THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, January 19, 1997              TAG: 9701210427
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 16   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER 
                                            LENGTH:   33 lines

SPCA BUNNY MASCOT IS GONE, BUT FONDLY REMEMBERED BY MANY

Blackberry, the beloved SPCA mascot bunny and friend to thousands of Virginia Beach school children, died last week of pneumonia.

Blackberry was 7 when he died and had been visiting schools with SPCA Education Director Susan Wagner for 6 1/2 of those years.

Over that time, the big black rabbit had probably come in contact with close to 10,000 children, Wagner said. A laid-back bunny who loved people, Blackberry enjoyed the ministrations of the youngsters.

Blackberry was brought into the shelter as a stray, found in a field on Holland Road less than a mile from the shelter. The staff immediately saw mascot possibilities in the new arrival.

``He liked to be handled and he liked to be petted,'' Wagner said. ``The first time I took him to a school, he climbed up in the children's laps.''

When the children sat in a circle around Wagner to listen to her talk, Blackberry would go around the circle visiting from child to child, she added.

Soon after his arrival at the SPCA, a contest was held to name the new rabbit, but none of the entries seemed right, Wagner said. About that time, she took the bunny with her on a visit to a second-grade class at College Park Elementary school. She asked the class if they had any suggestions for a name. Out of the blue, a child said, ``Blackberry.''

``And I said, `That's it!' '' Wagner recalled.

Blackberry loved dogs and cats, too. Unafraid of anything, he lived for a time in the same big cage with Minnie, a former dog mascot at the shelter.

``We have had neat rabbits before,'' Wagner said, ``But we'll never have another one like Blackberry. He was exceptional.''