Multiplying like.... well.... rabbits!

This has been such a bizarre couple of days!

Most of you facebook friends know that Tuesday was Ardyn's Very Special Person Day at school, and as part of VSP Day you get to bring something for Show and Tell. Ardyn chose her bunny Licorice, which is some type of Netherland Dwarf bunny that we got free. So everything is planned and the kids are in the van, and we borrowed a pet taxi carrier, and I pull out front and go to get the bunny.... and the bunny, is GONE. Gone. For real. Like door to bunny run wide open and no bunny around. So I go inside and I look at Evan and I said "You are NOT Going to believe this." and he says What, and I say, "The bunny is GONE. gone." and he was like "You are KIDDING Me." and then after a pause, "You are KIDDING me!" Yeah. today. Show and tell, I am bringing my bunny to school day.

So poor Ardyn, was hysterical, and helped me catch a chicken. And Show and Tell went well with Ginger, who is actually more sociable than Licorice.

So we started the quest for a new bunny, and I decided that this time I was through with "free bunnies" that someone else wanted to get rid of. I wanted a bunny who was calm and relaxed and loved to be held and social. I wanted a bunny that was cute and that we picked out ourselves. I wanted to be picky. We have all bunny supplies that a person could possibly need, and a nice big hutch with a run, and so I thought, this time, we get a good bunny. One that I am not secretly hoping doesn't have a long healthy life. Like, when I was in the pet store and saw vitamin drops for bunnies and saw the label talk about longevity and health and thought "those aren't for our bunny" I realized that I wasn't really in love with Licorice. Sad but true. I LOVE Animals, but I still need to take into consideration that I am not equipped to be my own animal rescue center :)

So after lots of research, I was very fond of Flemish Giant bunnies. I was a little worried about the size, because I felt like it was almost like taking on another DOG. But the positives for the breed were so POSITIVE that I started searching. I finally found a few leads and they lead us right towards several Flemish Giants raised at Boggio's Orchard in Granville... that had been babies in early spring of 2011, and were now happily hopping around but for sale.

I thought we would wait till next week to go see them, but today we had nothing going on, and the woman in charge of bunnies mentioned that she was having surgery tomorrow and would be gone for a while. So we packed up and ran over to the orchard and picked a gorgeous silver-grey Flemish that is oh so fluffy and tame and sweet. It's a girl, and we had a hard time naming her today, which is unusual for us. We opened the baby name book to girls and right away saw Briar or Brier and it made me giggle because of Br'er Rabbit, and because the Disney Movie "Song of the South" is my favorite, and has Br'er Rabbit as a character, and also it was sort of a "meant to be" because we had a really moving sermon this past Sunday by Pastor Mary Gay that included references to Br'er Rabbit. So Briar Bunny she became. Ardyn was right on that.

So, the bunny came home and watched TV with Ardyn on the couch for an hour, and then hopped around while we ate lunch. Then I took her out to check out her hutch and she seemed pleased. The kids and I lay down for naps and got up just in time to get to dance class, when Ardyn started INSISTING that she saw Licorice in the yard. I told her she was nuts, and then 20 minutes later, sure enough, Licorice was in the yard. Oh. Boy. Suddenly we have TWO Bunnies. But of course I couldn't catch the bunny. This seems to be a pattern. But really, it's not to saddening because I don't really WANT two bunnies, and I can't put the two together because Licorice is a male and Briar is a female, and we don't need TWO Bunnies, let alone MORE Bunnies. Oy. So Ardyn is hysterical because I can't catch Licorice, and I explained that we can't HAVE two bunnies and that Licorice doesn't want to be caught, and that we will see him around the yard when he wants to come around and that if we DO catch him, we will have to find him a new home. She finally seems okay with that. And so I text Evan and tell him who showed up again and he was like NO WAY and then I called my mom and told her that she could now say "I told you so" because we suddenly sorta have two bunnies.

And then Evan said that he tried to catch Licorice while we were at dance and that it wasn't possible. LOL. So fast forward to 9pm and there is a knock at my door and a neighbor from several (SEVERAL) houses down the street (way down the street) asks if I have lost a bunny because he caught it. Oh boy. Looks like I will need to find a place to stash Licorice for the night. So I go to the guy's truck and he jokes that I will need to identify bunny and I say well, he's all black, and he is small, it's surely mine. And he shows me the cage and guess what, It's NOT my bunny. We are both shocked and he is a little sad because now HE has a bunny, which isn't mine, which means he HAS A bunny. LOL. What are the chances that there are two black domestic bunnies loose on my Street? LOL. Amazing. So after looking again, I say "nope, not my bunny" because it's more brown/black and a different breed with shorter ears and bigger eyes.

After he leaves I panic a bit in case it really WAS my rabbit and since I spent all day with a Flemish Giant, what if I suddenly thought that mine looked different. No. No no. I tell myself that I spent several minutes today trying to catch licorice and that I know what he looks like. That bunny looked NOTHING like Licorice. So, apparently there is a serious bunch of bunnies running around here. I just hope that Briar stays right where she belongs, because we seriously adore her. She watched Rio with us tonight and sat and watched us eat our supper. I put a box with a rug inside for her to hang out in, and she loved it. She ate lettuce leaves and carrots :) She's wonderful.