by Q Schoenberg
Title:
The Adventures of Rudy Rabbit
Carrots for Winter
Copyright 2015 Quinn Schoenberg
Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
*****
The Adventures of Rudy Rabbit
Carrots for winter
Rudy the Rabbit left his house early this morning after putting on his favorite red bowtie, and eating breakfast to meet his friends. He was a happy brown and white rabbit with long ears and a white fluffy tail. The sun was out and he could feel the warm rays hitting his face when stepped out of his family’s home. He started crossing the grassy field where all the rabbits in neighborhood lived. There were lots of large trees that some of the rabbits lived under and long brown grass for them to hide from danger and to play in all day. The rabbit families had been here for a long time because there was a large carrot field next door filled with large orange carrots, and everybody knows rabbits love carrots. Rudy got down low in the grass to sneak up on his three friends, Randy, Harry, and Jerry who were all the same age as Rudy. They were all born two springs ago and became friends right away.
Rudy lived at the base of one of the large trees where their home in the ground was protected from the rain, snow and hot sun. All the rabbit families worked all spring and summer the save up food to last them through the cold winter. They gathered carrots of course, and lettuce from another nearby field and nuts, and berries from the woods that surrounded it.
As Rudy walked through the field he watched all the other rabbits out and about gather all they would need for the winter to come. He saw Mrs. Fluffytail walking down the path heading toward the center of the neighborhood, and then he saw three daddy rabbits heading through the fence to get some carrots from the field next to them. They had to be careful going into the carrot field, because the farmer didn’t want them taking all the carrots from his field and sometimes he got really mad. So, Rudy continued on to meet his friends.
Randy, who was Rudy’s best friend always waited by Jerry’s house at the base of a large maple tree right next to the carrot field on a small hill. Randy lives under an old wood pile at the edge of the woods with his Mom and Dad and little sister, Emma. Harry and Jerry were cousins because their Dads were brothers, so they were always close.
Rudy saw Randy standing at the top of the hill by the big maple tree and snuck up on him slowly to scare him real bad. He was trying to scare Randy because last week, Randy snuck up on Rudy and scared him so bad that he jumped right out of his shorts. All three of his friends fell on the ground laughing at him for a long time.
Rudy stayed down real low in the grass and hid behind small hills and bushes as he got closer and closer to Randy who was still at the top of the hill leaning on the maple tree. Just as he got close enough to jump out and scare Randy, Jerry came up behind Rudy and screamed so loud that Rudy jumped right out of his shorts “again” and his ears went straight out to the side and shook. He was so mad his face turned red as an apple and he jumped up and landed right on his rump. Then he ran after Jerry to teach him a lesson. He caught up to him because Jerry was laughing while he was running and it was very hard to laugh and run fast at the same time. Rudy jumped on Jerry and knocked him to the ground and then turned around and dug with is front feet and threw the dirt behind him and on top of Jerry leaving a big hole. Harry who was waiting by Randy at the top of the hill ran down the hill to pull Rudy off of Jerry to keep them from fighting. “You’re mean,” Rudy yelled at Jerry while Harry pulled him away from Jerry who was still laying on the ground with dirt on him and still laughing.
After they calmed down the four friends played all day and Rudy forgot all about being mad at Jerry and the others. “Boy!” Randy said after playing for hours. “It’s getting chilly out here and it’s not even getting dark yet, and I’m hungry. I’m gonna head home. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” The other three boys watched as Randy hopped down the hill and back home to the wood pile near the woods. “You know, it is getting a little cold out here, I’m gonna go home too,” Rudy said, and he hopped home as well.
Later that night after eating dinner, brushing his teeth and washing up, Rudy put away his red bowtie and went to bed. He was sound asleep very fast because he was so tired from playing all day, but while it was still night and the stars were out; Rudy woke up because he was thirsty and got out of bed to get a drink of water. He walked out of his room and down the dirt tunnel that was their hallway and lead to the kitchen. Just when Rudy got to the kitchen door he heard his Mom and Dad talking about something important, so he stopped in the hallway and listened. He knew that it was wrong to listen in on other rabbit conversations, but he never heard his Mom and Dad sounding so upset.
“You know we can’t get carrots from the field next door any more, now that the farmer got that huge dog to guard the field.” Rudy’s Dad said to his Mom. Rudy’s Mom put her hands over her face and asked. “What are we going to do? Winter will be here soon and we don’t have enough carrots and other food to last all winter.” Me and the other rabbits in the neighborhood will think of something, you’ll see.” His Dad said and he hugged Rudy’s Mom real tight.
Rudy went back to bed without a drink and could hardly sleep that night so he sat up and thought about what his parents said about not having enough carrots for winter. This was scary for him, because he knew that the whole neighborhood was going to run out of food if they didn’t get some carrots for all of them. Rudy went out the next day and had to wear his scarf because it was even colder today that it was yesterday. He looked up at the sky and thought; winter will be here soon, we have to help the adults get those carrots.
After Rudy met up with his friends, he sat by the tree and didn’t feel like playing. His friends played for a while and then came over to Rudy to ask him what was wrong. Rudy told his friends, Randy, Harry and Jerry what he heard last night and then sat there sad again. Now they all felt sad and didn’t know what to do.
Rudy was looking over the fence to the carrot field next door and saw the giant dog the farmer got to guard his field. “Look you guys, there’s the dog I was telling you about. He is walking around over there and guarding the field just like my Dad said. What are we going to do? We won’t be able to get any more carrots and we will starve all winter.” All four boys watched the giant dog walk back and forth and back and forth by the fence to make sure no rabbits came over to take any carrots. He was a giant dog with long white teeth and long brown hair, and a long brown and white tail that bounced up and down while he walked. They all watched him for the rest of the day and then went home to get warm. Rudy asked his friends to think of some way to get the carrots by tomorrow.
The next day, Randy and Rudy met first before Jerry and Harry came out to play. They watched the giant dog next door for a long time and then Rudy thought about the other day. “Remember when I flung dirt on Jerry, Randy?” Randy laughed a little as he remembered and then nodded his head, yes.
“Well,” said Rudy. I was thinking about the hole that was in the ground after I was done digging.” “So!” Randy said. “What does that have to do with getting more carrots?” “I think we can dig a big hole and then a tunnel like my hallway at home to get to the field next door from under the fence, not over it. If we dig far enough then dig up a little bit, and we will be under the carrots and not be seen by the giant dog.
That very day, after Harry and Jerry met up with the other boys; they told them what they planned to do. All four friends agreed that it was a great idea and they should start right away. Rudy was the first to start digging and when he
got tired, Randy dug some more, and when he was tired, Harry dug some more, and then Jerry dug even more. While one of the rabbits was digging the other three where hauling away all the dirt. Then they dumped it by the woods with pails that they got from Jerry’s Mom’s garden. The pile grew bigger and bigger very quickly. After a long day of digging, they decided to stop for the day and go and get some rest so they could dig more tomorrow.
When Rudy got home and walked through his front door, his Mom dropped her glass of water on the floor at the sight of him and yelped. “What have you been doing? How did you get so dirty? Where have you been? Get into the bath right now!” All in one sentence and then she