This afternoon I found my bunny, Thumper, dead in the arena. He was a very cool bunny. I brought him home six years ago and set him up in a wire cage in the barn. I would turn him loose in Murphy’s stall (no horse in there!) so he could run around for exercise and play with the dogs. Soon I bought him a deluxe bunny hutch and moved him into a 5x7 dog kennel. He seemed happy there until last fall when he kept trying to escape when I opened the gate to feed him. One day, when I couldn’t catch him, I decided to leave him loose. He loved it!
He kept mostly to the barn and arena and would snuggle with the barn cats when it got cold. He absolutely adored my Boer/Alpine goats and would jump through the cattle panels to share their hay or just lay out in the sun with them. I also have two Nigerian Dwarf goats and he would run and play with them and share their grain. He’d come running in the morning when I went to feed and would follow me around as I did chores. I tripped over him more than once.
Just yesterday he was hanging out in the arena with me while I rode. He was laying next to the stock tank and seemed a bit hot even though it was only in the 60s. I saw him this morning and gave him a little scritch on the forehead, his favorite spot. It appears he died of natural causes while out in the arena snacking on weeds. I’ll miss him.
Gandalf was a very excellent chinchilla gray California Giant. In the words of the Scottish groom who found him in his paddock, “Thot is a fooking big rabbit!” 
