I got a nice comment from Truce on my “Boundaries” post yesterday. It made me remember a day in the long distant past when I lived in Bremerton, Washington.
As impossible as it may be to imagine, at that time I was a Navy wife, and since my husband was away at sea much of the time, I got a dog. She was half black lab and half collie, very smart, and ball crazy. You could get her do just about anything if you had a ball in your hand that she knew you would throw for her after she did whatever it was you wanted her to do.
We used to go on long walks down the power line right of ways, and through the logging roads. We really had a wonderful time. One time we were down in the bottom of a little creek and she started up a rabbit. This was no ordinary wild rabbit, but a very large white rabbit that immediately made me check to see if I was Alice or not. It was a little nervous about the dog, but it clearly knew that dogs were not truly to be feared. It seemed very thin, and rather confused by being out in the woods.
So I took it home, and ran out to buy some rabbit pellets for it. The poor thing was extremely grateful to have someone providing it sustenance. Pretty sad that it was starving out there in the middle of blackberries and clover. It obviously was a house pet, because right after it ate it went and used the catbox, much to Susan’s and CioCio’s dismay.
My cats were not exactly sure what to make of this beast. Susan was just terrified of it, and refused to come near it the entire time it was in the house.
Cio Cio was a little braver, but definitely confused.
I knew this poor beast was lost, had probably accidentally escaped from a loving home. After I canvassed the subdivision all around the draw where the rabbit had turned up in a vain attempt to find the owners, I contacted the local Humane Society. They took it off my hands.
Only two days later they called me to let me know that the owners of the rabbit had turned up and had gratefully appeared and taken it home. I was glad its experience of “going Walkabout” ended well.
the havens 