Michael Browning hops into action as the Easter Bunny

COEUR d’ALENE — Michael Browning remembers that his first encounter with the Easter Bunny was not warm and fuzzy.

It was quite traumatic, actually.

A picture shows him, at 2 years old, crying while seated in the big bunny’s lap.

“There was something deeply terrifying at that moment,” he said, laughing.

Yet, the Post Falls man did not let that memory stop him from donning a pink Easter Bunny suit, hopping in the back of his pickup, and driving around Post Falls and Coeur d’Alene for six hours waving to everyone.

“In light of everything that’s going on, kids couldn’t go to Easter egg hunts, I wanted to let them know it’s not the end of the world,” Browning said Monday.

It wasn’t something he planned well in advance. The idea came up Friday. He tracked down an Easter Bunny suit, complete with floppy ears, in Sagle, recruited his wife, Keri, as his driver, and set out about noon Sunday.

As Browning says, he “went down the rabbit hole.”

They passed through neighborhoods and visited nursing homes. When they stopped at intersections, Browning did his best Bugs Bunny.

“I waved to as many people as I could,” he said.

Kids, he said, “freaked out,” while parents shouted, “thank you.” Seniors were the most excited of all.

“Not the reaction I was expecting from them,” Browning said.

While it was all in good fun, Browning is banking on the real Easter Bunny to reclaim its traditional role in 2021 and deliver candy eggs to children everywhere.

“I’m hoping I don’t have to do it next year,” he said.

But he’ll keep the suit, just in case.