The “House Critters” Henrietta’s Travel Day Part 1

    You may have already read that the house critters normally do things together, so where Henrietta Bobbie Bunny is so are the rest of them. Blue Booby, Big Bunny, Ducky Duck and Rainy Reindeer complete the group. Today Henrietta was going to leave them home alone for the first time to go shopping with the two female humans, Amy and Barb.

    Henrietta certainly did not need anything and was not actually going to walk around the stores. She had always wanted to see what the two were talking about before and after they went to the Outlet Mall. Henrietta had seen pictures on TV that showed small dogs riding in a shoulder bag and thought that was the way to go. She could see and hear everything and not worry about being stepped on or losing sight of her humans. Also, there was a car ride involved and she always like seeing new places.

    The morning of the shopping trip Henrietta was ready to go well before the humans. They knew stores did not open till 10 am, but to a bunny time was mostly when it was light or dark outside. They actually left around 9 am; this was to leave time for breakfast at Bagels & Cakes. Henrietta had been out of town lots of times but had never gone any place much bigger than where she lived. When they got to the small city with four lane of traffic, lots of cars, and of course many people she wonder if this trip was a good idea. There were so many buildings and so much going on she did not notice they had pulled into a parking lot. The shoulder bag Barb brought along had been a good spot to ride in and Henrietta got carried in the café while peaking out of the top. The place was always crowded so Barb found a table for two while Amy got in line to order them some breakfast and came back with a latte for Barb, small chocolate milk with a straw for Henrietta, and a cappuccino for herself. While the humans talked about the stores they would go in at the mall Henrietta listened and looked around at the other humans. She had never seen so many different types and colors of clothing. Henrietta did not know about the college not far from the café with lots of student that liked the place along with many locals. The food placed on their table was two bagels, one plain with chocolate cream cheese and one cinnamon, along with what Henrietta thought was a plate of small donuts. These actually were a delightful Italian concoction called Zeppole and disappear even faster than the bagels.

   Once back in the car and on the road again Henrietta thought that if nothing else was enjoyable to her besides the breakfast this trip would be worthwhile. They took two lane roads most of the way to the mall which made Henrietta happy, but all of a sudden it was a four lane road and she thought there was a giant castle up ahead. She had seen castles on TV and noticed the tall towers with pointy roofs on a wall that went farther than she could see down the road. The road was six lanes wide when they got to the entrance which seemed to be the only opening in the great wall. They had to sit thro0ugh multiple cycles of the traffic signal before turning into the mall and seeing the huge parking lot.

Barb and Amy decided to park close to where they would end the shopping trip, so they ended up walking across the parking lot to where there were a number of shoe stores. Both the humans were looking for sneakers and once again Henrietta was in the shoulder bag for the ride into the store. Once inside she peaked out and was surprised to not see a lot of humans. Barb had set the bag down in a chair to look around, which also gave Henrietta a chance to look over the store. There were shoes and sneakers stacked higher than the humans all over the place and signs for every stack. She froze when a young woman sat down next to her, looked right at her and said, “You are cute.” and scratched her between the ears. Henrietta did not know if she should talk, so she nodded, which made the visitor flinch. The young woman said, “I have worked here for five years and never before has a rabbit been in the store.” Just then Amy went by and told her this is Henrietta and she is a very special bunny. Then she said, “Henrietta it is ok to speak with this human, but if any others come in you will need to stop.” The young woman looked at Amy like she had two heads, which is when Henrietta said, “Hello, thanks for the head scratch.” This started a conversation about being a rabbit and what it was like to be a store clerk that went on until Barb found the sneakers she wanted and they left the store. They went into many other places where Henrietta got wore out looking at so many items she had never seen before. She decided not to go into the rest of the stores. While waiting in the car she thought the balloons in the party store were her favorite items and then she took a nap!