We set out to Motor City Fur[ry] Con late. Not for the usual reason. Usually we're late setting out because somehow when we're going somewhere we want to go for fun we're always about 15 to 30 minutes late and realize we forgot something. Especially if, to get to Opening Ceremonies, we have to leave before noon.
No, this time we were late because of our rabbit. Or not our rabbit, as Penelope was up until this very afternoon. We figured to spend the weekend in Novi, at Motor City Furry Con. It's only an hour away, but saving two hours' driving each day of the convention seemed to promise a much better time there. Turned out one of our friends, having had his hotel plans fall through, was driving two hours each way to the convention, each day. I admire his stamina but, wow.
Since we were just fostering Penelope we weren't confident that we could leave her with 
bunny_hugger's parents, and we certainly couldn't leave the rabbit unattended for two and a half days. Overnight, yes; that long, no. Not that bunny_hugger's parents aren't capable of caring for a rabbit. But the rescue had been wary of our fostering Penelope to start with, with many questions about what seem like fiddly little details like whether the rabbit could likely fit through the hole to the second level of our rabbit hutch. To throw in approval for a new place after that seemed unlikely.
So it was about two weeks after we made the drive to the rescue --- quite nearby the convention's location, conveniently --- to pick up Penelope in the first place we were driving back to return her. A taste of the parting we expected to happen another couple weeks down the line, when our planned one-month fostering would end. But the woman running the rescue wasn't going to be available before about 3 pm, and there's just nothing to do with a rabbit at a furry convention for three hours or so. No, we would not bring the rabbit into the convention hotel. Even if the hotel allowed it, we couldn't inflict that on a rabbit whom we had no reason to think liked strangers, crowds, or lots of noises.
Penelope hopped back into her cage with an enthusiasm and apparent relief that we tried not to take personally. Well, we were fostering her for the rabbit's benefit, that she could have some nice weeks of normal living, and if she was happy to be back to familiar territory then good. We would use that leap to reassure ourselves that when we did give her back she wouldn't be miserable.
And we talked with the woman who runs the rescue, partly about Penelope, partly about the other rabbits, including the one with the condition so like poor Columbo's. And talked, more. We'd have less time in the afternoon of Motor City Furry Con to actually see the convention, but I don't think we made a poor choice here. There would still be enough convention left in the weekend.
Trivia: Oxford and Cambridge established five new colleges between 1496 and 1516. Source: A World Lit Only By Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance, William Manchester.
Currently Reading: Timekeepers, Simon Garfield.
Someone Else's Homework: A Postscript, in case you worried about my friend with the questions.
PPS: Last hour at Bowcraft.
The underside of Bowcraft Amusement Park's Crossbow roller coaster, with some of the braking mechanism and some of the power gear visible underneath. Also transfer track for the other roller coaster train.
The big twisty path of Crossbow.
The packs of kids from the Hasidic school were great for the park. But they had a problem of losing their yarmulkes while on the roller coaster. The ride operator had to stop things and go off to the infield to recover lost gear so many times in just two hours.