The Tale of Our Easter Bunny

The Saturday before Easter, we had a surprise at our door. No...not a floppy-eared white bunny rabbit with loads of chocolate and other goodies. This was a smelly, happy, big, black, approximately 50lb puppy dog.

I woke up that morning, put on some shoes to take Scout outside to air her, waived to my neighbor Mr. Teague, and he alerted me to the presence of the surprise awaiting us in the front yard. He quickly bounded toward Scout and myself...not in any kind of menacing manner, but I wasn't sure how Scout would handle the rapidly approaching puppy early in the morning. So, I turned around and took Scout back inside.

I told Katy what was happening, and we immediately began to plan about what to do with our guest. We decided that we'd go to breakfast, and if he was still around when we returned, we would take him in for a few hours to figure out what our next step was.

So, of course, we pulled in the driveway, and he was laying on our doorstep. With Amelia safely inside, we set to our first task...naming the wayward pup. We tossed around some contenders - Blacky, Dog, Boone, Buddy, John, NANANANA (Amelia's vote), but we finally landed on Bunny in honor of the weekend events and inspired by the numerous trinkets laying around the house.

We quickly discovered that Bunny knew basic commands like come, sit, go on, and how to be on a leash and collared. From my own view of him, I could tell that he was a little malnourished...nothing sever, but he was definitely underfed. So...we put him on a leash in the backyard, and offered Bunny some water and food, which was quickly gobbled up.

As much as Katy and I would have loved to have kept Bunny as our second dog, we knew that we couldn't keep him. So, we set out to discover the options our new town had to offer. We quickly found out that the options were limited. Several of the foster agencies and their websites were inactive for years, but still turned up on our search. The only option for Bunny was the Watauga Humane Society, but they weren't open for the next 3 days.

We then found out that the mall was hosting an animal adoption/vendor festival that very day. Surely we could find someone or organization to take care of Bunny and find him a good home. Oh...were we mistaken. Clearly, it was not a good time for anyone, which made our decisions that much more difficult. The weather was supposed to get pretty cold that night, and we were worried about Bunny.  We put out some blankets, and were ready for a potentially long night. I took Scout out for the last time that night, but I did not find Bunny. He chewed through the leash, and had done runnoft.

It was hard to believe that those are the services available in a town in the 21st Century. It was hard for us to believe that someone could teach Bunny how to sit, and be a good dog, but not feed him. For me, I've chosen to believe that Bunny is frolicking in the hills with the other bunnies.

The day Amelia almost had a 2nd dog.