As I stood in shock, I couldn’t fathom what I was faced with. Looking below, I was horrified to see what had happened to my bunny.

In early 2013, my mom spoke about a mystery bunny that left me with curiosity. She spoke about her friend’s bunny who gave birth to a litter of six. My siblings and I deeply desired a bunny, so we begged and pleaded to our mom until she finally caved in. We all picked and agreed with a name: Coco.

Three days till Easter. 

We arrived at PetSmart to buy supplies and other necessities. We looked at different ways to dress up Coco. We thought having a bunny dressed up as a bunny for Easter would be iconic. Almost $200 later, we left the store, anxious to have a pet other than a dog to play with. We had a passion for our dog, but there’s a limit on playing tug of war before getting tired of it.

Now with the holiday being two days away, my excitement only went up from there.

With time ticking away, we got to cleaning and making room for the little critter. Moving boxes and sweeping were all that was needed to tidy things up in the garage. We cut the tags off everything we bought, assembled the wire cage and covered the bottom with bedding.

Time was getting closer. Only one day away. 

We all woke up bright and early the next day ready to drive and pick up the bunny. Finally, after days of being on our best behavior, he was in our hands. We didn’t want to scare the poor little thing, so we drove slowly on the way back home. 

Once we made it home, the first thing we did was let it run around the grass in the front yard. My sister, who at the time was around a year and a half, loved the bunny with all her heart. In fact, this was her first time talking words we could understand. “Bunny,” she said as she held him up in the air, pulling his fur in all directions. 

All in all, it was a unique moment. We took Coco inside so he could get used to the cage and toys, but only for a little while. I was too eager to wait, so we took him out, only leaving him alone for one hour. 

The day was coming to an end and we all headed to bed early, since we had to wake up early to run errands in the morning. We all said our goodnights to the bunny and went to sleep.

Instead of saying goodnight, we should have said our final goodbye. Easter morning I was the first to wake up, so I went into the garage to check up on our little pet. What I saw ruined the spirit of Easter for my childhood.  Our poor bunny was dead. Trying to escape, his wobbly head was dangling outside the cage while his body was still inside. 

I screamed at the top of my lungs, waking everyone in the house. My parents rushed at the sound of my screams and gasped in horror at what I was staring at. Soon enough, everyone was in the garage mourning the loss of our beloved bunny. Easter was ruined for us. Our hopes of celebrating with our real little Easter bunny were crushed.

After hours of crying in our sorrows, we placed the bunny in a shoebox. We dug a hole in the corner of our yard and placed the bunny in the makeshift grave. My sister was too young to understand what happened, she thought he was in a deep sleep.

“Bye-bye bunny,” she said as she threw flowers on top of the box and covered it with dirt.