if you donβt know the difference between a hare and a rabbit youβve never gazed into the cold wild eyes of a hare and known that if it could speak it would speak backwards
Jack Rabbits are North American Hares and theyβre the WORST to encounter at night becuase:
You all know how big a rabbit is.Β Jack Rabbits and hares are much bigger. theyβre the size of large cats or small dogs or just-walking-age children.
They also like to hang out in gangs of a hlf dozen to over 30.
and in the middle of backcountry dirt roads.
perhaps theyβre dustbathing
or blood sacrifce
I donβt know because when you come up the road at night because your dog has a tiny bladder and needs to go out at midnight and you have no yard so youβre walking him on the dirt road around your neighborhod because you might aw well get some stargazing in, and you come just over the ridge to see a coven of twenty jackrabbits in the middle of the road
and
they
all
stand
up
not just onto all fours like a proper prey animal
No they get up on thier hind legs and donβt just sit but STAND like tiny rabbit-skinned toddlers, wobbing slightly as they stare directly at you eyes shining in your flashlightβs glow
β¦Blood Red.
And a chill goes through you on that warm july night because while theyβre a puntable size and allegedly herbivores theyβre standing and watching you just like people and you are vastly outnumbered.
everyone freezes
youβre considering your odds aganst roughly 200lbs of Suspiciously Humanoid Hare
and theyβre considering their odds against you
the only sound in the never-ending high desert windΒ
somewhere in your peripheral vision you can see the streetlights but they seem awfully far away
The nearest Jack Rabbit
Blinks
and takes a single shuffling step
forward
You area an overdevloped monkey and your prefrontal cortex is capable of some amazing feats but it runs very slowly compared to the reflexes of a rabbit and youβre frozen as you desperately scramble for the appropriate course of action, hands feeling thick and useless, mouth dry and feet imeasurably heavy thereβs no way youβd outrun THESE, god thereβs a rabies outbreak going around that shitβs not curable-
The Dog
L U N G E S
Itβs only the briefest of movements but the animal youβd picked out for his gangly legs and floppy ears and goofy smile is suddenly a dark shape of muscle and teeth and had flung himself at the horrible goblin rabbits faster than mere physics should dictate, appearing in the circle of the flashlight for only the briefest of moments before the jolt from the leash makes you stumble and the light falters
The Jack Rabbits
Scatter
Vanishing into the faintly starlit sagebrush in as so many faint gray shapes that might be mistaken for the dustclouds they kick up
Later, you sit on the couch disquieted
and you wonder
If the sight of the Jack Rabbits standing and studying you was frightening enough to make you yearn for the safety of the yellowed streetlights
what must it be like from thier end?
what terrifying creatureΒ
deliberately ties itself
to something so horrible
As a Dog?
@gallusrostromegalus that last bit gave me such a strong mental image I absolutely had to draw it
WELL HOLY SHIT.
CONGRATULATE, THATβS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS GOING FOR.
is it ok if I print it out and stick it on the fridge?
