I cannot believe he actually did it! He shot a rabbit!

As my husband came in from working outside this evening he said to me, “You wanna try some rabbit meat?” I said, “Uhhh (hesitating), Why? Do you have some?” I thought maybe somebody had given him some to try. He said, “No. But there are two rabbits out in the yard right now, and I’m about to shoot one.” I was like Yeah, right. Thinking he was joking I said, “Well, if you shoot it, you’re eating it!”

He went into the bedroom and came out with my shotgun. I said, “You’re gonna shoot it with that? You’re going to blow it’s head off!” He just said, “Nah,” as he stepped outside. Whatever! I went about my mommy business. A few minutes later he was inside again, sitting in the living room reading his survival guide book.

From another room I could hear him gasping in horror. I called, “What?” wondering what was so grotesque, figuring he was reading about how to skin a rabbit. He said, “It says to cut the fur at the belly, being careful not to puncture it’s stomach, and then using my thumbs pull the skin off…” then I heard him say something about twisting the rabbits head off.

Gross!!!

Laughing at his horror, when just a minute ago he was all about skinning his first rabbit, I said, “See, if you shoot a rabbit, you’re gonna have to skin it. You’re not killing it for nothing, you have to eat it!” He said, “I already shot one.” No way. I quickly accused him of lying. I totally did not believe him. But he insisted that it was laying out in the yard. Oh my goodness!

My husband went on to say, “I think I can just put it in boiling water and the skin will come off.” To which I immediately replied, “You are NOT putting a hairy rabbit in my pot!” Then I laughed at his idea and added, “Jerry, it’s not like putting a chicken in boiling water to pluck it’s feathers, the skin won’t just peal off! You’re supposed to put it in boiling water after you skin it!” He was sure he could just boil it.

It really was quite a humorous scene. Two city kids, trying to figure out how to skin and cook a rabbit. As he went back outside I joked, ” Have fun popping it’s head off!” After a minute, I peeked out the back window to see what he was doing. I laughed aloud as I watched him. He was aimlessly wandering the backyard, holding the dead rabbit by it’s hind legs. I stuck my head out the door, and when he saw me he looked lost as he said, “I’m supposed to hang it up somewhere so I can skin it.” There was nowhere to hang it.

I laughed again and said, “That’s why you’re supposed to read the directions before jumping into a project!” (Something I tease him about not doing all the time!) Then all of a sudden he jumped and yelled out, “Fleas! It’s got fleas!!” and he quickly dropped the rabbit and hopped back, brushing his sleeve and shirt off.

What a crack up!! This was too funny.

He came back inside, and decided to call a friend of ours who hunts. “Steve… how do you skin a rabbit? I just shot one in my backyard.” Steve was kind enough to offer help. So, my husband put the flea ridden varmint in a trash bag, and drove up the road to our friend’s house so he could show poor Jerry what to do.

A little while later, Jerry came home with a ziploc bag of rabbit meat. Steve did all of the work, Jerry just watched and learned. Lucky for Jerry (he later admitted to me that he didn’t think he could gut one himself). He asked me if I was going to eat any of it. I said, “No way! It might have some disease or something.” He teased me, “You’ll never make it if we ever have to live off the land.” To which I replied, “We have food in the fridge right now. If I was starving, I’d eat a rabbit. But I’m not starving!” I looked at it in the bag, still a whole body, just without fur, feet or a head. Gross. It still looked like a rabbit. And I could see all of the tiny holes in it’s flesh from the shotgun shell. He told me that the shell pieces would come out while soaking, and if not, we could just spit them out if we bite into any. No thank you!

Jerry explained to me that Steve told him to soak the rabbit in salt water overnight to get the blood to drain out. Then tomorrow he will boil it to kill any bacteria, and fry it up like chicken. It’s supposed to be the best tasting meat… so we’ve heard. I’ll let Jerry do the testing though! If he doesn’t die from eating it, I might try the next one.

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