Memorial Post: Rowan (Halloween 2015 - Feb. 28, 2026)
Our beloved floofy bun, Rowan, passed away a week ago. He was ten years and four months old (the average lifespan of pet bunnies I saw quoted some places is 2-4 years, and 10 years is the expected upper limit for his type of bun) and was healthy, cheerful, friendly, and sweet his whole life; he died very suddenly at home, apparently of old age. I miss him - he was always more friendly and cuddly than Japp - but I'm glad he had a long, happy life.
He was also more bonded to Japp than Japp was to him: Rowan kind of wanted to be friends all along and spent a lot of his free time hanging out near or right up against Japp's cage, grooming or snuggling through the bars. (But as soon as they were both let out Japp would start bullying him instead.) If Japp had died first, I would have worried a lot more about Rowan becoming lonely; Japp has always been more independent, and he's been less active than Rowan in recent years, too. (He naps most of the day and seems more potentially senile.)
Rowan was almost twice as big as Japp even though they're littermates - he was pushing the upper boundary of a dwarf rabbit, weighing about 2.4 kg most of his life. He had a round little belly under all the floof, although about 70% of his volume was wool so luxuriant and long and shiny that he was frequently almost spherical. He was more friendly and affectionate than Japp - he would come up to greet the people and cats in the room, beg for treats, do little binks, or just cock his head before bustling away on bunny business. And he liked being groomed gently, as long as you didn't try to groom his chest or chin or hindquarters (which always deeply offends both bunnies). Japp doesn't dislike grooming, but Rowan would relax and make happy little bunny purrs for much longer.
He was a much more timid and cautious bunny than Japp, though. Even when they were babies, he watched Japp jumping in and out of the baby cage they shared for two days before he was brave enough to make that jump himself (we picked him up and put him on the floor the first few times). He frequently relied on Japp exploring new territory first, whether that was climbing up on top of cardboard boxes or venturing on the rug out into the hallway.
He was also much more afraid of strange people and of heights (or rather of being picked up without something solid under him - he wasn't afraid, for instance, of being held or carried inside a little basket or box). That's unfortunate because visitors and children always wanted to pet and hug him, but his fear of new people and being picked up typically meant he didn't enjoy it. (Our youngest niece, now ten years old, who is absolutely obsessed with animals of all kinds, is the only visitor who's ever lured him over to sit on her lap on the floor voluntarily. She did this by basically spending every possible moment of their visit sitting nearby and watching the bunnies very calmly, and intermittently offering them treats.)
Japp has had three health scares in his lifetime, but Rowan, on the other hand, only had to go to the vet to be fixed and to be vaccinated, and never had a moment of ill health. He was industriously shredding cardboard, begging for treats, zooming around the room, and exploring under the woodstove until the day before his death. I often called Rowan my sweet beige boy who'd never done anything wrong in his life, which was not strictly true, because he has eaten part of the wall a few times, including the wallpaper in my MIL's old apartment after it was sold - but in his defense, he probably doesn't know the difference between the wall and any other piece of rippable cardboard. He was never mean and always just wanted to be friends.
They both got used to being out there and started eating grass. However, they also both wanted to sit in the turtle bed, but because he's a total asshole, Japp bullied Rowan off of it every time and even left the turtle once to nip Rowan's butt. They will have to be given other options to hide in next time.
