Blog Entry 2: The Tale of Snufflelufflegus

On occasion, a rabbit will arrive at the shelter and need help outside of what the shelter can do.  Snufflelufflegus was just such a case.  He arrived in the middle of June with respiratory problems and a prominent bulge on his leg.  Daisy and I stepped in to take him to her own house and set up a large cage for his comfort.  Each night I would fall asleep and he’d be at my bedside struggling to breath.  I would place him on the bed and pet him, something he couldn’t get enough of.
The next day we took him to a vet outside of the shelter, where we felt Snufflelufflegus would receive the best care.  There, Dr. Fowell discovered that the bulge on the rabbit’s leg was a tumor, and that the only treatment would be amputation.  She estimated that it would cost $1,300 for the surgery—a steep price for anyone, let alone a county-run shelter and volunteer group that relied on donations.  We simply couldn’t afford it.  A chance surfaced when a fellow rabbit volunteer told Daisy about Crowdtilt, a website where people donated money to different causes.  We immediately started a campaign. We raised the money within a month and Crowdtilt didn’t even charge the usual tax for the money raised for Snufflelufflegus’ surgery. Everything was going smoothly.
Then it wasn’t; his breathing wasn’t improving.  It seemed to be getting worse, despite the treatments prescribed by the vet.  He was losing weight.  On the last day of the campaign, Daisy and I took Snufflelufflegus to see Dr. Fowell again, who decided to perform an x-ray of his chest.  After waiting 15 minutes, a vet tech led us to a different room to view the x-rays.  On the screen, the vet pointed out several patches of pure white scattered across Snufflelufflegus’s lungs.  “Cancer,” she said.  What we had thought to be a sinus infection a month ago had in fact been the tumor spreading to his lungs. With my heart seemingly lodged in my throat, I looked to Daisy and I decided that putting our fluffy guy to sleep would be best.  He was put under anesthesia and given to Daisy to hold in a towel one last time and then he died quietly, quickly, and with dignity.  His eyes were open the whole time and had an expression that suggested life, where we knew there wasn’t.  I wanted to take him home—to have him not be gone—but I knew that he had been suffering and I couldn’t let that continue. It was difficult to acknowledge that only the night before I had voiced the idea of adopting him once I was financially secure and had graduated from college.  Our life felt like it was just starting together, but it turned out his was ending and we were privileged to be in his life for as long as Daisy and I were.
Crowdtilt gave us the donations even after we told them of Snufflelufflegus’s passing.  We are extremely grateful.