A tale of three rabbits

After Katy left and our tears had subsided, my parents decided to go a more allergy-friendly root and get rabbits. My oldest brother didn't want an animal, but my other brothers and I each got a rabbit! 
   Aaron named his Roger (after the famous television character Roger Rabbit) , Jared named his Thumper (after Bambi's friend) and I named mine Eliza Jane (after the beloved sister of Almonzo, in Laura Ingall Wilder's: "Little house on the Prairie"). They were all the same colors, black and white, but we definitely knew which one of them belonged to us. I'd spend hours out in our back yard, lying with Eliza Jane in the grass or combing her soft hair, while she nibbled on clover. We'd have races, to see who's bunny was the fastest and I'm sure that my little lady won her fair share! My dad made two hutches, one for Eliza Jane and one for the two boys. At least, we thought they were both boys, until we woke up one winter morning to discover: 3 naked babies in one of the hutches!! Our excitement was BEYOND imagination as we argued over what their names would be and which one of us would get to keep them. Sadly, The babies didn't make it through the winter and in fact, none of the litters the rabbits bred ever survived beyond a few days. 
    Here's where the saddest part of my tale comes in. Once again, Jared started to have asthma problems and Thumper had to go to a new home, where the discovered "he" was actually a girl (that would explain the babies!) and given a new name. A few months later awoke one day to discover we had left Roger out all night and he had escaped! He came back, but not before encountering another animal which gave him a disease of some sort. My parents thought that it was rabies (I have since learned rabbits don't get rabies), but whatever it was, he was suffering. One day, my mom took us kids to the beach and when we came back, my dad was burning Roger's hutch...my brother had put him out of his misery. 
   So it was just my sweet Eliza left and I tried to enjoy my time with her and share her with my brothers. Alas, she went the way of "Where the Red Fern Grows" and stopped eating and drinking; a few days after Roger, Eliza Jane also went to bunny Heaven. 
   After that, it took my parents a long time to be ok with us getting another pet. They didn't want to see three, heart-broken little faces staring up at them ever again! 
    That was, until Templeton arrived...

It all started with a dog named Katy...
Well, actually it all started with a dog named Sammy, whom I affectionately christened "Tammy"...what? I was like 3!! Anyhow, I'm starting with the story of Katy because I don't remember much about Sammy; except that he was part Beagle/part shepherd and tragically got hit by a car when he was fairly young.
   I'll never forget the arrival of Katy!  Our neighbors, who lived down the street came by with a cardboard box, and told us their dog had just had puppies. I peeked over the edge of the box and met the eyes of the most adorable golden retriever I had ever seen, right then and there my six-year old little heart fell in love! My mom wanted to take her right away and with four pleading children, my dad didn't have much choice. I'm the one who came up with the the name "Katy", from a book my mom read to me named "What Katy did". We spent the next few weeks loving our new puppy; romping out in the yard, feeding her and teaching her where to "do her business". When we watched Reading Rainbow in the afternoons, she'd sit on our laps and gnaw contentedly on our hands or one of her chew toys. When my parents added water to her food, we wanted it in our cereal  too so we could be JUST like Katy! Even the kids that my mom watched during the day, fell in love with Katy and some of them even remember her now. I could picture her being with our family for ten or more years, growing old and curling up on a dog bed when she grew stiff.
Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be. My youngest brother began having severe asthma attacks and the doctors quickly decided that it was allergies to the dog. Katy had to go to another family, the news hit us kids hard! My dad chose me to be the one the drive with him to the shelter, so we could say "goodbye". As we stood in the parking lot, after bringing our precious puppy in, the tears began to flow. My dad knelt down tenderly and said "it's ok hunny...I'm crying too." I didn't believe him; dad's DON'T cry! So he took off his sunglasses and there were tears on his face. So we hugged, brought together in this tragic moment we'd remember as long as we remembered this puppy who had touched our lives.