PENDLETON — When Caylah McAdams heard there was a real, live, 11-pound bunny rabbit in the Easter parade in Pendleton on Saturday, her eyes opened wide, and her mouth dropped to her chest.
Stunned into silence, the 6-year-old and her cousin Tykeria Porter, 7, couldn’t believe it.
The two girls already had Easter baskets full of eggs and candy from the Easter egg hunt earlier in the day’s festivities. A live bunny would just simply be too much.
Soon enough, though, the snow-white, 11-pound Miss Jeri and her “sister” 5-pound Betty Boo came rolling through downtown Pendleton sitting on the laps of their adoring grandmother and her friend.
The two rabbits rode in a convertible at the head of the parade as the official grand marshals. The costumed “Easter Bunny” rode a few cars behind.
Missy Nail has owned Miss Jeri and Betty Boo since they were just wee things and calls herself their grandmother.
“They watch TV, they run around the house, and they’re littler-box trained,” Mrs. Nail said. “They give us kisses and hugs. They go everywhere I go.”
Three-year-old Miss Jeri, an Austrian giant rabbit, is the quiet one, laid back and calm. Two-year-old Betty Boo, a dwarf rabbit, is a hoot, Mrs. Nail said.
“She reminds me of my middle son,” Mrs. Nail said. “When I’m driving and she wants to go, and you don’t go, she’ll scratch the pillow (on which she sit). And if you don’t go again, she’ll look at you then bite — well, nip — the pillow.”
As Mrs. Nail talked, children crowded around the two bunnies, who looked extremely content being petted continuously. If a child quit petting one of the bunnies, the rabbit simply would hop over to someone else who would pay some attention.
Early Saturday afternoon in Anderson, another group of children went tearing across the grass and grabbed as many Easter eggs as possible during the Easter egg hunt at VFW Post 5996.

independentmail.com