Belinda Says Hay: “Homemade Gifts Are Fine IMO”

Hello. It's Belinda.

As I mentioned in my blog last week, Little Fang and I decided to surprise our roommate with an Easter basket.  She asks for one every year.

Little Fang and I don’t have gift cards so we had to “make do” with what we could find in the house.

I looked at pictures of Easter baskets online. They all seemed to have the same items:

• dyed eggs
• jellybeans
• marshmallow peeps
• little balls of foil
• a toy rabbit
• a bed of grass

We didn’t have any candy so we started by pitching in two healthy snackers. One from me and one from her.  “For the good of the cause.”

Dyed eggs were out of the question. The only eggs I see in this house are under the utility basin. Up in the nooks and crannies. Spider eggs. I leave them alone and vice versa.

Jellybeans were tricky. The best part of jellybeans from what I could tell is the different colors. Really “livens up” the basket.

I remembered seeing a bright pink button behind the dryer. It was close enough so I added it to the pile.

The marshmallow peeps were next on the list. Here I got lucky.

One afternoon I was in the kitchen pretending to work. But I was actually watching my roommate throw leftovers into the garbage can.

A few minutes later she left the room. I heard her walk upstairs to the bedroom level. The coast was clear.

I’m not proud of what I did next but I had no choice. I knocked over the garbage can. I pushed the lid open and bingo.

There it was, right on top. Half of a sandwich bun. Which is a lot like a marshmallow peep if you think about it. Nice and squishy.

I found something else in the garbage can that was good luck. A piece of aluminum foil. Little Fang and I worked on it for a few days, rolling it into a little ball.

Getting a toy rabbit was the hardest part of all. Even though my roommate has rabbit statues all over the house. She calls them “knickknacks.”

I had my eye on one in particular, on a low shelf in the living room. It’s a little statue of a brown rabbit standing on his hind legs. Begging for a treat. “I know the feeling.”

I sneaked upstairs one night when everyone was sleeping, even Little Fang. All the lights were off and I was afraid I would bump into something. If the English heard me, he would start thumping. The whole surprise would be ruined.

I picked up the rabbit knickknack with my teeth and ran back down to the bottom level before I lost my nerve.

All that was left for the Easter basket was grass for the bottom. "Easy peasy." We used hay.

You may wonder where we got the basket. When my roommate puts laundry baskets on the floor by the dryer, she forgets what she’s doing and walks upstairs. There is usually a basket or two nearby.

So I pushed an empty laundry basket across the floor to the bottom of the steps. I did this the night before Easter.

Little Fang and I were very proud of ourselves. She watched while I got everything ready.

I started with a nice layer of second cut Timothy across the bottom of the laundry basket. Then I dropped in the two healthy snackers, the red button, the bun from the trash, the foil wrapper ball and the rabbit knickknack.

And then we went to sleep.

The next morning we woke to hear our roommate in the kitchen. Refrigerator door opening and closing, water running.

She was getting our breakfast ready.

“Happy Easter, ladies!” She sang as she walked down the steps with the plates.

When she got to the bottom and turned she froze in her tracks. She looked down at the floor, at the Easter basket.

“What is this?”

We waited for the thank you. 

“Why is there a piece of bread in this laundry basket?  And my rabbit statue?”

She was silent as she walked toward me and placed my breakfast plate on the floor. And as she leaned over the pen to give Little Fang her plate.

She walked back to the basket. She picked it up and started up the steps.

Then she stopped and looked at us.

"Today is a holiday. I don't know what's going on but I am going to forget I saw this."

So there you go.

PS: She gave the two snackers back to us the next day. She didn't mention the Easter basket again and neither have we. 

Sincerely,

Belinda

Spokesrabbit, Small Pet Select

Belinda@smallpetselect.com