Roy was a Black and Tan Coonhound and even an untrained coonhound will try and hunt something even if it is not a raccoon. Roy was no exception and he had a proud moment now and again that probably would have made even a proficient hunter like Ted Nugent proud.

At our house we have a deck that attaches to the back of our house. Rabbits have habitually made their nests underneath this structure. Apparently, they have felt safe and secure there. Roy’s presence did not seem to give the rabbits a reason for real concern. These rabbits never paid Roy much attention. However, Roy did enjoy chasing the rabbits around the yard. In addition, he often performed the army man crawl to get under the deck. Though there was not much clearance under the deck, he was still able to pull himself along until he reached the rabbit nest for a closer inspection. Once he had himself situated in there, Roy was quite stubborn about coming out.

It never seemed as though Roy had much success under the deck in terms of hunting rabbits. I know of only one occasion in which Roy found success in his rabbit hunting ventures. On this particular day, Roy had again crawled under the deck. When I discovered that he was under there, I tried to persuade him to come out. Unfortunately, he was particularly stubborn about vacating his hideout. Finally, after much coaxing, Roy using the army man crawl slowly pulled himself out from underneath the deck. When he emerged I saw that he had something small in his mouth. With my hands, I pried Roy’s mouth open and out popped a little baby rabbit. Now this rabbit was tiny. It was about two inches in length, it had no fur yet and its eyes were still closed. It was wet and slobbery and looked like its tiny ear had been torn a bit. I summoned my wife and explained the situation to her. She donned some gloves and came to the scene of the accident with a bottle of hydrogen peroxide. With a cotton ball, she dabbed the little rabbit’s ear with the hydrogen peroxide. As she practiced her medicine, the rabbit did a black flip. I am sure the procedure was not in the least bit fun. When the operation was complete; my wife took the baby rabbit, crawled back under the deck and placed the little fellow back in his nest. Hopefully, this rabbit had the opportunity to grow up and experience life as a rabbit should. Several years later, I thought I saw an adult rabbit that had a little less than a full ear. However, I was not certain.

Originally published on Associated Content / Yahoo Contributor Network (YCN) on July 16, 2009

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