Ch. 144; Vol. 10
“SNUGGLY’S NOT BREATHING!”
I woke up like a shot. So did The Bear. Puck ran into the room cradling the limp bunny in both hands. Tear your heart out.
“HE DIED!”
He was sobbing now. The Bear gently took the little guy in his hands and talked with Puck for awhile.
“You made his last day very good, you know. You checked on him every thirty minutes. Snuggly was probably looking for you all day and happy when you came to visit him…”
“Yeah…” Sniffle, sniffle.
“What did you learn about Snuggly?” The Bear asked, still holding the little guy.
Between sniffles…
“He…was…a…cute…little…fella…”
“You know,” I hugged him, “we don’t know for sure, but animals might go to Heaven too. Maybe one day you and Snuggly can hop around on some green hills together.”
There was a little smile through the tears.
The Bear dug the tiny grave in a corner of the yard, just in the shade of the blackberry bush, while Puck found stones to ring the small dirt patch. Then Puck wrote carefully with permanent marker on a smooth stone white…
“I have to write ‘bunny’ on there so everyone will know he was a bunny,” he told me with sniffly determination.
The Bear pressed the stone into the dirt, and Puck wiped some more tears.
“Where’s Dad?” he asked me a few minutes later.
“I think he’s putting the shovel away in the garage.”
“I hope the garage’s not flooded with tears…” Puck said sternly. “Look, Mom. I cut my hand.”
Just in case – soap, hot water, Neosporin…
“I can’t find any band-aids,” said The Bear.
So he wrapped Puck’s hand with some rubbery medical tape which Puck liked even better.
We hadn’t bought groceries yet, so, in addition to the banana, I handed Puck a paper plate of breakfast…
“I just get bread and antelope [cantaloupe]?” he asked, a little bewildered.
“And water. To replace your tears.”
Things settled down. I read reports on the Chelsea, Manchester City match at Busch from last night. I guess it was nice for Puck to have a distraction. Besides, The Bear didn’t have to work. So he drove us with bags of Chick-Fil-A nuggets, to Lone Elk Park off 44. The hills and woods, a preface to Ozark country. The sun was still out, wilting between green trees. We saw four or five bison in one of the glades, lazily ignoring visitors. And Rosciglione’s – cookies and fig bars, and cannolis.
Joe dropped in for some work with The Bear…
“A brown recluse crawled into Linnea’s ear this morning. Yeah. She pulled it out and Carrie said she woke up to Linnea hyperventilating… We have a spider problem.”
When Joe left – Schnuck’s. Simply Apple Juice, pastrami, corned beef, smoked gouda, colby jack, avocado, for paninis. Soft baked chocolate chip cookies for later. Izzy joined us just in time for the sandwiches and to watch Atlantis with Puck, share a couple of spicy ginger ales with The Bear, who was leaving to meet Red Strike and some others for Star Trek.
Carrie and Rose walked in with heavy mixing bowls of henna and tea dye to finish up Carrie’s earlier work. Soon three heads of brown and green mud wrapped in plastic watching an incredibly stupid David Tennant film before the ballgame. Izzy got to witness the glory of this ancient Persian art, bursting through the door to the garage. And then a couple of more times…
“Just wanted another look,” he laughed.