Wednesday, April 8, 2009

The Bunnies

Click here for part one.
Click here for part two.
Click here for part three.

Probably my favorite Easter gift was the bunnies. There was one for me, and one for my brother. We went to the breeder up the road, and he let us choose our Easter bunnies. He checked to make sure we got two girls, and off we went with our favorite gift of all time. I still remember the soft fur, the pure whiteness, the little nose that wiggled, the long ears that perked up when I came around. I loved these bunnies!

After a time the cage got a little crowded. Hmmmmm, two girl bunnies and now we have 12 bunnies! How did that happen?

My poor mother didn’t know what to do, so after the first batch, she let them loose on our porch, where they would all fit.

And now…53 bunnies? 186 bunnies? 496 bunnies? 34682 bunnies? Yep that is how bunnies duplicate. You know, like rabbits. They had outgrown the porch long ago, so my mom just let them run wild. And run they did. Our property was a SEA of bunnies. Hundreds and hundreds of bunnies! They got big and fat, and stayed white. They were powerful, and strong, and just a little scary. We had been taken over by bunnies!

I remember driving down the road, and approaching my house from a mile away – road kill bunnies. Driving into the driveway at night was so fun – watching the bunnies part like the red sea when we drove in and the lights hit them.

It became a priority to get rid of the bunnies, but what on earth could we do?

A hobo that lived in a shack up the road volunteered to help get rid of the bunnies. He could eat well, and we would be rid of the problem. I will never forget the sight of two old shaggy men, running around our yard with burlap sacks, trying to catch those bunnies! They would open the sack, run around like crazy, jump and land on their bellies, and away would run the bunny! At the end of the day – very tired old men, with no bunnies in their sacks.

My dad finally did take care of the bunnies. Maybe you don’t need to know, but he was a card carrying member of the NRA, I am sure.

I am pretty sure the novelty of animals as Easter gifts was over for my parents, and we were happy with marshmallow peeps and jelly beans from then on.

Happy Easter!

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