Meet Poppy Rose, the most accomplished bunny in New England.

With three years on the trails and about 250 peaks under her belt – including all 48 New Hampshire mountains over 4,000 feet – Poppy can keep up. All she needs is her harness and her hiking backpack (equipped with treats and an extra fleece during the winter) and she’s ready to go.

The 2-pound adopted rescue bunny belongs to Bree Schuette. Schuette was a dedicated hiker and runner until a few years ago when a diagnosis of a rare autoimmune disease forced her to stop. While Schuette retired from the trails at 49, Poppy continued to hop along, joining other New England hikers on their outdoor adventures.

“Seeing Poppy continue to summit mountains,” Schuette said, “it’s helped me maintain a level of hope and optimism.”

Poppy began her hiking career in 2020. Schuette’s son Aiden, 11 at the time, had just lost his father to COVID. He was absolutely devastated, and the lack of social interaction brought on by the pandemic didn’t help. Schuette did the only thing she could think of: she took him hiking.

That first hike, Aiden cried the whole way up. At the summit, the pair sprinkled some of his dad’s ashes in the air. He remained upset throughout the descent, and Schuette wasn’t sure the idea had been a success. But then, he asked to do another.

Hiking quickly became embedded in their daily routine. After Aiden’s virtual classes ended, he and Schuette would jump in the car and drive north to the mountains.

“With time, I saw him begin to blossom,” Schuette said.

Eager to keep up the momentum of her son’s healing, Schuette had another idea. The only other time she saw him light up, other than on the trails, was when he played with Poppy.

“If Poppy makes him smile, and the mountains make him smile,” she said, “maybe Poppy plus the mountains will make him smile even more.”

The first time Poppy accompanied them on their afternoon hike, Schuette was nervous. Poppy had always been a social bunny, but there was no telling whether her outgoing spirit would translate to the hiking world. 

Her fears dissolved quickly. “Poppy took to hiking like a duck takes to water,” she said.

To people who doubt that, Schuette insists that she knows her bunny well. Rabbits are silent creatures, which can make their moods harder to decipher, but according to Schuette, they “definitely let their opinions be known.” She calls it “Bunnitude.”

Poppy’s bunnitude is all in the ears. When she’s excited, they perk up into their happy position. And on the trail, that’s exactly what they did. She hopped all around, ears up, nibbling on the various leaves and wild blueberry patches around her. 

Schuette installed an extra hook next to her hiking supplies for Poppy’s harness. After that, any time Schuette grabbed her hiking backpack, Poppy would bound towards the hook, grab her harness between her teeth, and bring it over to Schuette.

Poppy soon learned the ways of the mountain. Steeper verticals meant a brief ride in Schuette’s backpack, and summits meant it was time for treats. Running into other animals – usually dogs, sometimes chipmunks, and once, a porcupine – thrilled Poppy, but Schuette would almost always pick her up to keep her safe.

“Sometimes in pictures, it’s hard to see how tiny she really is,” explained Schuette. 

She has a strong affinity for mud puddles, often returning from hikes with her white fluff stained dark brown. In the winter, she has a fleece and hat fitted for her ears to keep her comfortable. Rains was a deal breaker, since it absolutely terrified Poppy.

The reception from other hikers on the mountains was overwhelmingly positive. 

“I think for a lot of people, at the end of the hike when you’re exhausted, and you’re thinking, ‘Can I make this final push? Can I do it?’” Schuette said. “Seeing this teeny-tiny bunny doing it can give you that impetus that if she can do it, so can I.”

Schuette, Aiden and Poppy were reaching peaks together consistently until 2021, when Schuette first started to notice her body failing her. 

By then, Schuette had completed nine rounds of the 48 New Hampshire-4,000-footers. She was used to easily trekking up the mountain. But on an Easter Sunday hike, she looked up to find Aiden and Poppy 200 feet ahead of her. That had never happened before.

“I was like, ‘I can’t move, I can’t go on,’” she said. “I ended up first bending over, then kneeling, and then laying down on the trail.” She recovered about 20 minutes later, and was able to complete the hike.

After the incident, she called the doctor. They told her to take a week off, and see how she felt. 

But a week later, it happened again and then again after that.

A year later, she was diagnosed with relapsed polychondritis, a somewhat elusive disease that causes inflammation of cartilage in the body. And though it can often be effectively treated with medication, the drugs didn’t work for Schuette. 

“I still tried to push on, tried to persist, tried to hike,” she said. By September 2023, after a final hike with her best friend who almost had to carry her up, it was clear that she had to stop.

But Poppy still had energy. 

After all the light Poppy had brought to her life, Schuette refused to let her own ailments hold back her bunny. 

“She gave my son his joy back,” she said. “I can at least try to give Poppy experiences even if I can’t give them to her myself anymore.”

So, she turned to Facebook. She posted requests for people to take Poppy to the mountains on various New England hiking pages – and she got a surprisingly eager response.

Giving Poppy over to strangers for the day ached at first. 

“I was like the parent who puts their kid on the bus to kindergarten and is like, ‘Oh my God, what’s going to happen?’” Schuette said. For the first couple of hikes, she bombarded Poppy’s temporary caretaker with texts throughout the day.

Now, though, she’s more relaxed. Like a parent preparing their kid for a sleepover, Schuette packs a little bag for Poppy and gives the volunteer hiker a quick education in Bunnitude. Poppy has now gone on over 20 hikes from Schuette’s Facebook posts. 

Poppy is on a brief hiatus from the mountains, as Schuette has moved to Minnesota temporarily for treatment. But, Schuette insisted, she’s still getting her fill of outdoor time.

For Poppy, who is about 8 years old, the opportunity to hike keeps her happy. And for Schuette, it keeps her spirits up in the worst of times.

“It reminds me that if she can do things that most people don’t expect bunnies to be able to do,” she said, “then I can do the really hard things for humans to do.”

Sofie Buckminster can be reached at sbuckminster@cmonitor.com.