I am George and you may address me as King George and kneel before me. I was Kathleen’s first bunny and judging from my photo, you can see that I have the color and face of a lion. I have the personality too.

I was an impulse purchase in a pet store by a nice girl named Amy. She was good to me but had to travel some in her job and her roommates never followed through on their promise to feed me and give me water. Amy was concerned and realized that she had made a mistake. I was just a little guy, maybe three months old.

She talked with Kathleen at WL Stephens pool in West Ashley about taking me and Kathleen said no. Amy kept asking her about me and finally she said yes, she would adopt me. It was either Kathleen or the shelter.

On Valentine’s Day, 1989, Kathleen and Amy met in the parking lot at the pool. It was a terrible icy morning but they didn’t care. They transferred all my things to Kathleen’s car and she took me to my new home in downtown Charleston. I had a room all to myself upstairs and was too little to go up and down the stairs. Kathleen would bring the morning paper and coffee upstairs to sit with me and she played with me quite a lot and I had great care.

One morning as she went downstairs to refill her mug, she turned around and found that I had followed her! I was big enough to handle the stairs and not fall! From then on, I was allowed to run around most of the day until a very strange day came. I was packed up in my cage and put in the car with a lot of other things and we went for a ride. Several hours later, strange things happened. The wind was terrible and as an animal, I instinctively knew something was very wrong. It was a hurricane called Hugo and Kathleen held me the whole time. I was very still and in a house with other animals, even a cat. We were all so scared that we didn’t think about fighting. It finally passed and we returned home.

Several months later, Kathleen packed up her things and we went to a new home with a new person. Kathleen and Fred had gotten married. Fred liked me but I was a little worried about his dog, Allday. Allday was a Boykin spaniel and Fred kept saying that Allday had manners. Kathleen and I were scared when I met Allday but he did have manners and was very happy to see me and to have a new friend, even a bunny friend.

My life was very happy with my human family and Allday. A few years later, a very small new human named Christine came to live there. She was OK but smelled funny. Kathleen noticed a white web-like thing in one of my eyes. She took me to a vet who said that I had a cataract forming and would eventually go blind in that eye. Over time that did happen and a cataract began to form in the other eye as well. Kathleen and Fred were very sad to see me going blind but said that they would always take care of me. Allday continued to be my best friend, even when I nipped his nose. He never nipped back.

I didn’t move around the house much anymore, my eyesight was gone and I was getting old. Christine sometimes petted me a little too hard but Kathleen would move her away quickly so I wouldn’t be scared. I knew where my food and water were and stayed on the floor vents most of the time. I died one night and my family was so sad to lose me. Allday missed me terribly and looked for me for the next three days. My family buried me under a shady tree in the side yard where some years later, Allday joined me.

I was king of the house, everyone deferred to me and for that era in which people didn’t know much about bunnies, I had a great life, never living outside and being completely loved and adored, just like a king.