Phantom Felines And Other Ghostly Animals - Gerina Dunwich 2006

My Dead Rabbit Haunted Me
Other Ghostly Animals

by Rachel Schuetz

When I was nine years old, I received a rabbit as a pet from my parents, which I named Bunbun. I loved Bunbun with all my heart.

At night while I was asleep he crawled under my covers and sat in my arms until I awoke. If I were still asleep and late for school, he tugged on my shirt and clawed at it until I responded. Sometimes he lay next to my legs and watched TV with me. This continued for years.

At age seven, Bunbun died a long and painful death. We assumed he had a heart attack and liquid had filled his lungs. It took him all day to die, and at the end he cried for me. The night he died, I still felt as though he was hopping all over my bed, but I chalked that up to the grief.

Months passed and I soon got new rabbits. One night I was sleeping and awoke to a rabbit hopping around my head. Thinking it was one of my new rabbits, I thought nothing of it and turned on the light. I looked around my bed and saw nothing. I looked under it and both of my new rabbits had been lying under it the entire time. That was the first occurrence of Bunbun coming back. A few days later my mother was trying to take a nap and felt like someone was hopping all over her. She looked around and there was nothing to be seen.

Soon we had to split my two rabbits up until we could get them fixed, so one was in my mom’s room and the other was in mine. During that time the occurrences slowed down, but I would still occasionally feel something hopping on me.

Last Thanksgiving my grandfather died, and my family had to leave while I stayed at the house to take care of the rabbits. I was lying in bed one night, trying to sleep, when I felt hopping on my legs. I looked down and my bed was barren. The hopping continued until I felt the mass lie down next to my legs and shift its weight onto my legs just as Bunbun had always done. This continued until my family came back from the funeral.

Since then, I have never felt Bunbun again.