Tatty Ratty is lost...

...and that's a complete disaster.
I took this picture of what Amelie calls 'my little baby rabbit' and what I call 'that damn yellow vermin' a few days ago, in preparation for writing a post about him. I was going to complain about how he was always lying about, reeking of stale dribble, how sometimes it was apparently 'Tatty Ratty' who was being naughty (and not Amelie, oh no), and how, on at least 3 occasions every week, he couln't be found at bedtime, causing no end of upset...all because Amelie adores him: more than anything else in the world, it's this nasty 5 inch high rabbit from a Chinese sweatshop, that came free with an Easter egg, that is her biggest and best treasure.
That was what I was going to write about, but events have overtaken us: just like the literary creation he is named after (in this book), Tatty Ratty is gone, and is nowhere to be found...
Unlike his previous frequent domestic disappearances, this time he has gone walkabout outside the house: sometime on Friday, on the walk back from nursery, Amelie left him somewhere (and it could be anywhere) in town. Seeing as she walked home with her Mum via the High street, through the park and along the canal, the chances of him being found (Note that we haven't actually had a chance to look for him yet, and it's 3 days of torrential rain later) are excessively slim to non-existant: the smart money is on him having been dropkicked into the canal, or 'tidied' away into a litter bin (I mean, look at him - you'd bin him if you found him on the street, wouldn't you? He looks like a dogs chew toy...)
He is, (of course) irreplaceable: we can't remember who bought him, or where from, and a fairly exhaustive Google and Ebay search finds only shabby substitutes. Fortunately, in the book (which was written about exactly this scenario) his namesakes absence is explained by him going off a series of adventures, during which he gets his buttons back, his ears straightened and his fur made shiny and clean - so that when he finally returns looking 'like new' (i.e is repurchased from the 'World of Bunny' superstore) it is easily explained away.
So we have a deadline - maybe a week or so - in which to find the old one, or source a suitable replacement ("Yes, Ami, he's been to the moon! That's why he has, er, changed colour!") or hope she somehow forgets him...
If not: Bunny apocalypse, just in time for Easter.