Hi Rhonda,
Tucker's 3 years old.
When I was 18, I had gotten a cat and had him until he died 14 yearslater. Took me 5 years to decide to get another animal. Had to mournCypress because although I'm not a big cat person, he was awesome. He'dbeen with me through college, a marriage, a divorce, the death of myfather, and moving around.
When I finally decided to get another animal, I decided on a rabbit.Went to a petstore and picked one up that had been dropped off and lefton their doorstep 2 weeks prior. They didn't know how old he was. Hewas a gorgeous rabbit. My neice and I named him Skip-Boy. He loved tocuddle and be held. Unfortunately, 2 weeks later, he was dead of arespiratory infection. I got up one day in the morning noticed himsneezing, took him to the vet and that night when I went to see him inthe hospital, he died with me there. I was devastated.
The petstore gave me the wrong kind of cage, bedding, and information.I never knew rabbits were that fragile. I made the petstore buy backthe cage from me because it wasn't for a rabbit. One summer night whenit was very hot, I had Skip-Boy in the a/c room with me. He could'vedeveloped the respiratory infection from that, the stress of movingfrom one home to another, the improper bedding, eating some soiled hay,who knows!
I decided to get another rabbit, but did my homework this time andfound a breeder. Since they're a couple hours away from me, we had madean appointment to meet in the middle at their 'old' farm and I'd pickout a rabbit from there.
We decided to meet on September 11, 2001 at 1:00. As you know, thebombing of the Trades Center and the Pentagon happened that day, and noone knew whether they were coming or going.
I had no way of getting in touch with the breeders and had alreadyarranged to take the day off, etc., so I figured I'd better go just tosee if they were there. Of course, I would've understood if theyweren't. They got there about 10 minutes after I arrived. Their son wasin the Service and they were obviously very very worried, but there wasnothing they could do and so they came to meet me.
Tucker was the one that gave me the best hug. Also, he was just a baby at 8 weeks old.
No matter how difficult and challenging life can be at times, Tucker always makes me feel better. If he's okay, I'm okay.
I know what you mean about the experience of the rabbit show. After Ihad gone to my first one, I was so blown away at the beauty of therabbits, at how docile some of them were, and how much people knew themand were willing to take you under their wing and teach you. I'mabsolutely fascinated by things I continually learn about rabbits andthe stories people tell on this site.
The whole experience has been a wonderful journey. I've met people suchas yourself and the others on this board who are just genuinely goodpeople. Put a bunny on top of that, and you can't help but smile.
So glad to have you and all the others here to share the the fun and the worry with.
-Carolyn
and I'm sure you'll like ithere on this forum. We've got a great group of people here asyou'll soon see. 
