A day in the life of Vice President Pence — through the book of his rabbit, Marlon Bundo

Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Karen Pence let children pet their family rabbit "Marlon Bundo" during and event with military families celebrating National Military Appreciation Month and National Military Spouse Appreciation Day in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building May 9, 2017 in Washington, DC. The vice president hosted about 160 spouses and children of the active duty U.S. military members.

WASHINGTON — Second Lady Karen Pence realized how famous her daughter’s rabbit had become during a visit last year to Montenegro.

“A little girl came up and said, `How’s Marlon Bundo?'" Pence recalled. “I thought, `Whoa!’”

Now, the first vice presidential pet to have its own Instagram account and earn the nickname BOTUS — Bunny of the United States — is hopping squarely into the spotlight.

A new book starring BOTUS — written by Charlotte Pence, the vice president’s daughter, and illustrated by Karen Pence — comes out Monday: “Marlon Bundo’s Day in the Life of the Vice President.”

Cover of the children's book written from the perspective of the Pence family rabbit, Marlon Bundo

The black and white bunny tags along as Vice President Pence — referred to as “Grampa” — confers with the president in the Oval Office, presides over Senate votes, admires the painting by an Indiana artists that’s hanging in his office, checks out Mars from the Naval Observatory telescope next to the vice presidential residence, and ends the day reflecting on a favorite Bible verse.

Readers not too distracted by the cuteness of the bunny, peering out the back window of the vice presidential car, may also find they learn something about Vice President Pence.

“It shows a personal side to him, but it also shows the official side of the vice presidency,” Charlotte said of her father. “So it’s a really fun balance.”

The book is not, however, Marlon Bundo’s first starring role.

Charlotte Pence acquired him for a student film project about five years ago when she was a freshman at DePaul University, where she studied English and digital cinema.

Marlon Bundo quickly became “a big part of my friend group,” Charlotte said, so he outlasted the film project.

“You would never want to give him up,” Charlotte said. “He’s so friendly. He’ll tag along wherever you’re going.”

And after Charlotte graduated from DePaul in 2016, the next place the Pences were going was Washington.

When outgoing Vice President Biden sent a plane to Indiana to pick up the Pence family last January, the pet-loving Pences climbed on board with Marlon Bundo and two cats.

The Air Force colonel told the incoming vice president it had been a long time since there were cats on Air Force One or Two, but he was positive there had never been a bunny rabbit on the fleet.

Pet rabbit "Marlon Bundo," is carried off the plane of Vice president-elect Mike Pence as he arrives with his wife Karen Pence and daughter Charlotte Pence, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Monday, Jan. 9, 2017. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Charlotte created an Instagram account for Marlon after the inauguration and “he just kind of took off.”

“I didn’t realize there were so many bunny people on Instagram,” Charlotte said of the rabbit’s nearly 17,000 followers.

His popularity sparked the idea for the mother-daughter book project. Because the role of the vice president isn’t well known, they hoped the book would be educational, as well as fun.

“There are a lot of little things that are official duties that the vice president does that I didn’t necessarily know until my dad was in that role,” Charlotte Pence said.

Karen Pence, a former teacher and award-winning watercolor artist, spent about four months painting the illustrations from the private living room on the second floor of the vice presidential residence — which is where Marlon lives. Her favorite illustration is Marlon tugging on the vice president’s shoe to let him know the president is calling.

“He does come up and nibble on your socks,” she said of her grandbunny.

Besides the vice president’s feet, readers will catch other glimpses of Pence in the book — but won’t see his full face.

“I can’t do faces,” Karen Pence explained with a chuckle. “I tried to do the vice president’s face. We laughed hysterically when I took that painting to the publisher.” As a result, only a small portion of Pence’s face is shown as Marlon Bundo perches on his shoulder to get a better glimpse of the Indiana landscape — “Blue Hills in the Distance”— painted by T.C. Steele.

Vice presidential rabbit Marlon Bundo looks at a painting by Indiana artist T.C. Steele that's hanging in Vice President Pence's office. The watercolor by Second Lady Karen Pence is one of her illustrations in  "Marlon Bundo's A Day in the Life of the Vice President."

 

Steele’s landscape of southern Indiana is the view the Pences used to enjoy while sitting on the front porch of the Indiana governor’s cabin in Brown County State Park.

“That’s just always been a special view for us,” Karen Pence said.

Other personal touches in the book include the Pence’s lead Secret Service agent who holds the car door open for Marlon Bundo in one illustration; the legs of the Pences' other daughter, Audrey, shown in the illustration of the vice president’s office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and the Bible verse shown in the book’s final illustration. The verse is Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Karen Pence gave her husband a framed copy of that verse years ago, and it now hangs over the mantel of their residence.

One of Charlotte Pence’s first gifts to her dad was a biography of him she wrote when she was seven. Her dad encouraged her to keep writing stories, often saying during family events: “You’ll put this in a book one day, Booh.”

But did she ever think that book would be about a rabbit?

“Honestly?” Charlotte said. “No.”