By Caleigh Cousineau

 

In a pet shop, in the north west corner of town, on Main Street, in Grand Ledge, Michigan, there was a rabbit named Jasper. Jasper was a dwarf rabbit. He was all white with black spots here and there all over his body. In the pet shop each cage was numbered, Jasper's cage number was 52. 

 

Jasper was very lonely in the pet shop because nobody wanted Jasper. He was either too dirty, or too big, or there was some other super weird or crazy reason that a person would not want Jasper. 

 

One afternoon, in late October, 10 days before Halloween, a little girl walked into the pet shop with her mom. The little girl was wearing a small blue dress and small pink leggings. She also had on a pair of purple sneakers. 

 

The girl asked her mom, "Can I go and look at all the animals Mommy? Please, please, please."  The little girl's mom said, "Sure, you can go look at the animals as long as I can see you the whole time." The little girl ran off in the direction of all the animals. 

 

The first animal she saw was a giant boa constrictor. It hissed at the little girl but the girl just laughed and tapped on the glass of the giant snake's cage. The snake was furious, it hissed and slithered towards the glass. The giant snake repeatedly tried to break the glass. In the snake's haste to break the glass, the boa scared the little girl. As she ran away crying, she noticed Jasper in cage number 52. 

 

The little girl looked at Jasper, stopped crying and noticed a sign on his cage that read, "This unwanted bunny is named Jasper. He has been here for 5 months and is going to be released into the wild in 2 weeks if no one buys him."  The little girl started to cry again. While she was crying she said, "Oh Jasper, if you're released into the wild", she sobbed, "you won't survive for, for, for even a week." 

 

The little girl's mother called out that it was time to go, the little girl ran off calling back, "Goodbye!" to Jasper. A few minutes later, after the girl left the pet shop, Jasper did not know what to do but he did know that it was closing time because the manager was coming around to check on the cages. As he checked on Jasper, he told Jasper that tomorrow would be very busy. 

 

The next day Jasper heard a tapping noise on his glass window that woke him up. The little girl was saying something to her mom. Her mom said, "Yes, we can Sweety." The little girl suddenly became super excited. 

 

The little girl walked up to a store employee and said something, then the employee set a "Sold" sign on Jasper's cage. "You can take him anytime between now and tomorrow at 8 pm," said the store employee. "Okay, thank you!" said the little girl, a little too loudly. She ran back to her mom and shared the news. The little girl looked so happy that she almost screamed with joy because she would soon have someone to do everything with. 

 

"Lets go home and get everything ready for him." said the little girl's mom. "Okay" said the little girl. The little girl ran off after her mom, they got into a car and drove off into the distance. Jasper was sad that the little girl had left him but he did know that the little girl would come back for him, or at least he thought that she would. 

 

When he woke up the next day, there was a crowd of people in the pet shop. Jasper looked around but the little girl and her mom were not there. Jasper fell asleep as he waited for the little girl. 

 

Suddenly, there was a big commotion with loud noises near his cage. Jasper woke up and looked around. He saw the little girl and her mom walking towards his cage very quickly. 

 

On the outside of his cage, the "Sold" sign was gone and a little boy and his dad were also walking quickly towards his cage. The families reached his cage at the same time. The kids started to cry, "Why are you crying, Sammy?" said the little boy's father at the exact same time as the little girl's mother asked why she was crying. Both kids said the exact same thing at the exact same time. They each said "I'm crying because that other kid is going to get Jasper and I won't" . The little girl's mother said "Just yesterday, we had a "Sold" sign on his cage, but it was 8pm when we pulled in, so they took it off already. The rabbit should be ours!" The little boy's dad argued back. The adults bickered while the children talked to each other and decided on their own who would have the rabbit.

 

"Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, listen. Me and Sammy have decided who should have Jasper." "Okay, then who gets Jasper?" asked the little boy's father. "She can Daddy." Sammy remarked confidently. "Okay, if that's what you want." the girl's mom replied. 

 

After the bickering, Sammy and his dad left. The little girl quietly approached a store employee and mentioned that she and her mom wanted to adopt Jasper. According to the employee, they just had to fill out a little bit of paper work and Jasper was theirs to keep. 

The paperwork had questions like "Where will the animal sleep?" and "What type of food will the animal eat?" The girl's mom answered all the questions correctly and the employee said that they could have Jasper. 

 

The girl, her mom and the store employee went to move Jasper out of his cage and into his travel cage so that the family could take him home that day. 

 

They wrestled Jasper into his travel cage and walked to the car. In the car, on the way home, Jasper and the girl looked out the window together. Jasper listened as she talked all the way home. 

 

When they got home, the girl got out of the car and ran inside leaving Jasper in the car. Thankfully her mom was still in the car. She came around and looked in the car before locking it up. When she saw Jasper in the back seat of the car, she opened the door and found that the girl had not carried anything inside, not even the new pet dwarf rabbit. 

 

She opened her mouth to holler for her daughter, when the girl came walking outside with her dad to help unpack the car. "Thanks for coming and bringing out some help Sweetie. And thank you for helping us unpack the car Honey." "You're welcome," said the girl and her dad at the exact same time. 

 

They carried Jasper and his stuff into the house. Once in the house, they set down everything they were carrying and the girl went over to the corner that had a giant rabbit cage in it. There was also a shelf in the corner for his stuff to go on. 

 

Jasper was lifted into the new cage by her dad. Then they started to put his stuff in the little cubbies that were along the shelf. His food went here, his toys went there, his hay went in a spot way over there. 

 

After everything was in its own place her parents left to make dinner, leaving her and Jasper all alone in the little corner.  

Jasper loved the little girl's company, and the girl loved Jasper's company. 

 

They spent all day every day together. They loved to play with each other. They were inseparable for many years to come.

The End