the bunny

Last Thursday night after I had tucked the girls in bed, our neighbor Molly (who brought us the baby bird a few weeks back) showed up at our front door with her daughter Paige and a baby bunny!!  One of their cats was carrying the bunny around like she would her own kitty and gave it to Molly as a gift, completely unharmed but scared.  So to keep the bunny safe from her cats Molly brought her to us.

I knew the girls would be beyond excited so even though it was late (for them) and they were both just falling asleep I went in their room, turned their lights up a little bit and told them I had a surprise --- their reactions did not disappoint.   Ella told me she was so happy she thought she was still in a dream, and Zoe told me she always wished for a baby bunny and now her wish came true!!

After holding Hopper for a little bit (they first named her Anna but after she hopped away from us and hid under Zoe's bed they quickly renamed her) we put her in her new home so she could get comfy, calm down and realize she was safe, and this is where she slept, in the girls' room, all night long:

 

After we got Hopper settled the girls really realized they were up later than usual they got even more excited.  With longer days during the summer they're usually in bed by the time it's dark out, and even though in the winter months they're outside when it's dark, being awake during the summer when it's dark was a huge treat --- and they kept telling me they couldn't believe they were up during the middle of the night (even though it wasn't even 10pm yet).  Ella asked if she could walk around our house with the light outs, so we did that, then she asked if we could go outside --- so we did that too.  It was almost magical.  We sat on our big wooden swing and quietly listened to the crickets (while Zoe kept reminding us to be real quiet), we looked for fireflies but didn't find any, we walked in the grass that was a little bit wet and we looked up at the stars and made our wishes.  Ella wouldn't tell me her wish or it wouldn't come true and Zoe told me she didn't need to wish for anything because her wish came true with Hopper.  Once the mosquitos realized we were outside we came back inside, but those 15 minutes of just being in the moment with my girls were the sweetest little slice of time ....

The next morning Ella and Zoe built a play area for Hopper,

with lots of friendly wildlife looking over her, to keep her company.

She did hop around quite a bit but she also liked the privacy of her little house too .....

The girls took turns holding her while oooohing and ahhhhing .....

and fed her lettuce, berries, seeds and water ....

Hopper even seemed to like the piece of art Ella added to her play area, a watercolor/glue combo, and even stopped in front of it to take a look ....

Later that day we made another home for her with fresh grass, twigs, ferns and other plants, along with food and water, then we brought her outside with us so she could get some fresh air while we put up our tent (backyard camping post coming up later).

Our intention was to keep Hopper another night or two and then with Tom, release her in a twig pile in our lilacs later that weekend.  She had other plans though .....  at one point Zoe said she was going to check on Hopper, went over to look in her basket, said matter-of-factly 'oh, she's not there.', started to walk away and then realized she was not there!  Apparently I misjudged how high little bunnies can jump or climb, or how small openings can be that little bunnies can crawl through --- because Hopper made her escape.  The girls were disappointed because they wanted more time with her, but they also took the news really well --- they knew she was only going to stay with us a few days and then would want to be returned to her natural habitat.

So now we're keeping our eyes open for any spottings of Hopper, or any other little bunny we might be lucky enough to become friends with.  Zoe however, told Tom she now wants to get a 'real' bunny.  You  know, the kind you buy from a pet store that wants to be a pet ....