The Parlor
Out of context: Reply #206
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- locustsloth0
Yesterday, toward the end of my "work" day, my wife called me outside where she was playing with the boys.
She pulls me aside and says "A rabbit got caught in the fence and died and i don't want the kids to see it"
We think this rabbit, (whom we had seen alive, hopping around) used to be one of the meat rabbits that my neighbor used to raise. It was far too trusting (didn't move with a 4 yr old screaming at it from a window 3 ft away) and far too large. It was the size of a small cat.So Jenn (wife) took the boys for a short walk while i grabbed my shovel and got down to business. The way my wife had described it (she only saw a glance, then rushed the 4 yr old away) it sounded like the thing had gotten it's neck stuck and strangled itself. The real story is this poor thing had squeezed most of his body thru the small rectangular hole in the wire fencing, but when it got to it's hips, it just wouldn't go. And the particular hole it chose was far enough off the ground that it looked like it could just barely scratch the ground, but not enough to get enough traction to pull itself through.
So there it perished, suspended about it's mid-section. My wife recalled that the other night she had heard some odd animal noise from outside her room, but by the time she called me, the noise was gone. We now figure that it was the rabbit, since this fence is close to the room.
So, my family evacuated, i dug a hole in a section of the yard that's mostly cut off due to a brush pile and some trees. Then i set to getting the deceased buny free. First i kinda poked it, just in case it happened to be in some advanced state of shock. No movement, so i tried getting his back half through, but it was stuck for a reason, and i had as much luck going that way as the rabbit did. So i pulled the bulk of the rabbit backward through the hole, which came fairly easily.
The body was stiff and cold. i had never handled a dead animal of this size. I put it in the hole and tucked it's limbs in to be sure nothing stuck out of the ground (i was wearing plastic grocery bags as gloves). Before i covered it with the displaced earth, i had a thought that i had been having since my wife told me the situation. "i should take pictures of this" It's literally the first thing i thought after i understood that it was dead. Pics of it stuck. Pics of it in it's informal grave. Pics of it's cold dead eyes, which seemed to have some sort of white fog in the middle of them.
But i didn't. It's a little odd to say i wanted to give this animal, who had already passed on, some respect, but that's what i felt. So i covered it up with dirt, patted the pile down, said "There you go, little guy", put the bags in the trash, put the shovel in the barn and went about my life.
- decency offered to fellow creature feels oddly satisfying even in the retelling. I salute you.********
- nice story.juhls
- decency offered to fellow creature feels oddly satisfying even in the retelling. I salute you.