Sad news about our little Juliet...

Well, I got a rather sad note from my breeder Sarah today, letting me know that the little blue torte we had picked out as Juliet was found dead in her cage this morning. It appears as though she just was not taking to the weaning the Mama bunny had started and was not eating the pelleted food. Sarah said she was just fine during routine checks yesterday and was not expecting this. But this weaning time is when some will be lost and this is farm life, nature's way, if you will. Some will make it, others will not. She was worried about how we would take the news, since the girls had seen the video and were now acquainted with "their" bunnies. Frankly I was too. I hemmed and hawed for a while, trying to figure out if I should tell them Juliet was a boy so we had to pick a different one (since they knew Sarah was only pretty sure she was a girl) or that she got sick and would have to stay with her mama bunny for a while so we'll have to pick a new one...all kinds of things went through my head. But in the end, I decided that since we were to be a farm family, we would have to learn to deal with loss sometime. After all, if we raise bunnies, we will have our share of losses. So I told them that Juliet get sick last night and she died this morning. Quick and to the point. Moo looked rather sad, then asked "Is Gnomeo sick too?" No, he's fine. "Well, I guess we'll have to get another Juliet for Gnomeo, one that's not sick." and that was that. I told her what Sarah said, that we could have our pick of the does after they were sexes in two weeks and she nodded her head and went right back to playing with her dolls. I was totally stressed out for no reason, she was fine and hasn't brought it up since then. So sad as it was, this morning was our first real farm lesson...never count your bunnies before they're weaned! Lesson learned.