Hagrid, my sweet giant bunny

Yesterday morning when Haven went out to feed the bunnies, he ran back in and asked me to take a look at Hagrid. He was laying on the other side of the yard and had flies around him. Haven called me instead of going up to look at him more closely. And I'm thankful he didn't see what Marshall and I saw.

Apparently during the night Hagrid was mauled to death in what I can only imagine was a vicious and violent death. Much of his face was missing. His eye was gone. His whole head was bloody. Looks like whatever got him first grabbed him by the foot because that was badly damaged as well. I don't know if I can ever get that horrible image of him out of my head.

It was far more damage than a cat could do. And raccoons usually only attack injured or baby bunnies. And quite frankly Hagrid was bigger than any of the racoons here. The only thing we could think of was that it was possibly a coyote. Now in the 11 years we've lived here, we've never seen a coyote in our neighborhood, though we know there have been coyote sightings blocks north of us.

Perhaps the L.A. Fire (the largest L.A. fire in modern history) has driven coyotes further south into more residential areas. That's very possible.

All I know is that out of all of our bunnies, Hagrid was the bunny I loved most. He would run up to me when I was in the backyard, nudge my leg and want me to scratch his cheeks just like a kitty. He was a gentle giant that was sweet with the kids and other animals.

He will be greatly missed.