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Don't expect Catherine Stinn to do the bunny hop at her birthday party this weekend.
It's not because she's 90. It's because bunnies are a sore subject.
She's heard a lot of rabbit jokes lately: Folks have said she's hopping mad. They'll serve carrot cake and hasenpfeffer at her party.
The best and believe it or not, the most true: Catherine's 90, and the rabbit died.
That's because a rabbit did meet its maker, in her Panama, Iowa, living room, while she was spending part of the winter in Florida.
Here's the tail, er, tale ... :
Stinn had scores of plants prized orchids and African violets in almost every room. Her neighbor, horticulturist Kathleen Cue of the University of Nebraska Extension office for Douglas and Sarpy Counties, watered them every couple of weeks.
One day, Cue found the place in disarray. From the front door, the scene was all dirt and destruction. Pots were tipped over, and plants were scattered everywhere.
In the middle of it all: a dead rabbit. It lay stretched out, looking, well, placid.
“Initially, I thought it was vandalism,” Cue said, “that someone had vandalized the house and thrown a rabbit in the middle of the living room floor.”
But the circumstance authorities suspect is far more weird.
The rabbit had scaled a snow bank, entered through a dryer vent, chewed its way out of the dryer exhaust tube, scampered up the basement stairs and went from room to room enjoying what must have seemed like the Garden of Eden.
Evidence points to the rabbit enjoying its good fortune for several days. It could have stayed several more: Some “food” remained, and the bunny could stretch to reach into the toilet bowl for a drink.
But Bugs made a fatal mistake: He ate toxic amaryllis bulbs in a bowl on the kitchen counter. He should have stuck to carrots.
Cue said the rabbit just about made a clean sweep of the house, knocking over and nibbling some 50 house plants. Insurance helped cover more than $1,000 in damage, chiefly cleaning costs.
Stinn said she was getting ready to return to Panama a couple weeks ago when she got the news from her son.
She was heartsick about her losses, especially the orchids.
Not so much about the bunny.
“Thank God I had a bowl of amaryllis bulbs for it to chew on,” she said.
She can expect the barrage of bunny puns to continue at Sunday's open house. But she's requesting no gifts.
Plants, however, will be welcome.
Contact the writer:
444-1059, rhonda.stansberry@owh.com
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