Benjamin, The Bunny

Reid Forgrave: Walk into Donna Toombs' apartment on the ninth floor of Plymouth Place, a retirement community in Des Moines, and you can almost feel the ghost of Benjamin the Bunny around you.

The first thing inside Toombs' door is a framed photo of Benjamin, who died earlier this month. And that's only one of a fistful of photos scattered about her place. Dozens of rabbit statues and stuffed animals adorn the apartment. There's a rabbit head cover on a golf bag, plates decorated with rabbits, a stained-glass rabbit in the window, rabbit calendars, a rabbit table runner.

Lest there be any confusion over what this story is about, let Toombs and her friend, Kay Gerhart, explain:

"This is about Benjamin," Gerhart said.