“Can you believe we get to go see Mr. George in Tulsa?” Wyatt hollers to his brothers across the front lawn.

“Boys remember to behave!” said the stern Voice of their Mama from the entrance to the burrow.

“Yes Ma’am,” Harvey says shyly.

See this was a special trip and weekend. Four years earlier, the bunnies met Mr. Josh for the first time in Tulsa. While it was only Dusty and Harvey, they got to play on his hat, hang out with him in the hotel, and they met lots of other great folks. A reunion of sorts and new memories were planned for this weekend. They would be staying at the same hotel they had first stayed in four years ago, they recalled all the crazy fun times they had that weekend.

As the boys hopped into their backpack for their fun trip to Oklahoma to see their buddy Mr. Josh and all the friends they have met over the years, an unsettling feeling came over Honkytonkville. Would they behave this weekend or would they decide it was time for some great adventures. As they travelled to Denver to board the plane, the conversation was fast and fun in the backpack.

“Do you think we will get to chat with Ms. Marty?” asked Dusty. “She is always so nice and friendly and I do like her so.”

“You know she has a dog now and it’s the kind that is good at hunting and such,” Harvey reminded his brother.

“I know, but if I could get up to see her it would be fantastic,” Dusty quietly said.

“Hey, I’m just looking forward to hanging out with Mr. Josh and everyone,” Harvey commented. “You know how much fun we have on trips with him. He gets us and knows what we like.”

“Okay really boys? You know we are going to see Mr. George and we haven’t done that in a while. There is rigging to check out, good times on the floor, maybe a little Codigo from the green room for our Carrot Juice cocktails, and of course, we have always wanted to see Mr. George’s bus,” Wyatt said in a voice of excitement.

“Wyatt, you promised Mama we would all behave,” Dusty said shaking his head and twitching his ear.

As the plane descended into Oklahoma City, the conversation in the backpack had quieted and the boys were wondering how to do everything they wanted and not get into trouble. “Wheels, Feet and Paws down on Oklahoma City” and the limo driven by Mr. Josh was waiting for them at the door. The evening in Bricktown with a nice dinner and great conversation seemed to be the start of a great relaxing and fun weekend.

After dinner the bunnies got to enjoy exploring Mr. Josh’s house and give their “cottontail dusting approval.” A peaceful night sleep and the group headed off to Tulsa for the “Strait Down Route 66” shows.

The afternoon passed and it was time to go to the show and see Mr. George. Once in their seats and safely in their bag to watch the show, rumblings began about what might happen that evening. As Mr. George took the stage the bunnies decided the ledge in front of the seats would be a better view. Out of the bag they hopped and sitting tall and happy they listened to “Write This Down.”

Several songs later trouble ensued, “Come on boys we’ve got to go! Just listen to the song and we need to follow those words and have some fun tonight!” Wyatt screams over the music.

The show went on and everyone was enjoying the great music and fun from Mr. George and the Ace in the Hole Band. Once the show ended, the group headed out the door to catch a ride back to the hotel. All of a sudden, the realization that the Bunnies were not there sank in. Dashing back through the doors even though the security tried to stop her, a determined and frantic keeper of the bunnies was sure she would find them back at the seat where they belonged and surely had returned.

The staff at the BOK Center was to a point helpful until the supervisor level was reached. He tried to say the bunnies were left at the hotel or our friends were playing a trick on us. Surely he knew nothing of the bunny legacy. With only a business card to the security office in hand, permission was granted to go back to security to chat with them. In doing so, this meant a trip past Mr. George’s bus and within about 30 feet of it. Little was known what would be learned later on. No luck in security, but the business card to call in the morning, and the night ended wondering if the little fellas were safe, locked up somewhere or just tossed in a trash can never to be heard from again.

Saturday morning came and phone calls were made but no sign of the little fellas. Frustrated, scared and unhappy a stiff upper lip was had to get through the day. For this show would have been the bunnies 30th Mr. George show, but they were still nowhere to be found. They were missing out on a VIP experience, better seats than Friday, and for Dusty, a great view of Ms. Marty.

If asked where the boys were that night the decision was made to say that “they weren’t behaving and didn’t get to come.” Feeling only so-so about the show, once inside the arena the excitement began to build slightly but it just wasn’t the same. With Mr. Josh’s company, we went and visited with some friends from Texas that had met the little fellas at the GSTRC on three different occasions and several shows too.

As the reunion was happening, an Oklahoma State Police Officer Juan Perez tapped me on the shoulder. Turning around and not sure what the topic or issue was, a little knot went through my throat. He asked, “You were sitting right over there last night weren’t you?” A simple nod of the head was all that could be given. “Did you lose something?” He asked.

Nervous but not wanting to get too excited I said, “Yes!” However, I wondered if I had “lost” something or if “they” had just gone for that adventure they always had to do? Mr. Josh asked the officer if this had something to do with “three little bunnies?” A smile and little nod of the head and we were about to get our answer. The officer began to retell what had become known in the arena and area as OPERATION SCAMPER.

Sitting right in front of the wall where the boys had been scoping out the arena, one of the officers thought they saw three little critters dart across the floor. Thinking it was just the heat and all the folks, lights and such he dismissed the thought. In recalling the events of the night this was about the sixth song into the set. About 3 songs later, a call came over the radio that some bunnies were causing trouble on the floor. The security force went into scramble mode to try and quickly get OPERATION SCAMPER under control. It took until the 21st song of the set for the little fellas to be caught. Sitting in the security office just a few bunny hops away from where they were found almost entering into Mr. George’s bus, the bunnies were scared, nervous, and not sure what to do.

With the security team in force, they began to question the little fellas. Why did you do it? What was the point? How did you think you could get away with it? Dusty leaned over to Wyatt and said, “Please keep your mouth shut or we will really be in trouble!”

“Well folks it was like this,” Dusty started. They had all decided he should be the spokesman since he had been interviewed many times after all his success in the Cowboy Bunny Rodeos. “We have been to 29 Mr. George shows and we just wanted to get closer to our buddies and friends. We were sitting there on the wall and Mr. George told us to come on up.”

The officers looked at the little fellas with a purely intriguing grin. “How do you mean he called you up?” Well not being able to keep his mouth shut, Wyatt broke into the 6th song on the list and tried to sing it for all.

“If there’s a plane or a bus leaving Rascal, I hope you’re on it-- If there’s a ticket to have down the floor, I hope you got it. Cause I swear UP there ain’t where you out to be-- so, grab a seat, grab a rail you know row one just fits your tail. But please just hop to it, Bunny Run.

Cut a path across the catwalk—scamper to the stage-- You can’t get here fast enough. Find a path and move on up--Lean on the chair and off the stair--Leave the ushers in the mist. To the stage I insist--So bunny run.”

Wyatt paused for a moment before continuing as he had enjoyed himself just a little too much this night until this moment. Everyone was extremely quiet and Dusty gave Wyatt a stern look as to say “shut it!”

The man in uniform who seemed to be the one in control simply said, “Okay so you thought you had an invitation to the stage. Maybe we could let you by on that. But what about the rest of what happened.” He was pointing at the film footage on the video screen.

Taking a deep breath Dusty tried to explain the rest of the evening and he knew it would be tough looking at the video screen. “Well Mr. Officer, we got onto the floor and it was the first time we had ventured out on our own. We generally stay close to The Chair because there are so many people here. We were scared and confused and knew we had to get under cover just like when we are out in Honkytonkville and the hawks are flying overhead,” Dusty paused for a sigh and another deep breath. “We darted to the stage, running into beer cups, water bottles, merchandise, and lots of cowboy boots. Once there we took refuge under the part of the stage where Mr. Mike plays the drums. He’s a good guy and we knew we’d be safe.”

The officers were all focused in on every word. Harvey thought it might be like this if they had actually killed someone but he was still soaking wet from the beer the drunk guy in row 4 had dropped on him. Running to the stage after Mr. George had asked didn’t seem to be a reason to still be in here. “Okay so you made it to the stage and then what happened?” the officer asked.

Dusty continued by saying, “We got really mad then as Mr. George was explaining how he got “Kicked out of Country.” Sighing again, Dusty continued saying, “I Cross My Heart and promise you that we were just trying to tell Mr. George radio needs to listen to his songs again and play them. However, we were having a tough time telling him because while Mr. Mike is a great guy, he sure made a lot of noise on the drums and we were getting scared so we thought we should move on.”

“Okay so this next video footage we have of you, can you explain that one?” asked the officer.

“Like I said it was louder than we thought it would be and we were scared so we scampered down the catwalk and tried to get behind the curtain where we were sure we’d find a safe quiet place for a little while,” commented Dusty. “We almost got stepped on though as we were running across the catwalk and Mr. Harvey was dancing to the music. Good thing he didn’t see us though, we heard he’s a good little hunter.” Another sigh and Dusty continued. “Once behind the curtain we were getting hungry as it had been a long day and an adventurous evening. So we thought maybe there would be some food in the Green Room. We were pretty sure there was as we’ve been in other Green Rooms just not Mr. George’s.”

“So we have reached this portion of the video footage,” pointed out the officer.

“Yes I guess we have,” said Dusty. “Mama is going to be mad about this part!! We had our bottle of Carrot Juice cocktail and were just going to get a good drink and a little snack. But Wyatt decided he wanted to try some Codigo in our cocktail. I think we had a little too much to drink officer. We had a bucket list and we were simply did a Check Yes or No on each item. We were getting more yes than no. Realizing we were Here For a Good Time, we thought wouldn’t it be great if we could get Mr. George to Take Me To Texas.” A hush fell over the room.

“Really Mr. Officer we are good bunnies and didn’t mean to cause any trouble. As Mama says though It Just Comes Natural,” and Dusty bowed his head and remained quiet.

“Okay let me get this Strait!! You had a little too much to drink, not sure if you are underage or not and we aren’t going there tonight, and you just wanted to enjoy yourself and things got out of hand,” said the officer.

“Yes sir.” Dusty replied.

“Well what would you have done if you would have gotten the door to the bus opened before we caught you?” asked another officer.

“Honestly, we would have just hopped up and waited. We probably would have taken a nap as we are tired little bunnies. We didn’t mean any harm. You know Mr. Officer we have a couple books out about our adventures and Mr. George even autographed one. So we didn’t think he’d mind," Harvey said.

As the bunnies soon learned, their adventure meant they were not going back to their seat for the rest of the show and they were going to have to do a little time in captivity to learn their lesson. Security was having a problem as they knew the little fellas wouldn’t survive in jail for any period of time. They asked the boys if they knew how to get ahold of the folks that brought them. “Mr. Officer, we don’t use telephones so we don’t know the number,” Wyatt said with a tear in his eye.

Luckily, Officer Juan Perez offered to keep the little fellas until the next night and hopefully he could help find their travel partners. However, the little bunnies would have to spend two nights as it turned out in confinement in Stillwater, Oklahoma. It was safer for the bunnies and a security recommendation to keep them away from getting into more trouble in Tulsa.

So on Sunday afternoon, Mr. Josh and I drove to Stillwater to retrieve the little bunnies. They were scared, ashamed, and worried. However, they were grateful that a true to the bone OU Sooner fan would venture into OSU Cowboy territory to pick up his little friends. Once back safely in Mr. Josh’s house they got a stern talking too. Not only did Mr. Josh help to go pick them up, but he also paid their bail. Retelling the story to us was not nearly as difficult as when they returned home to Honkytonkville and Mama was standing at the entrance to the burrow.

We will see what adventures they are allowed to do in the future. Being scared, hungry, and worried was terrible; but missing their 30th Mr. George show, not getting to see Ms. Marty for Dusty, having one heck of a bunny hangover for Wyatt, and Harvey quietly happy he got to be so close to Mr. Mike and his drums brought the weekend to a close.