The ending to The Velveteen Rabbit is a bit of a cry-fest, so you might want to arm yourself with some tissues.
So, the Velveteen Rabbit has escaped the bonfire and been turned into a Real Rabbit. Yay! Now, it's time for him to check back in with the Boy once he returns from the seaside:
Autumn passed and Winter, and in the Spring, when the days grew warm and sunny, the Boy went out to play in the wood behind the house. And while he was playing, two rabbits crept out from the bracken and peeped at him. One of them was brown all over, but the other had strange markings under his fur, as though long ago he had been spotted, and the spots still showed through. And about his little soft nose and his round black eyes there was something familiar, so that the Boy thought to himself:
"Why, he looks just like my old Bunny that was lost when I had scarlet fever!"
But he never knew that it really was his own Bunny, come back to look at the child who had first helped him to be Real. (79-81)
We're not crying. You're crying.
So what going on here? Well, this ending is so heartwarming because it shows that the Boy and the Rabbit haven't forgotten each other. Sure, the Boy has gotten better and moved on from his "lost" toy, but he still thinks of his little bunny friend when he sees these wild rabbits wander up. And the Rabbit still feels a connection to the Boy who loved him enough to help him become Real.
In other words, the Boy and the Rabbit really were BFFs.