Around Easter, our rabbit had four babies. Very convenient, one for each child. They have named them and have become very attached.
Last week before going to school, Grace, Preston and Sierra (our niece) went to check on the bunnies. Sierra came back in to frantically report there were two babies missing and the top of the cage was open. I ran outside to help the kids look for the bunnies and Preston said they caught one and put it back in th cage and were trying to catch the other one. Not an easy task to do. The remaining rabbit soon took shelter under the nearby barn. After many promises to the kids that I would catch Ty, they agreed to get on the bus.
I then went back in the house to make my game plan.
First, out to the garage to get the stoller and strap Stella in. Second, find and untangle the large net to trap the little guy. Finally, let the dog out to chase the bunny out from under the barn. I was all set.
Pushing the stroller with one hand and net in other hand, I passed the rabbit cage and discovered the top and board to hold down the top had fallen off again. Two babies in the cage. You have got to be kidding me, I thought. That bunny knocked the top off and jumped out again!
After chasing the rabbit, the mom-dog team successfully caught one. One rabbit still missing. I looked everywhere for this rabbit and decided that I would go in the house for a while and come back out later and it would reappear in the vicinity of the cage.
No luck. I was thinking that I was not in the house that long, how could it travel so far that I could not find it. To tell you the truth, I was really thinking about all of the other things I had to do that day, but I pictured my son's face when he made me promise I would find his bunny and so I continued the search.
I went to lunch with my dad and stepmom and I told them about the lost bunny and they offered to come back to our house and help look for him. We looked all over our yard and still no rabbit.
Before the kids got off the bus I went out one last time.
Preston cried when I told him, I didn't find Ty.
"But we will keep looking." I tried to console.
Shortly after I went in the house, Preston came running in and screamed, "Mom, Ty's back in his cage!"
I said, "Ty's in his cage, then who's missing, there are only three babies in there?"
We went out to look in the cage and miracoulesly, there were four bunnies.
"Preston, where did you find him."
"He was in the cage."
"WHAT?"
"He was in the cage, when we caught the first one this morning, we didn't want to put him back in the same cage with the broken door, so we put him in with his dad."
Yep, I spent way too much of my day looking for a rabbit that was in in a cage the entire time.
Of course there were only three babies in the cage, because the fourth one was in the cage with his dad. The kids just failed to tell me, when they put the bunny back, they put him in the OTHER cage. Why didn't I think of that?
