Bruce finally came home yesterday. I found him in one of the little wooden coop boxes I have in the bunny run. He was dead. I Couldn’t see any injuries on him and he was still floppy. A few hours earlier I had pushed my endoscope camera back down into the Warren just to check again. I got a shock as thought I’d seen two eyes in the darkness. But I thought my eyes were playing tricks.
A few hours later I went up into the dark woodland to put some extra hay into the boxes to make Arnie and Sly warm during a cold night. As I lifted the box lid, I gasped. Bruce was there, clearly dead. The light of my head torch had caught his blank eyes. He had been missing for around four weeks. He had finally come back home. He appeared to come back home to die. I’m sorry Bruce I wish I could have helped you. I just couldn’t find you.
He’s buried now in the woodland.
His two brothers don’t seem bothered at all. But I guess that’s life in nature. Bad things happen and you have to keep on going. I was used to having all my animals in a safe urban garden, shielded from the outside world. Countryside living is a different beast altogether. It can be brutal and there is danger everywhere for all animals. I always try my best to keep them safe. But sometimes I fail and Mother Nature takes her beasties back.
I feel it’s appropriate to quote that magnificent book Watership Down…. “My heart has joined the Thousand, for my friend stopped running today.”
In the country not in the country 