As I was chasing down one of the dust bunnies in my house that seem to multiple like, well, rabbits, I was reminded of one of my friends who I haven’t seen in years. 

My husband and I were living in a small, run-down house on the outskirts of Dilworth while I was going to school in Moorhead. One day this friend, who I’ll call Steve, was over visiting.

We were sitting on the couch in the living room, which had hardwood floors. As we were talking, a draft caused a dust bunny to shoot out from under the couch, across the floor, and under the couch on the other side of the room. 

Shrieking like a little girl, Steve lifted his feet off the floor into the air.

“What was that!” he blurted out.

Laughing, I told him it was a dust bunny. He had no idea what I was talking about and kept his feet up in the air.

 

At the time, Steve was a city boy, born and bred. He also never had to help clean the house whilte growing up, and his parents home had carpeted floors, hence his ignorance of dust bunnies.

 

I explained to him what a dust bunny was, and although he looked skeptical, he believed me after I swept it up from under the couch and showed it to him.

 

A few months later Steve was over at our house again and we were talking about a trip my husband and I had made driving through Montana, Colorado and Wyoming. 

 

Remembering what a gullible city boy he was, I decided to have some fun.

 

“You should have seen all the herds of jackalopes running across Wyoming,” I said to Steve. “I’ve never seen so many in my life.”

 

“What?” he said. “I thought those were just made up and hung in bars for fun.”

 

I told him no, there really were jackalopes, but they weren’t native around the Fargo/Moorhead area and you had to get out in the plains to see them in the wild. 

 

Playing along, my husband joined in and we proceeded to tell him everything there was to know about jackalopes. How they’re larger than regular jackrabbits and their antlers can grow as large as a deer’s.

 

Unlike regular rabbits, they travel in herds, and you often see them running alongside antelopes. The best chance to see them is in Wyoming, and there’s even an official one-day jackalope hunting season on June 31. It’s an aggressive creature, and can kill a person with their antlers if cornered.

 

Steve listened in fascination. “That’s so cool,” he said. “I really thought they weren’t real.”

 

After that day I never heard another word from him concerning jackalopes. As far as I know he still believes they’re out there in the Wyoming wilderness.

 

On a different occasion I led another young guy to believe the unbelievable, this time completely by accident.

 

One of our roosters had escaped and hadn’t come back to the coop that evening, so I assumed he was gone for good. The next morning as I left for work, I spotted the missing rooster standing at the top of a small hill on the edge of our property. 

 

As I told the story later that day to my daughter and her friend I ended with, “And there he was, standing majestically at the top of the hill, like a wild chicken of North America.”

 

Her friend was astonished and excited. “There are wild chickens in North America?” he exclaimed. “I’ve never seen one before!”

 

City boys.

 

You can contact Penny Leuthard at pleuthard@gmail.com or 320-493-6030 with comments or Clearwater/Clear Lake feature ideas.