Hop-a-long Honesty

Quote of the blog:

B: You can only be as honest with others as you are with yourself.

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One of our family’s favorite stories was told to us by my mom’s good friend Candee Reed (see Police, Pachyderms, and a Pickup Truck). I grew up on the story. Candee told us about her friend who moved into a new home in Colorado (we’ll call the friend, Alice). Alice decided that she would befriend her next-door neighbor with whom she shared a fence. The neighbors were friendly and it seemed like their families would get along well, although Alice worried about their family pets.

Alice owned a full-grown black Labrador and the next-door neighbor’s owned a rabbit. Both roamed their respective fenced backyards freely. The neighbor’s bunny was The Family Pet. It was so much a part of the family that it had a Bunny House (cage) in the back yard and a private pet door for “whenever” access in and out of the home. Any time the bunny hopped around its backyard Alice’s Lab would go berzerk – running up and down the chain link fence that separated the yard, barking, jumping and staring.

One day Alice and her husband came home and to their absolute horror they found their dog with the limp rabbit in its mouth. The bunny was dead. What should they do? Worried about the new relationship with their neighbors they reluctantly walked next door to explain what happened but the neighbors weren’t home. After a bit of contemplation they made a plan.

They took the dead rabbit. It was filthy: covered in dirt clods and dog slobber but luckily no blood. They washed and cleaned the rabbit and even brushed the fur. Then they snuck into the neighbor’s backyard and placed the rabbit back in its cage. They figured it was better to avoid any awkwardness with their new neighbors and, really, did anyone need to know?

A few hours later they heard a bloodcurdling scream from the backyard. . They ran to the back yard fence, heart pounding – and asked the neighbor's wife who was in hysterics – what happened. She turned, and with a look of horror on her face said, “Our rabbit died and we buried it! And now it’s back in it’s cage!!”