The first few years of our new business, Media West, were very lean. But, with hard work and a little luck, I finally landed a few national accounts. One was the Encyclopedia Britannica folks out of New York . They were producing a series of 35mm film strips (this was way before the video media) on farmyard animals that would be distributed to grade school children. Photographers around America were given specific assignments about which farm animal they were to photograph. Some were assigned horse and mules, others cows or chickens. Our assignment was ducks and rabbits.

It was my job to read the client’s scripts and make sure my photographers had the right props, talent, backgrounds and breeds of ducks and rabbits. Yes, there are all kinds of different breeds of these barnyard animals. Some were easy to find, others quite rare. After searching the countryside for days, I finally had all the breeds secured except one: the English hare. That one seemed impossible to find, until a farmer told me of a breeder who lived down-state that just might have such a hare. Sure enough, the breeder did have an English hare stud, but he was reluctant to rent him to me. After much cajoling and negotiations, he agreed to release the rabbit to me for overnight at twice my normal rental fee of $75.00.

After a long car trip in a pouring-down rain storm, I returned to the studio with the English hare secured in his travel hutch. Leaving him with my photographers, who were working that night to complete the filmstrip, I informed them of his value and how rare a breed he was. They assured me that they would take good care of him.

When I returned to work the next morning, my two photographers rushed into my office with long faces. With sad looks, they ask me to join them back in the studio. 

When I got back to the shooting area, Jim, my lead photographer, finally said, “We had a tragedy here, last night.” 
         “What kind of tragedy?” I inquired.
         “We were shooting the last frame of the filmstrip, the image of the English hare leaping across the picture with the sky background. We got him to jump a number of times, but on the final shot, when he came down from his leap, he was dead!”
          “Dead?” was my startled reply.
          Then Henry, the second photographer, said, “I ran into the kitchen and got a straw and tried to give the little guy mouth-to-mouth, but he didn’t respond.”
          The mental image of Henry giving CPR to a rabbit nearly made me laugh.
          “Where is he?” was all I could ask without cracking up.

They took me into the kitchen and opened the top freezer door. There lay the English hare, as stiff as a board.
          “We thought he might be valuable because of his pelt, so we froze him,” Jim said.
          Then Henry added, “Do you think we should call a vet and have him autopsied?”

I hadn’t had my morning cup of coffee yet, and I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry. One thing was certain: the prized English hare was dead, and I was in trouble. 

Later, I learned that English hares have weak hearts and can easily become stressed out. Our little guy probably died of a heart attack in mid-air. And yes, we did get the picture. That very last image was used in the final filmstrip.

As for the breeder… we paid him $500.00 and he got the pelt! What was I going to do with it? It would only remind my staff of the rabbit that ran out of gas.