It’s fair to say that, so far, 2017 has been a pretty horrific year for the Davies family. It’s been a super tough 10 days or so (more on that to follow next week), The Happy Jar is pretty much empty, and the last thing we needed today was to have to say goodbye to our beloved rabbit, Dazzle.

But in traditional “it doesn’t just rain, it pours” fashion, when Abbie went to feed Dazzle this morning, it quickly became apparent that it was time to make a very difficult decision.

Dazzle, our 3 legged rabbit, lost a leg after a few operations to clear a cyst failed and the only remaining option was amputation. That was about 7 years ago and he has managed incredibly well. He was always smaller and frailer than his brother and we were surprised that Frazzle went first back in October 2015 (Sleep Tight, Frazzle). We really did expect Dazzle to pine away after Frazzle died and so in many ways have been lucky that he managed another 15 months with us.

But the last couple of months have seen his health deteriorate rapidly. His crooked body, caused by years of managing with 3 legs, has been giving him some pain. For a while he’s only been able to walk in circles around the garden. He was pretty deaf and his eyesight failing. A couple of weeks ago we found him stuck in the garden after becoming tangled in grass. We reluctantly decided to stop him from roaming free in the garden and confined him to his shed. Not great. But this morning he’d clearly lost all mobility and quality of life. With a heavy heart, Abbie came to the very difficult decision that it was time to allow him to sleep in peace.

This afternoon we buried him with his brother, and yet again Ad and I are watching our kids crumple under the grief of losing a pet. A huge part of their childhood is now over and our hearts are breaking for them. They really didn’t need to go through this at all, let alone right now. But, if there’s one thing 2017 has shown us, it’s that our kids are stronger than any of us knew. And they will be OK. We all will.