The Mysterious Rabbit Corpse

[Mark]

My brother Joe raises beagles at his home on Cedar Valley Lake in Ste. Genevieve County. He is an early riser and always takes the beagles out for a walk as soon as he gets up in the morning. Last week, he was in his normal routine and set out for his morning walk before sun up. No sooner than he began his morning walk, Mother Nature called and he needed to return to the house for his morning constitutional. Figuring the beagles wouldn't get far and he wouldn't be long, he left the beagles run free while he took care of business in the bathroom. After relieving himself, he return outside and began walking down the road to catch up with his beagles. So sooner than he hit the road, here come his youngest pup with something in his mouth. Sure enough, it was a rabbit. The only problem was, it was pure white and obviously a tamed hare. It could only belong to Sam, who lives up the road and raises tamed rabbits for sale.

So Joe took the rabbit and carried it up to Sam's house. Joe intended to apologize and pay Sam for his pup's adolescent indiscretion. Upon arriving at Sam's, Joe noticed that the car was gone from the driveway. Still intent on doing the right neighborly thing, Joe knocked on the front door but no one answered. He tried the backdoor with the same result. Joe figured it was useless and wasn't going to keep the deceased rabbit carcas around the house all day waiting for Sam to get home. So he walked into the backyard and put the rabbit back in it's pen.

A few days past and Joe never thought much more about the rabbit incident. Finally on the third day, as Joe was driving down the road, he saw Sam on his riding lawnmower. As is their custom, Joe pulled over and Sam drove over to Joe's truck, shut down the mower and they began talking.

After 5 minutes of this and that talk, Sam finally says "Joe I had some bad luck with my rabbits this week."

Playing coy, Joe replied " Ah, heck you say."

Totally unaware of what really happened to his late rabbit, Sam went on to say "Yeah, Joe. One of my rabbits died and the dangest thing happened."

"What's that?" Joe pretending seriously to be in the dark.

Sam said, "Well, I found him one morning in his cage dead as can be. So I carried him off to the edge of the pasture and buried him. And I'll be doggone if I didn't come back the next day and he was back in the cage. Dangest thing I ever heard of."

"Well you don't say," Joe sheepishly remarked.

Barely able to contain himself, Joe and Sam exchanged a few more pleasantries before Joe finally escaped the neighborly chat and drove off down the road bursting out in laughter. It was such a mystery to Sam that Joe couldn't ruin a good folk story with the truth about the now legendary deceased white rabbit who rose from the dead.

[jdmidwest]

I saw pet cemetary, sometimes they come back....

[drs7558]

Good story. I enjoyed it. Thanks.

[Geoff]

You sure about that? ive heard this very same story told many of many times in slightly different fashions. sometimes its the neighbors dog who digs it up, some times its in the street etc etc. Always ends up washed and back in the cage.

[Mark]

Joe has been known to stretch the truth.

[Marcus Swartz]

One of the funniest stories I've ever read!

Thanks for the laugh.