A Bully or Not? You Decide.

Big Bully? 

A young rabbit was out one afternoon for a romp with his friends when a new animal pushed into the game. “Give me the stick or I’ll bite you” he said to the rabbit. “If you want to play with us you should say so and we will be glad to have you join” replied the rabbit. Well, that didn’t sit too well with the young nutria, so he pushed the rabbit and bit his tail. “Now GIMMIE THAT STICK YOU DUMB BUNNY!!!” he screamed.

Rabbit didn’t know what to do. His tail was a bit bloody from the bite and he hurt his paw when he fell. His friends were too  surprised  to do anything. The nutria took the game stick and ambled off to play by himself. A friend of the rabbit, a small cotton rat, ran over and said “RABBIT!! Are you hurt badly?” “No, said the rabbit, just my pride. I let that nutria bully me without even saying anything.”

The next time the youngsters were playing, the same thing happened, only this time the cotton rat got pushed and bitten. Nobody did or said anything, and the bully just ambled away, snickering to himself as he went. Just when he was out of sight, they heard a loud growl and a cry for help. What could it be, they all thought. The rabbit was the first to run to see what was going on, followed by his sister, the cotton rat, a young mink, a garter snake and a possum. Soon they found out what was happening: A stray dog had cornered the nutria in a small stump and was digging him out. “HELP!” cried the nutria. “HELP HELP!!”

At first the friends didn’t move,  but then the rabbits’s sister said “HEY DOG!!! BET YOU CAN’T CATCH ME. YAH YAH YA YAH YAH!” and off she ran. Then the other friends all called out to the dog almost at the same time “NO! CATCH ME!!!!” and they all ran off in different directions. The dog started to chase one then another and then another, but got so confused he gave up and, tail between his legs, ran away. He forgot all about the nutria.

When the friends came back to the stump, the nutria was still there, crying. “You nearly got eaten” said the young mink. “Yeah, you big bully. We should have just left you.” Said the garter snake. “Why didn’t you?” asked the nutria. “I was mean to you all and you still came to help me. I don’t understand.” “Well, said the possum, we have been practicing escaping for quite a while. We never tried it before, but IT WORKS!!!” “Hey nutria” said the cotton rat. “Why are you such a big bully?”  The nutria told his story: “I was born in the swamp and was teased by the muskrats until I hid away, and finally ran away. I haven’t had much chance to play or even talk to other kids, so I just acted mean to protect myself from teasing. I am sorry that I pushed and bit you rabbit. And you too cotton rat. I just don’t know what else to do.” And he hung his head, turned and walked away.

The other kids talked for a minute and then the rabbit yelled “WAIT!! We will let you play with us if you promise to follow the rules, and not be a bully anymore.. I know how mean those muskrats can be. They were always pushing me around in school. My family finally moved to get away from them.”  The nutria stopped and looked back to see all the friends agreeing with the rabbit. He turned around and said “I will try my very best to be a good friend.”

And he did. And he was.

Image: http://watershedtexas.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/546px-myocastor_coypus_standing.jpg