Bunny's buddies Amy, left and Frank Leidenfrost visited Saturday with their good friend, Bunny Tabatt from Little Falls. She and Baker, her Leader dog, along with a friend who did the actual driving, drove up from Little Falls with her 1963 Ford for the car show. (Staples World photo by Tom Crawford) One of the owners of the 600 cars on display Saturday at the Staples car show didn't drive her car to the show.

In fact, Bunny Tabatt from Little Falls who came with her 1963 Ford Galaxy 500, hasn't seen her car in years.

Bunny takes a lot of ribbing from her friends, many of them fellow Lone Eagle Car Club members, all about who drives her to car shows.

"We won't get too worried until we see Baker driving," is one such jibe.

Her friend Tommy Martin drove her Galaxy, bringing Bunny and her other close companion, Baker, to the Staples car show. Baker is Bunny's Leader dog, her constant companion. Bunny, by the way, has been blind for much of her adult life.

Bunny's Galaxy is her pride and joy and it allows her to be a member of the Lone Eagle Club of Little Falls.

"I used to race stock cars," the petite lady from Little Falls likes to tell people. Her red Galaxy has been in her family for years, and in a body shop for three years getting a new paint job and also a new interior. Now she takes great pride in that interior.

"If we spilled a little beer in it, it'll be just like years ago," Bunny quipped as she and Frank and Amy Leidenfrost of Staples traded some good-natured kidding.

Bunny is well known both in Minnesota and around the nation as a field representative for the Leader dog program. She is a member of the Dandee Lions Club of Little Falls, and annually travels to speak to Lions and other groups about the merits of the Leader dog program for the blind.

Frank and Amy, as active Staples Lions, have known her for several years.

Baker, her dog, has been with her for seven years and is the third Leader dog she has had.

Traveling and speaking to groups is hardly an obstacle to this woman who has overcome much greater obstacles. As a young mother she learned that she would soon be blind. A few months later, as her vision deteriorated, her husband died unexpectedly.

Despite blindness, she raised her children and leads a full and productive life, even displaying her car at car shows. Her friends in the car club have another goal for her. Some day, they tell her, they are going to take Bunny and her car out to the Little Falls airport and let her drive the car when there is little chance of an accident.

They may even give Baker a turn behind the wheel.