Smokey
When I arrived home from work yesterday I got a phone call from Noel. He invited to me to go take pictures in the park. I agreed, as I love the park, and soon he picked me up and we were on our way. We arrived at the park a little after 6:00. We walked down along the woods to find a place to take pictures. All of the sudden a gray, lop-eared bunny jumped out of the woods. Immediately I knew this was not a “wild bunny”. Then the bunny came right up to me and hopped over my shoes. It did the same to Noel. His fur was gray and it looked very soft. This was an indication that the bunny did not live outdoors, for if he was in fact a “wild bunny”, he would have course fur. Noel and I stood there and stared as the bunny hopped back into the brush. I walked over to the edge of the woods and called for the bunny. “Here bunny bunny bunny!” As if the bunny was mine all along, he hopped right back out and sat there eating grass right by me. Then no sooner than he came out of the brush, he went right back in. Noel and stood there and tried to decide what to do. It was muddy out and the sun was falling. We decided to go take pictures and then come back later. If the bunny was still there, we would take him home.
A half hour later we returned to the same spot where the bunny was last seen. Sure enough, he was in the woods attempting to eat a log. I was sure that someone had dropped him off and left him there, thinking that the Elizabeth Park would be a safe place for a bunny to live. Noel went and put up his camera equipment and I ducked into the woods*.
*The woods at Elizabeth Park are not large, rather they are patches of trees with a log of twigs coming out every which way.
As soon as I made my way to the bunny, he would hop off to the more “brushy” area of the woods. I began to think we would never catch the bunny. Noel was on the outside of the woods and I was on the inside battling the twigs. We decided that I would chase the bunny out and Noel would catch it from the outside. This plan was attempted many times, and failed miserably every time. We had under-estimated the agility of a gray lop-eared bunny. After about a half hour of so Noel asked me an interesting question: “Do you want me to get the net?” I was a little confused. “The Net?” I asked him. He then preceded to tell me that we could use the net-thing in his trunk (I don’t know what it is called, but it is used to hold things steady in your trunk, a black net). Noel ran to the car while I continued to chase the bunny. I finally chased him out of the woods and he was sitting in the clearing between the woods I was currently in, and another patch of woods right across the path. Noel was sneaking up along side the path, net in hand. I made my way out of the woods just in time to see Noel run off so fast in hot pursuit of the bunny. I couldn’t see what was happening until I heard: “I got him!!!” I ran into the woods to see Noel trying to contain this angry, jumping, squirming, clawing, and grunting bunny. This was NOT a happy animal.
Ten scratches later we had him in the car. He was on the floor of Noel’s car, under me in the passenger seat, where I was holding him by the gruff of his neck. He was not happy. Every time the car would stop, slow down, or speed up, the bunny would flip upside-down, twist around, and grunt loudly. I would grab him and hold on tight, get scratched, and eventually get him back into the position where he would settle down for a moment. If Noel’s house was any further from Elizabeth Park we might not have made it home without being eaten by the bunny just like in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Noel zipped up into the driveway and I quickly opened the door and ran out with the bunny flailing in my arms.
We had planned to take him into the backyard of Noel’s house. I must divert the story to tell why we chose this location. Noel’s little brother, Lee, owns a bunny. The bunny’s cage is located outside under the patio, where the bunny is kept dry and warm. Also in the backyard is a “bunny yard”, which is actually a toddler gate. It is tall and wide, allowing a big run space for Lee’s bunny to run around during the day. The bunny has to be contained in the “bunny yard” because Noel also has two dogs, a golden retriever and a little mutt, which will chase any bunnies that come into their backyard.
So today, of all days, everything that could make it hard for us to simply “drop” the bunny into the “bunny yard” went wrong. I run out the car with the jumping bunny and Noel opens the gate. I am at the gate just in time to hear Noel yell out: “Oh Crap!”. I make my way into the backyard almost dropping the bunny to see Noel run and hurdle over the bunny fence. What happens next was an image straight out of a movie. Noel is in the center of the bunny yard and Lee’s bunny (who has just been traumatized by someone flying through the air and landing in her yard) is running about 50mph circles around Noel, who is reaching out trying to grab this scared bunny. In the meantime Noel’s dogs are outside, looking at us curiously and also looking at both bunnies. I reach down with my free hand and grab her collar as Noel is still trying to get hold of this bunny who is still running laps around him. Finally Noel manages to pick up the bunny who makes it unharmed back into his cage, and I get to place the now raging-mad bunny into the cage. The dogs just looked at us, probably wondering what all the commotion was about.
We got cleaned up and calmed down, and began to ponder our options about the bunny. The first thing that needed to be done was that the bunny needed a temporary name. I named the bunny Smokey, as he is all gray. Since it is a rather large bunny, it is now temporarily a “he”. My mom suggested I check the paper, because she is sure that a bunny that pretty is someone’s pet who ran away. Noel and I have ruled out this option because of the fact that in order to get to Elizabeth Park, the bunny would have had to cross at least one major road, plus a bridge over a river. That is one smart bunny. I, personally, think that someone dropped off the bunny because they didn’t want him anymore. I did check the lost and found ads to make sure. Noel I have decided to either take him to a bunny farm, a vet maybe, or we are going to set him out at our garage sale, which is going on Saturday. Smokey is adorable, and is a very very nice and calm bunny. That is how we knew he was not a “wild bunny” for sure, was when we picked him up around him underside and he calmed down immediately, which is something that domestic bunnies do.
We made a trip to Meijer and we bought some clips to place a tarp over the bunny yard, where Smokey spent the night. Noel took some pictures, and I will post one shortly. If you, or anyone you know would like a bunny, email me!