The story behind the bunnies…

I’ve received many inquiries as to where we got the bunnies for the photoshoot I shared with you on Tuesday.

Someone said they would like to think we just stumbled upon some bunnies and the afternoon just happened.

I really like that thought….. but….it wasn’t quite that simple.

Let me explain.

Mica presented the idea of a photoshoot with bunnies and I was immediately on board.

Pretty much no questions asked.

IN.

The problem was, we didn’t have any bunnies of our own, and we didn’t know anyone with bunnies, either.

Determined to find bunnies, our lack thereof was just a minor hiccup.

Mica checked with local pet shops and was rudely shot down while being scolded for even asking to “rent” their bunnies. I thought it was a reasonable request. No?

With that option out, I then posted on Facebook asking if anyone knew of anyone with a bunny. Again, no luck.

I then turned to Craigslist and we did find a gal trying to sell her bunny that was willing to let us borrow it for the evening.

Feeling like we had won, the bunny owner then asked us where the photoshoot was going to be held as it would have to be in an enclosed area since her bunny is a runner and apparently very fast.

This put a damper on the plan as our intended location was a very open park with no fences.

In fact, it would probably be bunny heaven.

We looked into bunny leashes, but those things apparently cover 3/4 of the bunny’s body and that was just unacceptable. Not cute.

Getting a little desperate, I decided to post a Craigslist ad asking to rent someone’s bunny. Odd? A little. A longshot? Perhaps.

Surprisingly, someone responded the very next day!

A guy apparently had bunnies in abundance. He claimed to have big bunnies. Small bunnies. White bunnies. Black bunnies. Spotted bunnies. Floppy-eared bunnies. (GASP!) Dwarf bunnies. And so on.

How does a man have so many bunnies?!

Whatever the case, I didn’t care and hopped on the bunny bandwagon and Mica and I set up a time to meet the man and his bunnies.

With an address in hand and the kids in back, we navigated toward the bunny house but of course, got lost. My navigation wasn’t directing us correctly to the address and the bunny man was not answering his phone.

This is when my heart sank and I began to think it was all a scam and we were out of luck.

Driving around aimlessly for a while, we stumbled upon the street! Except… it wasn’t a normal street.

It was a dirt, dead-end road surrounded by abandoned homes and weeds.

The house number given could not be found, either. And a sign reading “Private Property, Do Not Enter” was nailed to the rickety fence at the end of the road that led to an open field. We sat, idled on that dirt road staring at each other for about five minutes before Mica got out to knock on a nearby door.

No answer.

Once back in the car we noticed a house with several bunny decorations in the front yard and were certain this must be the house. Mica hopped out and tried to look for the front door…but couldn’t find it. These houses were STRANGE.

Once back in the car Mica then nudged me to inch the car forward to see what was just beyond the “Private Property Do Not Enter” sign and with locked car doors and clenched teeth we quietly crept the car forward until we were just far enough to see a little house around the corner with the correct house number on it.

WHEW! Okay! It wasn’t a scam!

But then the thought ran through our minds that this was a crazy dude’s house and he was going to kidnap us.

An older man was out front working on his car looking quite the grump and he didn’t acknowledge us, so we stayed in our car pondering what to do until we saw a young fellow emerge from what looked like a home-built bunny coupe.

Alright! Bunnies! We could see bunnies! We let out another sigh of relief and Mica and I got out of the car and were greeted by a very friendly young man who told us that he shows bunnies professionally, explaining why the guy literally had about forty bunnies.

He informed us that we could take our pick and borrow any bunny we wanted, and he wasn’t lying when he said he had every type of bunny under the sun.

He led Mica first into the run-down bunny coupe and I followed only after confirming it was indeed a bunny house and not a giant cage where he kept live kidnapped victims.

We first asked which bunnies were the calmest as we didn’t want to go bunny diving all over the park. He pointed out several, the first being a black and white Grandma bunny named Annabelle.

Done, check.

Grandma bunny? That surely meant idle.

He then said we could borrow more than one, if we liked, which got our wheels turning.

We became quite smitten with a white haired, blue eyed bunny named Crackerjack and added that one to the list, too.

Before we left, he showed us good ol’ Rapunzel, who was a very large floppy-eared bunny and we were immediately sold.

Like I said, floppy ears.

So, three bunnies it was!

On the day of the shoot, Mica went to go pick up the bunnies and the owner was late, thus making our time slot to catch the sunset compromised.

When she arrived at the park, all three bunnies in-hand, we got started right away with a very happy little Gwyn.

We began with the white one, Crackerjack, which Gwyn chose as her favorite.  This one was a little scratchy, though, and needed to be calmed down before placed next to Gwyn. It was a running-in-mid-air kind of bunny.

After a few photos Mica and I left that bunny with some nice scratches on our hands and arms.

NEXT!

The black and white one, Annabelle,which was supposed to be the idle Grandma didn’t last for many pictures because she RAN!

And there was no way we were losing a bunny we BORROWED so we chased after that bunny in a  half-crouch with arms out across the park before practically almost diving on the thing to capture it.

GRANDMA NOTHING! Girlfriend can MOVE! We did catch her and were quite done with good ol’ Annabelle at that point.

NEXT!

Floppy was our last option and this bunny was amazing. It just sat there letting Gwyn play with its big ol’ floppy ears and ate grass.

Dream bunny, here, people. Dream bunny.

And little Gwyn was in magical bunny heaven.

This was the bunny we got the most amazing shots with.

All of this took maybe an hour, and we were done. Gwyn had her total fill with bunnies, we had grass stains on our knees and after Gwyn broke down after dropping her favorite ring in a little stream, which I quickly retrieved, we decided we were quite done.

I had NO idea how any of this was going to turn out, but that night Mica sent me a little sneak peak and I about crapped my pants.

I kindof wanted to let out a loud scream but was at a friend’s house with sleeping children and deemed that inappropriate.

If you missed yesterdays post with the photos, click here. You will not be disappointed.

I mean…

And that, is the story of the bunnies.

Thanks for stopping by!