Skip and The Jack Rabbits

"In the morning,
The jack-rabbit sang to the Arkansaw
He carolled in caracoles
On the feat sandbars."

The yelping never seized in the cold clear afternoon. The sky was gray and held the smell of snow, a thin layer of which already covered the ground. Far to the south in the flat fallow fields, we could occasionally glimpse a black blur wheeling and turning through the thin grass.

In Dakota we had many wild animals, very shy, big eyed deer, gophers that liked to dig tunnels in our cow pasture. And although we never heard or saw wolves, coyotes were plentiful and would entertain us at night with their yipping and howling. A skunk occasionally wandered through, badgers, and once even a wolverine. It was rather small but very fierce and my mother worried that it would attack our dog ,Skip. He was a large black and white border collie and made it his job to defend us from any and all invaders. He barked mightily at the wolverine who seemed totally unthreatened and continued to poke about our gasoline barrels as though he were looking for a fill up. Eventually one or the other must have given up because Skip came out unscathed and the wolverine disappeared.

Skipper also like to chase jack rabbits. There are five different specie of them which are all found in central and western North America. Which one Skip was after, was hard to tell. They are speedy and capable of reaching 40 miles an hour, and their hind legs can propel them on leaps of more than ten feet. They use these leaps and a zigzag running style to evade their many predators. Skip was one of the predators and he hadn't a snowball's chance in hell of ever catching one, unless of course if it was old or ill, or both. He either didn't care or just never figured it out. The hares (as they are properly known) turn white in the winter and were hard to see, but Skip could smell them out and they would give him an exhausting chase all over the fields. Sometimes we would call t him and try to get him to come home, but it was though he was on ad drug. He never heard us or he wasn't about to interrupt his passionate pursuit. He had to chase the prey. To my knowledge, he never caught one, but he never stopped trying. Later if we were out walking in the snow, we would find winding tracks or rabbit and dog covering most of a quarter section. He would come home finally in the evening totally done in and lie in front of the big coal stove sleeping and recovering for the next day. Every now and then he would give little yelps in his sleep and his feet would start moving. We knew even in his dreams his favorite thing to do was chasing jack rabbits.

I know people like Skip, they like to chase their dream and probably prefer not to catch it, for then, what would they have to dream about.