WNC: Hansli and Sepli

by Alice Rowan and John Vincent
photos by Fran Keenan

They call me Sepli, which means Little Joseph, and my gentle little brother they call Hansli, which means Little John. (Just in case you’re wondering, these are affectionate nicknames that are popular in Switzerland.) That’s not what we called ourselves before we came here, but we don’t mind. We’d let them call us whatever they want (Vreni sometimes calls me Psycho Sepli because I’m so rambunctious! but I know deep down she really loves me); if it weren’t for them, we probably wouldn’t be alive now.

We used to live on a farm with this wonderful woman named Georgia who loved animals so much, people who couldn’t keep their pets anymore brought them to her and she took them in. She just couldn’t say no. One day someone brought her a big snake. Snakes are God’s creatures too, and to stay alive they need to eat little mammals—little mammals like, gulp, bunnies.

So we were born, our lives seemingly predestined to be short and sacrificial. But as some larger plan would have it, the snake died.

When she wasn’t on her farm caring for her many blessed creatures, Georgia worked in the big city. One day she told a nice man she worked with named Will about the snake that died and about us bunnies. As much as she loved us, Georgia couldn’t afford to care for all of us now that we were growing and bound to start doing what bunnies do best. Will told his friend John, another nice man, about us and our other brothers and sisters. John grew up on a farm and loves animals as much as Georgia and Will do. He also is prone to wild and crazy inspirations. It didn’t take him long to come up with an idea and then to inspire his friends and coworkers at Washington National Cathedral to grow that idea into a full-blown plan!

Some of John’s friends take care of the Cathedral’s Greenhouse, where many beautiful and useful plants are grown and sold. A wonderful woman there from Switzerland named Vreni said, when John told her he was looking for homes for the bunnies, “Why can’t we have one at the Greenhouse?” Another nice Greenhouse lady named Duffy got so excited over the prospect, she went and bought a nice big hutch made by the Amish for the bunny to live in. Randy, who works at the Greenhouse too, said he’d find homes for a few of us if John and Will would bring us to the Cathedral. And a woman named Alice who worked at the Cathedral College wanted a bunny too but lived in an apartment where she couldn’t have a pet, so the nice people at the Greenhouse said her bunny could live there too.

Hansli

So, on a warm, sunny Sunday afternoon in mid-September, Will and John drove to Georgia’s farm in Virginia and loaded me and Hansli (who didn’t know yet that they’d already named him Hansli because they liked him best from our pre-adoption photos) and three of our sisters into a cage that Will had borrowed, with permission of course, from the bunny who lives with him. Her name is Butterscotch, and though I’ve never met her, I’ve heard she’s very cute! They weren’t even planning to take me, but when they saw me in person, they couldn’t resist my big floppy ears. We were a little scared, but not much, because Will and John held us so carefully and spoke to us so warmly.

We were in the car for what seemed like a long time. But finally we stopped and John and Will took the cage out of the car. Over the tops of the trees we could see a very big building with three tall towers. It made us feel a little nervous at first, but it has come to be our symbol of safety. One time in the middle of the night I managed to get out of the hutch and go off on an adventure by myself. When the excitement wore off I got scared and hid, but when I finally came out into the open again and looked up, I saw that big building against the sky and knew I was near home after all.

Back to the day we arrived at the Greenhouse. John and Will took us out of the cage and put us into the Hutch, which sat under a giant sycamore tree. It was filled with fresh straw and bottles of water and bowls of food. Gradually more people arrived to welcome us. They all wanted to pick us up and hold us, but we were still a little nervous and excited and our nails were long so we scratched them accidentally and they bled. But no one yelled at us, so we knew this was a place where we would always be accepted and forgiven. Nevertheless, Will took us one by one out of the cage and trimmed our nails with a clipper so people could hold us without getting hurt. The woman Alice from the Cathedral College took lots of pictures of us so everyone could always remember this day.

The next day, Monday, all the people who don't work at the Cathedral on weekends started to hear about us. Those who came to see us out of curiosity couldn’t help but fall in love, and day after day they would return, sometimes bringing treats to eat. People who shopped at the Greenhouse fell in love with us too, and word spread to the Cathedral’s three schools. Some of the children from the Beauvoir elementary school visit us every day and bring their parents too when they come to take them home.

As the days passed and we were well fed and cared for, the five of us grew, naturally, and the hutch shrunk, or seemed to. Randy realized it was time to find a home for three of us. And he did. So one day Hansli and I said tearful goodbyes to our sisters, but Randy assured us they were going to a good home. And they did. They now live at an elementary school in Maryland. Randy regularly tells us stories about the fun they are having with the children, and he visits them and updates them on what’s happening in our lives.

Now that our sisters were gone we spread out and really started to feel officially at home. Then something happened that made us feel more accepted and loved than ever. On the evening of October 4, Will and John came running up to our hutch out of breath (we heard later they’d spent the afternoon gardening and were almost late to get us). They each picked up one of us and carried us toward the big building with the tall towers and all the way around it to the front, where we’d never been before. Lots of other people were gathered there—along with, we suddenly noticed, a lot of other animals! Jamie and Christoph brought their dog Amos, and Brandy brought her birds Mango and Buttercup, and there were lots of cats—but we were the only bunnies! What was going on?

We quickly figured out that it was the feast day of a Christian saint named Francis, who also loved animals. And every year on this day, in remembrance of St. Francis, people are invited to bring their pets to the Cathedral to be blessed. Will carried me and John carried Hansli. A kind priest touched our heads with a bough of fresh boxwood dipped in cool water. and said, “ God bless you, Sepli” and “God bless you, Hansli.” Ever since then we consider Will and John to be our godparents.

Soon after that wonderful day, something terrible happened to Hansli. We were playing and I guess I got a little rough—you know how boy bunnies can be. As soon as possible the next morning, the man who has become our greatest benefactor, Jamie, took Hansli to a doctor who knows how to help animals. The doctor said Hansli needed an operation—one that all pet bunnies need to have eventually, but Hansli needed it NOW! So Jamie, out of the kindness of his big heart, paid for Hansli’s surgery. Later that day he brought Hansli home. I felt bad about hurting Hansli, but I also felt, “Better him than me.” I didn’t realize then what was soon to be in store for me.

Surgery, even on little animals, is very expensive, and bunnies don’t have jobs where they earn money, and even people need help paying for such things. As the news about the emergency surgery spread, people from all over the Cathedral brought Jamie contributions to what became a hefty fund that more than covered the cost of both our surgeries. But more important, Jamie learned just how much people cared about us, and about him.

So that’s how we came to be at the Greenhouse and the Cathedral. We are so excited right now about the holiday everyone here is celebrating: Christmas. They say it’s to remember the birth of the son of the Creator who made all of us and everything. And it does feel like a birthday party with all of the lights and decorations and smells and smiles. We made sure that our hutch is decorated to the hilt! Don’t worry that we are outside in the cold; our fur has gotten thicker than ever; it’s like we’ve grown little boots on our feet. Please come see us so we can wish you a warm and merry Christmas too!