Sad Sunday followed by a miserable Monday....

We were having a really nice weekend, with Rob and the boys off Mountain Biking on Saturday morning, while I managed to finally get the Christmas decorations boxed up for Rob to put away on his return. All was well until Sunday afternoon when my eldest son went out to clean out his rabbit's hutch. The rabbit was dead.

This is the second rabbit he's lost in 5 years, which is really unfair for someone of 13. Especially as the rabbits were both well cared for. The first one became ill and died of myxomatosis, mainly due to our ignorance of how the disease was spread (not just by contact with infected rabbits, but also by fleas and other such bugs). This latest death was completely out-of-the-blue and a horrible shock for all of us. He was regularly innoculated against the myxomatosis, so we are pretty sure it was not that. He also didn't have a mark on him and had been fine on Saturday, so we'll probably never know what happened, as he has already been laid to rest beside the other rabbit under the cherry tree we had planted to mark the spot.

Of course the rest of the day was very sad, although we all tried to keep cheerful. I didn't sleep well and have had a day feeling very low. Oh, how I wish I could take the pain of losing another beloved pet away from my son! He is being very brave, but I know that he is hurting inside. To lighten our mood, we keep talking about the holiday we have booked in October, when all 5 of us will be flying to Orlando for 3 weeks. We very rarely get to go on holiday together, so this is something we are all looking forward to. It might seem a long time away, but I know from experience that time flashes by and it will soon be upon us.

There are all sorts of things planned for the next few weeks and months to distract us, so hopefully the grief for my son will lessen and fade. It's a hard lesson for anyone to learn - the one about death. What we all need to do is to make the most of life, while we can.