Dead Rabbit

We came home yesterday after church and there was a dead rabbit on our sidewalk.  It was so eerie.  I had no idea how it died.  There was no blood or anything.  My husband couldn’t tell either but he got a garbage bag and “took care of it.”  Part of me wanted to bury it in the backyard and say a few words over it or something.  It just seems so awful that this little life could have left the world with no fanfare whatsoever.  But I realized that in the animal kingdom (and unfortunately sometimes in the human realms) death happens hundreds of times a day with  no fanfare.  It just usually doens’t happen on my sidewalk for no apparent reason. 

You’re kind of not surprised seeing animals in the street who have been hit by cars.  You know their just animals and are not careful enough.  On the other hand it’s just terrible to see a dog or a cat like that (although you don’t see many dogs because they are like family so we take care of them better).  But seeing an animal dead for no apparent reason is a whole ‘nother thing.  I wondered if rabbits can get West Nile Virus.  Seeing a dead bird these days usually means West Nile to me (and most of the people around here I think), but we still don’t have anything on which to pin this poor rabbit’s death.

I wonder why that seems so important.  I don’t think that it’s just because I want to know so it ‘won’t happen to me too.’  It just feels sort of unresolved not knowing.  Maybe then you can’t fix it so it won’t repeat itself.  Of course there could be some sort of rabbit virus going around.  There is a huge population of rabbits around here; you can usually see one any day or several times in a day.  Perhaps this is nature’s way of trimming it down… a rabbit virus.

Anyway, it just felt very sad and somewhat horrifying (not used to dead bodies outside my front door).  Poor thing.