To fully understand the context of this post you have to understand the layout of the office / bunny room: It’s a 10 X 12 room open to the main hallway; on the left side is this big momma desk (from which I’m typing this post) upon which sits our computer and, next to it, Cosmo’s 4 X 6 cage area.

On the other side of the room, against the outside wall, stands a three-story rabbit condo, the top two floors belonging to Little Half-Pint, the bottom floor open to a 4 X 8 cage area that used to house Marble Jr. and her mom Pepper, but now the home of our two new arrivals, Ginger and Geronimo. We’ve always left the front doors on both of Half-Pint’s floors open – partly because neither Marble Jr. or Pepper were ever big enough rabbits to ever consider hopping up into Half-Pint’s bottom floor, partly because, while Half-Pint loves to stick her head outside to survey the activity going on around her, she’s never shown any interest in jumping out of her safe haven. (I think she’s always known to do so would mean certain death at the hands (or teeth) of Marble Jr., who, while as gentle and loving a bunny as you’re likely to find, wouldn’t have thought twice about tearing the gentle, trusting Little Half-Pint limb from limb if given the chance.)

It’s amazing how your senses get trained to the differences between usual bunny sounds at night (nosing their way through a bundle of hay or flopping onto their side to rest, for instance), and those that either don’t sound right or out of place. It was the latter that awoke me at 4:30 this morning. There was this strange sound, then a bang, then another strange sound. In my half-sleep my first thought was that Cosmo must have leapt the fence of Ginger’s and Geronimo’s cage area to welcome the newcomers in his own unique bunny way – after all, he had made the same 3-ft. leap two years ago shortly after we first brought him home. (Fortunately, at that time we were able to intercede and prevent what surely would have been a rather nasty confrontation between him and Marble Jr., one he had no way of knowing he could never have won, BTW…)

This time, it was when I heard that final bang that I knew something was up and sprang from my bed. Reaching the opening to the room, I put on the hall light, and there before me was the cause of all the commotion: Geronimo, the big white lop-eared rabbit, sitting next to Half-Pint in her second-floor litter box just as calmly as if it was he who lived there. As I entered the room, he gave me a quick look, then, just as effortlessly as he must have leaped in, leaped out and down into his own cage area.

This morning I removed the ramp that Ginger and Geronimo were using to hop into the bottom floor of the rabbit condo – the thinking being, if Geronimo could leap 2.5 feet into Half-Pint’s cage area, he and Ginger could negotiate easily the 8 inches the ramp covered. Plus, I’m thinking that those 8 inches probably made all the difference in the world to Geronimo in his quest for living the high life at Half-Pint’s expense.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens going forward. You know, you always hear talk of home invasions here in the Valley of the Sun, but until this morning I have to admit I’d never heard of a bunny home invasion.

I guess now I’ve seen everything.