Air Bunny Flights

Good morning ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Air Bunny.  There are no flight plans, take offs are unscheduled and landings are often sudden and sloppy.  Enjoy the flight!

Tigger leaving the hanger and gathering speed.

Tigger leaving the hanger and gathering speed...

And we have lift off ...

And we have lift off.

That is what I thought I should be regularly announcing as a warning to unsuspecting folks. Unfortunately, the most unsuspecting folks were Blaine and I, because Tigger liked to launch with little thought and less warning. We lost count over the years of crash landings and the number of times we would find her hanging by her paws from something because she didn’t quite make it.  It amazed us how little fear she had for her own safety and how indestructible she seemed to be.  There really was no stopping her.  We just tried as much as we could to make sure that as many landings as possible were soft.  Breakables and sharp objects were removed from all surfaces along with things that fell over or were knocked over easily.  Plants and anything dangerous if chewed got removed too.

The one time she would give warning is when she was being particularly ambitious. As a baby bunny at just two and half pounds, she wanted up on the guest bed with a feverish intensity. We would see her at the complete opposite side of the room (15 feet away) looking at the bed with a glint in her eye and a tense posture. Think of what a race horse looks like right before they leap into full speed racing. We would see that look and know that an airborne assault on the bed was about to commence. She would race top speed a little past half the length of the room and then would launch herself flying through the air, usually landing on the bed where she would take off running around on the newly conquered high ground.

The most memorable time I missed seeing but laughed myself to tears when Blaine told me about it.  He was laying on the guest bed relaxing and watching Tigger playing when he saw her stop and stand completely still at the opposite side of the room looking at the bed.  He knew what was coming.  He had just enough time to holler, “NO!” and seconds later baby Tigger was landing on his face.  She was so fast, he hadn’t even had time to close his mouth, so there he was with a mouthful of furry bunny tummy until they could sort themselves out.  Picturing the reactions of both of them with that landing had me in stitches.

Another time, I was sleeping in one weekend morning when Blaine was suddenly shaking my shoulders and yelling, “She’s lose, she got out, she’s running all around and I can’t catch her!”  We had been putting a 27″ baby gate in the doorway of her room so that we could step in and out over it while Tigger stayed contained in her bunny proofed space.  That morning Blaine had gotten up early and let her out to play when she suddenly leaped straight up at the top of the baby gate, balanced on it for a second and leaped down into the next room and took off top speed racing around.  We had a little bunny race around round-up and after that we got her back in her space, we continued to use the baby gate in the doorway, but we kept the door closed until we needed to come and go.  Then we always looked to see where she was to prevent her deciding to accompany us over the gate.  We tried to make our exits when she was too far away to successfully make an attempt or when she was really occupied with something that had her full attention.

Tigger was teaching us from an early age that dealing with a rabbit required the ability to strategize.  She was always thinking, plotting and planning which kept us thinking, plotting and planning how to keep ahead of her to keep her safe.

Coming Monday, death-defying daredevil stunt bunny Tigger…