*achoo, achoo, achoo* and then what sounded like an elephant trumpeting
Ruby was on high alert now – what was going on?
Duster and Cola didn’t pay any mind to those noises … they were used to the dramatics.
The bedroom door opened and Mom shuffled out, wrapped in her bathrobe, bunny slippers on her feet.
“Ahhhh … ohhhh … this is the worst ever!” Mom whined.
Ruby hopped close to Mom – but not too close. She was still accessing the situation.
“Mom, what’s wrong?”
“I have a cold,” Mom mumbled.
Ruby was confused. “You’re cold? But you have bunnies on your feet and bunnies on your bathrobe, that’s a lot of fur … you can’t be cold.”
Mom flopped into a chair. “No, I have a cold.”
Ruby scrunched up her nose and picked up a face cloth she used for a blankie. She dropped it near Mom. “Cover up with my blankie!”
“Thanks, Ruby,” Mom said and blew her nose.
Ruby cringed. “That’s awful … and really annoying!”
Mom coughed. “Well it’s not like I’m having fun either.”
Ruby hopped over to Daddy. “Mom is cranky!”
Dad tried not to smile, Ruby was sometimes too honest. “Let’s get her some medicine.”
Ruby hopped behind Dad to the bathroom and followed him back out to Mom where he presented her with a bottle of cough syrup.
“Oh … is this all we have?” Mom asked.
Dad nodded.
“But it tastes really bad!”
Ruby thumped her little foot. “Take it and feel better. Don’t make me thump again!”
Mom trudged into the kitchen and got a spoon. When she opened the cough syrup the dramatics were in high swing.
“Uh this stuff stinks!”
Ruby was sitting at the line where the carpet and tile met. “So does being sick – take the medicine.”
Mom stared at the white bunny. “Fine.”
Mom gagged as she put the cough syrup on a spoon. She made some other funny noises when she swallowed it and then drank some water.
“Blah, that was traumatic,” Mom said as she flopped back in to her chair again.
“So is how you look right now … red nose, hair all over the place … you get better and you will be cute again … but not as cute as me,” Ruby said matter-of-factly.
Duster and Cola were snickering as Mom again stared at Ruby.
A little while passed and Mom was ready to go back to bed.
“I tuck you in!” Ruby grabbed her face cloth blankie and followed Mom.
“Thanks, Ruby,” Mom said.
A few minutes later, Ruby re-emerged from the bedroom.
“How’s Mommy?’ Dad asked.
“She is great .. I stopped her coughing!” Ruby was so proud.
“Um, that’s what the cough syrup was for, “ Dad said. “How did you stop Mommy’s cough?”
“I put my blankie in her mouth! I had to thump it but I got it in there … and now Mommy is sleeping great!”
Dad jumped up. “You thumped your blankie into Mommy’s mouth??” and he was on his way to the bedroom.
Mom was sitting up in the bed, the bunny blankie in her hand.
“Are you OK?” Dad asked.
“I think Ruby tried to smother me!” Mom whined.
Ruby was in the doorway now. “No, I made you stop coughing. I want my blankie back – you do not appreciate it!”
The white bunny took the blankie from Mom and with a foot flick headed back to the living room.
“I can’t be mad at her,” Mom sighed. “She thought she was helping me.”
Dad chuckled. “Well try not to annoy her again … who knows how she’ll try to ‘help’ you next time.”
GETTING READY FOR SANTA PAWS!
Ruby hopped over and sat beside Mom.
“We have a problem,” Ruby said.
“We do?” Mom asked, rooting through some boxes.
“Yes, that is a tree and it belongs outside!” Ruby nosebonked Mom to get her attention.
Mom leaned down and rubbed Ruby’s ears. “This is a fake tree so it can be inside.”
“You bought a pretend tree?”
“Yeah, sure that’s a way to look at it,” Mom said. “Ah-a, I found it!”
Ruby hopped up on the chair to see what Mom was holding.
“That is a baby fake tree,” Ruby said. “And it smells bad.”
Ruby tried to take the mini tree ornament from Mom. “I put it in my litter box so you can throw it out.”
“Hold on, hold on – this tree doesn’t stink. It smells like a real pine tree. It’s an ornament and we hang it on the big tree so it smells nice.”
Ruby was pretty sure Mom was losing her mind. “You bought a fake baby tree that smells like a real tree to hang on the big fake tree so the big fake tree smells like a real tree?”
Mom nodded, happily starting to decorate the tree.
“Why didn’t you just buy a real tree?” Ruby demanded to know.
“Ruby, you’re taking the fun out of this,” Mom said.
Ruby sighed and laid down on the chair.
Mom had lights and ornaments all over the tree.
“Isn’t it pretty?” Mom asked the bunnies.
Duster and Cola congratulated Mom on the tree but Ruby was still curious.
“Why did you make the tree pretty?”
“So it looks nice when Santa Paws puts your gifts under it,” Mom replied.
“I want to be decorated!” Ruby said.
Duster and Cola gasped … that meant Mom would get to use the dreaded bunny accessories! No bunny had ever volunteered before.
“OK!” Mom was too happy about that.
Out came the antlers and they went right on Ruby’s head.
Ruby wrinkled her nose.
“Alright, let’s try this,” Mom said and took the antlers off and put a Santa hat on Ruby.
Ruby thumped her little foot.
Mom was running out of options but she found a collar with bells on it.
Ruby was devastated. “You insult my cuteness with these things – you cannot decorate me anymore.”
Mom shrugged, her intentions had been good. But there was still more decorating to do!
In mere minutes, Mom had Santa Claus pictures and candles and other items all over the apartment.
Ruby hopped to Cola and Duster’s cages. “Mom is obsessed with an old man with a white beard … what should we do?”
“That’s Santa Paws,” Cola said, “He seems to appreciate it when people have his picture all over their house at Christmas time I think it encourages him to leave more gifts!”
Ruby bounced up and down. “More gifts? Then we need to get more pictures of him!”
“No, Ruby,” Mom had overheard the conversation. “We have enough Santa Paws going on in here.”
“But I want lots of gifts!”
“You have nothing to worry about,” Mom said. “Look there’s already a gift under the tree with your name on it.”
Ruby made a mad dash for the tree. Sure enough, each bunny already had a present waiting for them for Christmas morning.
Ruby pounced on hers and started to tear into it.
“Whoa!” Mom intervened. “You have to wait till Christmas.”
“But it has my name on it!”
“You have to wait till Christmas morning.”
“But when things come for you in the mail with your name on it, you don’t wait! You tear right in to them!” Ruby stated.
“That’s different,” Mom argued.
“How?” Ruby asked.
“I’m an adult.”
“And I am a cute bunny – I win!” Ruby tried to get at the present as Mom moved it out of bunny reach.
Mom put the gift on a shelf for safe keeping. Ruby periscoped, realizing it was no use and followed Mom.
“What are those for?”
Mom held up two large and t
hree bunny-sized Christmas stockings. “Santa puts present in these too.”
Ruby smiled. “If I put Cola in a stocking would Santa think she is a present for him and take her to his home?”
Cola thumped.
“Aw, Cola, you know I am kidding,” Ruby said and then whispered to Mom. “Well, would he take her home?”
Mom rolled her eyes. “No bunny is going anywhere.”
Cola turned her back to Ruby – the baby bunny was getting smarter every day. Even Cola had to admit the stocking idea was brilliant!
With all the decorating done and all of Ruby’s questions answered, Mom wished the bunnies good night and went to bed.
“I can hardly wait to meet this Santa Paws,” Ruby thought to herself.
And oh what a story that turns out to be ….
RUBY MEETS SANTA CLAUS!
It was the night before Christmas and bunnies had taken over Grandma and Grandpa’s house!
Cola, Duster and Ruby were in their cages in the living room at their grandparents (mommy’s parents) house on Christmas Eve.
All of the people had gone to bed and the bunnies were snuggling in for the night … when suddenly there was a loud noise in the basement … then there were footsteps coming up the stairs … the door opened … and through that door came a man dressed all in red!
Duster and Cola didn’t pay much mind to the man in red, they’d seen him before, but Ruby sat up and stared at him.
The man in red came down the three stairs and into the living room where the bunnies and the Christmas tree were. He put a large sack on the floor and started to place brightly coloured boxes under the tree.
“Um, excuse me, Mr. Thief,” Ruby said, assuming the man was a burglar, “You have it backwards … you’re supposed to put stuff in your bag, not leave things behind … and if you are a thief … I am waking everyone up!!”