Dear friends and family, Rascal passed away last night.

Something in her balance
Made her different
from all the other
jackrabbits on the top of her
mountain.

She had given a short burst of speed, running
with a severe list.
She quit and lay there
waiting to see
what would be her fate.

Her gaze met mine, and although I
would see her pant later in life
she was calm, interested.

I picked her up in a blanket we had brought
and Max held her as we went to the
pet store to buy her food and the cage
she lies in now.
Ten years later.

For a long time she simply shared
our house. Didn’t want to
be a bother, didn’t want to be
tossed out. She used our carpets
as islands, measuring her leap from one to another.

Oh, yes. She got her balance back for many years.
But there was no returning to the wild.
It wasn’t right for her.

In the last few years she decided she
really liked us. She was happy, liked to be fed her banana
by hand.
Liked to lick my nose and chew
on Leanne’s hair.

When she died, melted on my
chest, I thought I felt her heart come
to a stop. And yet I could feel somewhere
in her
a heart still beating.
Maybe she was still with us.
No.
It was my own.

Here’s a link to a video of Rascal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO_mmhZtzno