I know, I know, News of the Week is a Friday thing, not a Saturday one. Saturday is for Funny Stuff My Daughter Says.

What can I say? Yesterday got away from me, and as it’s a three-day weekend, I decided to pretend today is Friday and Monday Saturday. Got that?

Farewell to the Bunnies

Last week we bid a tearful goodbye to most of the wonderful Dedham bunnies at the Farewell to the Rabbits Open House at the First Church in Dedham. While The Five-Year-Old had her face painted and Daddyo got some last minute pictures of the rabbits,  Mommyo slyly acquired a set of miniature bunny replicas (shhh! Don’t tell The Five-Year-Old, she’s getting them for Christmas).

We also had a chance to say hello to Martha Taylor, SarahJane Cassie, Cathy Gruetzke-Blais, Susan Hoy, Mike Glowacki, Jill Barry, Big Bunny Rescue Rabbit, and Monika Wilkinson and Jennifer Barsamian of Dedham Shines.

Of course what you really want to know is, what’s going to happen to the bunnies? Leroy the Peace Rabbit will stay in town (location TBD). Ellen Dockham of Dedham won the raffle for the Bengal Bunny. The other thirteen were auctioned off online. The auction raised $42,639, which Dedham Shines plans to use to foster future art projects in Dedham.

More news about the Rabbit Farewell:

• Dedham says goodbye to giant rabbits (Dedham Transcript)
• The Urban Pantheist takes his puppy to meet the rabbits (Urban Pantheist)

WWII carrier pigeon found in chimney

From long-time friend and Caterpickles reader David Bowles comes word that David Martin of Surrey uncovered the skeleton of a WWII carrier pigeon while renovating his chimney. Even better, it had a coded message still attached. The message has been sent to code breakers at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire and GCHQ in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Rubber chicken becomes NASA celebrity

This week The Five-Year-Old’s Aunt Victoria introduced us to Camilla Corona, NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory’s Mission Mascot and rubber chicken. So far Camilla has taken five hot air balloon trips to the uppermost levels of the atmosphere, tagged along when astronauts flew a rolling NASA T-38 Talon, and gotten lots of attention at space-related conferences around the world.

Other stories that caught our eye this week:

• Stranded photographer survives for year on penguin steaks (Slate)
• Why we still have a landline (GeekMom)
• Buckyballs banned (GeekMom)
• Spade-toothed beaked whales spotted for first time in New Zealand (Huffington Post)

What have you been reading about?