Bunny's tale has happy ending

It's still a hare-scratching tale, but the show rabbit snatched from the Puyallup fairgrounds Sunday has been recovered safe and sound.

For now, the mystery surrounding who took "RJ," an orange Netherland Dwarf rabbit, remains just that.

RJ was discovered Friday afternoon in a box left in the yard of a Puyallup School District building.

Steven Warren, a school district groundskeeper, spotted the box about 2:30 p.m., fair spokeswoman Karen LaFlamme said. "Out jumped RJ as he moved the box," she said.

Someone had placed vegetables and water in the box with the rabbit, which was in good condition.

RJ belongs to 13-year-old Stefan Johnson, a member of the Bunny Bunch 4-H club in Vancouver.

The rabbit, which had earlier won a ribbon, had been missing from the Western Washington State Fair since Sunday, when someone cut the zip ties holding the cage shut and apparently nabbed the small animal.

A police report was made, but there wasn't enough information available for a detective to take on the case, Puyallup police spokeswoman Lorri Ericson said.

There are no leads about who took the rabbit, or how it ended up near the school district's office in downtown Puyallup near Maplewood Elementary School.

But though police didn't have much to look for, fair workers were on the alert for the rabbit.

School district staff saw the letters "RJ" tattooed in the rabbit's ear, recognized the name from media reports and called the police.

Johnson and RJ will be reunited Saturday, LaFlamme said.

FAIR HOURS

The Western Washington Sate Fair runs through Sunday. Gates open at 10 a.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. Sunday. For more information, visit thefair.com or call the 24-hour hot line: 253-841-5045.