How the Checkered Bunny Found a Home

By Wendy Lee Klenetsky

Once in a toy shop, there was a little checkered bunny. It had a soft, white furry body, a pretty pink nose, big black beaded eyes and fluffy yellow fur.  Its paws and its ears had a yellow and white checkerboard pattern. It was really cute, and it had just about everything ANY cute bunny should have except it did not have a home.

I really don’t know just how long the checkered bunny had been sitting there alone on the old shelf in the back of the shop. But I guess that it must have been months and months and months, because, by the time the little girl came into the shop to buy a bunny, the checkered bunny had gotten very creased and very dusty.

The little girl walked up and down the rows of the shop, looking for just the “right” bunny for her baby sister. It was very important that she got the BEST little bunny ANYWHERE; after all, it WAS for her baby sister’s birthday. So the little girl looked very carefully at every single bunny there was in the shop.

She saw some brown ones that were furry.  She saw a little pink one with a black nose.  She picked out the one that she thought was very cute, but put it right back on the shelf when she saw that it was an expensive bunny, and she really didn’t have that much money with her.  All she had was a few dollars which she had collected and saved from all her quarters, pennies and dimes.  It had taken her ONE WHOLE YEAR to save up this money.  Even though it added up to only $5.00, that was A LOT of money for a little girl. And all she wanted to do with the money that she had tried so hard to save, was to buy a present for her baby sister.

But $5.00 was still not enough money to buy many or ANY bunny in the shop.  So she went over to the store owner and said “Mister, can you please help me find a bunny for my baby sister? I have $5.00 to spend, but all these other bunnies in your store are much more than that!”

The shop owner looked down at the little girl with the big sad eyes and said, “Well, we really DON’T have any bunnies that cost $5.00.”  The little girl cried, wiped her eyes with her handkerchief and started to walk out of the shop very sadly.

“But WAIT”, said the store owner. “I think there WAS one little yellow checkered bunny somewhere on some back shelf of the shop.  If you’d like, I’ll look for it now, but it has to be very old and dusty by now.”

“Oh, please,” begged the little girl. “I’d REALLY like to see it.”

“Okay”, said the store owner. “I’ll be right back.”

Well, it seemed like HOURS, but eventually the store owner  DID come back to the little girl.  In his large hands was this little, creased, dusty, yellow and white checkered bunny.  “I LOVE HER,” the little girl yelled.  “It IS a HER, isn’t it?”she asked. “I guess it CAN be WHATEVER you’d like it to be”, the man answered.  He looked at the price tag on the bunny’s paw, and saw that it read:”$10.00″. “That costs $5.00 for YOU”, he told the little girl.

“Oh, GREAT, I can buy it!” she said happily.  The store owner dusted the bunny off and put it in a bag. The little girl paid the money, said “Thank You” to him, took the bag and practically SKIPPED out of the store. She was SO VERY HAPPY!

As soon as she got home, the little girl took her hairbrush and brushed the checkered bunny’s fur and made sure that it was clean and free of dust.  Then she walked into her baby sister’s room and carefully placed it in the baby’s crib.

“Here’s a present I bought for you, baby sister. I got it with MY OWN MONEY. I hope you like her. She’s a little yellow and white checkered bunny. Take good care of her. And bunny, take good care of my baby sister. If you need help, I’ll help you.

“Happy Birthday, baby sister.  I LOVE YOU,” gently spoke the little girl. Then she silently, with a big smile on her face, blew a kiss to her darling, sleepy baby sister.

And that’s how the checkered bunny found a home!

 

- Total nr. of readings: 1,559 Copyright © The author [2020] All Rights Reserved. This story may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the author except for personal use.