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HOPPY EASTER
A concerned Andrew Carter slammed into the Five-O offices, worry, serious worry etching deep lines on his boyish face. "He's gone! He disappeared! I only turned my back for a minute! You've got to help me find him before . . . before . . ." Carter stopped as a dozen unthinkable possibilities swam through his mind at warp ten.
"Who's gone, Bruddah?" Kono offered the distraught man a macadamia-pineapple muffin. That always made him feel better.
"Toby picked the lock on his cage again? You know he likes to get out on his own now and then, but he always comes home." Danny handed the pharmacist a cup of coffee to go with the muffin.
"Toby's home. We were coloring Easter eggs and he had a little accident with the dye. He's too embarrassed to show his face in public."
Danny tried not to laugh at the thought of a multi-colored cockatoo. He mustered as much sympathy as he could as he asked, "Who's missing?"
"Hasenpfeffer."
Kono looked blank. This was a new one. "Hasen . . . who? I thought he was in San Francisco.
"Not Haseejian," Carter corrected, "Hasenpfeffer. My pet rabbit. He's supposed to be the Easter Bunny at the Governor's egg hunt on Monday.
"So where did you see him last?" Chin Ho joined the conversation. Anything to keep the excitable Andrew Carter from going to pieces. The man's love of animals was legendary. Chin had lost count of the number of stories he'd heard about Carter's pet mouse Felix back at Stalag 13.
A slightly calmer Carter began, "I wanted to introduce him to you. He likes to meet new people and since you're providing security for the egg hunt, I wanted him to know you'd be watching out for him. He's a sweet white rabbit and he loves people. Someone must have kidnapped him!"
"How'd you lose him, Bruddah?"
"I thought he'd like a little snack, so I put him down on the grass so he could hop around and get to know the area. He just disappeared."
Danny rubbed the bridge of his nose. Half-a-dozen serious cases on their plate and now they were expected to track down the Easter Bunny? Good thing Steve was at a meeting with John Manicote. This could push the McGarrett volcano into the eruption stage. The Boss wasn't especially fond of animals.
The sound of footsteps in the corridor alerted the men to McGarrett's arrival. Dan winked at Carter. "Let me handle this, Bruddah." Carter was only too glad to let him.
"Steve," Danny began, He stopped short as he say what McGarrett was carrying: a large white rabbit.
"Hasenpfeffer!" A delighted Carter reached for the wriggling critter, saving McGarrett's jacket from a ripped sleeve as the bunny kicked his way to freedom and jumped right into Kono's arms. The big Hawaiian secured his hold on the animal and scritched the now content rabbit behind the ears.
"Had one of dese when I was just a keiki," he explained. "Followed me around just like a puppy. What you gonna do with him after da egg hunt?"
"Well, I was going to find him a home. Toby was getting jealous."
"I'll take him," Chin volunteered. "Tilda's been hinting that she'd like a pet." He glanced at his Boss. "And he'll stay home. He'd be too much of a distraction here."
Steve, watching Kono play with the contented rabbit, could only agree.
o-o-o-o-o
The original Hasenpfeffer was Carter's pet rabbit in the Hogan's Heroes episode "Klink vs. the Gonculator." Hasenpfeffer is also a kind of rabbit stew. And no, Carter would never let anyone harm one of his pets!
