Clever Cleo's Great Escape

Queen Cleo is quite the clever bunny.  She is a bit of a Houdini and a curious explorer.  On Cleo and Casper's first day, they settled in and enjoyed their new space.  We used the same exercise pen that we used with our previous camper Winter.  This pen was no match for Clever Cleo.  Sometime between when our awesome custodian, Tom, left, and when Ms. Johnson came in at 7:00am, Cleo found a way to expand her territory by escaping the pen and checking out the room.  The only problem was that outside her pen is hardwood floors, so her little furry bunny paws had no traction.  She was a very respectful bunny even when she was out of the pen.  She didn't chew or make a mess anywhere in the room.  It appears that she got out, explored and left a few rabbit droppings around the pen, and then missed her brother Casper.  I found her lying next to the pen leaning in with Casper on the other side right next to her.

I was worried it might be a challenge to catch her in such a large classroom with lots of obstacles, but luckily, my task was pretty easy.  Thank goodness for hardwood floors, Cleo tried to scamper away from me, but she slipped and slid like she was Thumper on the pond in Bambi.  I caught her and returned her safely to her brother.

Oh, but that is not all.  I investigated the pen for a possible escape route, and didn't find any obvious exits.  Clever Cleo struck again soon after though.  She showed me just how she got out.  Who knew she was so crafty!  Her strong bunny muscles pulled her up pen wall and she hopped right over.  I removed the lower panel thinking that would help....nope.  She used her massive skills and pulled herself up onto the 30" panel that day before school, but I caught her before she hopped all the way out.  At this point we realized we were no match for her mad skills.  I contacted our great partners at the ARL and they got us an even taller pen right away that night.  Ms. Johnson got that all set up, and Cleo seems to have met her match.  No escapes after that.  She is safely contained and seems to still be happy with her space and hanging with her brother.