Bunny the rabbit reunited with owner in Derry after epic adventure

Matthew lives in Manchester but he was flying to Derry on Wednesday, August 17, with his mum Fiona and his three year old brother Oisin to visit their grandparents. On the flight with them, they brought a suitcase of clothes and another red suitcase containing nothing but Bunny, a very special rabbit.

Fiona, who is from Derry, said: “When I found out I was pregnant with Matthew, me and my husband Paul went on a trip to Dublin to celebrate. I told Paul I wanted to go into Brown Thomas and buy the baby something really special. I didn’t even know if I was having a boy or a girl at this stage but I went into Brown Thomas and I saw this Bunny on the shelf. That was the first thing that I bought for Matthew. He’ll be six in September and Bunny has not left his side since the day he was born. Bunny sleeps with him, eats at the dinner table, he comes in the car for the school run, he’s another family member. When I told my husband that we lost the suitcase, my husband said he would rather we lost a full suitcase of clothes than the suitcase with Bunny, that’s how special he is.

“My mum and dad were visiting us in Manchester for a few days and they flew back with me and the boys on Wednesday. I had the empty suitcase because, when I come home, I like to get a ‘haul’ of clothes, school uniforms and things that I can’t get in Manchester. I decided to put Bunny in the empty suitcase and my biggest regret now is not letting Matthew have him on the plane. 
“We arrived in City of Derry Airport and there was no sign of the red suitcase. Matthew was constantly asking for Bunny and I got upset at the airport because I didn’t know what we would do if we lost Bunny. Desperation set in and I got on social media, posting about Bunny. A lot of my friends know how special Bunny is so they were retweeting it and Matthew’s teacher in school even shared it. We were relying heavily on the staff in City of Derry Airport to try and track it down. On Thursday afternoon, I got a call from Judith Cassidy at City of Derry Airport and the first thing I said was ‘have you got some good news?’ She told me that they found Bunny and that was the best news! At this point, the suitcase was still in Manchester so we decided not to tell Matthew until Bunny was in our arms. I phoned City of Derry Airport on Friday and it was an old Thornhill friend of mines, Laura Lynch, who answered. Laura told me they had Bunny and were going to send him over in a taxi.

“It was like Christmas for Matthew when we got Bunny back! We were telling him that Bunny had decided to go on holidays but he changed his mind when he got to the airport and came back to Derry instead to Matthew. We told him he was on a right adventure! I can safely say now, though, that Bunny is never again going into a suitcase or leaving our sight!

“The staff in City of Derry Airport were absolutely amazing. They took all my details and gave me a phone number to call directly if I hadn’t heard from them and things. They phoned me the next day to say they found him and they were just absolutely brilliant. But sure, all Derry people are brilliant!”