I hate when my dog kills a rabbit

Responsible, not guilty.

It's only happened twice in five years, but still.

The dead rabbit drooping from Derby's jaws looked exactly like the extra realistic toy bunny she plays with at home. For half a second I thought maybe that toy was a "gateway" bunny we should have disposed of, but I knew better. That dog is hardwired to hunt. So I did my best not to be mad at her. She never really gets a chance to catch anything other than flies, because I'm always calling her off. She's pretty good with the voice commands, if I'm there to make them.

I've heard lots of stories about dogs who proudly gift their humans with freshly killed field animals. Generous acts of tribute which confirm that dogs and humans share common values, but not a currency. But this wasn't like that. Derby dropped the still warm rabbit and wandered away indifferently, as if to say, "This broke, see what you can do with it."

I'm okay with the Circle of Life, but I hate to get it on my hands. There wasn't a way to make this killing meaningful. We weren't going to thank the Great Spirit and make a meal of wild hare on the trail, so I looked for a place to put the rabbit where some animal might make good use of it. The fields here are rich with coyote and fox who'd be glad to stumble upon fresh rabbit, if it would even last until dusk. Probably some hawk or raven would polish it off within the hour. So I found a well-trafficked place where all manner of paw prints converged down by the creek, and I laid the rabbit high on the bank nearby, wound side up.

Many of this season's rabbits won't make it until winter. This particular one may have been eaten within the month. The random intersection of my dog's trajectory and this bunny's poor timing is just an unnecessary example of something that was likely to happen anyway. What bothers me is the moral clumsiness of it, and that's my issue, not Derby's. So when we got home she received her usual treat anyway, and I vowed to be more attentive in the future, which is pretty much what I'm always vowing.

Hakuna Matata.