The Death of Peter Cottontail

The following post is not for the faint of heart or fluffy bunny lovers.

We had a bit of a carnage here last week. Our usual weekday morning routine was disrupted by a mauling. The usual morning goes something like this: the Husband leaves for work, I wake up the kidlets, and walk outside in the back yard with the large carpet spotter Brunnhilde. She evidently can not be alone even to pee. She will not go outside with out me standing there, unless her dog pal neighbors are outside, then she'll go alone.

This past Tuesday, the Husband called in sick, the Girl felt ill and didn't want to go to school. Brunnhilde was even willing to go outside without me. I should have read the warning signs, but it was early, and my brain was foggy from sleep.

Then I saw why she wanted to go out without waiting for me. She had a rabbit on the run. We have a family of bunnies living in the over grown garden. She occasionally chases them, but they are able to make it out of the gap between the fence and the back gate. It was not to be that day.

This day the bunny wasn't going to make it to the gap and made for the 3 x 5 grid space in the liner of the fence. He got his head through. By the time I got back there, she had made his hind quarters nice and bloody, and he was stuck.

The Husband was not going to help, and didn't appreciate being bothered in his sick bed about a rabbit stuck in the fence. I knew the rabbit wasn't going any where, and he could just wait for my help until the kidlets were on the bus. The only problem were the two cats I saw in the property behind us on the prowl. They had noticed the ruckus and were very interested. So, I posted the Girl on watch to keep the cats away.

After I got the Boy off to school, I realized that I was going to have to cut the stupid rabbit out of the fence. My neighbor had beat me to it. It was obvious that the bunny was dying, and we should put it out of it's misery. I deferred to the neighbor. Having grown up on a farm in North Dakota, I hoped she would be up to the task.

She said, "I've killed rodents by twisting their necks, I've even killed cows, but I don't know what to do with the bunny." Great. We decided on suffocation. So, with an apology to the rabbit, I put him in a plastic garbage bag and tied it up tight.

His body is in temporary holding in the garage. I'm especially looking forward to garbage pick up this week.