Slice of Life Story Challenge #30 - Borrowing Bunnies

My focus this month is to explore writing invitations, mostly through newly published picture books, but possibly some other mentor texts as well.

Borrowing Bunnies: A Surprising True Tale of Fostering Rabbits by Cynthia Lord, photography by John Bald

bookshelves: 2019-book, animals, bunnies, narrative-nonfiction,nonfiction, home, kindness 

 This sweet picture book chronicles Cynthia Lord's journey of fostering bunnies. I love that her husband is the photographer! The outcome of the story made me teary. You can't help but want your own pet bunny after reading this! I enjoyed reading about the whole story after following much of it on Facebook.

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Writing invitation: Write about fostering, adopting, or taking care of a pet or animal and what it meant to you.

     We built our first house on the back 3 acres of my mom and dad's property, the same property where I grew up.  It had a little creek that ran through the woods in the front.  The girls and I would play out in the front yard, wander up and down the gravel drive, and explore the creek and woods.  The girls would have been really little, Libby around 4 or 5, Katie just able to walk, around 1 or 2, when a little black cat started to appear.  She was so friendly and sweet.  She would hang out with us and follow us around.  Ed was working out of town at the time, and after several days of her showing up and befriending us, I bought some food for her.  I called Ed about her, and carefully wondered if it would be okay with him if we wanted to keep her. 
     He asked, "Have you bought food and fed her?"
     "Yes," I replied.
     "Does she have a name?"
     "Yes," I answered again.
     He chuckled.  "Then why are you even asking me?  I'd say we already have a cat."
     "Well, yes, right. We have a cat now, and her name is Annie." (We named her after Little Orphan Annie.)
     We immediately loved her.  We wondered, of course, if she belonged to someone, but even after asking a few neighbors (since we lived in the country, there weren't a lot of them), no one seemed to know anything about her.  I took her to the vet to get her checked out, vaccinated, and spayed.  After she came home and recovered from her surgery, I let her out , and she didn't come back the whole weekend.  Ed joked that he now had a $300 cat (or whatever the total vet bill added up to be) that he'd never seen.
     Eventually, she did come back and became a permanent part of our family.  She would follow us all the way down the long driveway for Libby to catch her bus to kindergarten, and would follow us all the way back.  She was happy both indoors and outdoors, asking to go out every evening like clockwork. 
     She came with us to Pittsburgh and had to stay in a small crate in the hotel for a few days while we waited to move into our house.  She was NOT happy about that!  She also moved back with us and stayed in an apartment for several months while we waited for our house to be built in 2004.  I remember being worried about letting her out at the apartment, because I didn't know if she'd be able to find it again.  I kept her inside for days, but she went crazy!  So I finally let her out and hoped for the best.  Sure enough, she was back the next morning, no problem. 
     She was such a friendly, sweet little cat, but one day as she walked up our driveway, she was yowling loudly and miserably.  I took her to the vet, and sadly, she had a terrible kidney infection and had to be put to sleep.  It was terrible.  We loved having her as part of our family for about 8 years. It's amazing when an animal weaves its way into your heart.  We remember Little Orphan Annie fondly.