Bella the Runaway Rabbit

by Tina Nolan

  Sasha poked her nose into the carrier and wagged her tail.

  “Uh?” Karl quizzed, as Frankie sprinted up and down his arm. “A dog and a rabbit? That’s not a good idea.”

  “Why not?” Eva asked.

  “Dog and rabbit together. Dog chases rabbit. Rabbit ends up seriously dead!”

  “Not this time.” Eva grinned as Sasha made friendly moves towards Bella. “Bella isn’t scared – look!”

  The white rabbit twitched her ears and sniffed. Her big brown eyes gleamed.

  Karl shrugged. “Do what you like,” he mumbled. “You always do, anyway.”

  “They’re going to be best mates,” Eva promised.

  As if to prove it, Sasha crept in beside Bella and snuggled down in the blue blanket.

  Things were looking up. Poor, abandoned Sasha was happy. Shy Bella had found a friend.

  But even as Eva leaned in and stroked them both, a small worry niggled inside her head.

  How come Bella turned up in the Nicholls’s garden shed in the first place?

  “Where did you come from, you sweet little thing?” she murmured, tickling Bella’s ears. “Were you naughty? Did you run away?”

  Bella stared up at Eva with her huge, dark eyes.

  “Is someone out there still missing you?” Eva wondered aloud. “And if so, how do we find them and take you home?”

  Chapter Three

  “OK, so where is this letter from the Council?” Heidi sighed. She sifted through the mail on the desk in Reception, checking for the third time to see if the letter had arrived.

  Joel helped her, while Eva watched Karl enter Bella‘s details on to the Animal Magic website.

  “Bella. Young white rabbit, looking for a friend. Owners have moved away.” Karl typed fast then uploaded a picture he had taken with the digital camera. “Is this one OK?” he asked Eva, showing her a close-up of Bella.

  She nodded. “So-o cute!”

  “I spoke to the man from the Council, Mr Whatisname – Mr Winters – and he insists he sent the letter containing their decision on Monday,” Heidi went on. “Of course, he won’t tell me what it is over the phone…”

  “Is this it?” Joel asked, unearthing a crumpled brown envelope. “Oh no, it’s a bill from the builders’ yard – for the wood we used to build the stables.”

  “Don’t remind me,” Heidi groaned. “It came last month and I still haven’t paid it. I’m not likely to be able to find the extra money this month either.”

  Luckily for Eva, Annie showed up before she got dragged into the search for the Council letter.

  “Hey, Eva, when can we take Sasha out?” Annie asked brightly.

  “Right now!” Eva jumped at the chance. “Come on, we can start training her too!”

  It was a bright, sunny afternoon, and Eva soon forgot the big question mark hanging over the future of Animal Magic.

  “The grass is taller than Sasha!” Eva cried as the black puppy scampered through the safely-fenced field at the back of Annie’s house. “You can just see the tip of her tail.”

  Sasha zigzagged through the pink meadow flowers. At the bottom of the field, Guinevere and Merlin grazed quietly.

  “Call Sasha back,” Annie told Eva. “See if she obeys.”

  “Here, Sasha!” Eva called.

  The puppy romped on, bounding over clumps of buttercups, heading for two women who stood near to the horses.

  “That’s Mum and Miss Eliot. The old lady called to see Guinevere,” Annie reported.

  “Here, Sasha!” Eva called more sternly.

  Still the puppy scampered on until she reached the horses.

  “Oops!” Eva cried, as Guinevere lowered her head and snorted loudly.

  Sasha yelped and fled to Linda Brooks for protection. Save me from that fierce giant with hot breath and enormous hooves!

  Linda picked Sasha up and waited for the girls to join them.

  “Sorry, Mrs Brooks, the training isn’t going so well!” Eva gasped. “Sasha wouldn’t obey my command.”

  “But she’s a cute little thing,” the old lady said, reaching out to stroke her.

  “Hello, Miss Eliot.” Eva smiled at Guinevere’s ex-owner. “Isn’t Merlin doing well?”

  Miss Eliot nodded. “It’s lovely to see Guinevere being such a good mother to him. And how are your mother and father getting along with their animal rescue work?”

  “Good, thanks,” Eva said, carefully avoiding Linda Brooks’s gaze as she took Sasha from her. After all, the only cloud on the horizon – the petition to have Animal Magic closed down – had been caused by their next-door neighbour.

  Linda blushed but said nothing.

  “Come and see us any time you like!” Eva invited.

  “I will,” Miss Eliot promised with a sweet smile. “In fact, I’d like that very much.”

  Eva left Annie with her mum and Miss Eliot and ran back home with Sasha. Heidi, Mark and Joel were still searching high and low for the letter from the Council.

  “It must be here somewhere,” Heidi muttered, down on her hands and knees, looking under the leaflet rack. “It must have been delivered by now.”

  Eva carried Sasha into the small pets section. “What are you doing?” she asked Karl, who was searching inside Jimmy the guinea pig’s cage. “Are you still looking for the letter, or did Frankie do a runner again?”

  He shook his head and looked worried. “I let Frankie meet Bella – you know, like you did with Sasha – and everything was OK, they were getting on fine, until I turned my back – just for a second, to get Frankie’s food out of the fridge – and when I looked again, well, Bella had vanished!”

  “Bella!” Eva echoed. “Where? I mean, how…?”

  “I don’t know, but she can’t have gone far,” Karl groaned, peering into Lucky the rabbit’s cage. “Eva, we’ve got to find Bella before Mum finds out. Come on, put Sasha back in her kennel and help me look!”

  Chapter Four

  Karl and Eva searched every corner of the small pets section.

  Eva looked under shelves and inside cupboards. Karl took each animal out of its cage and rooted around in its bedding.

  “Any sign?” he asked Eva.

  She shook her head. “Mr Nicholls told us Bella was mega timid and that she runs away if anything scares her. I expect that’s how she ended up in their shed in the first place.”

  “Maybe we should try tempting her with some food,” Karl suggested.

  Eva nodded. “I’ll fetch a lettuce leaf.”

  She opened the fridge door, and reached for the lettuce. “Oh!” she gasped, quickly shutting it again. “Karl, I found Bella!”

  Her brother came running. “In the fridge?” he asked.

  Eva nodded. “In the veg compartment. She must have snuck in there when you opened the door.”

  “Phew! Crisis over,” Karl said, relieved.

  “Yes, but she’s going to freeze if she stays in there much longer.”

  “Yeah, sorry.” Karl bit his lip.

  “How are we going to get her out?” Eva asked. “If I open the door again, she could jump out and run off. Then we’d be back to where we started.”

  “Wait, I’ll fetch her blue blanket,” Karl decided. “What happens now is that you wait until I’ve draped this over the fridge, then you open the door again and Bella shoots out, but I’ve got the blanket blocking her exit and we bundle her up inside it. OK?”

  Eva nodded. “It might work,” she muttered. In any case, they had to get Bella out of there fast. “Let’s give it a go.”

  Waiting for Karl to get the blanket in position, Eva eased open the fridge door. For a few seconds nothing happened. Then they heard a scrabbling sound and saw a bulge in the blanket as Bella made her bid for freedom.

  In a flash Karl let one edge of the blanket drop to trap the baby rabbit inside it. Then Eva picked up the whole bundle and carried it to Bella’s pet carrier.

  “Good job, Eva!” Karl muttered, very relieved.

&nb
sp; Gently Eva released the captive rabbit. Bella sat safe in her carrier, shivering and blinking up at them. “Don’t worry, we’ll get a proper cage ready for you,” Eva murmured, “with cosy bedding and a dish of yummy food.”

  Bella twitched her long ears and cowered in the corner.

  “You can’t keep on running away like this,” Eva scolded. “You have to learn to let us look after you. After all, it’s a big, dangerous world out there for a baby rabbit!”

  Bella blinked and seemed to sigh.

  “She probably runs away because she’s scared,” Karl pointed out. “Anyway, I’m going to take Billy for a walk. Let’s hope I’m safer with dogs than I am with rabbits!”

  “And I’ll fix up a cage for Bella,” Eva said.

  She didn’t give Karl a hard time. After all, Bella was back, and that was all that mattered.

  “It isn’t my day!” Karl said, reappearing five minutes later with Billy the bad-boy boxer. “We didn’t get further than Reception.”

  “What happened?” Eva asked.

  She’d found a cage for Bella and finished feeding her. Now she was checking on Jimmy, Lucky and Frankie.

  “Billy’s been up to his tricks again,” Karl groaned. “Anyway, Mum and Dad want you to come over to the house.”

  Eva washed her hands at the sink. “So what’s Billy done this time?” she asked Karl as they dashed through Reception.

  “Poppety-poppety-pop!” Buddy croaked. “Where’s Neville? Who’s a cheeky boy?”

  Karl grimaced. “When we got to Reception, Mum and Dad were still looking for that letter.”

  “From the Council,” Eva nodded. “So?”

  “So Billy pulls on his lead and drags me to the bench in the waiting area and starts snuffling around underneath it…”

  “Don’t tell me!” Eva gasped.

  Karl nodded. “Underneath is a pile of well-chewed mail, including the letter from the Council. Billy must have somehow snuck the letters out of the pile of post without anyone seeing him – maybe yesterday or the day before! He’s mangled it and dumped it under the bench!”

  Eva gave a low whistle.

  “So now he remembers where he stashed it, and he goes back and chews it some more – right in front of our eyes!”

  “One munched-up piece of precious mail!” Eva gasped.

  “Dad managed to rescue the letter before Billy wrecked it completely. They’ve taken it over to the house. They’re waiting for me to fetch you before they open it.”

  Eva held her breath as they crossed the yard and entered the kitchen. She crossed her fingers, staring at the chewed letter which her mum held in her hands.

  “Can I open it now?” Heidi asked Mark.

  He nodded.

  “Let’s hope we get the decision we want!” Heidi muttered, opening the letter with trembling fingers.

  Chapter Five

  “‘Dear Mrs Harrison,’” Heidi read slowly.

  The edges of the paper were torn and chewed, the middle was scrunched and crumpled.

  “‘With regard to the matter of the petition raised and presented to the Council by Mrs Linda Brooks of Rose Cottage, Main Street, Okeham…’”

  “It’s all down to Linda!” Eva muttered to Karl. “None of this would ever have happened if it hadn’t been for her!”

  “Ssh!” Mark warned, before Heidi read on.

  “‘After due consideration of all the factors including noise nuisance and change of usage, but mainly the one of frequent traffic access from Main Street into Animal Magic, the Council has decided…’”

  “Please, please, please let us stay open!” Eva said softly, her fingers crossed.

  Heidi took a breath and glanced up at Mark, “‘…to grant permission for the animal rescue centre to remain open and to continue its work.’”

  “Yes!” Karl jumped up and punched the air. “We can carry on.”

  “Yes!” Eva sank on to a chair and heaved the biggest sigh of relief. “I can’t wait to tell Annie the good news. Hey, and can we have a party to celebrate? Say yes!”

  “Good idea,” Mark agreed.

  He hugged Heidi, who allowed herself ten seconds of glad tears then pulled herself together.

  “Sure, we can stay open and that’s a big relief,” she said. “But at the rate we’re going with debts and everything, we’re definitely going to have to cut back on some things. Anyway, it’s six o’clock – time to feed the dogs,” she told Karl. “Eva, will you clean out Buddy’s cage, then deal with the small animals?”

  Eva and Karl nodded and shot out of the house as fast as their legs would carry them.

  “Hey, Billy, you sneaky letter-gobbler – you’re in big trouble!” Karl warned the boxer.

  Billy jumped up and licked Karl’s neck. Then he ran to his bowl and began to wolf down his supper.

  “He is,” Karl insisted to Sasha, who dashed to her kennel door wagging her tiny black tail. “We need to stop him eating everything in sight if we’re going to find him a new owner.”

  Sasha yelped and jumped up at Karl as he brought her bowl.

  In his kennel next door, Billy licked the bowl clean.

  “Billy’s in trouble,” Eva told Buddy. She took out the soiled lining from the bottom of his cage and replaced it with a new one.

  “Poppety-pop!” Buddy squawked, staring down at Eva’s busy hands.

  “But I expect Mum will let him off,” Eva explained. “The Council said yes to Animal Magic, so she’ll be in a mega-good mood! We can stay open, we can stay open!” she trilled. “And Dad says maybe we can have a big party!”

  Buddy watched Eva pour seed into his plastic bowl. Fluttering down from his perch, he dipped his head into the bowl and cracked a seed between his beak.

  “Of course, we need more kennels,” Eva went on happily. She closed the cage door and checked the catch. “We don’t have nearly enough space for all the dogs and cats that are brought here.”

  Going through to the small animals, she chattered on. “Hi, Jimmy, hi, Frankie. Did you hear? The Council will let us stay open!”

  Frankie the ferret dived into his deep bed of straw and wood shavings. Jimmy’s pink eyes twinkled as he shuffled slowly across his cage.

  “Hey, Bella!” Eva said gently to the little white rabbit. “We’ve just had the best news. Animal Magic can stay open. We can carry on matching the perfect pet with the perfect owner!”

  Pausing for thought, Eva gazed at the shy, runaway rabbit. “Don’t be scared,” she whispered. “We won’t send you to a bad home.”

  Bella twitched her ears and huddled in a tighter ball.

  “I promise,” Eva insisted, crouching low and meeting Bella’s wide, dark gaze. “We’ll find someone who loves you and who will look after you really well and will never scare you or make you run away ever again!”

  Chapter Six

  “Where are we going?” Annie asked Eva.

  The two girls cycled along Main Street early on Thursday morning. It was a grey, cloudy day. There were puddles in the road.

  “Yuck!” Eva cried as a red car overtook them and splashed her. “I already had my shower this morning, thank you!”

  Annie laughed. “So?” she asked. “Where are you dragging me off to this time?”

  Eva cycled ahead, turning right at the top of the main road and heading towards the river. “I’ve had an idea,” was all she would say.

  “Where’s Eva?” Heidi asked Karl.

  Karl was hunched over the computer, trying to set up a visit for Billy. A man called Owen Grey had emailed to say he might be interested in offering him a home.

  “Karl, where did Eva go?” Heidi repeated.

  “She went out on her bike with Annie,” Karl answered.

  “Did she say where?”

  Karl tapped at the keyboard. “Dunno. She said something about Riverview Road. I’m not sure why.”

  “What’s the big mystery?” Annie insisted as she and Eva leaned their bikes against a bench overlooking the river.<
br />
  Eva sat her friend down on the bench and talked earnestly. “Listen, I’ve been thinking a lot about Bella and how shy and nervous she is. She really, really needs a kind owner.”

  “Not just any stranger who walks into Animal Magic looking for a pet rabbit,” Annie agreed.

  “I promised I’d find someone who loves her and won’t scare her,” Eva said.

  Annie nodded. “But that still doesn’t explain why you dragged me here.”

  Eva pointed to the row of stone cottages behind them. “This is Riverview Road. The house with the removal van outside is number 23. That’s where Grace Nicholls lives.”

  Annie frowned. “But you told me they were emigrating. That’s why Grace had to leave Bella with you.”

  As the two girls talked, men came and went out of number 23. They carried big packing cases into the van.

  “It is,” Eva went on. “But Grace cares a lot about Bella. That’s why she’ll try to help us find the first owners.”

  “You mean the owners before the Nicholls family?” Annie asked.

  “Yes, it just came to me in a flash. We have to find them – trace the clues, track them down – so we can give Bella back to her proper owners!”

  “I don’t get it,” Annie said. “From what you told me, they didn’t even bother to try and find her when she ran away.”

  “Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t,” Eva argued. “But just because Bella ran off and got lost in the shed, it doesn’t mean her owners didn’t love her.” Trust Annie to squash her brilliant idea!

  “But Grace’s mum put up notices everywhere.”

  “I know. But perhaps the owners were away on holiday at the time and never saw them. Who knows?”