Here Comes Peter Cottontail – The Oklahoma Pastry Cloth

Here Comes Peter Cottontail!

You might remember that in our family, we have one Sir Flying Ace who lives in Northwestern Oklahoma in the town of Alva. Sir Flying Ace is a man now…strong, mustached and goateed. He flies, repairs aircraft and works for a company that makes aircraft interiors. He combines wheat for the fun of it and hunts with his buddies in season. So you get the picture. He’s a man!

Well, Sir Flying Ace has a dog. His dog’s name is Belle, as in Blue Belle. She is a blue heeler and Tenacious is her middle name. This past week, as she romped through the back yard of her western Oklahoma digs, she did exactly that…she dug. And she dug. And she carried a present to Sir Flying Ace to deposit at his feet…a little brown, furry thing.

Now Sir Flying Ace, not having encountered too many little, brown furry things except a raccoon or two, called me to inform me that he was trying to warm up what he thought was a baby ground squirrel. It’s eyes were still closed and Sir Flying Ace had run to the local WalMart to grab some puppy formula to attempt to feed this tiny animal. He took a picture with his cell phone and sent me the photo of the critter. It was not a ground squirrel. It was a teeny tiny bunny rabbit.

I received a text message shortly thereafter that Belle had produced another bunny rabbit and by the evening, Mr. Sir Flying Ace was playing mommy to six little rabbits, all with their eyes closed. Belle had discovered the nest under the apricot tree and had ruined everything for Mama Rabbit.

For three days now, my son has been feeding baby bunnies. Unfortunately, one of them did not survive, but the rest are thriving. Using a syringe, without the needle and with a tiny tip, he pushes just a little bit of milk into their mouths until they start sucking it out. He is pretty smart, I have to admit. He knew that if he took the box of rabbits to work, all of the young ladies in the office would go crazy and beg to get to feed them. He was right. In fact, one woman took the thumpers home overnight to feed every hour, so that her children could see them. But of course, she brought them back.

Today, the cottontails’ eyes opened.

And they started cleaning each other with little tongues. And they are semi-hopping on the floor. It won’t be long until Sir Flying Ace will have to let his babies leave the nest. But I am very proud of him for taking such a serious and gentle interest in the little orphans. He’ll make a good mama someday…I mean, husband! And yes, now he is going to kill me. Love you son!

UPDATE: Just got back from visiting Sir Flying Ace and I got to feed the bunnies! They are sooo cute! Here are a few pictures that I took to share. They are growing up!