10 Adorable Animals Ready For Easter

Where Does The Easter Bunny Come From?

The exact origins of the Easter Bunny aka Peter Cottontail, are buried in obscurity but the connection to the Easter holiday  appears to lie in the fact that the rabbit is an ancient symbol of fertility and the creation of life. Historians believe that the German immigrants of the 17th century brought the idea of an egg-laying hare named Osterhase to the Pennsylvania colony, and from there it spread across the settlements  of the new republic.

 The Symbols Of Spring

 It's that time of year for cleaning out the closets, donning lighter clothing, paying taxes and planting seeds and bulbs. That proverbial harbinger of Spring, the Easter Bunny, is preparing for his annual hop along the bunny trail and into the hearts of delighted children and adults who dare to let a little magic into their lives. Sometimes, however, this old coney takes other unexpected forms as creatures (or at least  their owners) dare to imitate this adorable portent of springtime.

Our Pets And their Easter Bunny Costumes

Humans and their pets form deep bond sof love and affection but does this emotional commitment extend to wearing holiday costumes? Aye, there is the rub, or should we say costume? Whether it does or it doesn't,  solidarity demands a suspension of disbelief, and while their owners might like to think otherwise, pets really don't understand the meaning of the holidays their owners choose to celebrate. This is probably because convictions run weak in the dog world beyond the immediate need for affection and food and shelter, and of course for cats the need to please is ambivalent at best.

Our adorable furry companions below have gone the way of their beloved two-legged caretakers in developing similar temperaments and attitudes  about Easter and other affiliations far beyond sharing bones and catnip.

Dogs And Their Easter Bunny Ensembles

These adorable pooches do have something to say in their own canine way about taking on the guise of Peter ottontail, albeit without benefit of words. The "eyes" not only have it: so do the facial expressions as indicated below.

 Who wants Easter eggs? I want meat and...kibble!

Some of our costumed canines seem rather sad about the welcome of Spring and its most significant celebration, or maybe for them it's just  about the costume. Consider the temporary fate of these  three fine canines below.

 Talk to me. I have so much to tell you!

 I like Christmas better. More kibble, more toys and...no ears!

I don't like carrots! Get me outta this thing and bring me my bone!
Cats And The Easter Bunny



At least in the case of dogs, pleasing their owners might compensate for the discomfort of wearing an Easter bunny costume, but for cats, it's a whole other matter.Pleasing others is not   cat-like even though some of their antics cannot help but do so. Consider the following felines traped in Easter bunny finery and dying to be released.

There has to be a mouse in here somewhere!

Please, please please, get me outta this thing! 

I only agreed to do this because the dog won't recognize me. 

I am not an Easter bunny; I am a Persian cat. Remember and don't ever do this to me again. 

How humiliating can you get? I wonder what they did to to the bird and the dog!

We love our animals and they love us. While they might prefer to go through life without donning additional garb; au naturel, so to speak, we can't resist dressing them up and showing them off. it's like those thousands of baby pictures family members feel forced to sift through at every holiday gathering, swearing that each is more adorable than the one that came before.

Small price to pay for the smiles these creatures bring to our hearts every day that we share with them, which by the way, makes every single day a holiday in its own right.

For Some, Costumes Become Part of Boston Training Tradition

Runners with CharityTeams gather for long runs in variety of outfits.

The forecast called for rain on the day she planned her 21-mile Boston Marathon training run. But Katie Horan wasn’t concerned about blisters or wet clothes.

She was worried that her ears would droop.

Horan is one of hundreds of runners creating a new tradition as they train for Boston and other marathons: Making the miles pass more quickly by dressing up in costume.

The theme for Saturday’s long run on the Boston Marathon course: Easter.

“It makes those really long runs a little bit more fun,” said the bunny-eared Horan. “Everybody is more worried about their costume than, ‘We’re going to run 17 miles.’ ”

On Superhero Day, a 17-mile training run on the Boston Marathon course earlier this month, Horan wore a pink Power Ranger getup.

As it turned out, “Hop-21 Day” — a play on the distance, the Easter thing, and the starting point for the training run, and the Boston Marathon, in Hopkinton — was a clear and balmy day (by Boston standards), with temperatures in mid-40s.

Successive waves of bouncing bunny ears and Easter bonnets appeared on the horizon as runners arrived, sipping sports drinks and adjusting Easter baskets filled with lightweight plastic eggs.

“I’m a worrywart. Instead of focusing on, I now have 20 miles ahead of me, or 18 miles, I just think about my costume,” said one runner, Trish Winton, as a friend pinned on her tail.

The costume runs were the idea of Susan Hurley, founder of CharityTeams, a consulting firm that helps charities organize and train their fundraising runners for Boston, New York, and other marathons.

“To make it a little bit more fun on a 21-mile training run, which can be very nerve-wracking for beginners, we wanted to take the focus off some of the other things they might worry about,” said Hurley.

“Sometimes dressing in costume or keeping it lighthearted will eliminate some of that stress of doing those 21 miles.”

Hurley herself arrived for Hop-21 Day dressed as a Playboy bunny, complete with fishnet stockings and bowtie.

“Where are your ears?” she asked runners who dared to arrive bareheaded. “Do you need some ears?”

The need for support like this is tied to the broadening appeal of distance running, Hurley said.

“Running has changed. It’s become so much more mainstream, with so many people now participating, and just the average person getting involved,” she said. “So I come in and work with the runners and put together a program that builds camaraderie and team spirit, and the fundraising becomes very successful because you’re creating a community of people.”

In fact, one participant, Patrick McMahon, said that when he trains alone for fall marathons, without the group and its costume days and other stunts, “It’s a lot more difficult to stay dedicated to this process.”

This year, when the New England Patriots were in the playoffs, the training-run uniform was Pats paraphernalia. Runners wore Hawaiian shirts when the temperature finally climbed above freezing. And there was a lot of green on St. Patrick’s Day weekend.

But it was Superhero Day that got the most attention, unleashing some 200 runners on the marathon course from Natick to Copley Square dressed as Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, and a chain gang of arch villains. (Hurley came as Batwoman, and her boyfriend surprised her by flying in from Baltimore, dressing up as Batman, and running out of the woods in Natick.)

First-time marathoner Peter Riddle was already learning that running is a surprisingly expensive sport, and said he’s now dropped $300 on unanticipated purchases of everything from a wig to a pink tutu.

“All of this costume stuff, you spend a fortune,” Riddle said.

It’s worth it, he said.

“I’m not a shy person at all, but I am when it comes to Halloween and dressing up. I thought, 'I’m not doing that.' But you’re running together as a team, and everybody’s doing crazy, kooky things to get everyone’s attention to fundraise or ignore an injury or ignore some of the emotional stuff that’s going on with this year’s marathon,” said Riddle, who, yes, dressed as the Riddler for Superhero Day. “I had to. D’uh, I’m the Riddler.”

It seems to work. Last year, Hurley’s CharityTeams runners raised a collective $1.6 million. This year, the 318 people in the program have collectively passed $2 million.

Of course, dressing in costume for long runs can be uncomfortable. Having done it last year, Winton knew this year to get her Spider-Woman costume one size too big so she could layer on warm clothes underneath.

But that will make the marathon itself — for which they’ll wear mundane, standard lightweight tech gear — seem that much easier, many of the runners said.

“If I’m running with props in training runs, all I can think is, ‘I’m going to have to carry this the whole way,’” said Horan. “But when Marathon Monday comes, it will be great.”

Riddle, as the Riddler, dragged along a cane.

“The first few miles, it’s not a big deal,” he said. “By the time you get to Heartbreak Hill, it gets really heavy. But it teaches you about of all these obstacles. You keep at it and keep with it and alternate and adjust whatever you have to do to carry that cane all the way to the end.”

By betting fellow runners he could do that, Riddle said he raised another $400.

Besides, he said, “If I can run 21 miles in this costume, I can run 26 miles carrying nothing.”

As more and more runners show up wearing costumes, Bostonians who see them pass have started to become accustomed to them.

“Regular runners kind of give you the head nod, a little wave. People on the streets that aren’t runners look a little quizzical. I can only imagine what’s going through the heads,” said McMahon.

“The reaction is really awesome,” Riddle said. “I’m probably in the middle of the pack in terms of pace, and so you end up running down Beacon Street alone. It’s the people in the cars or on the sidewalks who look at you like, ‘What the hell are you doing in this all-green costume with orange hair.’ You feel like an idiot.”

But he added: “If I can run down Beacon Street looking like an idiot, I can do anything.”

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