Bunny Ball, Ball!

Life with kids and animals is interesting to say the least but when you add parents that have an awesome sense of humor (I might be biased on this) it gets even more interesting.

My son has a puppy and I have an old dog, my husband and daughter have cats. Somehow we have learned to live harmoniously together with few incidents (except when the boy and the puppy try to eat the cats but that is another story). Another incident is the ball fiasco that I have lovingly nicknamed: Bunny Ball, Ball.

One day, the girl came home with a tennis set. She was super excited and insisted that we all go outside and play with it! Well her excitement was contagious and the boy and dogs joined in the begging. So, my husband and I put on our tennis shoes and obliged. Now for those of you who don’t know me you must realize that I come from a long line of klutzes. We are notoriously known for our lack of graceful maneuvers like; knocking oneself out one a basketball pole in seventh grade, falling face first off the stage in ninth grade while playing the part of Cinderella in front of the entire school or my personal favorite: steering a raft into a tree full of spiders. These were all my fiascos. the list is significantly more interesting if I include my sisters. Of course, all of these incidents happened when I felt confidence and probably a bit of arrogance. I am beginning to think that the arrogance in each situation is not a coincidence. I digress, I was hesitant to go outside and attempt to play tennis with my daughter.

At first everything was fine. We both actually hit the ball a couple of times and my son was excited to chase the balls we missed and throw them back into the game. Then it happened! I became more confident, I thought hey maybe this is a game I don’t suck at and began to really try!

I was good, hitting balls like a champ! Woo hoo! I felt coordinated and so did my daughter and we were all having a good time. I husband was enjoying the show making funny comments especially about my son fetching the missed balls repeatedly. Then it happened, my daughter spiked a ball so hard and so fast I felt I needed to get it like a pro!

Well my yard is almost 4 acres of one hill and the driveway where we were playing is filled in to be the same height of the house leaving a drop off of about a two and half feet on the back side. There is a slight bump to prevent cars from accidently going over the edge.  So, when I dove for the ball I not only face-planted; I went head first over the drop off and disappeared from my daughter, son and husband’s sight and the last thing I heard as I fell was Bunny, Ball Ball. Making reference to the Bruce Willis film “Hudson Hawk” where in the end they defeated the yapping puppy by throwing the ball out of the window. So, dirty and without pride I stood up laughing and we continued on with our day.

That is not the end! My son who had been gleefully watching and participating in this tennis fiasco learned that from one side of the driveway the drop off is not noticeable and likes to throw the ball for the puppy over the edge and watch her disappear from sight. He always shouts Bunny Ball, ball as he does this because it makes my husband giggle even if the boy doesn’t understand why.

Well, one day the boy and the puppy went outside to innocently play ball and I followed looking forward to playing on my phone as the two entertained each other.  That did not happen because the very first throw followed by Bunny Ball, Ball landed the puppy on top of Momma cat, who was not very happy that the puppy awoke her by jumping on her face.

The blur of yelps and hisses ensued and the puppy ran as fast as she could from the very angry kitty. The kitty was so angry she actually chased the puppy around the yard. The boy and I stood there shocked and bewildered at the scene. Still to this day the puppy will not go after the ball in that area.

Poor Kitty! Poor Puppy!