Toy bunny saved from oncoming train

A stuffed toy bunny escaped dismemberment Wednesday when transport workers in Boston halted an oncoming train.

Nummy, right, "somehow jumped" out of 3-year-old owner Roozle's stroller at Green Street station in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood, according to a blog post written by Roozle's mom, Casey Carey-Brown. Carey-Brown found a nearby rail guard, who informed colleagues that something was on the tracks. By the time the distraught youngster and her mom got back to the train platform, all was well.

"The conductor of the next train, in the middle of rush hour, had stopped the train, picked Nummy up and put her back on the platform for us," wrote Carey-Brown. "MBTA, you really didn’t have to do what you did today, but you have made a little three year old incredibly happy."

The Day the MBTA Saved a Bunny and a Little Girl’s Heart [Life with Roozle]

⟿ Follow Rob Beschizza on Twitter.

MORE: Entertainment

More at Boing Boing

Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

brerrabbit23

Aw, jeez. :D
fuzzyfuzzyfungus

In other news, Nummy is now wanted for questioning by the TSA in connection with investigation into covert attempts to disrupt critical American transport networks…
- awjt
  
  Exactly my thought… they stopped the train for the stuffed bunny, but they stopped it on a little black boy.
LaylaSV

Huh. I realize I have a cold crypt where my heart should be but this seems like a silly waste of resources. Granted it made one three year old very happy but it could equally have been one three year old’s very teachable moment; don’t throw your shit on the tracks.
- http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza
  
  Pretty much anything on the tracks is a potential transit disaster. It’s got to be taken off, which means the train’s stopping short anyway, which means they may as well be cool about it.
  
  Perhaps it’s like kitten rescues and fire departments: useful training for the day it’s a child.
  - fuzzyfuzzyfungus
    
    There is certainly room enough for junk to (most of the time) hang around harmlessly down in the track areas; but the MBTA trains are electrically powered, and with the combination of vibration at the contacts and serious amperage at play sparking at track level isn’t uncommon.
    
    It is my understanding that, for this reason, HQ takes a very dim view of potential flammables building up down there.
- TheMadLibrarian
  
  Knuffle Bunny!!! :)
  I doubt that this was a calculated ploy on the part of the kid. Sometimes they just lose their grip on things.
- Barry
  
  I think *maybe* the conductor had a better reason to clear the track than to simply return a stuffed bunny. I would hope that any foreign object on the rails would garner such attention regardless of any apparent harmlessness.
  
  At any rate, it makes for a good story.
  - http://jere7my.livejournal.com jere7my
    
    Barry has it right. Anything flammable that lands on the tracks — a plastic bag, a stuffed bunny — needs to get cleared before it catches fire. The MBTA ran PSA announcements about exactly that for a while last year. If something catches fire on the track, power will be cut to the whole line, the station will be evacuated, and everybody’s commute will get a whole lot worse.
    
    Clearing the bunny was the right call.
- Ramone
  
  Can’t we have our rescued fuzzy bunny story without the cold, cruel “teachable” world seeping in?
Susan Carley Oliver

Concern troll in -3, -2, -1 . . .

Seriously, though – one person’s silly waste of resources can also be another agency’s priceless marketing coup. The city of Boston and its transit system just got a big credit in the hearts and minds of many readers, which is always helpful in mitigating past grievances like the ATHF Terror Scare of 2007.
- SamSam
  
  Are you kidding?? You don’t live in Boston, or if you do you you aren’t a commuter.
  
  1.3 million MBTA riders just saw this article and raged. A train stopped yet again, and for some wretched kid?
  - Bart
    
    I’ve lived in Boston for 40 years, and rode the T daily for 5+ years and this is quite possibly the first time I’ve ever heard a story of the MBTA doing something right or good.
  - http://arib.livejournal.com Ari B.
    
    I take the T to work every day, and I grinned like a loon when I read this yesterday.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Yeah, but Charlie’s furious that the little girl got preferential treatment.
xzzy

I guarantee there was someone on that train who was late to a meeting or missed some a connection or some other time-sensitive activity because the train stopped.
But that’s cool, a little 3 year old who has problems holding on to shit didn’t have to watch her stuffed animal get splattered.
- fuzzyfuzzyfungus
  
  But was that inconvenienced person cute enough drive a human interest story?
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I guarantee there was someone on that train who was late to a meeting or missed some a connection or some other time-sensitive activity because the train stopped.
  
  In Jamaica Plain?
- http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza
  
  Your resentment feeds my laughter.
- ChicagoD
  
  Yes. When I have an incredibly time-sensitive issue that absolutely cannot be delayed in any way I take public transit. Especially with no margin for delay.
  
  Sheesh.
- Bart
  
  Anyone who rides the Orange line and expects the train to arrive on time deserves to be late for their very time-sensitive activity.
  - wysinwyg
    
    Weird, I’ve never had to wait more than 10 minutes for an orange line train and never experienced any significant delays taking the orange line. I’ve long thought of it as the most dependable subway line in Boston.
    - Bart
      
      That’s good news. I used to take it to/ from Back Bay station a number of years ago and it seemed like I would stand there for a fairly long period of time (longer than the red line) and they you’d get 2 or 3 trains in a row coming through.
    - http://arib.livejournal.com Ari B.
      
      When I took the Orange Line regularly for work, I was working third shift, and going the opposite direction of rush hour traffic. The Orange Line was *awful* in that respect. That said, I always got a seat, and occasionally got a whole car to myself.
- elix
  
  Well, here’s the thing. According to jere7my (and others, I’m combining facts), the trains are electric and run at high voltage. Anything flammable near or on the tracks is an incredible danger. To quote jere7my:
  
  If something catches fire on the track, power will be cut to the whole line, the station will be evacuated, and everybody’s commute will get a whole lot worse.
  
  Your assumed missed-connection person would’ve missed a LOT more if they’d left the bunny there and something went wrong.
Robert Cruickshank

If Calvin had dropped Hobbes on the track, y’all would be fighting to be the one to pull the cord. Roozle and Nummy deserve no less.
BrotherPower

A publicity stunt, eh? Oh god, I hope the Imperial Stars see this story. And when it’s them on the tracks next time, I hope the ending’s different.
http://celesteagnes.blogspot.com/ Sekino

Nummy really looks happy about this. I still have my very first, favorite stuffed animal- creatively named ‘Puffin’- safely in a box somewhere… So I’m glad this little girl’s bunny survived ;)
Cat Chew

A little judiciously applied duct tape could have prevented this delightful foofaraw, but then I’d still have my scowly puss on.
http://twitter.com/sirkowski Sirkowski

Feels good, man.
wysinwyg

…And then the next train on the line had to stop, and then the next one back up the E line all the way to Copley, and then rippling back through the outbound side of the green line all the way back to park street, where MBTA officials had to hold trains for B, C, D, and E lines (so not just trains to JP, but trains all over the back bay, Brookline, Newton, and Allston/Brighton) for an extra 20 to 30 minutes at rush hour to alleviate the sudden congestion.

Thanks, kid.
- http://arib.livejournal.com Ari B.
  
  This was the orange line which is a one route subway, not the green line, which is a four route trolley. If the kid had dropped the thing on the green line, her parent could have just walked over to it and picked it up.
  
  Relax, friend.
  - wysinwyg
    
    Someone mentioned Green St, whichI mistakenly thought is a green line stop not an orange line stop. And anyway, I was just funnin’. IN all seriousness I prefer T operators stop and investigate strange objects on the tracks instead of just motoring over them.
    
    Maybe you need to relax?
    
    I’d also highly recommend NOT picking up stuff off the trolley tracks when there’s a train on the way.
bcsizemo

Welcome to the BoingBoing comment section, were we love kittens and hate children.
- chenille
  
  After all, not only did the child hold up the train and make important people late, but she started creating a scene. It’s really the parents’ fault; until the girl learns how to behave on transit, she really shouldn’t go anywhere near it. I’m sure there’s never a good reason why you would want to take a three year old out in public.
  
  I think some people had one too many of their own bunnies torn apart.
- LaylaSV
  
  I wouldn’t go that far. It’s a stuffed bunny. No one is suggesting that the train shouldn’t be stopped if an actual child were on the tracks. But neither should the ephemeral wants of a three year old grind a whole subway line to a halt.
  - elix
    
    According to jere7my and others further up the page, it’s actually a severe fire hazard since the Orange Line is high-voltage electric, and if it hadn’t been removed, there may have been a full line stop and an evacuation of the station.
    
    Unless other people here are lying, the MBTA stops for anything on the tracks, alive or not.
- Beanolini
  
  we love kittens and hate children.
  
  Just for the record, I hate kittens too.
Mike Guerrero

“Roozle?”

“Roozle.”

“Roo-zle”

“Roozle?”

a la Bugs Bunny dealing with Hansel’s name from “Bewitched Bunny”.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/MTWST7SPC363Z2X5RO7CZ5ZSBE Kate Hagerty
  
  While I enjoy your conjuring up one of my favorite Bugs Bunny moments, its just a nickname her parents call her by.
- elix
  
  Mommybloggers (and other family-type bloggers, like fathers) tend to give their children nicknames so they can refer to them in posts without giving away their child’s name to the entire Internet. I was confused at first as to why the name was showing up in the story, and then I saw that the link (the blog post title) contained the name and it clicked.
catacoma

Directed at a few commenters above, I hope I never become so bitter and jaded about my life and commute that I forget what it was like to be a child whose best friend was a stuffed animal.
Snowbear meant the world to me when I was three years old.
http://twitter.com/chrisjimson chris jimson

There are those of us in the neighborhood that refer to JP as “Jamaica Paradise.”
lillyd

Nummy? That’s not Nummy. That’s my daughter’s Bun-bun! How’d that little girl get Bun-bun? Bun-bun #2 (the back-up Bun-bun) did go rogue two weeks ago…somebody call this little girl in for questioning!

But keep it on the down low. I can’t let my find out daughter about this.
- Culturedropout
  
  20 years from now your daughter is going to be reading a collection of antique BoingBoing posts and be devastated. You know that, right? “I wonder what else mom _lied_ to me about…? “ The cost of those therapy sessions is coming straight out of your assisted living payments…
  - Culturedropout
    
    And thank you, BB, for thoughtfully closing the sniffs and waahs that I thoughtlessly left open. *sigh*
    - http://boingboing.net/ Rob Beschizza
      
      haha, did it really do that? That would presumably be a DISQUS feature.
  - lillyd
    
    She’s bound to be onto us already. In fact, I was thinking that Bun-bun #2 went rogue just after I told her a story about how Bun-bun had a twin named Bon-bon. Surely she’s noticed that #1 looks like he’s spent a week in a rock tumbler (the stress of being a toddler’s best friend) while Rogue looks like he’s been at ClubMed.
http://web.ncf.ca/shawnhcorey/ Shawn H Corey

I don’t see what the story is. Anything on the tracks is caused to stop a train. They don’t take chances; nothing proceeds until the tracks are clear.
http://arib.livejournal.com Ari B.

What I really like about the story is that the coverage on boston.com barely even touch on the fact that Roozle has two mommies. Aside from the quote:

“Casey Carey-Brown, 33, wrote about the ordeal on her blog ‘Life with Roozle,’ which chronicles the lives of herself, her wife Michelle, 38, and – the star of the website – their daughter Riley, whose nickname is Roozle.”

It’s nice that it’s a non-issue, IMO.
Rob Butler

I’m surprised they didn’t charge the kid with creating a bomb hoax.
travtastic

But what about all the important meetings we all just missed, our executive decisions to hand down, our nuclear weapons to disarm?

Every moment of our lives is serious business. Children have no place here. Joy, my god, has no place here.
Kayjayoh

It is a subway train, though at Green St it is running above ground.
Antinous / Moderator

Yeah, this would have been confusing for the driver because it was smaller than a passed-out drunk, the usual object on the tracks.
Michael Ellis Day

Which also happened in Boston today.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1061137427