You're nobunny till somebunny moves in for the summer...

I am certain I've already offered my "regular readers" a glimpse of this story...and I tried to find it to link back...but I can't. So, let's just start at the beginning:

Several weeks-maybe even months-back, DS 4 came home and said, "Mom, would you mind if we babysat a bunny this Summer?" Since this is not your normal 9yo request, and I was a bit distracted at the time, I gave the best "Mom answer" I could come up with at the time: "We'll see."

I know I wasn't totally focused on the initial conversation. In fact, I am also certain that we talked about it more than once. OK HE talked...I, uh, listened busied myself with whatever task was at hand at the moment. I do remember saying, "NO!" at one point, but somehow it got watered down and forgotten.

Not long after the initial request, I came home one time to find my DH, my DS 4, 3 or 4 neighborhood kids, and a Mother I did not know, in my DS 4's room. Now to say I was mortified at this is simply an understatement. DH came out to assure me that all was OK. The Mother and girls wanted to bring their bunny over to "meet" our bunny for "when we watched her this Summer". When DH told me that the Mother had been here watching the bunnies "get to know each other" for over 2 hours, I couldn't believe it. Then the Mother came out, introduced herself to me and told me just how important it was for them to have a few visitation days if they are going to spend time together.

Now I am no pet hater, but they are RABBITS. I am fairly certain that no amount of "getting-to-know-you-courtship" would prepare them for a rendevouz that was to take place several weeks down the road. I love pets as much as your average pet-owner. I do not, however, treat my pets like they are people. But I am also someone who prays regularly to make relationships with the neighbors, so I didn't question it--I smiled and said, "Yeah, they seem to be getting along well." I did what any level-headed person would do, I ignored the whole thing and let DH handle it. Two more visits followed that one. Each visit meant that several children, and often the Mother, would sit in my DS 4's room watching these two bunnies hop around and "visit one another".

Over time, more pieces were added to my "bunny puzzle". DS 4 told me that he was to be the babysitter for the month of June while this family is in Israel for their daughter's Bat Mizvah. Their bunny is "fixed" so it cannot have babies. He promised to "feed it, clean the cage, and do a really good job" while this family is away celebrating this very important event. Through gritted teeth...and with the clear visual in mind of just WHO does the weekly cage cleaning...I agreed.

Fast forward to last night. I come home from a long day at work and a workout and DS 4 says, "Mom come in here." I got my second foot in the door and promptly headed to his room where I see Bella, the neighbor's bunny, in OUR bunny cage. Our bunny is out running around DS 4's room. DS 4 shows me Bella's back that has a huge hunk of hair missing and says, "Button did that when they were in his cage together." I asked just where Bella's cage was and found out that Bella doesn't HAVE a cage! She sleeps on their porch in a doggie crate at night. She runs free out there all day!

Somewhere in this conversation I also found out that Bella will be spending the ENTIRE Summer here at our house! Like, as in until AUGUST when school starts. As I walked away from his room with visions of dead rabbit in my head, I must confess there were NOT happy thoughts running through my mind. In fact, for a fleeting moment, I thought "this reaching out to the neighbors thing is a bit overrated!"

Last night, Bella slept in her "new digs" the dog crate that held my DS 2's "birthday duck". Of course, there's bedding all over the floor today, but no bunny is taking a bite out of another one. And more important, there are not bunny p**p balls all over DS 4's floor. And today I went out shopping for a new bunny cage to donate to Bella's cause. Cause one thing is for sure, if they're living under MY roof, they're gonna abide by MY rules.

There will be NO bunny cage visitations this Summer. They can visit between the bars as far as I'm concerned.

This might just be one LONG Summer!