Story Week 11: A Man and His Rabbits

Rabbit by Martin Owens 

There was once a man roaming the plains. He was hungry and willing to kill anything to eat even if It was a cute fuzzy rabbit. He soon came upon a burrow in the middle of the plains. He looked to see if anything was inside. He soon realized there was nothing inside. He stepped on the entrance and making the burrow inaccessible. He sat and waited until what lived in the burrow came home.

                Soon a family of rabbits came looking for their home and saw the man sitting at the entrance. The man explained to the rabbits that he had accidentally stepped on the entrance. He told them he would help take care of them this evening and help to build a new burrow tomorrow. The rabbits agreed to his generosity.

                The man soon got a fire going with the grass and twigs he could find around him. While gathering these items he also found a rock that he would use to strike the rabbits. While the fire the fire was going the rabbits would dance around it and so would the man. He would occasionally hit one of the rabbits in the head with the rock and then explain that the rabbit must be tuckered out but should wake in the morning. He did this until there was one rabbit left. This rabbit noticed the rock and tried to run but the man threw the rock this time and hit it.

                The man after killing all the rabbits skinned them and left their meat to dry out in a nearby tree. He returned to his fire and fell asleep. Later in the evening a few vultures saw the meat hanging in the tree and came to take the meat. They took all the meat except and especially small piece from the smallest rabbit.

                The next morning the man awoke and went to get his meat. He climbed the tree and the first piece he saw was the smallest piece and he threw it down thinking it was to small to care about. he continued to climb until he realized all his meat was gone. He soon climbed down to find the small piece he threw in the dirt. It was all covered in dirt, but the man was starving and ate the piece whole.

Author notes : I made this story for “Coyote Kills Prairie Dogs”. I change coyote to a man and I changed Prairie dogs to rabbits. It the story coyote told the prairie dogs to lock their doors so when they realized he was killing them they couldn’t go back home. I made it where the man made no entrance to their home and they had to follow him. In both stories the weapon of choice is a rock. In the original the prairie dogs realize their being killed but have nowhere to run but in mine they are all killed until one is left. In the original and mine the meat get stolen except for the smallest piece which get tossed aside and then they are forced to eat it because that is all that is left.

bibliography: Coyote Kills the Prairie Dogs By P. E. Goddard