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A schoolboy's mum has told his teacher that the reason why his homework wasn't produced on time is that their giant pet rabbit ATE it.

Hannah Wood says she knows that the 'dog ate my homework' excuse is a funny cliche, but that the family pet Queenie really did devour little Noah's exercise book.

The mum-of-one sheepishly explained to her five-year-old son Noah's teacher that the animal Queenie had pinched his reading record and hid it somewhere in the house.

Hannah, from Cambridge, says when the teacher heard the unusual excuse she burst out laughing and then asked Noah to bring in pictures of the light-fingered 10-month-old Continental Giant to show and tell.

Retail assistant Hannah, 27, said: "Noah's teacher almost died with laughter when I told her the reason my son didn't bring his reading record to school was because my Continental Giant had hidden it somewhere - pesky bunny.

(Image: Mercury)

"I strongly suspected it was Queenie because she has previous for running off with things and hiding them - small toys, plastic figures, post from the letter box, the lot.

"The rabbits, including Winston, Martha, Mrs Pepperpot and Madam Butterfly, are always stashing weird things in odd places.

"They have this knack of seeing something they want, grabbing it and then running off."

(Image: Mercury)

Hannah and Noah were sitting down on the floor last month to read their daily story, answer questions and document it in the reading record.

They tipped everything out of the bag and began to follow the story while, unbeknown to them, two-and-a-half-foot Queenie snuck up on the bookworms and swiped the book.

When the pair had finished reading they searched for the record to write up Noah's comments but it had vanished.

The puzzled pair searched high and low for it before conceding defeat and deciding to fess up to the teacher the following day.

Hannah said: "When I told her what had happened the teacher laughed and said that in all her years of teaching rabbits had never been behind any homework chewing."

(Image: Mercury)

When Hannah got home she turned the place upside down even moving her leather recliner sofa where she discovering the chewed record stashed underneath.

"The sofa is really heavy but I decided to move it as the bunnies sometimes curl up in a little den under there.

"It was right at the back all chewed at - she was very popular."

Hannah penned a funny note which read 'Sorry, from the rabbits' along with a drawing of a bunny face.

The teacher replied writing 'Naughty rabbits! Tee hee!'.

(Image: Mercury)

Hannah said: "Noah loves the rabbits - he gets down on the floor with them and strokes their ears which is really sweet.

"He gets on particularly well with Winston - if he doesn't finish his raw carrots or apple he takes them to him to eat.

"Noah sometimes gets annoyed if they chew his things but when he went into school he was really happy to show his friends.

"He told his friends that they weren't allowed to snatch the photos as they were really precious to him and he now wants to put them up in his bedroom."