Why Rabbits Have Long Ears And Short Tails By Jim Peterson 2012 James Peterson
Why Rabbits Have Long Ears And Short Tails By Jim Peterson As with most stories that deal with history there may be some who doubt whether this story is completely true. I however am very sure that the story I am about to tell is based on true facts and actually did happen just the way I am going to tell it to you. (As far as I know.) At the end of the story I will offer proof that the story is true. Our story starts a long, long time ago when there were only two rabbits in the whole world. These two rabbits were the Mommy and Daddy rabbits of all the rabbits we have today. They looked a lot like today s rabbits except they had long, skinny tails and very tiny ears. One bright sunny morning daddy rabbit got up from his bed of dry grass deep in the den. He yawned and stretched and hopped to the door of the den to see what kind of a day it was. He was happy to see it was going to be a nice day. He was tired of eating salads and he wanted to go fishing. Yes, daddy rabbit wanted to go fishing. You see, back then these two rabbits ate fish as well as grass, carrots and lettuce and other green plants. Daddy rabbit hopped back into the den to wake up mommy rabbit. He shook her front leg gently until she opened her eyes. She saw the sun shining into the den and she knew it was time to wake up. She sat up, she yawned and stretched. Then she smiled at daddy rabbit and said, Good morning daddy rabbit. What? replied daddy rabbit. Good morning, said mommy rabbit a little louder. What? said daddy rabbit again. He spoke a little louder too. Mommy rabbit got up from her dry grass bed and walked over to daddy rabbit. Good morning! said mommy rabbit, this time much louder and right into one of daddy rabbit s very tiny ears. Daddy rabbit nodded his head and smiled. Good morning to you too dear! He shouted into one of mommy rabbit s tiny ears. You see, back then their ears were so tiny they couldn t hear hardly anything. When they left the den they couldn t hear much so they had to be constantly looking around to make sure some larger animal wasn t trying to catch them. I am going fishing, said daddy rabbit. What? shouted mommy rabbit. I am going fishing! shouted daddy rabbit.
Mommy rabbit nodded her head and smiled. Be careful! she shouted into daddy rabbit's tiny ear. Daddy rabbit nodded his head and smiled. Then he gave mommy rabbit a kiss on her cheek and went to the door of the den. He looked very carefully in all directions as he hopped toward the river. When he reached the riverbank he sat with his back toward the river and put his long skinny tail into the water. Yep, back then rabbits had long skinny tails like mouses do now. And where the long skinny tail was attached to the rabbit s backside there was a small, round bit of fur just like today s rabbits. You see, those long ago rabbits used their long skinny tails to catch the fish they liked to eat. They would sit on the very edge of the riverbank with their backs to the river and carefully put their tails into the water. Then they would wiggle the tip of their tails to attract the fish. To a fish the wiggling tail tip looked like a worm and fish like to eat worms. When the fish bit the rabbit s tail the rabbit would jump up quickly and spin around pulling the fish out of the water and up onto the riverbank. Then they would put one of their big hind feet on the fish to hold it down while they pulled their tails from the fish s mouth. The fish were small and didn t have teeth so they didn t hurt the rabbit s tail when they bit it. When they caught enough fish for a meal they would take the fish back to the den to eat. On this particular day daddy rabbit was sitting there with his tail in the water and wiggling the tip of it so it looked like a worm. He was very careful to keep looking around to see if any rabbit eating animals were in the area. But he never looked toward the river and that was a mistake. Under the water daddy rabbit s wiggling tail had caught the attention of a hungry alligator. At first all the alligator saw was a small worm looking thing wiggling in the water near the riverbank. He slowly swam closer and closer. He wanted to eat this little worm but he didn t want to scare it away so he moved very slowly toward the worm. As he got closer he could see that the small worm was attached to what looked to him like a larger worm that went out of the water. He was hungry and he wanted as much of the worm as he could get. He swam even closer and when he was almost to the worm he could see that it was attached to a round, fluffy thing on the riverbank above him. The alligator decided to eat the whole worm not just the wiggly end. He slowly opened his big mouth with all of its sharp teeth. He was in his attack position now. With a few mighty strokes of his big tail he came right out of the water and closed his strong jaws on the entire worm right were it went into the round, fluffy thing. He bit the worm off and splashed back into the water with his lunch in his mouth. But it wasn t a worm the alligator had bit off. It was daddy rabbit s tail. Yep, daddy rabbit had lost his tail. Daddy rabbit jumped up and spun around just in time to see the alligator splash back into the river with daddy rabbit s tail in it s mouth. He reached back with one of his front paws to see if any of his tail was left. Nope! The only thing left was the round, fluffy part like rabbits have today. Daddy rabbit was really scared. Wow, that was close, he said to himself. If that alligator had jumped a little
higher he would be eating all of me for lunch instead of only my tail. Daddy rabbit ran back to the den as fast as he could go. When he entered the den mommy rabbit could see he was very upset but she didn t notice his missing tail. What s wrong? she asked. What? replied daddy rabbit. What s wrong? Why have you been running so fast? Is something chasing you? Do we need to go deeper into the den? said Mommy rabbit. What? said daddy rabbit. I can t hear you. What? said mommy rabbit. Ok, said daddy rabbit to himself. I have had enough of not being able to hear and I am tired of yelling all the time! He hopped closer to mommy rabbit and motioned for her to bend over. Mommy rabbit bent over as daddy rabbit asked. Daddy rabbit put one of his knees right in the middle of mommy rabbit s head, right between her tiny ears. Then daddy rabbit grabbed tightly onto each of mommy rabbit s ears and he pulled. He pulled slowly but firmly. He pulled and he pulled. After mommy rabbits ears were stretched to the length daddy rabbit wanted them he stopped pulling and let go of mommy rabbit s ears. He had stretched mommy rabbit s ears to the length a rabbit s ears are today. He looked at mommy rabbit s new ears. He liked them. They made mommy rabbit much cuter he thought. He leaned close to one of mommy rabbit s new ears and shouted. Can you hear me now? he asked Ow, was mommy rabbit s reply. You don t have to shout. I can hear you very well. Good, said daddy rabbit in his regular voice. Now you make my ears like yours so I can hear you and I will tell you what happened at the river this morning. Mommy rabbit nodded her head and motioned for daddy rabbit to bend over. She put her knee between his ears. She grabbed his ears tightly and she pulled and pulled until his ears were as long as hers. Mommy rabbit let go of daddy rabbit s new long ears and he straightened back up. He reached up to touch his new ears, He smiled and looked at mommy rabbit. Do my new ears look as good as yours? he asked.
Yes they make you look very handsome but can you hear me/ Wow, yes I can hear you and I can even hear noises from outside the den. Can you hear the outside noises too? daddy rabbit replied. Yes, I can hear as well as you can. Now tell me what happened to scare you so badly. Daddy rabbit turned and showed mommy rabbit that he didn t have a long skinny tail any more. He told how the alligator had bitten it off and how the alligator had almost had him for lunch as well as his tail. Mommy rabbit became very upset. Oh my, oh my, said mommy rabbit. Since we are the very first rabbits and all other rabbits are going to look and be like us we don t want to put them in danger of being eaten by alligators while they are fishing. You must cut off my long skinny tail and we must never fish again. From now on we will eat only rabbit food and no more fish. Daddy rabbit agreed and carefully cut off mommy rabbit s long tail. From then on they never fished again and only ate greens and carrots. That is the story of how rabbits came to look like they do today. If you don t believe this story is true let me ask you one question. Have you ever seen a long-tailed, short-eared rabbit eating fish? End Hello, Little Bit and I hope you liked this story and will share it with others. Thank you, Jim & Little Bit.