Bunkees!

One evening, deep in the twilight forest, a baby monkee was born. He had a perfect monkee nose, and perfect monkee ears. His little monkee eyes were bright as a could be, and he grasped for everything he could reach with his little monkee fingers.

Unfortunately, everything wasn’t exactly perfect, though. His mother soon realised that despite her best efforts, her little baby would not eat bananas. Nope! No way! He detested them! Yuck! Bleck! This made her very worried because as you know, ALL MONKEES LOVE BANANAS!

Every day the monkee mum would try to tempt her little boy with banana treats of the best kind, but he wouldn’t eat any of them.

She finally decided she would have to try and get him to eat something else. She picked some marvelous mangos from a nearby tree, but he turned his nose up at those. She gave him oodles of oranges, purple potatoes, tiny tomatoes, and plump, perfect pumpkins, but he didn’t like any of them. Her little monkey baby was starting to get a bit skinny.

Finally, sitting up on a tall tree branch, holding onto her baby and just about out of ideas, she noticed a patch of green way over in a field. Mummy monkee crawled down, and hurried over to the place. She pulled on one of the stalks and — POP! — a lovely orange carrot came out of the ground. Hmmmmmm, she thought. It was a funny colour, but it smelled okay. She gave it to her baby.

Baby monkee wrapped his little fingers round the carrot and ate the whole thing in no time at all! Nummy! Yummy!

From that day on, all that little monkee would eat were lovely juicy carrots, fresh from the ground. Mummy monkee thought this was funny. One of her monkee friends had told her that carrots were a thing that ONLY BUNNIES LOVED. Well, that was all well and good, but her little baby like them, and she nicknamed her son ‘Bunkee’.

Bunkee was quite a happy little monkee, except for one thing. All the other monkee’s made fun of him because — you guessed it — he didn’t like bananas. They called him names like ‘Crazy Carrot Chimp’ and ‘Bunkee Dumb Bum.’ Of course, this made little Bunkee sad. He couldn’t help it if he like carrots instead of bananas.

One day Bunkee was wandering through the jungle feeling very sorry for himself when he came upon a little furry animal munching happily on a carrot. Since Bunkee had never actually seen a rabbit before, he wondered why this animal also liked carrots. So, being a friendly sort of monkee, he skipped right up to the rabbit.

“Hi! I’m Bunkie! I like carrots too!”‘ he said to the munching bunny. The rabbit stopped crunching for a minute and looked up at him. “Well if you really like carrots, I have plenty to share. My name is Briar the Bunny.”

Bunkee and Briar became fast friends — they played in the forest and ate lots of carrots together. Bunkee told Briar about the other monkees and how they made fun of him because he didn’t like bananas.

“I wish I wasn’t a monkee! I wish I had been born a rabbit!” Bunkee sobbed. Briar felt sad for his new friend, and that night when his mum was tucking him up in his little bark bed, he told her about his new friend.

“I wish I could do something to make Bunkee feel better,” he said, yawning.

“I have an idea,” said his mum. “You go to sleep, and maybe things will be a little different tomorrow.”

The next day Briar could hardly wait for Bunkee to come swinging through the trees.

When Bunkee found Briar in the carrot clearing, he notice that the bunny had something behind his back.

“What have you got?” Bunkee asked.

Briar replied, “It’s a friendship present from me to you!”

He handed Bunkee a soft white bundle. Bunkee opened the bundle up and unfolded the soft cloth. His eyes brightened with delight! Briar’s mum had made him a bunny suit! He could be a bunny now!

It was soft and white and had the longest, floppiest ears with delicate pink insides. A HUGE grin swept across little Bunkee’s face. He jumped right into the beautiful bunny suit, squeezing his monkee ears into the hood and wiggling his head around so his brand new bunny ears would bounce in the sun. Now he felt like he really belonged in the world!

Bunkee and Briar spent a delightful day together in the forest, and when it came time to go home little Bunkee asked Briar to thank his mum so very much for the gift!

Hopping hopefully through the trees he suddenly stopped! Up in a clearing ahead were those monkees who always made fun of him. He was about to take off the bunny suit when he heard a shout.

“HEY — WHO IS THAT OVER THERE?”

The shouter was Thumpy Monkee, one of the biggest of the group. He came bounding up to where Bunkee sat. Thumpy wasn’t very nice and Bunkee was afraid that Thumpy would toss him and his new bunny suit up into the swamp. Thumpy liked tossing people into the swamp. But — Thumpy looked a bit puzzled this time. He twisted his head this way and that, scratched his ears and scratched his armpits. He squinted his eyes at Bunkee, then rubbed them a little, then blinked a few times. Bunkee prepared himself to get tossed.

And then something peculiar happened.

Very slowly, the biggest grin you ever saw on a monkee started spreading across Thumpy’s face! The grin turned into a giggle, that turned into a laugh, and that turned into a HOWL! He fell to the floor and rolled around clutching his monkee tummy as he laughed and laughed.

Bunkee didn’t know what to do — the other monkees were coming to see what all the commotion was about. He knew if he tried to run away he’d be in even more trouble. As the clan gathered around Bunkee and Thumpy, smiles and the laughter spread like a wave through the monkee tribe. Some of the smaller monkees crept forward and touched Bunkee’s soft bunny suit. They petted his ears, they poked at his nose, and they giggled when Bunkee made a funny, bunny sniffing sound.

Then, one little monkee asked, “Where did you get that suit? I want one too!”

For the first time in his life, Bunkee felt at home with the other monkees in his part of the forest.

One by one, the monkees chimed in — Chunky Monkee decided he’d like a blue suit. Funky Monkee asked if they came in banana yellow. Lunky Monkee asked if the extra set of ears would help him hear a bit better. And Thumpy — Thumpy asked if they came in bigger sizes (Thumpy was a very hunky monkee).

Bunkee’s little heart was nearly bursting with joy. He realised that being different isn’t a bad thing at all. As long as you are true to yourself, being different can be a very good thing indeed!

From that day on Bunkee was proud to be a monkee who ate carrots– and now he had friends who were also bunkees! Oh, what a sight it was to see bunny-monkees flying through the trees and hopping through the forest! They were a pretty strange bunch, but they were happy, and that’s what counts!

Each Bunkee is unique, they are all handmade by me from glass. All Bunkees are digitally annealed to ensure their strength, they are then lightly etched making their cheeks almost pinchable, finally they are scrubbed clean so that they don’t smell of the jungle.
Bunkees are designed to be easily strung on cord or leather. They are not recommended for children because of course they are made of glass.

BUNKEES ARE AVAILABLE AROUND EASTER TIME.
The Story of Bunkee the Monkee, copyright, Louise Ingram 2009