Other Animal (But Non-Buggy) Crackers

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The Hare Drier

This is a widespread story with a lot of variants; it's treated under the title "The Hare Drier" in Brunvand, Curses! Broiled Again. Similar stories involve pets found dead in their carriers by airline baggage attendants, and replaced with live ones; it turns out that they had died on vacation and were being sent home for burial. The latter versions may be the result of cross-fertilization between this story and "The Runaway Grandmother".

In Dispute: Dog shows up at owner's feet with the neighbor's pet rabbit dead in its mouth. The frantic dogowner washes up the rabbit and sneaks it back into its cage, hoping the neighbors will think it died of natural causes. Neighbors are horrified to find that their rabbit, which had just died and been buried, has reappeared in its cage.

The story circulates widely, has done so for a long time, and there's no evidence of a prototypical event; however, it's hard to be certain that it never happened, whence the "In Dispute" rating.