Rabbit was a very unusual
dog. When Mama wanted a chicken to fry for Sunday dinner she would call Rabbit. Tell him which chicken she wanted. He would go get that chicken and bring it to her.
The whole family loved
to fish and when we would start getting the poles ready to go to the river, Rabbit would start digging worms. We liked that. During the winter when we would get out our hare hunting sticks, Rabbit would head
for the sage fields where he had chased some of these "Hoover Hogs" a few days earlier.
Then there was hunting for fur bearing animals. Rabbit loved this activity perhaps more than
anything. The skins had to be stretched on boards to dry before they were taken to the fur buyer. Daddy always kept some of the boards handy and when he would get ready to go O'possum hunting he would call
Rabbit and show him the pre-cut boards. Rabbit would head out for the woods and find O'possums whose hides would fit the boards Daddy had made.
A great tragedy occurred one day when Mama had to have
her Ironing Board repaired. Daddy brought it out to the shop where he could repair it. Now Rabbit was always alert to the happenings around him. He saw the ironing board and thought Daddy was going
hunting O'possum. Immediately he got excited as he always does. Into the woods he went, obviously looking for an O'possum whose hide would fit the ironing board.
The tragedy is that we have not seen
Rabbit since that day. We presume that he is still out there looking. If you should see him, would you please tell him to come on home but, please, bring some worms. We would like to go fishing now.
Rubin Johnson is a guide in Mississippi specializing in trophy crappie. You can visit his site at
