Going Tharn

Watership Down is a book written by Richard Adams.  In that book, a group of rabbits leave their home warren and make their way in the world, encountering many challenges to their survival.  Adams included several words of his own invention to describe the rabbit culture in his story.  The word "tharn" is one of them.  It means frozen with fear, where a rabbit is so scared that he freezes on the spot and presses himself to the earth in spite of oncoming danger.  And that is exactly the word that popped into my head when I saw this rabbit.

He had gone tharn.  This rabbit was not eating, and he was not sleeping.  He could clearly see us, but made no move to run away.  In fact, he didn't move a muscle.  Everything about him - his behavior and posture - said "Stay away!"  Something was not right.

I wondered if he was truly just scared out of his wits, or if he was too sick or injured to move.  Rabbits do not usually sit still in plain sight and in close proximity to humans the way this fellow was.  Normally they hop away quickly to shelter, such as a nearby bush.

His ears were lying back in an unnatural way and it was pathetic. in the true sense of the word, to see him display this odd behavior.  We quickly left the poor creature alone, so as not to traumatize him any further.  When we came back through about an hour later, he was gone.