For as long as it could remember, the little white fluffy rabbit had felt scared and timid, and al-
though the little white fluffy rabbit didn’t enjoy feeling that way it knew that feeling scared and timid
could sometimes be a very helpful thing—especially if you are a little white fluffy rabbit. If the little
rabbit heard a sudden, loud noise, he would feel scared, run like fury, and dive into the safety of his
burrow. If a sudden dark shadow fell over him, he would feel scared, run like fury, and dive into the
safety of his burrow.
One day as he was quietly drinking beside the lake there was a loud splash that sounded like
Keeer-plunk!The little white fluffy rabbit felt scared and ran like fury, but in his panic he forgot where
his burrow was and so just kept running. “Help!” he cried, to warn others. “Run! I heard a loud
Keeer-plunk. It’s after us.”
A monkey saw the little white fluffy rabbit running beneath its tree and heard it cry out in fear.
Dreading that something dangerous was about the happen, the monkey leapt from the tree and fol-
lowed the little rabbit, joining in his cry: “Help, help! Keeer-plunk. It’s coming after us.”
A deer stopped grazing as the terrified pair ran past. The deer, too, took flight, crying out, “Run,
run for your life! Keeer-plunk is coming after us.”
They fled past a hippopotamus wallowing in the mud at the side of the river, a giraffe grazing
from the tender leaves of a treetop, a rhinoceros foraging through the undergrowth, and an elephant
showering itself with water from its trunk. All joined the frightened stampede. All joined the terri-
fied chorus of screams: “Help, help! A Keeer-plunk is chasing us.”
The stampede and shouts awakened a lion who was sunbathing on a warm rock. “Stop!” roared
the king of beasts. All the animals ground to an instant standstill, more frightened of the lion than of
the Keeer-plunk. “What’s all this noise about?” asked the lion, hoping to bring some order and peace
back to his jungle.
“A mean and horrible Keeer-plunk is chasing us,” said the elephant. “The rhinoceros told me as
everyone went charging by.”
“Yes,” confirmed the rhinoceros. “The tall-necked giraffe told me as it fled with all the other an-
imals.”
“I heard it from the hippopotamus,” said the giraffe. “It must be serious for a hippopotamus to
leave his mudhole and run.”
“When I saw the deer running,” said the hippopotamus, “I knew something had to be terribly
wrong. Deer only flee when there is serious trouble, so I ran like she was.”
“It was the monkey who told me,” said the deer, looking back over her shoulder to the monkey.
“He called out that Keeer-plunk was after us and we had to flee, in a hurry.”
“Yes,” said the monkey, “I just followed the little white fluffy rabbit. He was the one who warned
me. He was running and screaming in such terror.”
“Well?” asked the lion thoughtfully as he directed his gaze toward the little white fluffy rabbit,
“where is it? Where is this Keeer-plunk? I can’t see anything. There doesn’t appear to be anything
chasing any of you.”
“It’s there,” said the little white fluffy rabbit, pointing behind him and turning to see nothing but
an empty trail. “I did hear it,” he tried to say reassuringly, but did not quite feel reassured himself. “It
frightened me. It truly did.”
“Where did you hear it?” asked the lion, kindly.
“Back by the lake,” answered the little white fluffy rabbit. And with that the lion began to lead
CHANGING BEHAVIORChanging Patterns of Behavior 87