Article March 9, 1998 Issue

What happened when our kids took the rabbit for a swim

By Faye Wadsworth Danenburg

Our family lived in a place where there were many lakes and swimming pools, and we loved the water and the activity around it. The children had not yet learned to swim, however, and I liked to keep an eye on them even when they were just splashing around in their little wading pool.

One hot summer day our two younger daughters were out playing in their shallow wading pool while I was in the kitchen, glancing out the window occasionally to see that all was well with them. Two little pet rabbits, recent gifts to them from their grandmother, were also hopping around in the yard nearby. Although the children loved these creatures, I was annoyed because the rabbits had been eating grass in the fenced-in backyard, and the once pretty lawn was becoming quite scraggly. I was even feeling resentment toward the children's grandmother for giving them the rabbits.

Suddenly the little girls came into the house, woefully calling me to come into the yard. Unbeknown to me, they had taken one of the rabbits into the pool to play with it, and there it lay in the water, limp and lifeless. I quickly picked up the rabbit and laid it on the patio. But as I looked at its lifeless body and its long white ears, which had now turned purple, I almost panicked and started to run into the house away from such a hopeless situation.

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