📖

The Chronicles

Short fiction from the Beastly Facts universe - each series told from the animal's point of view.

🦎Dex 🐰Otis

🐰 Chronicles of Otis the Bunny

A house rabbit who is quite sure the garden - and everything in it - belongs to him. Otis is my sister's rabbit and stays with me for weeks at a time, which is where these stories come from.

A close-up portrait of a lop-eared rabbit sitting upright on a worn wooden floor, expression radiating imperious calm

Part 13 min read

The Day He Decided the Garden Belonged to Him

Follow along in this Otis the bunny story, a charming short fiction about one determined rabbit navigating the big drama hiding in very small moments.

House rabbit sitting alert and regal at the edge of a garden, surveying his territory

Part 24 min read

The Garden, the Squirrel, and the Matter of Trespassing (Part 2)

A squirrel raids Otis's garden and gets away clean, leaving him to face an uncomfortable truth: there might be a whole world beyond his fence he's never once considered.

House rabbit pressing his nose to a gap in the fence, ears sharp with anticipation

Part 36 min read

The Bark, the Gap, and the Matter of Proportion (Part 3)

Otis spends eleven days building a rival worthy of his fence line, then finds the gap in the boards and discovers the truth is a lot smaller than the legend he invented.

House rabbit airborne above his garden fence in a dream, ears back, gazing down at the rooftops below

Part 46 min read

First Flight (Part 4)

Dozing in his hutch on a hot afternoon, Otis dreams that he can fly, rising above the only garden he's ever known to see its whole shape, and the neighborhood beyond it, for the first time.

House rabbit and a self-assured hen facing off nose to beak in a farmyard, neither willing to look away first

Part 56 min read

The Trip to Somewhere New (Part 5)

Katie drives Otis to a friend's backyard farm for the first time, where he meets a hen with just as much confidence about her turf as he has about his, and learns the world beyond his fence is bigger, and considerably more crowded with self-important small animals, than he thought.

A house rabbit lounging on a sunlit rug beside a wire guinea pig travel cage, both animals sharing the same patch of afternoon light

Part 66 min read

The Guest in the House (Part 6)

When Katie agrees to pet-sit a friend's guinea pig, Otis has to share his prized sunny corner with a chattier, far more anxious houseguest than himself. It takes a piece of romaine lettuce to settle what territorial pacing alone could not.

House rabbit pressed flat and still beneath a hydrangea as a great owl's shadow slides silently across the garden grass

Part 76 min read

The Night of the Owl (Part 7)

Otis stays out past his usual hour and finally meets a danger unlike the dog, the squirrel, or the cottontail before it: a real owl, low and silent over the grass, teaching him in under two seconds that the sky is not entirely his.

House rabbit dozing beneath the hydrangea, whiskers twitching as though lost in a vast and important dream

Part 86 min read

The Great Warren Expedition (Part 8)

Otis falls asleep under the hydrangea and wakes up leading a grand expedition across his own garden turned continent, over the Sea of the Undrained and up Mount Compostia, before opening his eyes to find how small his kingdom really is.

A house rabbit wearing a small white felt flower crown sits with chin lifted and ears up in a garden, mid pose for a photograph.

Part 95 min read

The Costume (Part 9)

Katie dresses Otis in a flower crown for the neighborhood spring fair, and the house rabbit spends the whole afternoon torn between righteous indignation and undisguised delight at the attention.

A house rabbit sitting amid an endless field of moonlit clover, with dignified elder rabbits scattered across the silver green landscape under a starry sky.

Part 107 min read

The Moon Made of Clover (Part 10)

After a heavy dinner and a long afternoon guarding the garden, Otis falls asleep and dreams his way to the moon, where he discovers, to his enormous satisfaction, that the whole surface is made of unfenced clover, the best he has ever tasted.

A golden retriever puppy dropped low with its tail wagging beside a calm gray rabbit on a leash in a sunlit park.

Part 115 min read

The Day at the Park (Part 11)

Katie takes Otis to a public park for the first time, where a parade of off-leash dogs, many times his size and thrilled to meet him, forces the self-assured rabbit to figure out what territorial confidence even means in the open grass.

A small, clumsy foster rabbit tumbling into an overturned flowerpot in a garden while a larger, watchful rabbit looks on from the shade of a hydrangea bush.

Part 125 min read

The Foster (Part 12)

When Katie agrees to foster a clumsy baby rabbit for the rescue, Otis finds his meticulously defended garden invaded, and discovers, much to his own irritation, that he is better at looking after someone than he ever intended to be.

A house rabbit sitting very still in a stripe of low golden afternoon light beside a garden lettuce bed, with a leash trailing loose behind him and a hydrangea's shade just visible nearby

Part 135 min read

The First Afternoon (Part 13)

A particular slant of afternoon light sends Otis back to his very first day in the garden, back before the lettuce bed, the hydrangea's shade, and the clover along the fence line were his to claim. What he finds waiting there is not embarrassment but fondness for the smaller, uncertain rabbit he used to be.

An illustrated rabbit standing atop a city fruit stand, surrounded by a crowd of pigeons, tall buildings in the background.

Part 1414 min read

Otis Goes Downtown (Part 14)

A grocery bag full of unfamiliar city smells sends Otis into a dream where he escapes his garden entirely and discovers a whole downtown just waiting to be claimed, one fruit stand at a time.

An illustrated rabbit dressed as a pirate captain standing at the helm of a small ship, treasure map in hand.

Part 1514 min read

The Golden Carrot (Part 15)

Digging up an old coin in the garden sends Otis into a dream where he captains a pirate ship in search of the legendary Golden Carrot, and finds his oldest rival waiting for him at the very same X.

An illustrated rabbit in a cowboy hat standing in a dusty frontier street, a tumbleweed rolling past.

Part 1614 min read

High Noon at Clover Gulch (Part 16)

A hot, dry week leaves only one lush patch of clover standing in the whole garden, and Otis dreams himself into a dusty frontier town, defending it from a stranger who rides in at high noon.

📖 All Stories

Part 1 - The Sun, the Glass, and the Cricket That Got Away Part 2 - The Day Everything Changed (Part 2)Part 3 - The Rival Beyond the Glass (Part 3)Part 4 - The Twelfth Day (Part 4)Part 5 - The Pirate of the Sand Sea (Part 5)Part 6 - The Afternoon in the Grass (Part 6)Part 7 - What the Glass Was For (Part 7)Part 8 - The Dragon Who Flew (Part 8)Part 9 - The Waiting Room (Part 9)Part 10 - The Great Molt (Part 10)Part 11 - The Night He Breathed Fire (Part 11)Part 12 - The Guest Tank (Part 12)Part 13 - Gotcha Day (Part 13)Part 14 - The Long Drop (Part 14)Part 15 - The Terrarium 500 (Part 15)Part 16 - Leagues Under the Tank (Part 16)

Part 1 - The Day He Decided the Garden Belonged to Him Part 2 - The Garden, the Squirrel, and the Matter of Trespassing (Part 2)Part 3 - The Bark, the Gap, and the Matter of Proportion (Part 3)Part 4 - First Flight (Part 4)Part 5 - The Trip to Somewhere New (Part 5)Part 6 - The Guest in the House (Part 6)Part 7 - The Night of the Owl (Part 7)Part 8 - The Great Warren Expedition (Part 8)Part 9 - The Costume (Part 9)Part 10 - The Moon Made of Clover (Part 10)Part 11 - The Day at the Park (Part 11)Part 12 - The Foster (Part 12)Part 13 - The First Afternoon (Part 13)Part 14 - Otis Goes Downtown (Part 14)Part 15 - The Golden Carrot (Part 15)Part 16 - High Noon at Clover Gulch (Part 16)

📰 The Critter Digest

Care guides, husbandry deep-dives, and fun facts - the main Beastly Facts blog.

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