Gift from the Easter Bunny

Back in April, we joined my family on a camping trip near Roswell, NM. The weather was perfect, we packed all of the necessary gear, and we planned for a nice relaxing Easter weekend.

During the night, Richard and I snuggled up in our tent and listened to the coyotes howling off in the distance. The night was cool and the moon bright. Sometime around 3 am, Richard started to wake up from a dream. At first, he was dreaming that he was in a bar, perched on a stool. Someone sitting next to him was kicking his stool and starting to get on his nerves. Slowly, as he awoke from the dream, Richard was confused why our cat was scratching herself at the foot of the bed. As he became more aware, he remembered that we were camping and that the cat was, in fact, not on the bed. But, if not the cat... what? He slowly lifted his head from the pillow and *squealed* (not really, but I had to make it sound funnier)! He none-too-gently poked me until I woke up and told me to LOOK AT THE FOOT OF THE BED! I groggily put on my glasses and picked up my head, too. There, sitting ON OUR BED, was a rabbit! Its huge ears were perked and it was staring directly at us! In a flash, it was gone. Had we imagined it? Was it real? I crawled out from under the covers and inspected the tent--yes, there was an access point where our smaller sleeping tent connected to the larger tent... so it probably was real. I covered up the hole with an extra blanket and I curled back up into bed.

A little while later (10 minutes? An hour?), Richard woke me up again: "I think it's BACK!" Sure enough, there it was--perched at the foot of our bed! I grabbed my pillow and said "Fine, I'm out of here." I unzipped my tent and leaned out--to see THREE MORE rabbits lined up outside our tent!

That was enough for me! I took my pillow and blanket and joined my family in their cozy (rabbit-free) camper. Later, while we were cleaning out the tent, we found little "presents" scattered all over our stuff, even in our suitcases and all around the bed! (They must've had a party while we were sleeping!)

The next week, I started to feel a little "icky." I was extremely tired, had achy muscles, and couldn't keep any food down. My first thoughts were swirling with images of Plague, Tularemia, and Anthrax! (These are all diseases that occur naturally in NM and can be carried by rabbits.)

By the end of the week, another thought crossed my mind... when was my last visit from "Aunt Flo"??? After worrying myself for a full week, I sat down and had a "chat" with Richard. Immediately he drove to Walgreens, picked up a 2-pack test and begged me to "do it now!" The instructions say that results may take 2-5 minutes... well, in less than 30 seconds, we had our answer--2 blue lines!

This is why we tell everyone that Miss Isabella is our little "gift from the Easter Bunny!"