all my heart. Until we meet again...

Love Mommy
xox

RIP "Rusty"
May 7, 2003 - October 1, 2003