Bunny Sweeney Logue is a small beige bunny rabbit but most people mistake him for a bear. He lives on a high-up shelf in our house and spends most of his time nestled up beside his half-brother Snuggles. Snuggles Sweeney Logue is a large caramel brown monkey with extra long arms and Velcro hands. He too is often called a bear and Bunny is his best friend because they are both 13 years old and live in Co Louth.
They were both best friends with a little human boy until the little boy got too old for them and put them on the shelf one day without telling his Mam and Dad. “Why can’t we sleep with the little boy any more?” they thought to themselves day in day out. Why is he looking at his phone and not talking to us?
Snuggles was born in a place called Smyth's Toys while Bunny was born in Tesco Extra before being adopted by the little boy's family in 2005. They have had many adventures with the boy and his family, but one of Bunny's worst scrapes with disaster springs to mind.
It was many, many years ago and the Sweeney Logues were on holidays in south-west France, in the city of Biarritz to be precise. By night, Bunny snuggled down with the little boy under cover of a light sheet in the sweltering mobile home as temperatures tipped 30 degrees. The monkey bear was left behind in Co Louth to mind the other bears. Anyway, he didn't much like travelling and he totally hated hot weather.
By day, Bunny stayed in the relative cool of the indoors while the humans went to the pool, on sight-seeing expeditions to the city or in search of margherita pizzas. Sometimes the little boy would take Bunny on missions to the campsite shop for une baguette et cinq pains au chocolat, s'il vous plaît, and he would let Bunny ride shotgun on his little bike. It was okay, because he had stabalisers and reflectors.
On the way back from the shop one day disaster struck. Maybe the little boy was holding too many french breakfast confectioneries or bread products. Or maybe he was overly focused on the idea of a chocolate-themed breakfast for the seventh time in a row, but Bunny fell from his perch on the handlebars of the boy’s little bike and onto the dry gravelly road leading from the campsite shop to the mobile home.
He cried after the little boy, but the little boy couldn’t hear him. The little boy later said that although rabbit bears can speak to little boys, their voices are quiet and they can really only speak in a light whisper that can be heard if held close to little ears. An adult will never hear a little rabbit bear speak as their grizzly ears are far too busy with boring things to tune in properly.
For hours Bunny lay alone on the road. Large human boys and girls walked by but didn’t notice the beige rabbit bear lying on the ground. At one stage a lizard creature like the one the little boy read about in his book at bedtime darted by, gave a sideways glance at Bunny, stuck out his tongue at him and ran away. Bunny was petrified. And he was lonely. How would he ever find the little boy again?
That night as darkness fell, and unbeknownst to Bunny, the little boy searched desperately for his favourite rabbit bear, stopping only every so often to have a little cry. He looked everywhere and cycled frantically around the dusty roads but could not find poor Bunny. At one stage he even cycled quite close to where Bunny lay but alas could not hear his desperate calls over the sound of crickets and Germans holding late-night barbecues.
Night after night the little boy sobbed as he missed his friend so very much. Every day the large human people asked the lady in Campsite Reception if they had found un petit lappin.
A few nights later, just as twilight started, a large Dutch man smoking local cigarettes and wearing nothing but a pair of small swimming togs and flip flops spotted Bunny and picked him up. Poor Bunny; he spoke very little French beyond what he learned with the little boy in the shop, but he certainly spoke absolutely no Dutch.
The Dutch man carried bunny in a small leather satchel all the way down to Campsite Reception. Inside a lady with glasses took Bunny from the Dutch man and put him on a shelf. Both the Dutch man, the lady and Bunny were smiling and Bunny gave a little cheer but obviously neither the lady nor the Dutch man could hear it. The next day the little boy’s parents went to Campsite Reception and the little boy and Bunny were re-united.
Sometimes Bunny remembers this day and it makes him happy. Sometimes the little boy looks up at the shelf and gives Bunny a knowing smile. The little boy’s parents are sad that Bunny lives on the shelf with Snuggles now but they they understand why.