SEASIDE, Calif - A Seaside girl is still alive and her family credits their pet rabbit, Hammie. The Hudgens family fostered Hammie through Rabbit Rescue, but this seven month old rabbit is very special.
"It was about two in the morning and I was awoken by a thumping and when rabbits thump, it's really loud," said Aundrea Hudgens, Emily's mother. "I didn't register what the sound was though. Heard it again and I got up to come to Emily's room to see what was going on."
Aundrea's 14-year-old daughter Emily suffers from type one diabetes and sometimes her blood sugar plummets at night. Once Hammie woke Aundrea up, she decided to check Emily's sugar level.
"I checked her blood and it was really low," she said. "And she usually wakes up for that but she wasn't awake this time. She was really pale and sweaty and so it was actually really dangerous that she didn't wake up. She could have died."
Once Aundrea was able to treat Emily, Hammie stopped thumping.
"It didn't occur to me that he was thumping because of her until I checked her blood sugar," she said. "Then I thought, oh my gosh, I wonder if that rabbit knew!"
Aundrea said the same thing happened just a few weeks later.
"Those two times he alerted us that something was wrong," she said. "I don't know how he could sense it but he did."
Research shows rabbits have good hearing and there's a chance Hammie heard Emily having issues while sleeping. All we know for sure is this bunny who got a second chance at life, saved a life, twice.
Central Coast News Reporter Katelyn Sykes asked Emily if she thought Hammie saved her life. "Yeah, because I wouldn't have woken up," she said. "I can't remember either of those two incidents. I didn't know they happened until my mom told me."
