Saving Buck - A Short Story
Saving Buck - A Short Story
Roman Friedrich — September 27, 2021
Saving Buck
My wife and I had just returned from a friend’s house where we played our usual Monday late afternoon pickle ball game with a group of friends. By the time we arrived home it was approaching dusk on a typical mild San Diego June evening. We were greeted by Twiggy our small labradoodle who is always excited when we return home no matter how much time we have been away. As in so many evenings around this time we decided to take Twiggy out for a walk. This is how our encounter with Buck began.
We walked to the corner of the park on which we live and turned right. Our community is a quiet one in which the residents uniformly take excellent care of their lots and have unique landscaping. The community landscaping between lots has lush ground cover and contains well-trimmed hedges. One of our neighbors was redoing his landscaping with drought tolerant plants. Twiggy meanwhile was pulling on her leash in the expectation of seeing a rabbit which frequents this section of our walk. On many occasions the rabbit moves in and out of a hedge encouraging twiggy to a chase. But no luck for Twiggy this time.
As we approached the next corner there were various plants ranging from roses to high grasses along the road some fifteen feet deep into the plantings of the corner residence. Almost to the corner Twiggy began pulling strongly and, low and behold, she came face to face with, you guessed it, a rabbit. Unlike of previous walks when Twiggy encountered a rabbit, this one did not run off. The rabbit stayed his ground and came closer to Twiggy. He was large and gray with a very bushy coat with white flashing running down his head on top of his nose. As Twiggy pulled on her leash to get closer, wining with excitement, the rabbit moved away to the edge of the next plant. This was no wild rabbit. He was obviously a very well fed pet.
A golf course winds its way through the community and there are deep canyons separating various areas. As a result there are coyotes and bobcats who come up from the canyons and the fringes of the golf course. Residents with pets are keenly aware to protect their pets from being attacked. Who was going to protect Twiggy’s new friend. So we decided not to leave the rabbit, keep an eye on him and seek his owner.
Another couple walking a golden retriever from the opposite direction began to walk by us. The golden was uninterested in the rabbit who at his point had re emerged from the back bushes and was back near the road nose to nose with Twiggy. We inquired if they knew anyone who owned a rabbit. The answer was no. As we discussed how we could protect Mr. Rabbit they told us that as much as they would like to help, they were leaving shortly for the airport. A car approached the corner from the opposite direction and slowed to a stop before making the turn onto the road in front of us. I walked over to the car as it was turning and the driver stopped. There were two women in the car. I asked them if they knew anyone who had a pet rabbit. Their answer was a very surprising “yes, they live at the end of this cul de sac”. “Will you please let them know their rabbit escaped and it is here.” They agreed and immediately proceeded to the end of the road.
Then I reported back to the group. The couple, who seemed genuinely relieved, moved on to get to the airport. Stephanie and Twiggy kept their eyes on Mr. Rabbit. Before long I started to walk toward the end of the street which by this time they had turned around and arrived back. The woman stopped the car and informed me she had told the owner of Mr. Rabbit of his location and that the owner would arrive soon. I looked down the street and saw a man walking briskly up the slope of the road toward me. When he arrived I directed him to where Stephanie and Twiggy had Mr. Rabbit in sight. He told us that the rabbit’s name was Buck and the children would have been crushed if Buck was lost. He agreed that Buck would not survive long with coyotes, bobcats and the occasional rattlesnake in the area.
As the man bent down to see him, Buck scooted under some bushes. We all searched for him among the bushes on our hands and knees. He came out again close to me. I could not grab him but he was still in sight. Finally the man got a hold of him. As he stared at the rabbit the man said: “This is not Buck.”
“What? Then who is it?” I asked.
“It is the neighbor’s rabbit”. He responded
“Are you kidding?” I said.
My wife said: “Come on!”, as we both began to laugh.
As he cuddled Mr. Rabbit in his arms the man smiled broadly and added “Thank you very much for saving him.”
We laughed hysterically as we walked home with Twiggy on leash. Midway through our walk we thought we were saving Buck. We were still laughing as we settled back home.