Genny Gentry: Rabbits were all ears for woman who seemed to cast spell on them

She could coo, cajole, lure and "hypnotize" rabbits into performing tricks for audiences and holding poses for photographs.

At Gentry's urging, the rabbits would maneuver miniature agility courses — climbing ladders, jumping through hoops, negotiating tunnels. They played doll-sized instruments, picked up homemade barbells and hopped onto a saddled-up dog for a ride. The bunnies allowed Gentry to clothe them in tiny hats, sunglasses and dresses, they held props in their mouths and posed, motionless, on sets she built at her in-home photo studio.

"She got rabbits to do things I would never have believed they would do," said Carla Danforth, who met Gentry 10 years ago when Danforth's then-8-year-old daughter Ellen joined 4-H and took an interest in rabbits.

"She was really patient," Danforth said of Gentry. "She had a real rapport with animals. She used really positive reinforcement in her training."

Gentry produced a line of greeting cards from the photos she took of her bunnies, which were mostly the short-haired, compact Polish variety, weighing less than 2 pounds. She sold the B.B. Bunny & Friends cards in Tucson shops for years.

Now the proceeds from the thousands of cards Gentry kept in stock will be used to support and educate a new generation of rabbit lovers.

Members of the Southern Arizona Rabbit Breeders Association will sell Gentry's cards to raise money for the organization's youth fund to help children and teens get started raising rabbits and help pay travel expenses to national rabbit-breeder conventions.

Gentry's sisters donated the stash of bunny-themed cards to the Breeders Association after Gentry died Aug. 21, less than two weeks after undergoing laparoscopic surgery. She was 67.

Gentry grew up in Minnesota, where she started honing her animal-training skills with the help of her childhood pet, a mixed-breed dog named Tippy. She and Tippy performed at county fairs across the state.

"I saw Lassie and Rin Tin Tin on television, and I was just fascinated," Gentry said in a 1982 Arizona Daily Star article.

Gentry moved to Tucson in 1969 when her husband was transferred here. While working as an English and journalism teacher in junior high and high schools, Gentry continued training dogs as a hobby, always using positive-reinforcement methods.

In 1972, she and other dog lovers formed the first Arizona exhibition team for obedience-trained dogs and their handlers. The dogs ran obstacle courses, square-danced with their owners and showed off special skills, such as jumping rope and opening doors.

Gentry added a rabbit to the dog-training mix to enhance the demonstrations. She trained it to ride on the back of her German shepherd, Reena.

"I didn't really realize how personable they are. I just considered them objects that would help with the trick," Gentry said in the Star article.

She soon realized rabbits were highly intelligent, affectionate, independent and manipulative. Her first rabbit, Bugsy, would make a racket in the morning if Gentry overslept. If kicking up a noisy fuss didn't wake Gentry, Bugsy would climb on the bed and bounce until Gentry got up and gave her a cracker.

It was the death of her beloved Reena in 1982 that caused Gentry to focus on rabbit training as a way to cope with her loss.

"It's like therapy. I get uptight and I go work with the rabbits and I feel better," she said. "Even when you have a lousy day, you can come back to them. The rabbits won't talk back to you and they'll always love you. I get such a big kick out of sharing them."

Gentry took her rabbits into classrooms during summer programs to teach children how to care for pets. In the 1980s, after divorcing her husband, Gentry started her card business, featuring her trained rabbits.

"She was really amazing," said Gentry's sister, Joyce Strabley.

"They called her the bunny whisperer," said her other sister, Barbara Finnelly. Both women live in Minnesota. "She had won many, many awards for her dogs and her rabbits. They were her children. Anything she did, she threw her all into it."

Gentry had 65 rabbits at the time of her death, all of which were taken into foster care or adopted by members of the Rabbit Breeders Association. Even with so many bunnies, friends said Gentry remembered each of their names and personality quirks.

Gentry sold some of the rabbits she bred. Others she gave away to young 4-H members if she was satisfied they could provide good homes.

Gentry retired from teaching two years ago and began focusing all of her efforts on her rabbits. Her approach was different from other greeting-card photographers, Gentry said in a 1990 Tucson Citizen article, because she used live rabbits in her photos and most others used rabbits acquired through taxidermists.

"It's so sad the way they use dead animals," Gentry said in the article. "There's something special about live bunnies. There's a rapport with them that, of course, you can't have with dead bunnies."

Her line of greeting cards features bunnies lifting weights in a gym setting, playing instruments in concert, flying in hot-air balloons, pushing flower carts, delivering mail, driving sports cars, vacationing, sledding, fishing, painting, dining and even apologizing.

Along with simple commands, Gentry sometimes employed a relaxation technique to put her bunnies into a trance before taking pictures. During this hypnotic state, the rabbits would allow her to dress and pose them for photos.

"She taught me how to hypnotize a rabbit," said rabbit association member Janet Russ.

Gentry showed Russ how pinning back her rabbits' ears, laying them on their backs and speaking softly while rubbing their bellies put her rabbits into a trance.

Gentry's goal — via her cards, her mentorship and the many ribbons and awards she won for her rabbits — was to educate people about them.

"I want people to know that bunnies have emotions, are intelligent and trainable," she said in 1990.

Life Stories

This feature chronicles the lives of recently deceased Tucsonans. Some were well-known across the community. Others had an impact on a smaller sphere of friends, family and acquaintances. Many of these people led interesting — and sometimes extraordinary — lives with little or no fanfare. Now you'll hear their stories. Past "Life Stories" are online at go.azstarnet.com/lifestories.