Tiny boxes and plastic toys lined the fence of our yard the majority of the summer. When questioning the girls what all the stuff was for, I was informed it was “a bunny trap” built by Mia.
Mia has always been our lover of all God’s creatures. She enjoys bugs, fascinated by snakes, but her favorite creatures are those of the fluffy variety. She has a family collection of stuffed fox, adores her baby tiger, and has been completely enamored with rabbits. Teeny Bunny, to be exact. All the rabbits she sees are immediately named Teeny Bunny or Tina and she has been relentless that she WILL catch one someday.
Now I am a realist. Although I encourage imagination and chasing after your goals and dreams, there are certain things I try to carefully reel them in on… and catching a rabbit is one of those things. I gently told her not to be discouraged if her rabbit trap remained empty and that she would likely never be able to run after and catch a rabbit. Did this detour her? Absolutely not.
One summer day as I was listening to the girls play in the backyard through the window while sipping my coffee, I heard quite the commotion quickly followed by the anticipated, “MOOOMMMM!!” Sigh. What could they possibly need this time? “Mom!! Mia caught a rabbit!!” I whipped my head up and peered out the window and sure enough, here comes Mia walking toward the house cradling a rabbit, the look of pride beaming across her face.
“Well, I guess she showed me,” I chuckled to myself as I swiftly headed outside. There Mia stood holding her “Teeny Bunny” and she couldn’t have been more ecstatic!
“You caught that, Mia?” I asked.
“Ya! It was behind the garden over there. Just laying down,” Mia responded.
“It must be dead or sick,” I thought to myself as I took a closer look. To my surprise, this rabbit wasn’t dead, but he did seem to have a problem. Sadly, he was very lethargic and I knew he was sick. I told Mia to say goodby to the rabbit and to put him down because he was sick and we don’t want to play with sick animals. I continued the educational opportunity to expound upon the fact that we don’t touch any wild animals without mommy or daddy around because they could be sick or mean. All the girls nodded their heads in accordance.
I then hauled them all upstairs for a bath and clothing change since they had all taken turns petting the rabbit and Mia had been holding him like a baby. Catching that rabbit was definitely the highlight of their day and topic of conversation for the rest of the week. Thankfully, Teeny Bunny didn’t suffer long; he passed away under the shade of their slide and Brett disposed of it later on. The girls weren’t overly sad with this outcome as we have done a fairly decent job of explaining the facts of life to them from early on. They understood that things can’t live forever and Teeny Bunny was no longer suffering. All in all, it is still a fantastic memory for us and Mia is still proud of her ability to catch a rabbit and prove mommy wrong.
*no animal diseases were contracted during the course of this event*
**mom’s ego may have been slightly bruised being proven wrong by a 5 year old**
***dreams do come true***
