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Ava Garrett's constant companion was Fuzzy Bunny, until he was inadvertently left behind at a Baskin Robbins earlier this month. In the early days of Bunny being MIA, 3-year-old Ava "cried hysterically," her mother says. The resilient tot appears to have moved on.

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Help! My 3 yr old daughter left her beloved stuffed bunny at Baskin Robbins on Central near Rio Grande today 10/5 between 5-6 p.m.

This plea for help from Debra Garrett arrived on Craigslist.org at 11:28 p.m. on Oct. 5.

That's probably way past bedtime of a 3-year-old little girl.

But it was that evening when little Ava Garrett discovered that "Fuzzy Bunny," her constant companion and one of the first things she has ever known, had disappeared.

Trivial? To most, probably. It's just a bunny - and a stuffed one at that.

Try telling that to a 3-year-old girl, especially one so attached to the one-time baby gift that her parents would have "bunny checks" before leaving home.

"We couldn't leave the house without Bunny," said Cliff Garrett, Ava's dad, from the living room of their home off of Rio Grande Boulevard in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque. "There were times when we would come back for Bunny."

Some kids have security blankets. Ava had a security bunny.

While one child may grow out of early attachments, another may need coaxing. Others never give up, keeping that precious piece of childhood forever: a toy bear hidden in a trunk, a baby blanket tucked under a bedroom pillow well into adulthood, an unfathomable - almost unreasonable - boyhood love of a baseball team that bubbles to the surface every October.

Little Ava Garrett may have been one of those. She might never have given up Fuzzy Bunny.

Turns out, she didn't have a choice.

. . .

It is brown and white with a few blue paint stains. Not much to look at, but it means the world to her.

Jo Whitehead, Ava's grandmother, and a friend made plans to take Ava and her brother Owen, 7, on a trip to the zoo and aquarium.

It was a beautiful day. Ava and Owen seemed to enjoy the zoo's playground. They played there for an hour. They had lunch at the aquarium.

"We thought we would top off a perfect day with some ice cream," Whitehead said.

The Baskin Robbins ice cream store at 2201 Central Ave. N.W., near Rio Grande, wasn't busy that afternoon. They were nearly the only ones there, though another little girl in the store cast a wanting eye toward Ava's bunny, her grandmother recalled.

Later that day, the family noticed that Bunny was missing. They deduced that the ice cream shop was its last known location, so Cliff was dispatched there as a search party, scanning the store's perimeter for signs of the missing plush toy.

"He did some Dumpster diving," Debra said.

The people at Baskin Robbins were as helpful as they could be. Whitehead said a manager reported that the store became busy once they left, filling with kids - one of whom might be the new owner of used, rugged-looking stuffed bunny.

Bunny is tattered. Its eyes are scratched out. It's been through the washing machine a few times.

Yet, Ava never gave up on it. She's tried other toys. She carried a teddy bear to bed a few times, Cliff says. "We had a lion for a couple days," he says.

But Fuzzy Bunny's presence was persistent.

"We had feared this day would come," Debra Garrett says.

"Of course," Grandma says, "I feel terrible."

. . .

She is very distraught. $$ offered.

As she wrote the Craigslist ad, Debra Garrett's daughter was, indeed, distraught.

"She cried hysterically," she says. "We couldn't find bunny anywhere."

Now, though, the little girl with blonde curls and a mischievous smile seems unbothered, if not a little shy.

In proving the resilience of children, Ava, less than a week after its sudden departure, says she doesn't miss her Fuzzy Bunny.

Her mother and grandmother say she sometimes asks for the bunny, saying "Grandma, can I have my Bunny back?."

Cliff says attempts to find bunny replacements on eBay or Amazon.com have been unsuccessful. No matter.

It appears Ava has moved on.

To the cat, the real kind. Not stuffed.

As I sit in the Garrett's living room, a large, orange cat is being heaved around by Ava like a heavy piece of luggage. It doesn't appear to be amused.

At Ava's feet is another companion, a stuffed dolphin.

Debra Garrett, though, would still be pleased if someone returned Fuzzy Bunny. After all, it's still a large part of her daughter's young life.

But if the bunny has found a new home, it appears that life in the Garrett household will move on.

"If somebody finds it, I'll be happy to have it back," Debra Garrett says. But "it's not the end of the world as I feared."